September 18th 2013 - Phenomenal day for Technology announcements/launches in India

Wow! I can't believe the amount of new tech announcements that have happened or the launches that have happened in India on the 18th of Sept 2013. This is a phenomenal day, unlike any that i have ever seen or witnessed.

To summarize some of the launches/announcements that came on this day were:

Quick Review - BlackBerry Bold 9900

Best QWERTY Touch & Type Phone (next best Nokia E6)

I bought this phone, in March 2012. I was using Nokia E6 and was a satisfied user of the same, however the need for BB messenger, email interface and office work, i needed to buy a BB. Since then began my search for a BB. This is one decision that i donot regret.

Pros -
1)OK battery life (especially when compared to any Windows phone or any Android device)-easily lasts through a day with medium-heavy usage (approx 3 hours on calls, 2 hours 3g internet usage, whatsapp-24x7, continuous emails from 2 accounts, etc)
2)Superb touch screen with qwerty keypad. Very responsive screen, great resolution, bright.
3)One of the brightest screens - easy legibility even in sunlight
4)High Resolution Screen - 640 x 480 pixel resolution (high pixel density-makes great text legibility)
5)EMail- By far the best client, nothing manages to come clos to BB's ability to deliver emails
6) Ability to set up upto 10 email accounts - unmatched
7)Great build quality
8)Decent 5 MP Camera which can record HD (720p) videos @ 30fps
9)OS update to 7.1: Performance increases several notches, much more fluid
10)Video recording is good and is very smooth but at 720p
Cons -
1)Apps: Not many apps for 9900 so customization is limited
2)Games: Very few games available so - not much entertainment value
3)Camera: Camera for still photos could have been better
4)No FM
5)No TV Out
6)Expensive

Go for this phone if you are a heavy texter/office-email receiver-sender/social network updater.Typical hierarchy BB 9900>Nokia E6>BB 9790>BB curve series


I dont knonw if we will see more physical QWERTY phones. They do seem like a dying proposition. I swear by a physical QWERTY and nothing can replace that.

BBM for Android and iPhone – will it affect BB sales?

I wonder how soundly thought the strategy of launching BBM (Black Berry Messenger) on non BB phones is. Apart from the few remaining BB loyalists (like me) who swear by a type phone with a physical QWERTY keypad, most of the others have already moved on to either an android phone or an iPhone or a Windows phone or to anything but a Blackberry.

In today’s less than ideal world there are few of us who are still deciding on whether to move on from BB. For such people one sticky factor apart from the keyboard is BBM and the tons of groups and friend lists one has made. Isn’t launching BBM on other phone platforms equal to showing the path to walk on for most undecided BB users as well as few BB loyalists?

I understand that for BB ‘services’ such as BBM will be a big business driver. Also with the launch of numerous similar messaging platforms especially WhatsApp, WeChat, etc and their growing popularity does signify future challenge for the BBM’s. However, since such ‘services’ revenue is very small for BB;It ,may have chosen to ignore that. In this case BB has not ignored it. I can only speculate that it will lead to more people moving away from BB platform to others.

Lets see what happens!