BlackBerry App World in Asia- What took so long?

BlackBerry App World - Where have you been?

Since yesterday 27th October Users in Singapore and Indonesia now have access to the BlackBerry App World. Hallelujah! I’ve been waiting 696 days for this day to come – however my question is still going to be – RIM, What took you so long?

As a direct comparison the Apple iPhone App Store was available at the launch of the iPhone. When your users are global roamers and worldwide business travellors – making Apps available throughout the globe is essential to gaining popularity in users, increased development and overall profits.

RIM really needs to increase its reach to Asia and beyond if it wants to compete with the likes of Google, Microsoft, Apple and Nokia. I’ve mentioned this before in previous posts but its worth mentioning again – strategies of diversity, global reach and technology will come hand in hand if you want to stay afloat in this Corporate Tech War.

For now, I can access some Free Apps on my BB Bold but I’m not overly impressed that there is no availability to Paid Apps in Singapore! Why can’t we access this on the BlackBerry App World or the Desktop Manager. WHY!

Case Study: Nokia’s Product Market Diversification Strategy

Diversification Ansoff Matrix

Diversification is an Organisational Strategy for sustainability and growth. Its not a new strategy by any means but it is a necessary one. Nokia, the leading consumer mobile phone producer have now taken the next step towards creating new markets with new products and services. Let’s take a closer look at this strategy!

Opinion:The Blackberry Curve 8230

Why the BB Curve? Lost my iPhone,  and my flatmate who has many contacts happened to have a pristine, BB Curve, still in the package! You cannot beat good mates!Have used the BB Curve for over a half year now…

Image via CrunchBase

First Impressions
The Blackberry line of phones has always been touted by RIM as ones for business. However, my first impression of the phone was that it looked toylike and far from executive. The matte silver casing did little to create any gasp effect and this was compounded by the weight of the phone itself, which was very light. Excessively light, if that makes sense. Normally, I would be agog at a function filled phone that are lite in the pocket, however, in my opinion, mobile phones nowadays need a fine balance of heft and weight to convey a certain sense of gravitas. So, first impressions were ho hum.

Switching the phone on, from insertion of the battery took about 40secs to a minute but felt like forever, especially in comparison to other phone models. I say the egg timer icon needs to take a holiday – someone get the
idea people to come up with a new and engaging icon.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

SMS’ing: Cupping the blackberry in the same manner that a persons prays with joss sticks, fingers encasing the sides, and two thumbs used as the primary digits to navigate between the buttons had me in conniptions for about a week or so.

The trackball – white and glowing, like a prop from tron, does a good enough job to allow you to navigate through the menus and application icons, but the sensitivity took longer than it should for a user to attune themselves. Learning to spin, rotate and again spin and depress the ball had me wincing everytime I would scroll past the application that i desired to use…and using the trackball to select and activate the application was also an act of digit-agility. That being said,after some weeks, my fingers and thumbs have taken on the agility of russian gymnasts, trained at an early age in a kibbutz. But it did take some time. And, as I mentioned, some wincing. To date, out of phones used – Nokia is my preference for best and easiest to use text messaging. Motorola, the worst.

Someone needs to take the interface and make it a look more palatable.  It looks child like, doesnt have the same panache that many phone interfaces have. The font, display of sms messages etc, are  basic and without oomph. I know this shouldnt matter in a business setting,  but some style never hurts. The screen resolution to me seemed washed out.

Camera: The pic quality is poor, and the photos take some time to manifest  themselves after shooting for viewing. The result is always disappointing,  grainy and grizzled.

Speaker sound is good, I must admit that the first few times the BB rang, I thought the sound was coming from the general air around me, rather than the  silver gadget in my right pocket. I did have previous issues with the iphone and hearing the ring tone, so this was a pleasant aural pleasure.

Battery life was good. Average use and talking, had the phone last for about three days before a charge was needed. This was especially a marked contrast when compared to the drizzle of the iPhone which required a daily charge – though admittedly, there are different purposes to the two phones. The iPhone is more of an experience and status symbol, the BB more of a phone of a traditional use.

Image by Dan_H via Flickr

Havent gotten around to using the push email function, which admittedly is one of the main features of the BB. Reason: like to keep work at work…at the moment, anyway.

Internet: Had trouble connecting to wi fi and opening the browser. Though my expectation of the browser display was not good when compared to the abilities to display webpage that Apple have conjured.

More to come.