BLACKBERRY KEY 2: WHERE IS THE KEY???

If you are unaware about Blackberry's comeback, here is a quick info-

After vanishing into thin air due to stiff competition from Android and iOS, Blackberry came to life when it entered into long-term brand licensing agreement with TCL Corporation and Optiemus Infracom. According to this hardware licensing partnership, Optiemus Infracom holds the right to produce Blackberry-branded smartphones in India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal and Sri Lanka while TCL everywhere outside these nations.

Blackberry KeyOne release in early 2017 followed by Key2 in mid 2018 laid the foundation for comeback of Blackberry mobiles.

Source:- https://blackberrymobile.com/storage/2018/03/03-1.jpg

I grew up in years during which phones got from being big and practically non-portable to small, everyday and everywhere devices. This post is written by a guy who never got a chance to own and use a blackberry mobile phone until December of 2014. This was mainly due to two very practical reasons - first me being underage for phone usage during blackberry phone's glory days (yes this was a thing back then, now we have toddlers handling smartphones like a pro) and second one is somewhat even valid till nowadays i.e. their affordability.

Talking about pricing and affordability, BB KeyOne came with launch-price tag of $549 and Key2 with an increment of $100 to the previous one. Well at-first pricing seems to be kind of okay, considering the fact that both of these are blackberry's flagship devices, and even more when we have Samsung and Apple breaking $1000 price ceiling with their latest flagship pricing. Until you look at specs-sheet, which looks like that of a mid-grade phone rather than a flagship device and totally unacceptable for launch price tag of phone. We have devices with same internal hardware specifications, costing less than half the price.

Well at this point, one might argue that Blackberry has always been a software company with security at it's core values and has been providing those services with in-built features in their phones. So aren't they charging premium price for those services which make Key2 the most secure Android device available for masses to purchase. Yes, this can certainly be one of the explanations.

Blackberry's target consumers consist of people who really need high level of security provided by their devices and a small group of rich nostalgic tech-savvy people. This is the case because all other people not listed above are far better-off buying some other phone in same price segment like that of Oneplus.

Considering the fact that people who sincerely require that high end level of security are the one that can carry only one device and are rich enough to spend on security (top-officials). These people are generally willing to have excellent end user-experience, which is lacking in both KeyOne and Key2.

Blackberry can take advantage of it's unique position of being one of the very few companies to cater to such an audience, especially in Android domain. They can provide better overall experience by having the best in class hardware available in their upcoming devices and launch them with even a higher price-tag than it's predecessors.         

Increasing the launch price, can deter other people to make a purchase. This situation can be handled by having a more affordable option, which Blackberry tried to do by having another model named Key2 LE. With lower price-tag of $400, Blackberry Key2 LE still can't be called an affordable and certainly not a value-for-money option in emerging markets like India, where there are phones with excellent price to performance ratio in $200-$300 price range.

When Blackberry was in it's glory days, people did not buy blackberry just because of baked-in high level security features but due to simple fact that a blackberry phone was host of very well implemented smart features found during those days (especially that tactile physical keyboard and BBM). Unless Blackberry comes out with a compelling option, people will find it hard to buy and recommend a blackberry. While Blackberry's USP (unique selling point) i.e. in-built security features might not be as desirable among audience as compared to other brands. Blackberry can still make a comeback with offerings that are justifiable for their launch price. 

ATTENTION!!! MISSING 3.5 mm HEADPHONE JACK. PLEASE REPORT IF FOUND....

MISSING HEADPHONE JACK...

So, as you would have come to know till now, yeah it’s true, USB type C is going to be the new standard in android phones. 3.5 mm headphone jack was there for nearly 140 long years. Lightening port in iPhones and USB type C are going to replace your old trusty 3.5 mm headphone jack in coming years.

Guess. Who started it all? 

If you guessed it Apple just because it was absent on latest iPhone 7, you will surely be surprised to know that you got it wrong this time. No it wasn't Apple instead a Chinese smartphone making company Oppo.

Yes, Oppo's Finder launched way back in 2012 lacked a headphone jack followed by their another phone R5 in 2014 only to keep Oppo R5 freaking 4.85 mm thin.

After that it was only in 2016 that another Chinese company LeEco had courage to launch LeEco Le2 and Le Max 2. It was after then Apple's iPhone 7 included earpods with lightening connector and no place for headphone jack on iPhone.

Enough of history for now, so what does it all mean for upcoming devices and what is going to be company's approach towards this new trend in smartphone industry?

Well it seems like that whether it is these Chinese companies like Oppo, Xiaomi, Lenovo, Oneplus or tech giants like Apple, no one is really pushing it's customers really hard to completely switch to new technology. This can be understood by the fact that all such companies included an adapter to plug those old trusty headphones. It is due to a simple fact that their premium customers might switch to other high-end smartphone having a headphone jack for best experience of high quality expensive headphones.

FUN FACT:

Samsung, although being leader in android smartphones, decided to keep 3.5 mm headphone jack on all it's flagships phones till now, including the latest s8 and s8+.

The usual reason stated by companies like Leco is that sound output is going to be clearer on digital USB-C connection and users will enjoy better audio experience on their new CDLA technology. Interestingly, LeEco was able to clear their inventory on very first day of sale, gathering 1.22 billion RMB.

Apple also stated their 3 main reasons on dropping headphone jack during iPhone 7 launch event.

 First being the fact that now users can use their new earpods with lightening connector at the end and continue to use their headphones using an adapter, both included in box (Seriously Apple, does this even really qualify for being a reason??).

Second reason, headphone jack takes up lot of precious internal space, so ditching it, not only created space for dual lens camera system on 7 plus model but also for a new hepatic engine.

Third reason is that they believed that wireless is the future and thus they introduced airpods (wireless earpods) for just $160.(Only Apple can do this, just Apple things)

According to industry experts,  the real reason behind this move by Apple is to open a new revenue stream. Yes that's right, there is a lot going on than that you might have expected.
 Just because lightening connector is proprietary to Apple, any manufacturer who come up with 3rd party accessories with lightening connector, has to pay Apple for each item sold. As you might have guessed till now, these manufacturers pass on this royalty fees to customers in form of higher prices. 
In the end it is a customer who suffers and Apple makes money without getting involved in this transaction.

The real problem is not the fact that Apple is charging royalty fee for their patented port, but the fact that it is as high as $4-5 per item when compared to that of HDMI cable ($0.05).

So,what does it all comes down to?

 One simply does not get a real better audio experience from these new connectors. Losing the ability to charge your device while listening to music is frustrating for some users.

We hope that these shortcomings gets sorted out in coming years. Until then, I wish everyone 

A VERY HAPPY DONGLE LIFE !!!