In recent times, the mobile phone industry is undoubtedly quite "lively", whether it is upstream chips, screens, CMOS manufacturers, or downstream terminal brands, everyone is taking turns to launch new products. Most of these new products that have been listed or will be launched also have a much stronger comprehensive experience, materials, and related design than the products of the same period last year.
Of course, there is a reason for this "lively" mobile phone industry. Because according to the estimates of a number of market statistics agencies, the global mobile phone market will usher in a round of consumption recovery in 2022, and shipments are expected to return to or even exceed the pre-epidemic level. Coupled with the data of all parties, the sales of high-specification and high-priced models today have increased significantly compared with the past, and in the context of the high desire to buy machines in such consumer groups, manufacturers have naturally become more motivated to develop and launch more and more excellent products.
However, not all brands can enjoy the spring breeze brought about by the industry recovery. Just in recent days, an obscure manufacturer, OnwardMobility, has announced the decision to terminate product development and abandon the launch of new mobile phones. The reason why this manufacturer attracted our attention is because OnwardMobility's only mobile phone product line in theory is the BlackBerry mobile phone business that "took over" in August 2020.
In other words, the latest generation of BlackBerry phones finally survived after waiting for more than a year. So the question arises, why is OnwardMobility ahead of the spring breeze of the industry's recovery? After collecting information from all sides and reviewing the relevant content of our past period of Sanyi Life, we have found some answers to this question.
First, OnwardMobility lacks strength
After counting the development history of the mobile phone industry, there are not many examples of brands that have lost their momentum after being "taken over", releasing new products, and even succeeding again. For example, Nokia, which everyone is familiar with, has now achieved a certain market position at home and abroad under the management of HMD, and its products have changed for many generations. Another example is TCL, which has "steered" BlackBerry, and has also launched several generations of new products with considerable attention.
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HMD executives are basically Nokia's "old people"
So why is OnwardMobility so "weak" compared to them, and even "can't do it" before the machine is launched? First of all, from the perspective of the strength of the enterprise itself, TCL itself is a veteran technology enterprise, and it has a history of decades in the mobile phone industry, whether it is research and development capabilities or financial resources. HMD itself is the result of a group of nokia old employees "renewing the frontier", not to mention the full support of Nokia behind it, so it is not surprising that it can create brilliance again.
The CEO of OnwardMobility has a lot of professional experience, but he really has no contact with the mobile phone industry
However, the situation with OnwardMobility is very different. When the "takeover" of The BlackBerry was first announced in 2020, only three of OnwardMobility's nine-person executive list at the time had relevant experience in the communications industry. Among them, the only one from the BlackBerry brand is Melody Russell, senior vice president of marketing, and he is not a real BlackBerry old employee, but TCL only joined after taking over blackBerry, and has never experienced the research and development or promotion of classic BlackBerry keyboard models.
Second, the traditional "BlackBerry" is no longer anachronistic
Note that we emphasize the concept of "classic BlackBerry keyboard models". Why emphasize this? That's because, according to OnwardMobility when it first took over two years ago, their goal was to recreate the classic BlackBerry with a full keyboard layout.
At first glance, this is a very emotional idea. After all, BlackBerry's most iconic product form is a business model with a full keyboard, a landscape screen, and a series of built-in enterprise-class communication and security solutions. But the problem is that when OnwardMobility announced the launch of a new BlackBerry phone in 2020, the above product forms are actually just feelings.
Why? First of all, we should know that the reason why BlackBerry was popular was on the one hand because compared with its former competitors (such as Nokia's keyboard machine), blackBerry mobile phones had a larger screen and could display richer information. At the same time, the typing convenience of the full keyboard design is also higher than that of the T9 keyboard of the small-screen model.
Second, a major advantage of BlackBerry phones becoming more famous comes from its unique "BlackBerry Messenger". To put it bluntly, it is actually an instant messaging software with mail PUSH and VoIP functions. In an era when most models were still limited by 2G speeds and there could be serious delays in sending and receiving emails, BlackBerry's built-in paid service could indeed greatly improve the mobile work experience for business people.
But the problem is that all of these advantages disappeared almost instantaneously after the rise of touch screen and Internet mobile operating systems such as Android and iOS. On the one hand, large touchscreen models can also provide a convenient typing experience, but also have a more powerful lineup of office software. On the other hand, "no (mobile) network can keep in touch" that was once used as a major selling point by BlackBerry, now only need to install a WeChat or DingTalk, and it can be achieved.
In the end, the doomed product is indeed long overdue
In fact, looking back at the BlackBerry before OnwardMobility "took over", it is not difficult to find that whether it is BlackBerry itself or the later TCL, in fact, it has realized the obsolescence of the traditional full keyboard model, and has launched BB10, Android two sets of full-touch screen product design, but because of various reasons (such as system stability, product pricing) failed to obtain market recognition. But this obviously does not mean that the complete choice of "retro" can save BlackBerry.
Imagine if HMD had taken over Nokia's mobile phones and not chosen to produce durable Android phones, but had re-emerged the keyboard Symbian product line, could they still be revived?
Interestingly, just two months before OnwardMobility announced its abandonment, on December 31, 2021, BlackBerry announced that it would officially shut down all traditional BB systems (including BB7, BB10, and PlayBook OS) calls, text messages, and Internet services after January 4, 2022.
In other words, all incoming BlackBerry phones will completely become "bricks" that cannot be used normally at the beginning of 2022. This also seems to imply that OnwardMobility was developing at the time, and may not even be a BlackBerry based on the classic BB system, but may be more like a "hybrid product" with a small horizontal screen and a physical full keyboard, but also using the Android system.
To be honest, the compatibility of such device software is not mentioned for the time being, just thinking about what kind of consumers will pay for it will make people feel quite desperate. After all, today's Android users are most likely to look down, and a small number of loyal users of BlackBerry may not necessarily pay. In this way, instead of publishing an industry joke that is doomed to not be sold, it may be a smarter way to find a reason to leave the market decently while it has not yet come out.
【The picture of this article comes from the network】