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So I guess I'm not a "real" consumer?



You don't need to get rid of the applications. But the integration of notifications and contacts is the difference. Anyone who used webOS with Facebook for any length of time back in the day knows what I am talking about and would be able to recognize how deficient other platforms still are.



A list of notifications in no particular order (so no relying on visual memory), each of which requires you to open up a different app with completely incongruous interfaces just to see the contents, is not even close.



Of course it matters. Especially to "consumers". But thing is, this actually matches BlackBerry's existing brand identity. You may not like it or think it's "cool", but then again neither was the aesthetic of MS Windows or Word compared to Mac, and yet due to its usefulness it has still managed to maintain a stronghold in the business world...

You're not a "real" consumer that Blackberry would be targeting, no.

How many of the thousands upon thousands of iOS and Android users do you think know or even care what multitasking is, or care that their previews are "fake" as you put it?

And even for those that do, how many do you think would say:

"Hmm, I could have this iPhone/Android with all of the features of this BB, plus a massive thriving user base, and thousands of apps. But instead, I'll take this BB which gives me none of those things, but does give me real previews."

The point of the article was that if you're going to compete at this stage of the game, you can't just be a me-too player. You've got to have a hook, and a bloody good one. I agree with the article in that BB just doesn't.

Additionally the Windows/Mac thing kind of proves the articles point really. It was Microsoft that was entrenched and popular due to some shady deals with IBM, not Apple. And it was Apple that was trying to get a foothold and couldn't even though they were way better. They never did, and today almost all desktops are still Windows, not Mac.

To get ahead, Apple had to change the battleground, and did so.

Fair enough, but then you are basing your critique on a single video of a yet to be released product, so until you've held and used one I'm not going to let your obvious negative bias cloud my own conclusions. I'd love to see a followup article if you do get your hands on a real device.



Come on now, you know better than to make a grossly generalized statement like that! We're all consumers here, no matter that we use our phones and other devices for both business and leisure. Multitasking is one of those functions that benefit everyone whether they know it or not.



Actually it's one of the best things about both of those platforms and is one of the reasons they have loyal followings despite huge issues with each platform. Instead of having a bunch of wildly different apps with poor performance and no integration, you get all of your social streams under one integrated and streamlined interface. And if you don't like that paradigm, the individual apps are still available in their antiquated and clunky original formats.



You're right, there isn't much more you can do with that concept. RIM's implementation fits in well with the rest of the interface though.



Maybe we haven't been watching the same videos, but I've seen a hell of a lot that makes me excited to try one out live. My daily frustration with Android as a phone OS continues to grow. I'm still enjoying it as a tablet OS on a device that I pick up occasionally, but depending on it for a 24/7 communication device is nearly painful at times.



I'm highly visually oriented and I absolutely love the interface! It's designed to stay out of the way when it needs to, and it looks great doing so. I'm eager to give it a whirl when Sprint picks up the new BB line this summer.

Not a single consumer cares about real multitasking.

Just because Android, iOS and WP are bad at multitasking doesn't mean that users don't care about it. They just don't know any better (given what's most commonly available). Hopefully mobile Linux releases like Sailfish and Ubuntu Phone will break the trend. So BB10 while having decent multitasking since it's based on QNX won't be unique in this aspect to make it an identity.

Edited 2013-01-16 07:06 UTC

QNX being a true RT os could make a difference wrt multitasking, eating the cake (100% 60 fps gui no matter what's in the background), and having the cake (true background apps).
Of course that's only possible if the design of the whole stack is right.

Among it's users BB already has a identity separate from the intricacies of a UI.
It's a whole confluence of factors.

Edited 2013-01-16 13:48 UTC

Does being able to view your GPS or look up something on the Internet while making a Skype call qualify as "real multitasking"? If so, then there exist consumers who care about real multitasking.

Nothing for makes it stand out for you. So maybe this could be a hint that you are not the target demographic.

Of course the visual stuff matters, or else large high-resolution touchscreens wouldn't be so popular. 1080p is going to be the main selling point for 2013 smartphones. However, the UI behind this could be BB10's UI, Sense, TouchWiz or plain Android - consumers have demonstrated that they don't care a lot.