I had an idea floating around my head ever since i was exposed to the world of Blackberry via my 8700g on T-Mobile...

Obviously Blackberry has built itself on being numero uno in the field of Business and Enterprise (BES and the like) however more recently they have started to branch out and evolve (all singing, all dancing Bold, RIM's 1st Touchscreen The Storm, The Gemini with dedicated Media Buttons etc) and what my idea was: -

Would it be worthwhile to RIM to simplify their range into, for talking sake, 3 sections?



Section A could be called something like Blackberry Lite Series with models with SureType keypads (such as the Pearl and Pearl Flip) aimed towards the entry level smartphone user and more style than substance and is aimed at the majority of the consumer public


Section B could be called something like Blackberry Home Series with phone's like the Javelin and Gemini being more powerful and, to a degree, normal QWERTY smartphones. A step up in comparison to the Blackberry Lite range in terms of features and and performance and aimed at people who have previous experience with smartphones wanting to change brand allegience (i.e. switch from HTC, Apple, Nokia etc) as well as a small number of business consumers


Section C could be called the Blackberry Professional Series where you have the 3G equipped and/or all the bells and whistles' phones such as the Bold, Tour & Storm which have the whole she-bang in terms of powerful processors, 3G network bands and upmarket feel (i.e. high perceived quality) and sold to a 50/50 group of consumer and business customers




I reckon it would give potential customer's a more user-friendly and inviting prospect into the world of smartphones, let alone the brilliance of Blackberry itself. Now i know there's already something like this already going i.e. the Model Numbers like 83xx or 81xx for example however it could be simplified personally

Just my two cents worth - anyone got any thoughts on this?

The Storm would be in the Blackberry Professional Series? You must be kidding me...it's a toy!

Do you work for Microsoft?

I think in general, this makes some sense. I believe that there would be demand for a device in the Professional Teir that did NOT have a camera or video capabilties, as many folks that fit this demographic work in secured areas where photo capabale devices cannot be brought.

Hardly a new concept, as RIM was in fact producing such devices for a long time...seems like there hasn't been a new offering of that nature in a while though...

They recently released the 8350i without a camera.

http://www.blackberrynews.com/2009/0...s-the-shelves/

Honestly, a lot of the places where I work (including my current customer site) have banned mobile phones period (camera or not). They do this so that no one has to inspect every device as it comes in. They have large cubby boxes at each door, and you simply place your devices in a cubby and go about your work.

I don't think it would be a good idea for RIM to pigeonhole their devices into categories of good, better, best or Lite, Medium and Professional. Not all corporate/pro users need a Bold or Storm. A Pearl might fit them just right. And many consumers might be scared away from the Pro models, as Pro typically implies more complicated to operate. I'm also not sure RIM would want to categorize anything as LITE, which implies less capable. Who would buy a BlackBerry Lite model? As new BB's are released, I don't think they would dumb down models in terms of capability and hurt the reputation of BB. I think of it as a powerful communication and information device and a Lite BB would hurt that image.

I'd like to see a pared down list of models. Rename the Pearl Flip to just the Flip, keep the original Pearl, Storm, but merge the Curve, Bold, and 8800-series.

This will allow the Pearl Flip and Flip to branch out farther, as they are very different devices and eliminate the constant re-invention of the wheel with the Curve, Bold, and 8800.

All that really needs done is a redesign of the Storm to ensure it can compete with the next-gen iPhone and a new Bold that beats out the current-gen Curve and 8800-series.

Even as blackberries seem likely to steadily diverge from the basic line more as time goes by, there simply isn't any benefit to labeling them beyond the way they are now, the pricing and the featuresets of the various devices are what will decide a particular sale rather than a certain label.

The only real exception to this point would be if they release more cameraless variants of existing hardware, an overall moniker for that niche of products is about as much as you would want to spell things out before you potentially harm sales by convincing x device isn't right for them.

I think you are going to be very disappointed if you think that rim are going to reduce their model range, i think it is inevitable that in order to keep growing they will need to expand their range to include every form factor where there would be sufficient demand.

Currently you have two types of pearl, assuming we don't see a 3g refresh for the standard pearl then the next thing you would expect to see would be a slider to give those who want a standard phone shape another choice.

As far as merging the curve, bold and 8800, I think you are mistaken if you think there is any such thing as an 8800-series now, it was already mostly replaced by the bold with the world phone part getting mopped up by bold 1.1 or the tour as they have called it.

From what I have read, the curve is actually rim's top-selling model and while some of that is obviously down to mainstream pricing of those models, you only have to look at the 8900 to see that they also think that it is a viable form factor for premium-priced devices too.

What you call re-invention of the wheel is actually rim being very smart and not wanting all their eggs in one basket, they have a wider range of form factors to appeal to more people and also to offer more carriers exclusivity periods at launch.