[0xChain]

I operated N4BB.com, which was one of the largest BlackBerry fan sites. We had many insider contacts and broke many large, exclusive stories. Fun times. Miss them.

Unfortunately, the way Mike Lazaridis was depicted in the recent Docudrama about BlackBerry it wasn't too far from the truth. They really believed Apple was lying about an all-touch, physical keyboard-less phone. Following the media buzz about the iPhone, Verizon put a lot of pressure on RIM to release a competitive device. The half-baked Storm 9500 was so rushed it released with a non-touch optimized OS that was hardly responsive to the piezo screen. Not to mention the bezel had such a gap around it that pocket lint often got stuffed in and under the screen, preventing the physical click. Sad.

Compounded by other failed strategic decisions/devices such as the PlayBook tablet and refusal to pay triple A developers to port their apps to BB10, it was a nail in the coffin by their own doing. There was such a hierarchical structure that completely stifled innovation.

A bitter-sweet story indeed.

[anotheruser13]

I used to frequent N4BB back in the day, and thank you for your efforts. Moved from BB to Android, but still miss the little trackball and physical keyboard at times, as Google continues to enshittify Gboard.