Comments on: BlackBerry “Image Capture”… RIM just doesn’t get it.

By: Thought

Thought — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 00:46:03 +0000

nofx: the big question with your scenario is if sony, canon, kodak, et al., are all willing to sign on and build this “BB image capture” feature into their devices. I’d say that would be a pretty tough sell.

For one, all of these manufacturers would be adding cost to their devices, when only a small percentage of their market would have these special BB devices required.

The bb may be a somewhat ubiquitous standard in the enterprise email segment, but it surely isn’t with the average person who totes around a digital camera.

As Robb keeps pointing out: there’s any easy solution: simply make consumer models with cameras, and business models without cameras. Make the model numbers very distinct; make their looks and color very distinct. It’s not a hard concept to understand for most people. I don’t understand why RIM doesn’t get it.

By: sugarland2k

sugarland2k — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 20:16:33 +0000

I already do image capture on my BB. Take a nice digital pic. Email it to myself and save the image and download to backgrounds. A lot of Fedearl Govment uses with BBs and cameras are not allowed in real secure areas

SugarLand2k

By: nofx

nofx — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 15:43:35 +0000

i totally agree with you guys. i truly believed rim should make bb’s with buit in cameras. i’m just saying this “image capture” patent is another way for rim to make more $$$ out side the box, not just from BB devices. imagine how much money they make, if sony, canon, kodak and etc… starting to produce and sell cameras with this bb “image capture” feature ?

man, I cant wait for rim to put wifi,mp3 player, and maybe camera features in bb’s.

By: Robb Dunewood

Robb Dunewood — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 11:50:26 +0000

Thomas, I disagree. RIM is clearly going after the consumer market and has even split the BlackBerry website into a section for individual consumers and a section for business. Additionaly, even though a large chunk of RIM’s customers is the government, the majority of it’s users are private sector.

By: Thomas Chai

Thomas Chai — Sun, 09 Jul 2006 23:06:12 +0000

I suppose RIM resistance to have a built-in camera is because BB primary design are for those users that uses it in a secure environment like government agency. By having an external image capture, the feature can be turn on or off depending on the environment we are using in.

By: Thought

Thought — Sun, 09 Jul 2006 19:01:48 +0000

Robb: you nailed it. People want the camera built into their cell phone; that’s where the convenience lies.

All statistics show that the vast majority of digital pictures take these days are with cell phone cameras, rather than with stand alone cameras. Why? Because of the convenience and connectivity.

Sure, the RIM solution offers a way to send pictures once you have taken them, but it’s a far more clumsy solution than just having the camera built in.

One can only hope that RIM was just registering this patent just in case one day they wanted to use it, and that this is not their “image capture” strategy.

By: Robb Dunewood

Robb Dunewood — Sun, 09 Jul 2006 15:02:39 +0000

I see your point Nox, I just don’t know if there is a big enough market for this. In essence, you can already do this with just about every wireless PDA except the BlackBerry.

I have never heard anyone say that they just have to get a Treo because the ability to take an SD card out of their camera in stick it into their treo so that the can send a picture. I am sure that someone has done this simply becasue it can be, however, I am willing to bet that many, many more just take picutures with the built-in camera.

By: nox

nox — Sun, 09 Jul 2006 14:07:24 +0000

hmmm… maybe RIM is trying to make this “image capture” be installed on future digital cameras? since they patent it, every camera with with this feature being sold, they got a piece of a pie? Thats the only way this patent make sense to me.