I read an article in the Globe and Mail today where Research in Motion co-CEO Jim Balsillie said that the BlackBerry will soon become the music player of choice for consumers. I actually had to read his comment several times to make sure that I understood the context in which he was saying it and after doing so, realized he meant it pretty much like you read it in the title to of this post:
The BlackBerry will soon become the music player of choice for consumers…
I have one question for Jim Balsillie… Have you completely lost your mind?
Someone please tell me that I am misinterpreting what he is saying because it sure sounds to me like he is saying that “the BlackBerry will soon become the music player of choice for consumers.”
Don’t get me wrong… I love the BlackBerry. The fact that I have written about it pretty much everyday for the passed two and a half years should tell you how much, however, I have to call a spade a spade. The BlackBerry Pearl and the BlackBerry 8800 are horrible music players. They are incredibly bad and would die a death quicker than the Motorola Rokr if they didn’t do anything more than play MP3s. Thank goodness they do.
Balsillie said that he thinks it would be”10 if not 100 times harder to do the communications aspect onto an MP3 player than to do the mass media player onto a communications framework.” Not that I disagree, but, Balsillie should take a closer look at the dozens of handsets that have failed miserably at doubling as MP3 players. He should start with his very own BlackBerry Pearl.
Not that I want to turn this into a post about Apple, but, there are companies out there building dedicated MP3 players that by many accounts are much better than the iPod, yet, still they cannot make a dent in Apple’s iPod share. What makes a company that has just started marketing to consumers on the smartphone front, a market that they dominate, think that they can “soon” become the music player of choice, in a market that consists only of consumers, against arguably one of the strongest brands in consumer electronics that the world has ever known?
I guess you’ve got to have goals…
“BlackBerry Pearl and the BlackBerry 8800 are horrible music players.”
Care to expand on that statement? Since i got the Pearl w/ 2g memory card, its been my mp3 player of choice. it plays music and the battery life is exceptional. what else can u ask for from a portable mp3 player?
This is just my opinion, one shared by many reviewers from what I can tell, but the BlackBerry Media Player seems like it was written about 8 or 9 years ago. It’s feature set compared to other MP3 players seems very limited and the controls down right archaic.
http://www.rimarkable.com/archives/868
I agree. But the BlackBerry does have BlueTooth and Proven Wifi.
Wireless headset oooohhh Yea.
I disagree with Michael. The battery life is not that bad, but it’s definetely not “exceptional.” But, the music player does suck. What can I expect from a portable MP3 player? Well, for one, I hate having to scroll through dozens of songs from ONE artist to get to another artist’s song. They should group all the songs from one artist under one name.
My thoughts….
With the recent accouncement of WM6, which includes major security enhancements Rim needs a plan to keep up with the technology.
I think there is a JV or Partnership in the works betweeb Rim & Apple.
Just think iPHONE with BB Support. BB with iTUNES support..
One last note, iPHONE max speed is EDGE same with BB. For the iPHONE coming out in June and Apple is truely into the UI one would think that the iPHONE would be 3g…..
TheBleec,
IMO, RIM has no more worries from Windows Mobile 6 than they did from WinMo 5, 2003, Pocket PC, or any other mobile OS Microsoft has ever come out with.
That dog just doesn’t hunt.
I agree the player is somewhat archaic, however i found the Q player just as archaic. It may have a few more bells and whistles but the application is slow, and annoying. Ive had an ipod too, and it can be just as annoying to organize your music.
I just started using my Pearl as an mp3 and was amazed to discover that the player seems to have no continuous play function i.e., it plays one song, and then you have to select the next one manually. Am I missing something or is it really that bad? Surely there must be another app out there to play songs on a Blackberry.
sawtooth,
When you’re at the music section, all you have to do is click the BlackBerry button and select “Play All” or “Play Folder” for continuous play.
New user. How do I get the. Mp3 on My Pearl? …having crackberry syndrom
Hi
Well, I always thought I was a techno, unitl I tried to find the BB MP3 player… where is it.. I have a Pearl 8100… I suspect that I am being really dumb and would really love some help, if anyone out there has any ideas. Also, is anyone using an alternative MP3 player… ?
Grahama,
The “MP3” player is the media player. On my current theme, it looks like a reel of film. YMMV.
It’s an absolutely horrific player that looks like it was written in an afternoon as an afterthought.
Now if only I could find a way to get a stereo bluetooth headset to work…
The Music Player on my 8830 is pretty good, but…
1) Viewing by Artists will not Skip to the Next Album when that one is done.
2) The All Songs view needs Sort Options as well.
I much prefer 1 huge list sorted by Artist 1st, Album 2nd, and Track 3rd.
I also wish I could get a tad more Volume.
I have a BB8830; can anyone refer me to a site that can give me step by step instructions on how to get music in to my BB? Techochallenged.
The blackberry could very easily replace the iPOD. It makes sense to have one device that does everything. Blackberry needs to improve the mp player and convience iTunes to unlock its music. Meanwhile, I have stopped buying music from iTunes and gone back burnig CD’s again, so that I can listen on my blackberry (which I plug into my car and home stereo’s).
How do you plug it into your home and car stereo? I’m still learning…
Blackberry music player is fine… but there is absolutly no way to fint videos for the blackberry(s) why doesnt blackberry open a online store with music and viedos? why? where our we supposed to find music and videos?
The easiest way to get music on your blackberry is to activate mass-storage mode when you plug it in. Next, open Windows Explorer and open the removable disk icon that shows up when the blackberry is plugged in. You can open the blackberry’s media card folder the same way you would any other folder. From there, open Blackberry -> Music, then copy music from windows explorer onto the BB music folder. Don’t even bother with that roxio media manager shit.
The MP3 player is fine. Who cares about finding a stupid song… just put the damn music you want to listen to in the player, put it on shuffle/repeat and press play. How hard is that?
The really cool thing about listening to music on the Blackberry is you always have it with you! Plus if a phone call comes in it will pause… no missed calls.
As for a player itself, the buttons to control the music are very useful and efficient. The top “mute” button acts as PLAY/PAUSE, the side volume up and down buttons acts as VOLUME UP/DOWN and if you hold down the button for a little longer it will act as NEXT/PREVIOUS SONG. The player will always be running in the background so you can unpause the music at any time.
What the hell is wrong with that? Listening to music is a simple thing and if you try to go out of your way to “find a song” or create a complex playlist then you’re too damn spoiled and miss-understand the whole point of portable music.
If blackberry MP3 player could do visualization then it would be IMBA GOSU. The player has come a long way and it looks good now in June 2009. With new small cheap SDMC cards it stores more than iPod shuffle. I think the author of this article is a tech junkie because he wants to have so many gadgets sitting around. MP3 players are weak and there was never any reason for them to be a stand alone player unless you don’t want a phone at all! Put a radio tuner on my phone too and call it a day. Maybe a remote control on the headphone cable would be cool.
I use my BB as my mp3 player only when I don’t feel like bringing my iPod with me. I prefer to have a BB over an iPhone so I make this sacrifice. Never will I grab my BB over my iPod if I’m just listening to music.