“How’s RIM’s iPhone-killer BlackBerry 9000? Not bad! So says Kevin Michaluk of CrackBerry.com, who managed to get his paws on a way-before-release test unit from eBay,” Dan Frommer reports in an article headlined, “RIM’s iPhone Killer: Not Terrible! But No iPhone” for Silicon Alley Insider.
“Obviously, the new BlackBerry is no iPhone — it lacks Apple’s powerful OS X, its multi-touch display (no touch screen, period) and its super-simple user interface,” Frommer reports.
“And that iPhone-lookalike silver band around the edges? Michaluk says it’s plastic, not metal,” Frommer reports. “Cheap-o!”
Frommer reports, “But that’s okay. From what we’ve seen so far, this is the best iPhone-wannabe yet.”
Full article here.
RiM must be very proud. 
You can judge the distance behind and overall cluelessness of iPhone’s future roadkill by the amount they copy the iPhone’s exterior… This ceaseless quest to dress up antiques in Apple veneer is pathetic and sad. – SteveJack, MacDailyNews, March 29, 2008
RIM BlackBerry 9000 User Interface:
Direct link via YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee-DepnxJW4
Looks cheesy.
How embarrassing for them!
They’re all second class without OS X….period
Surely they have more than that up their sleeve…is this a decoy?? If not, then I would do as said in Road House… “Dig a hole”.
The fact that the silver outer edge is plastic makes me embarrassed. Only one product line and now this. Truly embarrased.
Looks like my first calculator from 1975
Looks like a Skoda with a Lambourghini logo glued on crooked.
A friend of mine has the HTC copy of the iPhone and it looks a lot like the iPhone exterior and the icons also looks like those on the iPhone. But it has a stylus because the screen is “pressure sensitive” (like the old pocket PCs) and the animations are very crappy, looks like you are seeing a power point presentation in every animation of the screen.
Also, it lack of java does not allows to install anything (iPhone does not have java also, but you can install far more applications and far more better ones). They organize the SMS messages in the old fashion way, not like a chat conversation in the iPhone.
I am telling you this because no matter how well they look the other “iPhone killers” or how much better hardware they have, as long as they do not have iPhone OS, they are just a bunch of crappy dumb devices from the past that are just well dressed.
When all a company can do is go, “Hey, look! Our phone looks like their phone!” It’s time to give up!
It really occurs to me that not one company has learned from Apple. Not one other electronics (or computer) company gets what customers want. They always play catch-up and, even then, still manage to get it wrong. Nokia had at least 10 years to come up with something and they kept producing the same crap with a new screen.
Obviously way better than an I-Phone and it has IT support in the enterprise. Now if it only ran Windows Mobile…
Your potential. Our passion.™
Yawn – less than 60 days until iPhone 2.0
I just think it’s funny that the main upgrade to the BB over the last few years has been a trackball. I was really excited about trackballs. Way back when I got my first powerbook in 1994.
Yet another RiM job. . .
@iWill
. . . . and anyone who actually buys it thinking it’s anything like an iPhone certainly will have a funny taste in their mouths.
Why are the icons so old looking. Kinda like Black and White or monochrome like the old computers. Is that how they got the GUI to respond faster by dummying down the graphical elements of the UI? LOL
@ Tune Zang
You’re slackin’ buddy. Gotta come up with something better than that, to keep us Mac Lemmings entertained….
I wonder if it still has a WAP browser. WAP web browsing is so pathetic. If you have not used a WAP browser, just Google the term “WAP is crap”. I first heard the term years ago when reading an interview of one of the executives at NTT DoCoMo.
Basically browsing the web with WAP is not much better than browsing the web with a DOS based web browser. Why people put up with that crap is beyond me. It is one of the reasons why I have not yet purchased a smartphone. I will be giving the new iPhone serious consideration when it comes out.
WAP is for wimps.
Is it me or does the MDN emoticon look a lot like Stewie Griffin?
That’s what the graphics reminds me of. A vector based black&white;arcade game from 1979.
Actually, the phone looks like many of Blackberry’s earlier phones with the rounded corners and keyboard though jazzed up. The OS is evolutionary as the reviewer pointed out and he gave it a good review.
So if someone comes out with a phone that does everything the way Apple’s iPhone does, they’re accused of being derivative and if they just come up with their own thing which doesn’t copy iPhone, then the accusation is ‘it’s not OS X’.
@HMCIV,
What?!?!? MDN’s emoticon? Maybe if you squint and look at it sideways.
and why do I feel compelled to point out that it has a low battery.
Good Lord it’s a slow day
Gotta love the sound of those chicklet keys.
Wow, they gave the thing some futuristic icons and a PS3 background. Then when you click on one of the icons, your dropped into the same mess of Windows 3.11 looking menus like before.
After seeing RIM’s rebuttal to the iPhone, I’m really starting to think Job’s wasn’t exaggerating when he said the iPhone is 5 years ahead.
Is it me of is that interface got too many icons??
Jesus – it looks like an alpha version of OS X.
You only need to click through 20 menus to get to the option you want.
LOL