Chinese Telecom Company Launches 'RedBerry' 287
Ubergrendle writes "The Globe&Mail is reporting that Chinese telecom company China Unicom Ltd. is launching a new wireless device unapologetically named 'Redberry'. This comes in the wake of an almost 2 year regulatory delay blocking the introduction of RIM's Blackberries to mainland China. Certainly this delay was convenient to China Unicom, if not deliberately staged to allow for domestic competition."
Why is blackberry so unique? (Score:5, Insightful)
That leaves just the mini-keyboard interface as the big deal in the space. Personally, I'm not all that impressed by that as an input mechanism. But, if people like it, why isn't it copied all over the place? Is the concept of a little QWERTY keyboard seriously patented? Also, what about all those other ideas like having two letters assigned to each keyboard button and then having the phone sort it out based on what it thinks you're probably trying to type? Or something like a chording keyboard (though that would require learning)?
So anyway, what's the big deal with Blackberry in particular. Why is this stuff so hard/interesting/compelling?
that doesn't seem very sporting of 'em (Score:5, Insightful)
The REDberry... (Score:3, Insightful)
Oh, that's not nice... China Unicom left no doubt that it is brazenly attempting to capitalize on BlackBerry's global fame.
So they admit it!
You know, maybe they're counting on Blackberry being too worn out with the courts to persue anything, and IANAL, but isn't this a pretty blatant rip-off? I wonder how long till we see Blackberry sues Redberry - Blueberry feels left out in the cold.
Re:Cheap competition (Score:2, Insightful)
So this is the thanks we get?!?!? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Debt and China (Score:3, Insightful)
Wow, that's really funny. Many countries in free trade relationships with the US (like, say, Canada and Mexico), have the exact same complaint... about the US! Interesting how, when the tables turn, people suddenly get all uppity about free trade.
This Just In: Chinese Gov't Protects Local Biz! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Why is blackberry so unique? (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't look for a "killer feature", because there's not a specific killer feature. In fact, each of the Blackberry's features alone is pretty mediocre. This may be hard to understand, but it happens sometimes.
The trick is that, taken as a whole, it has just the right amount of everything to make it a "killer device". Email works well enough. Web works well enough. Calendar is decent. Everything integrates with Exchange. The phone interface is really nice, and the address book is good and can do directory lookups. Companies can run their own internal servers and keep the devices behind the company firewall (big difference between general cell phones). The screen is big enough to read and the full keyboard (or half keyboard with uncannily good predictive text for the more phone-like models) is a must. Connectivity is constant wherever you have cell coverage. For a regular work day, this addresses just about everything.
Finally, you can charge it, and it'll remain connected and on the data network at all times for days before you have to recharge it. And it charges over USB. It will even work offline (i.e. no cell/data network). I can't remember the last time I actually turned mine off, though I have turned off wireless to save battery or switched off work email.
There are other neat features, as well, like the holster functionality. (Unlike any cell phone I've seen, when it's in the holster it will be silent/vibrate, and when it's out it will ring. Nice for never worrying if your phone will embarrass you in a meeting.)
These features taken as a whole, without being loaded down by stuff like cameras and other useless trinkets, make it a very useful device. No, nothing is particularly outstanding. But it's the right combination of ingredients.
Re:How Typical! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:that doesn't seem very sporting of 'em (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Debt and China (Score:2, Insightful)
If the US defaulted, I bet the most immediate impact would be that the dollar would immediately be worth nothing, like everything based on it like capitalization (huge crash in Wall Street...).
Re:that doesn't seem very sporting of 'em (Score:2, Insightful)
That's strange... a country putting it's (and it's citizens) own interests before the ideals of a free market economy. In most western countries we are trying hard to live up to the "ideal" of a completely unregulated free market, where costs & profits dictate all corporate actions, with the predictable result that any possible opportunity to send work to a country with lower labour costs is taken advantage of. In the long run it is draining wealth from the western economies to the developing economies, with the owners of the corporate world skimming a healthy percentage off the top.
China is taking the best of both worlds... they are only taking the parts of the market system that help them (ie. taking on outsourced work) but carefully controlling the reverse direction. Another example [vnunet.com]: their government has delayed introduction of WCDMA 3G mobile technologies so as to give local companies a chance to develop a competing standard, thus delaying the chance for established European and US equipment manufacturers to gain a foothold.
If it weren't for the lack of personal freedoms afforded by the Chinese government you'd almost feel jealous of a population that has a government looking out for them like that.
Re:The REDberry... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:that doesn't seem very sporting of 'em (Score:4, Insightful)
The day a country doesn't use it's regulatory network to preserve its own trade is the day it gets pwned by every other damn country out there.
Re:Raspberry would have been better! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Berry Timely (Score:3, Insightful)
In real life, the American trademark/patent system certainly has quite a lot to do with Chinese industry, especially when the US government cares about the case. Even when it doesn't, such matters are determined in courts like WIPO, in which the US has quite a lot of power. And under which Chinese industry has quite a lot to lose: its global exports and purchasers of domestic labor, as well as any number of diplomatic, "humanitarian" and other investments.
And in my post, I didn't say that China was specifically afraid of Canadian courts, or American courts. You said that. You don't even understand my post, you don't understand me, you don't understand international competition. The evidence is in your posts. Which also suggests that you have an ignorance fortified by resentment of America's actual power in the world - as well as Canada's: RIM is Canadian.
China's government is communist, right? (Score:3, Insightful)
The question becomes: why did they choose to be deceptive in their practices? I think its part of comnunist philosophy, that leaders have to deceive the public to a certain extent, because full knowledge of what's really going on is not benificial to progress or economic success. And if this is really the case, why can't this be part of the political conversation instead of how best to use military force?
-dave