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Introducing the PorscheBerry
By Rain Noe - Oct 28, 2011
The PorscheBerry is here. In an effort to reclaim lost marketshare, Research in Motion has hearteningly sought to invest in design, tapping Porsche Design to develop their new P'9981 smartphone in the latter company's striking, signature style.
The question is, will it be enough to get RIM back on the map?
In the '90s, when all cell phones did was make phone calls, I was living in Japan. Several times I'd gone cell phone shopping with friends in Tokyo and the selection was staggering. The only thing to distinguish one phone from another was its physical design as the features were all largely the same—the most complicated thing you'd need to do was retrieve voicemail, and if I remember correctly, my phone only held three messages at a time so there wasn't a lot of futzing to be done.
Nowadays the complexity of our needs and Apple's simplification of such have largely changed the game, delivering customers a phone that is not only sexily designed, but one that plays well with all of its software and hardware counterparts.
The P'9981 is the most strikingly-designed cell phone I've seen in a while, and if the only arena RIM had to compete in was physical design I'd say they've got a strong combatant. But we'll have to wait to see how it plays out once BlackBerry users have their hands on it.
Rain Noe
Rain Noe is a writer and industrial designer based in New York City.
18 Comments
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OH you guise are nuts. This phone is badass. Looks completely different from the drones everyone else has. And it has the Porsche name on it. Come on. I mean come on.!Report as spam
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This thing is just awful. What is with those hideous logos stacked on top of each other? Which one is winning? I imagine a meeting going something like, "can we make the screen bigger? No, the logos are there... Oh, okay."!Report as spam
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I completely agree with Ray. It's shameful.!Report as spam
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BB is officially out of ideas. Porsche should be ashamed. It seems as though half of the "Porsche Design" products are companies desperate to try and ignite a little passion just before the end. The other half our shallow office gift kind of products.!Report as spam
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BLECH, this is the ultimate in frivolous skin-deep design, and it doesn't even look good! come on core77, you really should know better.!Report as spam
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I feel like these images don't do the design justice, I would like to see one in person.!Report as spam
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I think Porsche Design missed the Blackberry DNA here : On previous models, the overall roundish shape and the black plastic keyboard (really looking like berries !) made sense with the brand, Black Berry. I don't believe that all smartphones has to look the same (edgy, in metal and black) to feel new. So for me, this product is a nice piece of industrial design, but it is not a real Blackberry...!Report as spam
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"The question is, will it be enough to get RIM back on the map?" It was not intended to be that kind of savior. This phone is a reskinned existing BB and will have a HIGH mrsp + is limited edition. It's a classic, expensive niche product. 'Lipstick on a pig', I agree. P.s. I want to read more on the Nokia N9 on Core77. ;)!Report as spam
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Those keys look painful to type on, then there's the obnoxious Porsche Design Branding, and that screen looks tinny, sure, you get a blackberry for the email service, but in the age of Android and IOs, that's getting irrelevant. Also, small pet peeve, but I can almost hear their design team whisper " needs more bevel".!Report as spam
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This doesn't convey Porsche at all, it looks closer to a failed attempt at Lamborghini. This design doesn't even look finished, the touch buttons are 4x the size of the physical buttons for some reason, taking up way more room than they need, and making the dimensions look weird. The keyboard could have been taller with those buttons being smaller as well. It looks like someone was showing the ideation process, and someone pointed to one in the middle and said "no, that one" Bad.!Report as spam
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Huh, is this a joke? It looks like a Braille phone. The sunset pic is a perfect metaphor for RIM.!Report as spam
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At $2000, it's more like a tasteful Vertu than an upscale consumer device.!Report as spam
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It can only help RIM so much considering it's going to be a limited edition and cost $2000.!Report as spam
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and for $2000!Report as spam
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Only judging by the cover, I have to admit that if this is what the average Blackberry user is looking for, I'm sure they will be lucky with this beautiful piece of industrial design. I could be wrong, but something is telling me that the outer design is not the reason RIM's userbase is melting like butter in the sun.!Report as spam
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I was going to say it would have looked really cool and cutting edge in 1995.!Report as spam
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Lipstick on a pig. The physical look is irrelevant if the core does not meet current consumer expectations.!Report as spam
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That would have looked really cool and cutting edge in 2005.!Report as spam
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