If BlackBerry CEO John Chen wanted to get some attention and make news, he’s succeeded. In a blog post that went up yesterday, he has some interesting things to say. Starting with his view on Net Neutrality. Chen calls on U.S. government officials to support not only net neutrality but also “application/content neutrality” :
BlackBerry believes policymakers should focus on more than just the carriers, who play only one role in the overall broadband internet ecosystem. The carriers are like the railways of the last century, building the tracks to carry traffic to all points throughout the country. But the railway cars travelling on those tracks are, in today’s internet world, controlled not by the carriers but by content and applications providers. Therefore, if we are truly to have an open internet, policymakers should demand openness not just at the traffic/transport layer, but also at the content/applications layer of the ecosystem. Banning carriers from discriminating but allowing content and applications providers to continue doing so will solve nothing.
Therefore, any net neutrality legislation must take a holistic view of the entire playing field, addressing both carrier neutrality and content/application neutrality.
But Chen doesn’t stop there. He serves this up:
Unfortunately, not all content and applications providers have embraced openness and neutrality. Unlike BlackBerry, which allows iPhone users to download and use our BBM service, Apple does not allow BlackBerry or Android users to download Apple’s iMessage messaging service. Netflix, which has forcefully advocated for carrier neutrality, has discriminated against BlackBerry customers by refusing to make its streaming movie service available to them. Many other applications providers similarly offer service only to iPhone and Android users. This dynamic has created a two-tiered wireless broadband ecosystem, in which iPhone and Android users are able to access far more content and applications than customers using devices running other operating systems. These are precisely the sort of discriminatory practices that neutrality advocates have criticized at the carrier level.
You can bet that people at Netflix and Apple did a double take upon reading that.
I wonder if this is an attempt to say that BlackBerry is more open than their competition rather than an attempt to force companies like Apple and Netflix to open up their platforms either on their own or via legislation. Whatever the purpose of this blog entry, people are sure talking about it. And any press is good press for BlackBerry.
Typo Gets Sued…. Again
Posted in Commentary with tags BlackBerry, Lawsuit, Typo on February 17, 2015 by itnerdFresh off getting slapped to the tune of almost a million dollars, Typo is getting sued again by BlackBerry. The Ryan Seacrest backed company is getting sued over their new keyboard the Typo2 this time. Here’s what BlackBerry had to say:
Just as they did with the Typo Keyboard, Defendants have again copied numerous proprietary BlackBerry designs and patents in the Typo2 Keyboard. The Typo2 Keyboard still blatantly copies BlackBerry’s iconic keyboard trade dress designs that have been embodied in numerous BlackBerry smartphones from the 2007 BlackBerry 8800 to the current Q10 and Classic models. The Typo2 Keyboard also infringes numerous BlackBerry utility patents related to BlackBerry’s proprietary keyboard design, backlighting and typing automation technologies.
Sucks to be them. I really don’t like their chances seeing as they just lost. But I’m a computer nerd, not a lawyer. Having said that, two lawsuits are going be huge drain on the company. Thus, the reason why I don’t like their chances.
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