Interview With Product Manager Annu Dawar On The BlackBerry Torch 9800

By Mauricio

Doug over at the official Inside BlackBerry blogs has another great interview/Q&A, this time with Annu Dawar, Senior Handheld Product Manager at RIM. The interview covers the recently announced BlackBerry Torch 9800 and how they “pulled it all together”. Here are a few of the questions and answers:

• What were you trying to deliver with the BlackBerry Torch?
  Well, quite simply, the best BlackBerry smartphone…ever! BlackBerry Torch is our first device with BlackBerry 6, and the first with a full QWERTY keyboard plus a touch screen. That was a big deal for us, so we wanted to make sure we created an experience that takes advantage of all those things in a big way.
• What do you think will strike people about the BlackBerry Torch smartphone the first time they see it?
  When you see the device slide open for the first time, it’s instantly recognizable as a BlackBerry smartphone. We’ve done a good job of making sure we stayed true to our DNA and taken design cues from the rest of the 2010 BlackBerry smartphone portfolio.
• The BlackBerry Torch is also the first BlackBerry smartphone to launch with BlackBerry 6. For longtime BlackBerry smartphone users, what will be the biggest change for them?
  I’m a longtime BlackBerry smartphone user myself, and being totally honest, the biggest change for me was breaking all my old habits. I’ve used BlackBerry smartphones for so long that I have developed my own routines and ways of doing things. With BlackBerry 6, we’ve added a bunch of new features that makes things way easier to do, but at the same time, we’ve kept all the old BlackBerry goodness. So, for the first little while, I found myself doing things the old way.
• What do you think is the most important aspect of BlackBerry 6 for new users in getting them quickly enjoying the power of the BlackBerry platform?
  For me, hands down, the Action Menus are the easiest, most friendly way to unlock the power of BlackBerry 6 on the BlackBerry Torch. Anytime you want to do something, you simply touch the screen and hold your finger down. A graphical menu will pop-up and you will be presented with the most common tasks available to you.

For the full interview be sure to check out the Inside BlackBerry blog post or for more on the Torch check out the Torch 9800 Archives.