Whoa, dc/dc, take a chill pill man, no need to go all sarcastic there. The reason I asked those questions is out of genuine concern as a stakeholder. I'm not the kind of person who is a gadget freak and like to try out any new gadget. The reason I'm still staying with BB is because I truly like its functionality. Call me old fashion, but that's the kind of guy I am. You've got to admit, though, that BB is dwindling down in the market in the past year or so and these news don't exactly restore confidence.
But, okay, let me take the high road in replying your response here because I sensed you didn't get some of the points I was making:
1. My understanding of BIS was BB central server conducts the pull then push to the handset unlike handsets that directly pulls via the data service. Why is this pull vs push important? Because the rest of the world don't live in the US where Internet connection is cheap and/or reliable and/or as fast (I've lived in the US for a decade so I can safely make this comparison). Having push service means we don't get charged for data connection when message is delivered, kinda like how SMS works (texting, in US-speak), you don't get charged for receiving. (You may say "But you'd still be paying for BIS," yes, but that's a packaged service with Internet connection, so it's a bargain.) So, if BIS is off the table, my first reaction was "bye-bye pushmail service"--until I heard about EAS.
2. I haven't read up on the particulars of technology advances since I got out of college, so the workings of EAS are unknown to me, such as how does EAS conduct the push without a server? I haven't found an article on the Web explaining that, only that the latest version of EAS provides "true push" functionality. If I had to guess, then I'd say that EAS is set up at the webmail server we subscribe to, and when we set up the accounts on our handset it signals the EAS on the webmail server that push service is established. It's a crude and oversimplified guess, I know, but if you know how EAS works, by all means, please share.
3. Does IMAP+CardDAV+CalDAV work the same way as EAS (push)? As opposed to pull? The service is free for Android users, but if it's a pull functionality then they get charged for data connection when message is delivered. The reason why this is important is already listed in point #1. What does this have to do with BB, you may ask? Well, most of the e-mail accounts I set up to receive in BB are Gmail accounts, so if Google is removing EAS support for its free users then how would I receive my e-mails on BB10 that uses EAS? Much of the articles on Google dropping EAS don't talk about the impact on BB, but rather on Windows 8/RT users (which Microsoft counteracts with Outlook.com).
4. You don't know what the BB market is outside the US. In my country BB sells like hotcakes! It's the biggest selling smartphone followed by iPhone. And the main reason why iPhone is #2 because its selling price here is twice than in the US! Also, it's common to find people here carrying 2-3 handsets--don't ask why, but they do--so, don't be surprised to see someone carrying BB + iPhone + Android phone, maybe add a tablet to the mix, all at the same time. One of the main selling point of BB here is actually BBM, not really the pushmail service. People who are attracted to this are teenagers and young adults who are gadget freaks and style-over-substance-type of people, who care more about chatting, they're not loyalist like me
. Android is the latest craze now, people are buying Android phones left and right and BB's popularity is slowly decreasing. The reason those people still use BB is because their family members or their gang/clique/whatever are on BBM. So, with BBM going multiplatform then obviously they won't need to have a BB, so obviously this would affect BB sales.
So, there you go, I do hope my explanation here is clearer. But I AM looking for genuine opinion and knowledge here, guys. If I make a wrong assumption, please correct me.
Thanks!