[jeffawa]

Am I the only person who thinks yesterdays announcement was good for BBRY. Granted it is a "hail mary" pass to fix the company, however the other options would have all seen a very different BBRY emerge. I was then thinking, if I had 10 mins with Mr. Chen what advice would I give him as a 12 year user of blackberries. Here goes my 2 cents:

Focus on improving the customer experience with the BB10. The set up, user interface and functionality are very different from BBOS. Most users who get the new BB10 phones expected the same experience and are unprepared for the huge learning curve. I hear new users say "I used to be able to do this on my old BB and now I can't". The inconsistencies between the old and new need to be addressed so users will have a common experience.

Create a direct fulfilment channel option for purchasing devices and software updates. The BB10 Phones shipped with old versions of the OS. If you are not technical and cannot find and load leaks you have to wait for the carriers to update. I have meet many people with Z10's and especially Q10's who had problems that I knew had all been fixed with newer versions of the software. They were not capable of loading leaks and had very bad experiences and told everyone they meet. To improve the customer experience BBRY needs to offer an OTA update on a regular basis to all users worldwide.

Market the phones incredible capabilities. I don't buy a phone to "keep moving", I buy a Blackberry because I like a mobile office to get things done like email, BBM, Calendar, cloud storage, a crystal clear phone call and yes I want twitter and a good camera (btw the camera's are terrible) and some fun apps as well. When I show people my phone and how I can send email, book appointments have a video chat they are very impressed and didn't know about the capabilities of BB10.

Make Android Apps available OTA to remove the "Lack of Apps" media arguements. Many Android apps will work on BB10, however, the process of sideloading makes this a advance user function only. If it can be done through sideloading then I would think that BBRY should be able to automate the process and make available OTA through BlackberryWorld. This function should come with a disclamer that some apps may not function as expected.

Physical keyboard devices will be your bread and butter - Mike L was right on this one. I made the move to a full touch Z10, most of my friends still want a phyical keyboard. The Q10 is great, but removing the call buttons and menu button was a mistake. The screen interface has slowed down the functionality for both the Z and Q users. You could add the physical buttons back in a future version or have a settings option to virtually have these buttons always on the screen (user preference).

I was recently at a meeting of 25 business people. 13 had blackberries, however only 2 were BB10's. If BBRY is going to win these users over then it needs to get the existing users speaking highly of new devices and their functionality.

Maybe that was a little more than 2 cents worth.

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

And he'll follow the advise of Crackberry about as well as anone else at BlackBerry. At least under Thor they did recognize Kevin as the #1 fan....


As to your suggestions:

• Focus on improving the customer experience with the BB10.
  Agree that BB10 doesn't have the time that iOS and Android had when they were launched. BB10 needs to mature VERY quickly, as for user experience between BBOS and BB10... not sure that matters. The big picture has people that have never used a BlackBerry.
  
• Create a direct fulfilment channel option for purchasing devices and software updates.
  Agree that the update process is a major drawback, especially right now when major bug fixes and feature upgrades are so important. But CARRIERS have all of the power and they are not going to want to give up control - especially with the radio. But maybe updates like the one BlackBerry is pushing out for the Android Player via App World could be a sign of things to come for at least portions of the OS.
  
• Market the phones incredible capabilities
  Yes that would help, but providing capabilities that people already expect is also necessary.... Live Wall Paper, Headless Apps, Auto Dimming..
  
• Make Android Apps available OTA
  NOT going to happen - Google will not allow it! So then need to work on getting apps ported or built.
  
• Physical keyboard devices will be your bread and butter -
  Then they had better go on a diet - sales have shown that as bad as Z10 has been, the Q5 (remember it) and the Q10 have not even come close to those levels.
  

As to your meeting and so many legacy BB devices, that has very little to do with users and more to do with corporate IT departments. BlackBerry has become a very expensive option for IT and if the security level doesn't warrant it, they are going to go with a cheaper option. Or they have been sitting around waiting for BES10 and BB10 to mature (both have problems that IT doesn't want to deal with), and in the meantime BlackBerry has gone and pulled the rug out from everyone with the possibility that they might not be there in the near term.

[rogeryen]

Make Android Apps available OTA to remove the "Lack of Apps" media arguements. Many Android apps will work on BB10, however, the process of sideloading makes this a advance user function only. If it can be done through sideloading then I would think that BBRY should be able to automate the process and make available OTA through BlackberryWorld. This function should come with a disclamer that some apps may not function as expected.

How would this be legal?

[stackberry369]

My advice is:update your older BB10 phones when you release new OS for newer phones.

Posted via CB10

[sinsin07]

Chen doesn't seem the type to sit down and give the warm fuzzies to fan based audiance.

[hoob15]

My advice: don't suck

[notfanboy]

My advice: find permanent CEO as quickly as possible before things get visibly worse while on your watch.

[sinsin07]

How would this be legal?

Good point. Op probably is not clear on what side loading is about.

Besides, legal doesnt matter when you're hungry for apps.

[jeffawa]

In my OP I was not implying that the Android apps would come from Google Play or the Android Store, as I understand that Google would not allow this. I admit I don't know all of the legal issue's, however, I was suggesting that BBRY incent developers to post their Android apps to a Blackberry World location and for BBRY to develop a process to test and provide an OTA process to load the Android Apps (and for developers to get paid).

[Notcho]

My advice: don't suck

Lol

Sent via Zed10

[trsbbs]

Good sane post until the keyboard thing. Way off. Sales numbers will and have shown this.

Limited market at best.

Yep..lots of Droids and IPhones out there with keyboards.


Posted via CB10 on a Verizon Z10 running 10.2.0.1791

[kb5zht]

At least under Thor they did recognize Kevin as the #1 fan....

Yea and then killed off the playbook. If that is "listening to the #1 fan" then you can pretty much assume they dont listen to any feedback at all.

[wyleybuster]

Sell it as a Blackberry. Those that want an iPhone or Android will buy them, stop trying to make Blackberry be what it is not.
Push updates to all phones, don't depend on the carriers.
Give incentives for highly wanted apps to be developed.
Somehow restore the full bridge capabilities with Playbook. Find a way to update to BB 10 or offer a trade in deal for a new one if that isn't possible.
Keep your reputation as secure. It is very important to many, particularly in the business world.

[JR A]

2 Things:

1. Don't be vague; be specific

2. Do what you say you're going to do, when you say you're going to do it