[New_Z10]

There is a common myth circulating- BlackBerry just needs good marketing. I say they must understand the market! Which they have not IMHO. If marketing is all they need- why no buyers?

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[dale-c]

They do just need marketing
Marketing sold the junk otherwise known as Andriod. It also sold the much better iPhone.
Fact is, people don't know about the z10 for the most part.

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[ray689]

Yes all they need is marketing. Someone got rich selling a pet rock....doubt that was because it was a great and innovative product.

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[NursingNinja]

Marketing isn't the only thing that they need to pull ahead, it's just an obvious thing that is needed. The main issue is app support, they also need an extra 10% or so extra market share to magically appear overnight in their corner. More would be nice too.

How I see this going down in the future is BlackBerry as we know it focusing soley on enterprise. I think that they will still sell the software but they might get the hardware from someone else. Who knows, as they will also be using the bring your own device framework.

As for us? I suspect that this may be our last consumer BlackBerry crop of phones!! not happy about that.

I don't think it's a question of who will buy BlackBerry per Se but rather who will be buying what pieces that they aren't doing anymore. Someone may buy BBM for example...

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[d3r3k79]

IMO, they should not be looking for a buyer. BlackBerry needs to replace every 'C' level executive (CEO etc) and pretty much all SVP level managers. Hire young blood that actually have a clue instead of old farts with no innovation or vision.
BlackBerry has a great product that can certainly go toe to toe with the other 2 mobile juggernauts. It's just that nobody knows about BB10. The ones who do have heard too many horror stories. 10.2 should have been what they initially launched on the platform.

BlackBerry's problem isn't the product. It's their effing management. Going private is a better option than just giving up and selling out to the highest bidder.
Stay the course, market the phuck out of the product and learn from your mistakes... so dont launch a z30 device with the same screen resolution and basically identical specs as the Z10. This is what they did years ago that got them into this mess in the first place. Kept releasing 'new' phones that were identical as the previous release. Kinda what iPhone kept doing and now Android is kicking everyones @ss.

[ray689]

Marketing isn't the only thing that they need to pull ahead, it's just an obvious thing that is needed. The main issue is app support, they also need an extra 10% or so extra market share to magically appear overnight in their corner. More would be nice too.

How I see this going down in the future is BlackBerry as we know it focusing soley on enterprise. I think that they will still sell the software but they might get the hardware from someone else. Who knows, as they will also be using the bring your own device framework.

As for us? I suspect that this may be our last consumer BlackBerry crop of phones!! not happy about that.

I don't think it's a question of who will buy BlackBerry per Se but rather who will be buying what pieces that they aren't doing anymore. Someone may buy BBM for example...

Posted via CB10

Chicken and egg thing. App support comes with sales which comes from proper marketing. Can't have app support prior to selling the product.

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[koool1]

Marketing is one problem. BlackBerry blurting out they are sort of for sale is another. It's hurting confidence in the company and the products.

I wish these guys would get their act together because the product is excellent. I love my Z10 and the uncertainty really sucks.

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[davidmcromano]

Marketing is definitely where blackberry needs some help in and it's unfortunate they couldn't come up with a solution other then the one presently at hand. The new CMO has done a decent job but IMO I think he could have done better and more. The money BBRY spent on the super bowl commercial could have been better used elsewhere. That commercial advertising was horrible.

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[heymaggie]

Marketing is just really a scapegoat around here. If you notice, non-of the technology articles mentioned that marketing was ever a problem. They mentioned plenty of other reasons for the failures of BlackBerry - mostly being late to respond to the iPhone and other mobile technology trends. It's not really the marketing. It's the products.

[ray689]

Marketing is just really a scapegoat around here. If you notice, non-of the technology articles mentioned that marketing was ever a problem. They mentioned plenty of other reasons for the failures of BlackBerry - mostly being late to respond to the iPhone and other mobile technology trends. It's not really the marketing. It's the products.

Many who have used the product wouldn't agree with you. Unfortunately the amount who have tried it is dismal which is due to **** poor marketing. It would have been easy to show bb10 in action and differentiate it in a commercial, instead the had some cryptic magic carpet moving through different scenes. Given the image people had of blackberry, it would have served them much better to actually show the NEW phone, the NEW OS, the NEW direction. Show how you are reinventing yourself rather than some crap that makes no sense.

[Tre Lawrence]

Marketing is just really a scapegoat around here. If you notice, non-of the technology articles mentioned that marketing was ever a problem. They mentioned plenty of other reasons for the failures of BlackBerry - mostly being late to respond to the iPhone and other mobile technology trends. It's not really the marketing. It's the products.

I agree. Marketing is the catchall excuse. Folks really believe that the only thing preventing adoption of BB10 is people not knowing about the product.

No.

The issue is the product. Harsh, but true. As already hinted at in this thread, "product" in this case is more than just hardware and OS.

Marketing had been the scapegoat since 08 for some on CB. It's a tried and true excuse.

[NtotheK]

They never once said they are looking for a buyer. Only the media keeps spreading that rumor. It was a "strategic alternatives" announcement which Thortsten has said many times they were already looking for strategic partners. They just announced new partnerships with Panasonic and Garmin recently. If any sort of sale happens most likely going to be private or smaller buyers that will maintain most of the company. Oh and we already know that BBM is going stand alone as well so that's a big chunk of BlackBerry right there. We will see what happens but one thing is for sure, they need to be more open about what's going so consumers can have some confidence in BlackBerry again.

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[New_Z10]

Look if the hardware / software is so good- don't you think other tech firms would realize that and take advantage of the poor sales. Firms that can excel at marketing. Then they can market this exceptional product and lead the cell phone market again. Even the new board member thinks it may "survive" as a niche product. I think we all need to take a deep breath and say the product is okay but not innovative or that competitive. I wish it was. I bought on day one believing in the OS and the vision for mobile computing.

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[codehut]

Look if the hardware / software is so good- don't you think other tech firms would realize that and take advantage of the poor sales. Firms that can excel at marketing. Then they can market this exceptional product and lead the cell phone market again. Even the new board member thinks it may "survive" as a niche product. I think we all need to take a deep breath and say the product is okay but not innovative or that competitive. I wish it was. I bought on day one believing in the OS and the vision for mobile computing.

Posted via CB10

Agreed. It's not marketing that's the problem, it's that there's nothing to market.

BB10 is not bad. Not by any means. But there simply is no BB10 feature that would make the average consumer stand up and say "Wow, I must have this" - which is really what BlackBerry needed being this late to the game.

[Tre Lawrence]

Look if the hardware / software is so good- don't you think other tech firms would realize that and take advantage of the poor sales. Firms that can excel at marketing. Then they can market this exceptional product and lead the cell phone market again. Even the new board member thinks it may "survive" as a niche product. I think we all need to take a deep breath and say the product is okay but not innovative or that competitive. I wish it was. I bought on day one believing in the OS and the vision for mobile computing.

Posted via CB10

But that is logical thinking. There are some people who believe the world has it out for BBRY. They are not going to be able to believe that people can behold the greatness that is BB10 and pick something else.

No... as you infer, it ain't just marketing.

BBRY couldn't sell the product to its built in current list of 70 million. What, they didn't know about it?

[Josh_Gooner]

Yeah, proper marketing is needed. Most folks think bb10 is the same old lagging platform as it's predecessors. They have no idea just how powerful, efficient and fluid this new OS is. Couple that with Time Shift, video share, an amazing hub, super fast browser, an unmatched typing experience by way of the Z10, among other things, I'd say yes, the Blackberry 10 phones are very marketable.

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[tmanthib]

Yes it is marketing and building a great product. BB10 is a great phone now market it in the right way. Here's how. Whatever they spent on the lame Super Bowl ad,take that amount and giveaway in a contest however many BB10 phones that amount will buy. In return the winners agree to give feedback on BlackBerry website. Get the media's interest if possible. Maybe pay for the 1st year of service of their choice. This would get the stores and carriers involved and they would promote it. At the store have a video demo the phone.

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[tmanthib]

Oh yes, give great service and deliver on time.

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[tmanthib]

Give away T Shirts, caps.

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[JasW]

Leaving aside the apps problem, it's not -- or it wasn't, let's be real, it's too late now -- just marketing per se. It was a particular kind of marketing -- overcoming the hardened perception that a BB was a creaky old school relic from the mid to late 2000s. That was a much tougher row to hoe than any other smartphone manufacturer had. BBRY couldn't even do decent straightforward marketing, let alone this more specific and specialized kind.

[bobauckland]

They only lack marketing.
And a reliable product.
And executives that don't lie.
And time.
And apps.
And functionality.
And hardware.
And users.
And a coherent strategy.

Why aren't the buyers lining up?

[New_Z10]

They only lack marketing.
And a reliable product.
And executives that don't lie.
And time.
And apps.
And functionality.
And hardware.
And users.
And a coherent strategy.

Why aren't the buyers lining up?

Now we are getting to the issues. I appreciate this is a fan site but I think we can still discuss it critically. We are all part of BlackBerry's last great experiment.

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[lnichols]

It isn't just marketing. The name BlackBerry is poison in the smartphone world now. They simply aren't viewed as a quality brand in many markets. They have messed up too many times with the name BlackBerry on the phones. It would require a massive amount of marketing to change that perception, or ditching the name BlackBerry and then marketing whatever the new name hard.

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[amazinglygraceless]

Your thread title is a self answering question. BlackBerry is so bad at marketing that they can't even sell themselves

[Troy Tiscareno]

As I've said before, this is not 2008, when smartphones are stand-alone products that can be judged by themselves. Today, a smartphone is a gateway to an ECOSYSTEM, and without an ecosystem, no smartphone can be successful as more than a "hobby." BB is way, WAY too big of a company to play at the hobby level, considering that smartphones are their primary product, and that they are not significantly diversified.

So, having said that, anyone who looks can see that BB lacks an ecosystem. It really only has phones to offer, and nothing more.

Where are the tablets, the wearables, the other BB10 devices? Where are the BB accessories?

Where are the BB cloud services? Email? Integrated cloud storage? Office suite? Cross-platform messenger?

Where is the media? Books? Magazines? Newspapers? Music? TV shows? Movies? BBWorld's offerings are meager at best.

Where is the app ecosystem? And you can't count Android apps, because realistically, consumers are never going to sideload. How many people would be HAPPY living with just what is located in BBWorld?

If you were to give a grade to BB's ecosystem, I don't see how you could fail to give it an F. It's a failure across the board.

Yes, the phone hardware is mid-grade at best, but that's easily fixed. BB10, while having a steep learning curve that turns many buyers off, is a decent OS on mid-grade or better hardware (not being able to run on low-end hardware is a big problem, though). But at the end of the day, the biggest problems aren't the phone hardware or the OS, it's the ECOSYSTEM, and IMO, those problems are far, FAR bigger than BB or any likely buyer are prepared to solve.