[BBBHonest]

Dear BlackBerry,


We are writing to you out of love. But we feel neglected. While everyone was saying you were dead over a year ago, we stuck by you, waiting for the New BlackBerry you promised was coming. The way we saw it, you had three things to do: you needed a brand new operation system that was absolutely brilliant; you needed to create some brilliant new phones like the Z10 and the Q10; lastly, you needed to get out there and show the world why they should still care about BlackBerry. The first two things you got absolutely right. Although almost no one has a clue, the BB10 OS is the best around, and the Z10 and Q10 are awesome. Sadly, for reasons that we do not understand, you failed to address your most important challenge: the public.

You see, not every is like us. We went and bought the new phones when they came out because we love you, and we were not disappointed. Others needed more: they needed you to show them why they should care. You see, you really were almost dead, and the old phones really were old news. Sorry, but it’s true. When you released the Z10 at the same price as the iPhone 5 and Galaxy, we were worried that you hadn’t given people enough incentive to gamble on you, and sadly, they did not. We didn’t give up on you though, BlackBerry. We realised that you had a lot on your hands, and that people make mistakes. Likewise, when we went into shops and found that your demos prevented people from playing with the phones in-store, we had patience. We knew you would realise eventually that potential customers don’t want boring lectures from phones they’ve never met on how to set up email contacts. They want to experience their new future phone. Again, we stuck by you. We even tried to help! We showed our new Z10s to friends and family, and do you know what? They loved it! The absolutely loved the keyboard, and the Hub, and the Active Frames – they loved it all! But they all said the same thing: ‘Wow, I had no idea…’ We can’t possibly express to you, BlackBerry, how frustrating this has been.

The most frustrating thing of all, however, has been the media. Have you been reading any of this stuff? To be honest, it’s difficult to tell, because you’ve hardly said or written a word in response. You’re being slaughtered unfairly in newspapers and reviews almost every day, and this has made it so much harder for us to do your job for you. You have no idea how frustrating it is watching some kid on YouTube compare you to the iPhone 5 or Galaxy, and then skip all the things you can do that the others can’t! All of us have been working very hard to do your marketing for you, and to defend you, but we are getting tired. It’s exhausting having to deal with the same boring questions over and over again: ‘BlackBerry…aren’t they dead?’ ‘Wait…they’ve made a touchscreen?’ ‘What do you mean I don’t have to listen to when YouTube says “The content owner has not made this video available on mobiles”? It really is hard work.

Recently, however, we have become increasingly concerned. We know how hard it is to convince people to buy BlackBerry when all the media are against you, not to mention the salespeople in the shops. We’ve formed a committee of our own, and are all wondering: are you ever going to stand up and defend yourself? We know your main enemy is your own, unfair, public image, but are you ever going to actually do something about it? It’s been the only thing holding you back!

Lately, you announced that you were officially considering ‘strategic alternatives’. We all held our breath. Going private, etc. wouldn’t be such a bad thing, but surely BlackBerry would assure consumers that BlackBerry phones are here to stay – surely there would be a statement to give consumers confidence in purchasing their brand new BlackBerrys? But there was…once again…astonishingly…breathtakingly…nothing. Don’t you realise what you’ve done? Now the friend I’d convinced to buy a Z10 say she’s too scared to buy one in case you go out of business! This is a disaster! What’s the point in releasing new phones, and then doing nothing to make sure people feel safe buying them?

Blackberry, we, your loyal and loving supporters, are running out of steam. We need your help. Please make it easier for us to do your marketing for you. Don’t price the upcoming phones too high, while making statements that scare people away from buying them. Allow the public to love you. We love you. We want to help. You must stop throwing yourself to the dogs like this. Stand up. Be brave. And whatever you do, please…DON’T DO NOTHING.


Sincerely,

Your Loyal and Exhausted BlackBerry Supporters

[Elite1]

Well said, thanks for sharing.

[BBBHonest]

Please vote! Let's actually do something to make our views hears beyond this forum. I will be making some shorter statements in texts and jpeg format that we can use on Facebook, or wherever. There are enough people in here who feel the same way for us to get together and make our views heard beyond crackberry.com.

Posted via CB10

[JasW]

Completely useless and paranoiac tripe, IMO. BBRY has not been "slaughtered unfairly in the media." The media has by and large simply and factually reported what BBRY has done to itself along with the market's rejection of the platform. If you think it's "unfair" for the media to report that the truth -- that BBRY has not done at all well -- then perhaps you'd be better off living in a more Orwellian society.

I'm quite sure the company is aware of its hardcore fanbase. If slavishly devoted types are so willing to stick with the company no matter how badly it screws up, that's one thing. But if you think that such fans should actually get out there and actively proselytize -- and, more important, that such action would make any real difference -- then don't think you're doing the company any favors.

[CrackedBarry]

" but surely BlackBerry would assure consumers that BlackBerry phones are here to stay"

Ehm, no. Cause the board is very well aware of the fact, that the most likely buyer is a private company, who would dismantle Blackberry. Split it into several pieces, and sell them off one by one.

(Like so: Patents go to Apple, QNX goes to ARM, Cisco gets the enterprise software and sevice, and Huawei buys the copyrights and trademarks so they can slap "Blackberry" and "Bold" and some of their existing phones.)

That is a sure way to get a small profit out of buying BBRY, as opposed to keep running their failing current business model with no guarantee of neither success nor profits.

It's a likely scenario, the board knows this, and obviously won't lie about it, and possibly risk class action lawsuits down the road.

And as for the media "slaughtering BB" and salespeople conspiting against them, get a grip.

It's not exactly a secret that BBRY is massively bleeding marketshare all over the world. Everybody knows that BB10 was/is BBRYs last chance at remaining a top ten manufacturer, and so far, it hasn't met anybody's expectations. (It's too early to call it a failure, but it's well on the way.)

You can't really blame neither the media for reporting the above, nor the salespeople who are trying to protect their customers from getting a phone with a disappearing platform and manufacturer.

They're just doing their jobs.

You can find the people at fault in Waterloo...

[gnirkatto]

I like the content and support it.
But I don't like being limited by these pre-defined answers to the poll.
What if I don't want to or cannot post it elsewhere, what if I don't want to become active on FB?
Why can't I just express my support, without having to perform a particular activity?

[Poirots Progeny]

Agree with JasW and CrackedBarry, above.

BlackBerry is a company. It made poor, poor decisions, in it's time and now it is suffering.

They are not beholden to people who read crackberry. Nor to consumers.

Where they have a contract, they must legally abide - as they must to their share holders! BlackBerry is in a bad place.

What happens next, well it was laid out rather well above. There are other permutations for outcomes, of course.

I think it not right to come out with such a "prosaic" worded plea-letter.

BlackBerry are to blame.

Don't apologise for their failings. There is no great conspiracy here. Happens to everyone in commerce that "drops the ball", so to speak.

Now they need help to get back in the game.

Or they will be sidelined.

Either way they do what they want and they always have.

Please, no more tears for a tech company that mismanaged itself. I'd imagine mike and Jim are laughing, they stepped out at the right time. They built something great and then squeezed it for all its worth and have a fantastic life because of it.

BlackBerry isn't dead. It's changing. That change may kill it. We'll see.

I personally hope for the best.

Posted via CB10 on my BlackBerry Q10

[BBBHonest]

I don't particularly blame the media. It is obviously a 'open letter' written from a certain figurative perspective, to an imaginary BlackBerry that is figuratively listening.

The media publish reactionary stories that sell; that's their purpose. The point is that regardless of all the intricate and complex factors and all the rest of it, it is my belief that BlackBerry failed to engage with the public whom they expect to buy their phones.

People can come out and say that that is all a part of their strategy, and that they intended to split the company up, ow whatever, but that's just nonsense. BlackBerry wants, or wanted, to be a success, and that meant engaging with the common public. They have failed and surely continue to show an utter lack of understanding. They will surely release the Z30 too expensive, not accepting that what they have needed was to be the best in their price range, which they could have done if they had released the Z10 cheaper to begin with, and openly say that they have priced it below what it is 'worth' in order to welcome people back. Instead the prices are cut now, and the press write up the failure.

IF BlackBerry fail, they will be one of the few companies (there are others, of course) that have brought out great products, and then allowed them to flounder in a toxic environment, and die.

What a waste. If that happens I will personally be very disappointed. I would be quite happy if I were the only one with a Z10, and will be very unhappy about having to switch to another OS now that I love this one so much.

Posted via CB10

[donnation]

OP, I agree mostly with your sentiments, but nothing can be said at this point is going to make people buy a BB10 phone. Maybe the Z30, but the Z10 and Q10 are pretty much done at this point. And by done I mean they will still sell some, but the chance of them having some massive resurgence is zero.

[tb146]

It has own board of director and CEO's, they make the decision. We are just users.
If they made wrong decision, the user will go and change to other device which is fit to them.
The simple things that the Director or CEO's has to listen to user need.

Blackberry developed to slow until they feel abandon by the user. It is not to late but honestly it is a littlbe bit late. They have to run faster to catch what they have left so they can still in this device competition.

I think they have made a mistake by producing many type of the same device such as STL-1 /2/3/4. It took their resources and causing slow development.

BB10 OS is the most important things, hardware not necessary to use the high end as long the OS can run smooth and flawless. With this the application can run better and they have to collaborate the app developer to make BB10 app based. Specially the most used app in other OS.

I saw many device dead on Z10, the QC during production must be investigate deeper.

[BBBHonest]

I think you are right, although I suspect the Q10 might be selling better than many people think - maybe not.

As I said when the new BlackBerry phones came out, this upcoming Christmas season will be very important (obviously) . I am of the view that BlackBerry should have been willing to go for sales over profit margins on the phones, and give the Z10 away quite cheaply from the start, but oh well. If they can offer it significantly cheaper than the other two flagship phones, I still think that they can sell a bunch more. The pursued a knife edge strategy, instead of focusing on getting the phones out there so that the phones themselves could over the course of a year or so start to rebuild their reputation. That meant avoiding any losing comparisons to the iPhone and Galaxy. A lower price would have ensured that the Z10 was the best phone in the world, pound for pound.

Anyway, it's all in the past now. We live in a world obsessed with the short term, and BlackBerry haven't shown enough medium term thinking in regards to marketing.

Posted via CB10

[Poirots Progeny]

I don't particularly blame the media. It is obviously a 'open letter' written from a certain figurative perspective, to an imaginary BlackBerry that is figuratively listening.

The media publish reactionary stories that sell; that's their purpose. The point is that regardless of all the intricate and complex factors and all the rest of it, it is my belief that BlackBerry failed to engage with the public whom they expect to buy their phones.

People can come out and say that that is all a part of their strategy, and that they intended to split the company up, ow whatever, but that's just nonsense. BlackBerry wants, or wanted, to be a success, and that meant engaging with the common public. They have failed and surely continue to show an utter lack of understanding. They will surely release the Z30 too expensive, not accepting that what they have needed was to be the best in their price range, which they could have done if they had released the Z10 cheaper to begin with, and openly say that they have priced it below what it is 'worth' in order to welcome people back. Instead the prices are cut now, and the press write up the failure.

IF BlackBerry fail, they will be one of the few companies (there are others, of course) that have brought out great products, and then allowed them to flounder in a toxic environment, and die.

What a waste. If that happens I will personally be very disappointed. I would be quite happy if I were the only one with a Z10, and will be very unhappy about having to switch to another OS now that I love this one so much.

Posted via CB10

Well said.

It was really just the histronic, pleading, fawning way that sentiment was presented, that irked. ("paranoic" I believed it was described above) :-)

Many companies have done this - look at motorola. That RAZR owned the world. And then they were superceded. It happens. You only have the company to blame.

And sure, the media can be reactionary. But remember Big Mike and they way BlackBerry treated the media. They drove the knife into their own back. Until TH came along, BlackBerry didn't want to even talk to Crackberry (and all the loyal fans, or whatever).

They didn't want to court the media.

Now they're in trouble and you wonder why there is little positivity. Why no one wants to hear their call. There are many sides to this. Sadly.

I do get the sense TH was brought in to oversee the final leg of BlackBerry as it is. He announced the sale last year - anyone with shares (as I have, and a substantial sum accumulated from investing from 1996 onwards) would have known this as there was a report in the annual review, sent out via mail etc.

Either way it isn't the end of the universe. I understand that many now have a tribal mentality. People go with crowds. People love material products. I don't understand why. It's a phone.

But I am with you. I am very disappointed with BlackBerry. They had a great property that they mishandled.

Now they need to fix this.

One way or the other.

Posted via CB10 on my BlackBerry Q10

[amazinglygraceless]

Nice letter but I would strike out every single reference to "love" because (A) we are talking about phones here and (B) it makes us sound like jaded schoolgirls. "Loyal", however, I like a lot

[STV0726]

I am so sick of this. I can't take this indecision and uncertainty...

If BlackBerry wants to be sold and ripped apart then toss in the towel and do it. Do it now. Just stab all of your loyal customers now so we can start moving on ASAP. I know personally I have a long road of adjustment ahead (the nice way of putting it) if I have to adopt another mobile platform.

If, however, BlackBerry wants to do the right thing, they should make a strategic partnership instead and take their heads out of the sand and realize they have to double down and double time it.

~STV on Z10STL100-3/10.1.0.2025 TMO US

[Poirots Progeny]

I am so sick of this. I can't take this indecision and uncertainty...

If BlackBerry wants to be sold and ripped apart then toss in the towel and do it. Do it now. Just stab all of your loyal customers now so we can start moving on ASAP. I know personally I have a long road of adjustment ahead (the nice way of putting it) if I have to adopt another mobile platform.

If, however, BlackBerry wants to do the right thing, they should make a strategic partnership instead and take their heads out of the sand and realize they have to double down and double time it.

~STV on Z10STL100-3/10.1.0.2025 TMO US

They've been for sale and/or looking for partners for over a year now.

No one wants to know.

Now they've got new consultants and will try again. I think Umi posted it best.

These are just mobiles, can it be that difficult to adjust? Really?

Though I agree with you that indecision and faffing around is not good for any business.

Posted via CB10 on my BlackBerry Q10

[ubizmo]

Though I agree with you that indecision and faffing around is not good for any business.

It's very bad, in fact. In conjunction with the silence from Heins since Monday's events, it's deadly. Consumers, developers, corporations, government agencies want assurances. The OP of this thread, in fact, wants assurances. There have been none. Why do you suppose that is? I think it's because nobody is in a position to give such assurances.

The continued existence of the BlackBerry brand of smartphones is only one way forward from where the company now is. It's not the only way, and nobody can say that it's the most likely way. Heins and others can publicly defend the quality of the products, but they can't at this point offer any assurances. If they could, they'd be out there doing it. They know that silence is deadly.

If and when they partner with somebody, or somebody buys them out with the intention of keeping the brand alive, I think it'll be trumpeted from the rooftops. The current silence tells us that nothing like that is in play at the moment.

[BBBHonest]

I genuinely thought readers would understand that I was being purposefully ironic with the soppy tone in parts of the 'letter'.

As for these being just phones, that is correct, but I also have just shoes, and just a laptop, etc. that are a part of my everyday life. They are important to me, as is my BlackBerry. I don't want to have to change because I prefer this OS to the others.

I think it is still too early to jump to conclusions though. Many people will look back at whatever happens and say it was obvious along, or that Heins and BlackBerry planned it this way. I won't buy that. People said the same thing about the Bush administration for years, and the fact was, the war, and Katrina, and the rest of it, was simply a disaster. I never discount the capacity for sheer incompetence, no matter how high up it might be.

BlackBerry wanted this to be a success. They are failing, and for needless reasons. I invested quite low because I saw a number of wide open plays for BlackBerry, despite picking up the blitz. Instead of throwing it to the open man, BlackBerry QB (or HQ) chose to throw the ball into the stands and then turn around and moon the spectators...my apologies to those not familiar with American football...

Posted via CB10

[Valker]

I don't think the Q10 and Z10 are so great - and I am really disappointed. My Bold has more features and more convenience. They should have kept the control keys, added a better camera, and 4G and the left everything else alone when making the Q10.

[BBBHonest]

Agree with JasW and CrackedBarry, above.

BlackBerry is a company. It made poor, poor decisions, in it's time and now it is suffering.

They are not beholden to people who read crackberry. Nor to consumers.

Where they have a contract, they must legally abide - as they must to their share holders! BlackBerry is in a bad place.

What happens next, well it was laid out rather well above. There are other permutations for outcomes, of course.

I think it not right to come out with such a "prosaic" worded plea-letter.

BlackBerry are to blame.

Don't apologise for their failings. There is no great conspiracy here. Happens to everyone in commerce that "drops the ball", so to speak.

Now they need help to get back in the game.

Or they will be sidelined.

Either way they do what they want and they always have.

Please, no more tears for a tech company that mismanaged itself. I'd imagine mike and Jim are laughing, they stepped out at the right time. They built something great and then squeezed it for all its worth and have a fantastic life because of it.

BlackBerry isn't dead. It's changing. That change may kill it. We'll see.

I personally hope for the best.

Posted via CB10 on my BlackBerry Q10

Why put quotation marks around 'prosaic'? Anyway...your post does nothing to address the issue discussed in the 'open letter', other than boringly comment on its intentionally ironic tone.

I am not the only person in the world who sees that the failure of the new phones has little to do with complex market fluctuations, or 'dropping the ball', unless by dropping the ball you mean failing to address the problems pointed out in the article.

I AM a shareholder, like many of the here. I am annoyed, not at BlackBerry's poor decisions in the past, but with BlackBerry for doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to engage with their target consumer, or to show some brains when it comes to the media. Those are not excuses for the company ; they are legitimate complaints.

Unlike perhaps most people, I don't see the purpose of spending time in these forums complaining and theorising without actually doing something about it. So, I thought I would put something forth and see if anyone were interested in moving these thriving thread discussions beyond the Crackberry website. Obviously, people are not interested. Fair enough, but I then I wonder why people waste their time showing frustration about what's going on.

There is tremendous power in actually DOING THINGS. Perhaps it is also ironic that those who accuse BlackBerry of doing nothing, and desperately want them to survive, aren't interested in doing anything themselves. This is the most centralised online body of BlackBerry 'supporters' in the world. It would be incredibly easy to organise ourselves and make a visible statement outside of these orange walls, and it would take very little individual effort.

The Israeli government was in the news only today for paying students to tweet, Facebook post/share, etc. positive things about Israel in the face of the negative reputation they have built for themselves. Such initiatives have tremendous power when done well, as they very well know.

If there are actually real BlackBerry supporters in here, that is something that can be done EASILY. It would also have the potential to put some public pressure on BlackBerry from a different direction.

It just seems a far better expenditure of energy than engaging in endless, frankly, cult behaviour with no real world objective.

Posted via CB10

[STV0726]

Why put quotation marks around 'prosaic'? Anyway...your post does nothing to address the issue discussed in the 'open letter', other than boringly comment on its intentionally ironic tone.

I am not the only person in the world who sees that the failure of the new phones has little to do with complex market fluctuations, or 'dropping the ball', unless by dropping the ball you mean failing to address the problems pointed out in the article.

I AM a shareholder, like many of the here. I am annoyed, not at BlackBerry's poor decisions in the past, but with BlackBerry for doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to engage with their target consumer, or to show some brains when it comes to the media. Those are not excuses for the company ; they are legitimate complaints.

Unlike perhaps most people, I don't see the purpose of spending time in these forums complaining and theorising without actually doing something about it. So, I thought I would put something forth and see if anyone were interested in moving these thriving thread discussions beyond the Crackberry website. Obviously, people are not interested. Fair enough, but I then I wonder why people waste their time showing frustration about what's going on.

There is tremendous power in actually DOING THINGS. Perhaps it is also ironic that those who accuse BlackBerry of doing nothing, and desperately want them to survive, aren't interested in doing anything themselves. This is the most centralised online body of BlackBerry 'supporters' in the world. It would be incredibly easy to organise ourselves and make a visible statement outside of these orange walls, and it would take very little individual effort.

The Israeli government was in the news only today for paying students to tweet, Facebook post/share, etc. positive things about Israel in the face of the negative reputation they have built for themselves. Such initiatives have tremendous power when done well, as they very well know.

If there are actually real BlackBerry supporters in here, that is something that can be done EASILY. It would also have the potential to put some public pressure on BlackBerry from a different direction.

It just seems a far better expenditure of energy than engaging in endless, frankly, cult behaviour with no real world objective.

Posted via CB10

I'm in.

~STV on Z10STL100-3/10.1.0.2025 TMO US

[fearmantis]

Please read the letter BB ., and long live BB!

BB Z10 Rocks!

[ranzabar]

Dear Thor,

How are you eh? I am fine, and so is my little sister McKenzie. My Dad is mad at you right now. He said he ignored Jim Cramer and bought lots of stock in your company. Now he says he can't afford to send me to Penn, and I have to get a loan to go to someplace called University of Phoenix. He's upset and has been yelling bad things about you into his Z10 phone.

My mommy said that when she went to the Apple Store here in Boca Raton, she didn't see any of the iPhones with the little Chicklet keys like the old BlackBerry she used to have when she was a New York leveraged-buyout banker back in the 90's. You should have seen her with the big hair, the shoulder pads and the bitchy attitude. Now she just drinks a lot and plays drunken Words With Friends with Alex Baldwin's housekeeper.

But she makes a good point. No one has those little square-screened phones except for you guys up there in Canada. And by the way, I know where all your senior citizens go in the winter. I see them all at Walmart here in South Florida buying up all the back bacon.

My music teacher has a Z10. He likes it but he says he can't find the Instagram pages where the high schools girls all post their pictures. I don't know why he needs to see them, I mean, he sees the girls all day in class right? But, the Principle still has an old 7250 that he says gave him Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. He's wants a Q10, but only if ever gets an Instragram App.

So the reason I'm writing to you today is to see if you might want to start over again and only make the phones with the Chicklet keypads. My mom, when she's not a the Vicadin clinic, says that her and her friends would go for that over the iPhone since she might break her nails less often.

Well, I have to go.

Your friend Doug.

[omekaac]

I don't want BlackBerry to go down and become non existence.
I was particularly disappointed with the pricing of the Z10 when it was lunched. In Nigeria, I had to buy mine for 110,000 Naira. That's almost $900.
At that time, the more logical thing to do was getting the OS into the hands of more people.
At present, the Z10, is being sold for 75,000 Naira. What is the use of bringing the price down. Why not sell it at this price from the beginning and get the device into the hands of more people. Bringing down the price is a sin itself. It tells of a bad product.
Tecno Phantom A with dual core is being sold for as low as 38,000 Naira. This is not to compare BlackBerry with Tecno. But it's about a company trying to get its products into hands of more people for them to have believe in its ability to deliver.
BlackBerry! So disappointing.

From my Z10 via CB.

[blueburk]

I have been a blackbery guy for over 10 years if going private is a way to tell every one to **** off then do so.
let the stock market sharks feed on someone else for a change. Just keep the blackberrys flowing because we are no 1 just not every one agrees oh well. So SAD FOR THEM ...