[dolco]

i have a small take on this issue as well. look at the horsepower of the blackberry passport and the efficiency of the Blackberry10 Os. Not even a small marketing effort for the people out there to know what BB10 is all about. Well if you don't consumers out there know about your product, no one is really going to do that for you and hence, competitors will capitalise on that weakness and even make their way with mediocre handsets. Now the issue of native apps. i moved from android to windows phone 8.1 back and when windowsphone didn't have a native Instragram app yet.. i don't know how windowsphone users managed to pull the stunts and eventually got a native IG app even though it might have been slightly mediocre to what was being offered on the platforms. My point is that, if Blackberry 10 had all the major apps in their native form, it could have still be marketed as business phone and which could still take care of your app need whatever be the case. at least we are thankful for the android runtime which came to soften things up, but BB needs to get their act right. i fear enterprise users might even be looking at other powerful offerings from the competition because that is what they will be used to seeing and hearing.

Windows phone has only native applications. 6tag is native Instagram app.

[keithhackneysmullet]

I never understood the Chenleading that occurred on Cb as he has dismantled BlackBerry before our eyes. I think he is worse than Thorsten. At least Thor believed in the product.

Posted via CB10

[MrScotian]

Good lord. What a bunch of crybabies in here. No the magical high end all touch wouldn't have done much. Do you know how many high end all touch phones already exist in the market? Marketing isn't the answer to everything either. Remember the fire phone? Yeah it had plenty of marketing behind it and where is it now?

The future of blackberry hardware is 1 or 2 devices a year that are unique and differentiated from others. If that fits you stay around. If not move on.

Posted via CB10

I agree with the 1-2 handsets per year. I also agree that marketing won't solve everything but... we're not talking about a company that pumps money into marketing and we think that they should pump more. We're talking about a company that, seemingly deliberately, makes little effort to market it's products and we are suggesting that they should do some.

I have a Z30. The ONLY people who have seen my phone and known what it was are other Z30 owners. NO ONE else knew it by sight, NEITHER by name and MOST not even that BlackBerry makes an all touch device. This is a direct result of a lack of marketing and no consumer or business can buy a product that they do not know exists. This is the single greatest threat to BlackBerry right now, in my opinion. If someone is not a BlackBerry customer/user at the moment, there is no obvious marketing information out there to let one know that BlackBerry has solid MODERN products.

My overriding question for Chen above all others is why there is a seemingly consistant effort within BlackBerry to NOT market their handsets?

Posted via CB10

[kirson]

The future of blackberry hardware is 1 or 2 devices a year that are unique and differentiated from others. If that fits you stay around. If not move on.

This is clearly the party line. I suspect it is also total nonsense. The shifting hardware narrative is actually quite masterful. It started with going back to our roots with professionals and security. It moved on to our PKB legacy. It then migrated to 4 devices a year. And now we are thinking maybe 1 or 2 devices a year. This is the slow walk of shame of a master storyteller walking the market away from the brink. The basic facts have never changed - and Chen has been honest about those. He will exit the hardware business if he cannot make it profitable (or at least add more value to the company than it costs to keep). Does that really take 10 million devices a year? Who knows? But since we see no evidence of being able to satisfy that requirement, we need to continue to walk the walk of shame and refine the narrative in order to allow Blackberry to milk the remaining dollars of profit from BBOS and, more importantly, the BIS service fees. Without the dollars from the BIS service fees, there is, in my estimate, absolutely no chance the company can survive in its current form. And that's fine with Chen as well. The current form is just a legacy he stepped into. His goal - I believe - is to have a $500 million per year software business, a tiny footprint, massively reduced costs even from where we are today, and maybe the traditional 25% Net Income margins. If he can get business to grow 20% per year, he may be able to get the stock to trade for 40x - call it $5 billion. That's around $9 per share. And then, each year, as he grows 20%, the stock price keeps growing at 20%. In 3 or 4 years, Prem is back above water. But never mind that - a couple of years into being a pristine software business, Blackberry will get acquired for a 50% premium and once again, Chen will be a super hero. But I think the writing is on the wall - Blackberry hardware is going away. And BB10 is going to be replaced with the Blackberry Experience Product Suite.

[Calvin8181]

I think my next phone would be Turing phones if BlackBerry 10 is not here anymore.

Posted via CB10

[nt300]

His job was to come in and try to stop the bleeding and turn profit for share holders...doesn't matter if it's hardware or software the share holders don't care...I believe releasing high end phones that would not sell just because a few old Crack berry fans want them would have been death in months....i believe he is slowing turning company around for shareholders...be real folks no one can topple iPhone with the release of a single high end touch especially with poor ecosystem that was in place long before Chen....if the z10 or z30 with bb10 had been released as answer to iPhone instead of the storm
..things would be different cause they still had market share

And this attitude is the reason why the BBRY stock is hitting the low side once again.
A full touch high end phone would have surpassed the 2.5M BB10 phone sales per quarter needed to remain profitable.
John Chen clearly messed that up. No Marketing is to blame among many other issues.

Posted via CB10

[missing_K-W]

And this attitude is the reason why the BBRY stock is hitting the low side once again.
A full touch high end phone would have surpassed the 2.5M BB10 phone sales per quarter needed to remain profitable.
John Chen clearly messed that up. No Marketing is to blame among many other issues.

Posted via CB10

John Chen needs to explain himself about the lack of a premium all touch BB10 device.

This guy is absolutely frustrating

John"we are working on something"Chen

Sent via Passport!

[Smiley88]

For whats worth Chen doesn't give a sh*t about Developers, marketing, consumer and all the above. All he really care is to make the investors happy so he can take his $100 million when he completes the "turn around".

Chen has done NOTHING to the BlackBerry image. He sounded good when he started but now it is just BS.

Sell BB back to Mike and Jim so we can have our Pagers back.

[mad_mdx]

He's doing his job. And he sees that he can't make money on hardware so he's working on software.
An all touch high end phone is dumb. Why would anyone switch to BlackBerry again? You might switch from your z10 but no one is switching from an iPhone 6 unless they believed in the brand before.

In that regard, the passport had a good launch for a phone no one ever asked for. Not to mention it's the best device on the market right now, because there is nothing like it and the flexibility and ease of use it offers, as long as you understand you'll be using two hands to type (no texting and driving boohoo)

And finally he is releasing a slider. Basically it will appease you all touch nerds and also offer something that no other phone on the market can. It will sell more than any full touch would.

[nt300]

He can make money on Hardware but Mr. Chen has been very incompetent when it comes to BB10 Marketing. He blames BB10 for Poor sale but does not blame himself for releasing the wrong devices and crap marketing.
The problem with today's BlackBerry is John Chen. This company was suppose to have hit $500+ Million in software revenues. But thanks to the CEO's BS marketing and killing BB10 HW, it's going to take them a lot longer.
The way he treats BB10 HW is pathetic. No Enterprise is going to take this company serious with such blank vision.

I trusted and backed Mr. Chen's decisions in the past. And all he's done is let the BB10 and BlackBerry community 's down a sink hole.

Posted via CB10

[kirson]

He can make money on Hardware but Mr. Chen has been very incompetent when it comes to BB10 Marketing.

Well, we're into the world of speculation here, but I think you're only half right. I do believe there were lots of ways to make money on hardware. There was probably a winning strategy available at the low end, there was probably a winning strategy available at the high end, and I suspect there was (and still is) a winning strategy available by appealing to the legacy Blackberry users. But this is where I believe you're half wrong: Chen has very little interest in a successful hardware offering ON ITS OWN. His only interest is in sustaining a hardware offering in order to bolster his enterprise software offering. And as such, he is not at all incompetent when it comes to marketing - he is cold blooded and calculated and is intentionally and effectively running out the declining annuity provided by hardware sales and any related service revenues.

[undone]

Chen is only wrong if after all his efforts and he is gone from BB, he has failed. Until that time, he is executing 'the plan'. Whether we as consumers are included in that plan has yet to be clearly defined. What is clear is previous management(s) let the company get into a place were it no longer matters to consumers.

[KemKev]

I understand the Software push such as IoT and securing all devices and OS's. But he's done some major harm to BlackBerry and he continues to Ignore his Customers and those that are curious about the BB10 Platform that want something other than the likes of Android and iOS.

John Chen Major Mistakes ever since he came on board as CEO of BlackBerry: Not in order of importance. They are all important.

1) Garbage BB10 Hardware MARKETING. Then blames the platform for crap sales.
2) No High End Full Touch BB10 phone. Yes comes out with a 2011 Spec'ed Leap.
3) Destroying BB10 Development and screwing all BB10 Dev's. That was Foolish.
4) Signing up with Amazon for Android Apps. Yes the apps we no longer get that most want.
5) Releasing the most innovative Smartphone on the Planet with Zero Marketing. i.e.: Passport
6) Not releasing a 10" BB10 Tablet, the same tablet Government wanted, but were forced to go with iPads due to BBRY's negligence & incompetence
7) Ignoring the consumer market, which in turn forces the Enterprise to ignore BB10 Hardware. ( Enterprise are Consumers and Visa Versa, people talk)
8) A lot more, don't get me started.

Jeez! So BBRY wasted millions paying that id1ot Chen, huh?

[nt300]

Jeez! So BBRY wasted millions paying that id1ot Chen, huh?

[nt300]

I never understood the Chenleading that occurred on Cb as he has dismantled BlackBerry before our eyes. I think he is worse than Thorsten. At least Thor believed in the product.

Posted via CB10

I backed Chen in the beginning because his plan of attack made a lot of sense. To break up the company in 4 different sectors. Hardware/QNX/Enterprise/BBM.
Had we known he would royally screw over BB10's HW division, I am sure many of us would never have backed such a individual. The Passport and Classic make a lot of sense. I fully agree with the reasoning behind there release. But again no marketing at all, hence the low sales. John Chen knows BlackBerry has a image problem, and by not providing solid marketing behind these amazing phones, the sales will end up crap.

Another area he went wrong is not releasing a Z30 high end BB10 replacement. Now there is talk about a so called "Android" BBRY. Ya absolutely no thanks. JC is Clueless. If he does not execute this BB10 Slider with the proper marketing campaign, say bye bye to the Stock Price.

[anon(8163415)]

Good lord. What a bunch of crybabies in here. No the magical high end all touch wouldn't have done much. Do you know how many high end all touch phones already exist in the market? Marketing isn't the answer to everything either. Remember the fire phone? Yeah it had plenty of marketing behind it and where is it now?

The future of blackberry hardware is 1 or 2 devices a year that are unique and differentiated from others. If that fits you stay around. If not move on.

Posted via CB10

How do you know? The entire industry thinks otherwise. lol
If that is what you believe then you don't understand what the market wants. The 1st people that would most likely jump onto a new high end BB10 full touch would have been the Z10 owners. Then the Z30 and then the rest that either want full touch or a physical keyboard. Marketing plays a huge role in such an industry. Especially when you have people at BELL and Rogers telling people the Z30 and the Classic runs the old BB7 OS and./or BB10 is nothing more than a very minor update, then shoves iPhones in your face. Think about it, Marketing education would greatly help BB10 sales and put a stop to this iPhone paranoia of needing one. iPhones are plain garbage.

[Paisley Pirate]

A couple of very high end, very well made devices a year would be acceptable... a couple of repeats of 2011 spec devices ... not so much.

Chen chuffed it. The hardware is a piece of it. The software deal with Amazon (a competitor? with the Fire? - Really? Every time something doesn't work, or even when it does - they take it down off Amazon??? WT holy eff? ) Enterprise is looking sideways at BBRY and not wanting to touch it with a 10m stick. QNX is kinda holding it's own, but the auto industry is using it to run MSFT or Apple over the top... what? F'realzies.

Meanwhile, I still have my Z10 and people are still amazed by how cool it is and runs - and then when I mention it's 2-1/2 year old tech... they really want to know about a new BB10 phone... sadly, the new ones aren't any better... the hardware is languishing.

I again feel like the days of C= Amiga back in 90 and 91... when the tech wasn't advancing, but we kept being promised the next big thing... drbbles came through - but the core was rotten...

[lnichols]

I agree 100%! However, how do WE mobilize to help BlackBerry?

I like BB10 and I don't want to see if disappear. There's a lot of complaining but no campaigning (no, I'm not related to Jesse Jackson). If BlackBerry had a way that we could upload videos testimonials for viewing on their YouTube channel, I'd do it!

...would you?

The Z10 STL 100-3 on 10.3.1.2708 BlackBerry owners on AT&T Channel C0032C652

We don't. You can't mobilize behind garbage hardware and marketing. BlackBerry must do the heavy lifting an not expect the base to do it. They need to stop releasing devices with that God for sake S4 Plus SoC and must stop releasing different versions of the same Passport that has not sold. The base is not the problem, the problem is with the garbage BlackBerry throws over the wall and expects the base to push!

Posted via Z30

[zodmode247]

Who cares where he went wrong. Even if a all touch screen didn't come out, I got the passport

Posted via CB10

[anon(1852343)]

If a company offered me what they offered JC, I wouldnt think I ever went wrong. Its like winning the lottery. Succeed or fail doesnt matter I dont think he ever went wrong, he doesnt think so either

Blackberry Passport running 10.3.2.2339

[Notna Nosyel]

People here who lambast JC are the ones who are clueless. There's a reason why he's the one up there leading BlackBerry and you are here posting non sense on his management capability. Just because you bought a BlackBerry device or two doesn't mean you have a stake at the company. You bought it based on your needs. Now if it doesn't meet your expectations, time to move on.

Posted via CB10

[rahulquest]

My two cents on this... coming from about 15 years of helping small and large organizations turnaround, as a performance consultant.

The bottomline is - "there is always much more "stuff" than what meets the eye"...

When an iconic brand goes through a difficult time - its not something that happens overnight. Its very difficult to make an iconic brand fail purely due to the inherent momentum it carries (and it does take a series of consistent decision making, cultural, strategic, technological and execution mistakes - often running over few years). The rot runs so deep and wide that its "ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE" to clean it up "all at one go" and in "six or twelve months". One may stop the bleeding but getting the wheel moving at the earlier pace is a long way off.

When John Chen took up the BB story - I am sure that he would have known clearly what he's getting into (and he'd have taken it up consciously). No one sets himself / herself up for failure. So given his background - I would trust that John knows what he's taking up and has some direction in his mind to move ahead.

Once he's onboard, however, the sort of "messes" he would have seen, would be much more than what he would have initially been "shown". Typically the ratio in terms of number of messes Pre:Post is about 1:10 and in terms of seriousness or gravity magnitude is like 1:3. Considering all these factors - I would rate John's journey over the last couple of years as in the "right direction". He's done with the First Aid within the first few months of joining which stopped the bleeding. After that he started working on the glaring gaps that existed (of the many gaps; he chose those which have a direct bearing on revenue as a priority) - and got the hardware division organized, reoriented the organization to focus on the Enterprise (BES12), launched new products faster (Z3 / Leap / Passport) etc. Once they were more or less in motion - he moved onto acquisitions which would assure him 'brand new' future revenue streams (he just cannot keep hoping that BES and BB10 Hardware will give him the glory that BB had years ago). I feel that John's on the right track... the only niggling doubt I have is how long will the shareholder's patience last. Such turnarounds - which include soft as well as hard products - dont happen in 1 or 2 years. For all you might see in 2 years is "being discharged from the hospital". After that - running the marathon - and winning it or being one of the top three is a completely different ballgame - and that will take another 2 to 3 years, at the very least!

Its easier to see from outside that x, y and z items that John ignored - however when you are bleeding the doctor does not make you presentable and apply make up on the face - because the face is good... he attends to the foot and stops the bleeding (without giving a damn hoot about your face and how you look). There is only so much that anyone can do at a given time.

I have the patience to see this turnaround and am sure will. Not very soon though... not very soon.

And remember - what anyone can see from outside is "what is chosen to be shown outside" or "what gets accidentally revealed". What's happening within the organization is a completely different story altogether.

Cheers...

[skibnik]

Op the reason Blackberry has not released a hi spec all touch device is simply no one would buy it because it doesn't have Google Play services and or a rich enough app ecosystem. However Blackberry 10 devices are built with communication at the forefront and the most efficient way of communicating is of course the use of a physical keyboard, so Chen decided IMHO the best use of R&D dollars be spent on devices that are built to Blackberry's strengths rather than its weaknesses.

Funny enough when BB10 devices were first launched there was a very vocal community of users on these threads screaming for a new Torch slider type device to be released, and now that the shoe is on the other foot so to speak its the opposite lol. Statistically speaking I wonder what the ratio of all touch to pkb users is? Does anyone know?

[RubberChicken76]

It is absolutely pathetic that Chen who is in a better potion than Heins was is selling less BB10 devices. Absolutely pathetic.

That's completely ridiculous.

When Heins was in control, they had substantially more carrier support. They had a lot more money to do a big marketing push. They had (at least initially) a lot of press excitement for BlackBerry 10 and those devices, and a lot more coverage.

Then the Z10 sold far less than expected, resulting in a massive write-down of inventory. Many carriers dropped support. BlackBerry put itself up for sale and took on debt offerings.

That's what Chen inherited.

I get that you don't like him or his policies. But to say "he was in a better position than Heins" might be one of the silliest things I've read on CrackBerry this year. And believe me, that's saying something.

[anon9133023]

The entire problem can be summed up as:

BlackBerry refers to it's products as "devices" everywhere within the hardware and OS. They create no emotion, no connection, no passion for their phones. You win fans by appealing to their inner senses - complimenting them, telling them they are fine and so is their phone, because they are together.

I don't know why they do this - but this generic, spartan, slabby thought process indicates no love or desire for the phones, and so they should not expect it in return.