[Superfly_FR]

So ... we have another curve-like device, low priced, fair specs, aimed to enterprise ("fleet device"), packaged with security and the whole Android ecosystem ...
Probably another one we'll ear about ("shortly") between now and March 2017.
Mr Chen, give us some good SW metrics in September and ... OP re-reading anyone ?

[masterful]

decent pricing for the new phone.

Posted via CB10 on my BlackBerry Passport

[smart548]

Maybe it's the first and last time I'll say that but that price sounds about right ;-) It's 199$ (for the Idol4) + BB' apps and security = 299$! It was unthinkable to win the enterprise costumers back with the Priv, but I am confident BlackBerry can do that with this new phone! Great price, decent build quality(I'm talking about the Idol4), nice specs (even if-of course- that's not a gaming phone).. If BlackBerry can guarantee great support too, that DTEK50 can be a hit imo!

Posted via CB10

[farmwersteve]

Maybe it's the first and last time I'll say that but that price sounds about right ;-) It's 199$ (for the Idol4) + BB' apps and security = 299$! It was unthinkable to win the enterprise costumers back with the Priv, but I am confident BlackBerry can do that with this new phone! Great price, decent build quality(I'm talking about the Idol4), nice specs (even if-of course- that's not a gaming phone).. If BlackBerry can guarantee great support too, that DTEK50 can be a hit imo!

Posted via CB10

Agreed on price!
And this gives BlackBerry some wiggle room for large orders and for combining the phone with other services.

Good work BlackBerry!

Now, how about a high end keyboard, to try and pry this passport from my hands.

I have the priv, but still only use it via Hotspot from my PP

Have yet to put the sim in it and make a call.

I would love to have blend on the priv, so I could text and bbm from it back door

Posted via CB10

[sidhuk]

http://blogs.blackberry.com/2016/07/...t_form_factor/
Getting better on the right track. Will see.

Posted Via blackberry passport.

[spiller]

Just got it. What a cool idea!

Thanks for the heads up.

Posted via CB10

Picked this up too. Cool.

Posted via CB10

[Superfly_FR]

Morgan, thinking about you I will not do what you know I'd loooove to do right now.
@Others : if you've been here long enough you know what I mean and if you don't, well ... sorry !
Cheers
SF

[DREXcb]

BlackBerry Launches Its Second Android-Powered Phone - WSJ

The first five paragraphs spent shooting down the company...then oh yeah...we should say something about the title topic.
Frustrating.

Posted via CB10

[masterful]

Morgan, thinking about you I will not do what you know I'd loooove to do right now.
@Others : if you've been here long enough you know what I mean and if you don't, well ... sorry !
Cheers
SF

Sphs

Posted via my BlackBerry PRIV

[Superfly_FR]

color

[DREXcb]

Slope

Posted via CB10

[DREXcb]

:

Posted via CB10

[kadakn01]

Short interest as of July 15
53.7M shares
Down from
54.4M as of June 30th

Posted on my Priv

[masterful]

Short interest as of July 15
53.7M shares
Down from
54.4M as of June 30th

Posted on my Priv

Will we get a squeeze from this puppy? Would love to see that

Posted via CB10 on my BlackBerry Passport

[Corbu]

[bbjdog]

Thanks for sharing Corbu!

cheers!

Posted via my BlackBerry Passport

[Corbu]

Published on Jul 26, 2016
This July 26, 2016 webcast from our headquarters in Waterloo, Canada was done with Alex Thurber, senior vice president, Global Device sales at BlackBerry, David Kleidermacher, Chief Security Officer at BlackBerry, Scott Wenger, head of device marketing and design at BlackBerry, and hosted by Maribel Lopez, independent mobile analyst. In the webcast, they launch our newest secure Android phone, the DTEK50 by BlackBerry, with a sleek and ultra-thin design, brilliant 13 megapixel rear camera, and the potential for up to 2 TB of storage. This is just scratching the surface of the affordable phone’s specs, which costs $299 in the U.S. In the webcast, they take a deeper look into what makes the DTEK50 so special. It combines Android with the security of BlackBerry, which allows users and their apps to stay protected from malware and hackers.

[Corbu]

BlackBerry pitches entry-level phone as ?fleet device? - The Globe and Mail

BlackBerry’s latest phone started life as a price point: The company needed an entry-level phone – $299 (U.S.) – and that meant it needed a partner who could deliver value cheaply.

To get there, BlackBerry turned to China’s TCL Corp. to make its new device, the DTEK50, which is essentially a rebranded Alcatel Idol 4, first released in February, but with BlackBerry’s security software built right into its firmware.

TCL is the No. 6 Android handset maker, with about 13 million devices sold a quarter. BlackBerry’s last quarterly report indicated the company’s device sales had slipped even further to 500,000 phones.

Clearly, BlackBerry needed help reaching the mid-range $200-$400 Android market, where all the growth is happening.

“We know how to make an expensive phone,” Alex Thurber, vice-president of global device sales, said of the company’s first Android phone, Priv. Released in November, the premium device with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard hit $900 in Canada. “This is a fleet device.”

Mr. Thurber said he was brought to BlackBerry in April with one simple goal – to turn around the flailing handset unit. While he won’t share sales targets for how the DTEK50 will have to perform to help him achieve that goal, at this point any sales growth would be welcome.

The executive, who lives in Oregon, is new to hardware sales, having spent most of his recent career in the software-security world during turns at Watchguard, McAfee and Cicso.

It’s been a long, hard road for BlackBerry to get to this point, where it’s putting its name on a device made by another manufacturer. In 2011, the company sold, on average, about 13 million devices a quarter; in its 2016 fiscal year, it dipped below a million devices a quarter, finishing the year selling only 600,000 devices in its fourth quarter, and starting the first quarter of fiscal 2017 selling fewer than 500,000 devices.

It’s not the first time the company took an existing device and adapted it for its needs; the Z30 and Leap phones were based on reference designs. But the DTEK50 takes it to a new level. It has a 5.2-inch device (measured diagonally) running Android Marshmallow with a 14-megapixel main camera (and an eight-megapixel “selfie camera” on the screen side). It has better battery performance than the Idol it is based on – 17 hours of normal use compared to the Idol’s 15 – but in almost every other respect, its performance and specs are the same.

While BlackBerry calls this the most secure Android on the market, it is not as secure as its BB10 devices and doesn’t have the same certifications for government grade protections. The company says it has plans to pass those crucial tests in the next six to eight months.

The phone is named after the security software BlackBerry built for its Android phones, and lets users see what kinds of data and permissions apps have – such as Pokemon Go, which has access to your contacts, as well as your location – and alter them with just a few clicks to make their phones more secure.

Letting TCL build a critical device for BlackBerry may turn out to be a smart move; the cheaper premium devices of China’s smartphone makers have overtaken most of the better-known players: between Xiaomi, Huawei, Oppo, ZTE and TCL, China’s smartphone brands are shipping more than 100 million devices a quarter. And despite costing less than half of its previous Android phone, the $799 (U.S.) Priv, BlackBerry says it will still make money on the device.

There are at least two more BlackBerry Android devices planned for the fiscal year, the first of which is expected to have a physical QWERTY keyboard. Both will be priced in the mid-range market.

BlackBerry unveiled the DTEK50 in a low-key question-and-answer event live streamed from its Waterloo operations centre, with graphs of the BlackBerry network’s performance in the background. Chief executive officer John Chen wasn’t at the rollout, but has previously said that if the hardware unit doesn’t achieve profitability, it could be closed down as early as September, or as late as the end of the year.

Analysts continue to question whether the company should be making handsets at all. In its most recent quarterly update, sales of software passed hardware sales for the first time since the early days of the company, formerly known as Research In Motion Ltd.

“The bigger issue is not necessarily the price point for BlackBerry any more. The brand, the market share, has eroded significantly over the past years,” said Tuong Nguyen, a personal technology analyst with Gartner Research. He points to the array of smartphone competitors that can offer more devices at lower prices (the Chinese brands), or that feature greater integration with an ecosystem of complementary technologies (Samsung, Apple). Price and BlackBerry security are just two potential items on a buyer’s checklist of, say, 10 items and, according to Mr. Nguyen, BlackBerry’s competitors check off seven or eight on the list. “You’re coming from behind in the market and you’re offering one device.”

BlackBerry also doesn’t have a carrier partner at launch in the United States: The wireless radio is not compatible with Verizon’s network and Mr. Thurber warned reporters not to expect to find the DTEK50 on AT&T’s retail store shelves, either. In the United States, it will sell through retail channels like Amazon and Best Buy. In Canada, the big three wireless brands will carry it and there are 40 other distributors lined up worldwide.

The phone is available for preorder now, and will start shipping Aug. 8.

[RodgerLeblanc]

This bb10 app works great for bbry stocks, weather and battery. It shows all of that info inside the hub. Works great.
Check out Hubby in BlackBerry World! You can find it at http://appworld.blackberry.com/webst...ntent/59998023
Posted Via blackberry passport.

Hi sidhuk, I'm the developer of Hubby, thanks for the kind words. If you have any questions regarding the app, feel free to ask them in Hubby's thread : http://forums.crackberry.com/app-ann...r-hub-1080723/

Posted via CB10

[JonCBK]

Should be a decent phone with those Specs. Yes other phones are more powerful, but that isn't going to be bad. And that 3 gb of RAM is going to be on the high end at that price point. Hopefully enterprises concerned about security will pick this up in large numbers. And since users are getting pretty much stock android, with the nice additional BBRY software, and all the updates, the users will enjoy the phone and know how to use it.

[BanffMoose]

My concern is why aren't any of the US carriers carrying this. It is pretty much stock Android. They must have a pay to play price that is high enough where BlackBerry doesn't want to pay (even for Web only purchases) and/or they aren't seeing enough demand from corporate or government customers to warrant carrying the devices at all.

Posted via CB10

[W Hoa]

BlackBerry's Smartphone Sacrifice Is All About Security - Forbes

[masterful]

My concern is why aren't any of the US carriers carrying this. It is pretty much stock Android. They must have a pay to play price that is high enough where BlackBerry doesn't want to pay (even for Web only purchases) and/or they aren't seeing enough demand from corporate or government customers to warrant carrying the devices at all.

Posted via CB10

I believe BlackBerry have a small sale team was recently created. Will see how it goes.

Posted via my BlackBerry PRIV

[W Hoa]

From the iVerge....scary (in a good way)

The more I learned about the DTEK50, the more I understood BlackBerry's premise behind the phone. The hardware is spartan and basic because it's not what matters anymore. What people want is to have a sense of being taken care of, the notion of having someone looking out for their mobile security and wellbeing. Many might scoff at the very idea of trying to secure Android, but BlackBerry has given me more reason to trust that it is indeed doing something about this issue than any other Android OEM.

Hands-on with BlackBerry's touchscreen phone | The Verge

[Corbu]

From The Street, so... FWIW!
https://www.thestreet.com/story/1365...temporary.html
BlackBerry Rebound May Be More Than Just Temporary

Still, not too bad... for once!