[Corbu]

From yesterday (Colin Gillis):
BlackBerry stock attractive in 2016: Analyst

For investors that can stomach the volatility, BlackBerry looks like an attractive company in 2016, according to Colin Gillis, senior technology analyst at BCG Partners.

"What this year has all been about is stopping the bleeding, getting the company back on stable footing and return to cash flow positive," Gillis said on CNBC's "Tech Bet."

In fiscal 2015, BlackBerry managed to preserve a cash base of $3 billion and turn cash flow positive on a declining revenue base. In his research note, Gillis wrote he expects to see a continued challenging revenue environment but says the company is well positioned to build on its software assets.

"You have to have the stomach for the volatility that's going to be associated with a company that's in transition,' Gillis told "Tech Bet."

BlackBerry chief executive, John Chen needs to hit some hefty targets in 2016, which includes rotating the company changing from a legacy model into an enterprise software model. Gillis told CNBC he likes the management team at BlackBerry.

Gillis has a "buy" rating on BlackBerry with a 29 percent upside to his price target from current levels.

[Corbu]

BlackBerry swings to small profit, revenue tumbles - BNN News

http://www.bnn.ca/Video/player.aspx?vid=579103

The latest chapter of BlackBerry Ltd.’s turnaround story under chief executive officer John Chen is another case of good news, bad news.

The Waterloo, Ont., technology company’s earnings update for the fourth quarter of its 2015 fiscal year showed revenue was well below analyst expectations: revenue fell to $660-million for the quarter, down 16 per cent from the previous quarter and down 32 per cent from the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2014.

BlackBerry shares were up about 4 per cent in premarket action with about two hours to go before the Nasdaq open.

Some analysts had expected sizable losses, partly on expectations that much of the sales for the new Classic handset wouldn’t be reported until the next quarter.

The company claims shipments of 1.3 million handsets for the quarter, well below the consensus 1.9 million figure.

BlackBerry did surprise with a profit of $28-million.

The analyst consensus was a $0.04 earnings per share loss, but the adjusted EPS ended up being a $0.04 gain (which takes into account the fair value of its debentures issued in fall 2013).

“The numbers are mixed,” Richard Tse from Cormark Securities said in an e-mail. “The positive take is that [their] financial house is better. The fact that they were able to turn a profit [despite weak handset sales] speaks to what they’ve done with the cost structure.”

The small operating profit comes mainly from more cost cutting. Expenses were down to $424-million, down 22 per cent from the third quarter’s $549-million.

It’s not clear how much more room there is to cut. Earlier this year, Mr. Chen had warned, “All the low hanging fruit of cutting expenses are pretty much done.” In conversation with Yahoo News at the International CES trade show he said: “You can’t cut yourself to glory.”

Sales fell in all four regions: in North America, even with the new product launches and focus on services, they were down 38 per cent from the previous quarter; Europe, Middle East Africa were down 23 per cent; Latin America was down 29 per cent and Asia Pacific was down 13.9 per cent. Hardware sales made up just 42 per cent of revenue, down from 46 per cent in the previous quarter.

Hardware sales could still pick up, Mr. Chen said. BlackBerry devices are now being offered by 160 carriers and 7,000 retail stores worldwide, which he called the best partner support for BlackBerry devices in years.

There was some good news on the software side, with sales of $67-million, an increase of 20 per cent from fourth-quarter 2014 but still just 10 per cent of revenue. That’s still below what some analysts were hoping for. Mr. Chen has suggested he hopes to earn $500-million in software sales in 2015.

Citi analyst Ehud Gelblum sent a note warning that the full-year 2015 software revenue of $231-million “fell short of the original $250-million goal, putting the F’16 target of $500-million likely in jeopardy.”

[ibpluto]

Just working through this morning's coverage. Sorry if its already been asked, but did they say anything about BES12 adoption?

During the call, Chen noted 2200 new BES wins. Including large outfits like Delta and the Government of Canada

Also noted much of the wins from competition. Also addressed some of the reports during their quiet period (which he could not reply to) about Channel checks showing slow adoption to be "odd"

CB10'n it....via da Z30

[Bilaal]

500 Software + 100 BBM perhaps?

Yup. That's it.

Posted via CB10

[DaSchwantz]

Sort of conflicting. Press release says BB10, Chen corrected in CC that they were Passports and Classics. Not a lot of Z3s or Z30s shipping - wonder how many are left in the channels.

Posted via CB10

I think Chen's comment reflects current mix, otherwise it doesn't add up.

Posted via CB10

[primusd]

During the call, Chen noted 2200 new BES wins. Including large outfits like Delta and the Government of Canada

Also noted much of the wins from competition. Also addressed some of the reports during their quiet period (which he could not reply to) about Channel checks showing slow adoption to be "odd"

Thanks! Assuming those are people signing up from EZ Pass. Still, the fact they didn't directly address EZ Pass > BES12 numbers makes me think they aren't terribly good...

[jxnb]

Here are a few things I noticed:
1. JC stayed pretty close to his script for the first few minutes, as he did for the last cc. In earlier conference calls, he tended to be a little looser and more free-wheeling. In this one, he warmed up well, though.
2. JC did a great job of repeatedly framing the quarterly earnings report around BBRY having gotten its financial house in order. He did this particularly effectively given that he clearly did not want to break out any details on BES10 vs. BES12, or Classic & Passport numbers. Although many of us obviously would like to know these breakouts, I completely understand and respect the fact that these parts of the business need some time to grow.
3. No sign of Simona. ;-)
4. This is not actually from the conference call, but here's another fine BBRY press release: BlackBerry Wins Major IT Award In Hong Kong - Press Releases

[sailpgd]

My problem is that the revenue figure was extremely low despite the fact that BlackBerry received a large one time payment from Rockstar. BB had 76 million positive cash-flow but if you removed one-time occurrences then would there not have been a significant loss? Please correct me if I am wrong.

[jake simmons3]

Here are a few things I noticed:
1. JC stayed pretty close to his script for the first few minutes, as he did for the last cc. In earlier conference calls, he tended to be a little looser and more free-wheeling. In this one, he warmed up well, though.
2. JC did a great job of repeatedly framing the quarterly earnings report around BBRY having gotten its financial house in order. He did this particularly effectively given that he clearly did not want to break out any details on BES10 vs. BES12, or Classic & Passport numbers. Although many of us obviously would like to know these breakouts, I completely understand and respect the fact that these parts of the business need some time to grow.
3. No sign of Simona. ;-)
4. This is not actually from the conference call, but here's another fine BBRY press release: BlackBerry Wins Major IT Award In Hong Kong - Press Releases

I really think its time for CHEN and BBRY to keep there cards really close to there chest so that there is no room for analysts and shorts to pick out small details and run with them

[bspence87]

My problem is that the revenue figure was extremely low despite the fact that BlackBerry received a large one time payment from Rockstar. BB had 76 million positive cash-flow but if you removed one-time occurrences then would there not have been a significant loss? Please correct me if I am wrong.

Sale of Rockstar doesn't count as earnings. It is the conversion of an asset to cash.

They could have lost value, depending on what the patents were valued at compared to what they got.

Posted via CB10

[Corbu]

I won't post all of them since everyone is basically saying the same thing, ie "Surprise profit + Revenues down"

WSJ:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/blackber...RDS=blackberry

BlackBerry Ltd. on Friday reported a surprise quarterly profit, but revenue fell well short of expectations—a sign the company’s cost-cutting efforts are paying off but that it has yet to see the full benefit of sales of new security software and smartphones.

The Canadian smartphone maker’s revenue fell to $660 million in the fiscal fourth quarter from $976 million a year earlier and came in below the $786 million analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting.

BlackBerry posted a net profit of $28 million, or 5 cents a share, reversing a big loss in the year-earlier period. Adjusted to exclude items, the company earned 4 cents a share, compared with a loss of 8 cents a year earlier. Analyst expected a loss of 4 cents a share in the latest period.

BlackBerry had also surprised with a return to operating profitability in its third quarter and has guided for sustained operating profits sometime in fiscal 2016.

BlackBerry on Friday signaled that its turnaround remains on course. The plan initially involved cost-cutting and outsourcing of device manufacturing and is then aimed at reigniting sales with the release of new mobile-security-software offerings and devices aimed primarily at government and corporate users.

”We now have a very good handle on our margins, and our product roadmaps have been well received,” Chief Executive John Chen said in a statement. “The second half of our turnaround focuses on stabilization of revenue with sustainable profitability and cash generation.”

The fourth-quarter revenue shortfall, however, suggests that BlackBerry is struggling to generate sales from its new mobile-device-management software, launched in November. The BES 12 software allows companies to manage BlackBerrys, Apple Inc.’s iPhones and Android-powered smartphones used by employees on a corporate network. BlackBerry is counting largely on sales of this software to reach its goal of $500 million in software revenue in fiscal 2016. But both Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs earlier this month suggested BlackBerry would miss that target based on the lukewarm reception to the technology from customers they surveyed.

BlackBerry said its fourth-quarter software revenue totaled $67 million, a 20% increase from the year-earlier period.

The company said it recognized hardware revenue on about 1.3 million devices in the latest quarter. BlackBerry is banking on new products like mobile-device-management software and its Passport and Classic smartphones to bolster revenue and cement Mr. Chen’s turnaround of the Waterloo, Ontario company.

[BACK-2-BLACK]

As per the Q&A:
.
there is a new initiative, they will be building applications for certain segments, (based on subscription model), to generate more revenues

[Corbu]

BBC:
Blackberry posts profit for fourth quarter - BBC News

Canadian mobile phone firm Blackberry has posted better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings. but its revenues showed a larger-than-expected drop.

It reported net profit of $28m (�18.8m), against a loss of $148m a year earlier.

It was the second quarter running the company had posted a surprise profit.

However, revenue slid to $660m from $793m, below analysts' expectations. For the year, Blackberry reported that its loss had narrowed to $304m.

"Our focus this past year was on getting our financial house in order while creating a multi-year growth strategy and investing in our product portfolio. We now have a very good handle on our margins and our product roadmaps have been well received,'' chief executive John Chen said in a statement.

"The second half of our turnaround focuses on stabilisation of revenue with sustainable profitability and cash generation."

The firm reported a positive cash flow of $76m, compared with a cash burn of $784m a year previously.

"Blackberry continues to do a good job controlling operating expenses and eliminating its cash burn during its business transition, but the total revenue was still a big miss and we still have concerns about the demand side of the equation," said Morningstar analyst Brian Colello.

If I may add a personal comment, I tend to agree with what this analyst is saying, for once...

[morganplus8]

My problem is that the revenue figure was extremely low despite the fact that BlackBerry received a large one time payment from Rockstar. BB had 76 million positive cash-flow but if you removed one-time occurrences then would there not have been a significant loss? Please correct me if I am wrong.

The Rockstar payment is an investment gain, nothing to do with revenues, sure it added to cash and equivalents but there again, cash and equivalents went up by over $ 200 MM so he clearly beat the **** out of efficiencies. He is a master at milking the system for efficiency and even though all the analysts said there was nothing left in that area, he showed them to be wrong again. The numbers are very encouraging as far as sustainability goes, we got everything we could want from this quarter accept clarity on BES12.

I liked all of the numbers but that revenue amount is so hard to get my head around, they need to go back to phones shipped again so we can compare all phone makers in the same light. Sometimes Chen is just too honest, he needs to take a marketing tip from Apple and push those numbers a bit, not as far as Apple, but at least match phones shipped with revenues. It is a nightmare to try and figure out what phones made it to the bottom line.

I use to think that BES12 was our savoir but now I see the main driver as cash, they could buy revenue and profits with that kind of money. A couple of Alibaba(s) and we are north of $ 100.00 a share. That is one pile of cash and clearly they don't need it. I think we finally have two drivers now, software is growing, handsets are growing and Chen has confirmed them both. This was a good quarter in as much as we shouldn't have expected a barn burner report. The next one will mean so much more as they have traction in software, BES12 will become a topic and handsets are starting to become important even at such low quantities.

As I mentioned earlier, their cash is something to behold, imagine if Air, Mobiletron or any of their competitors had $ 3.3 B in the bank, I would be out of this trade so fast. QNX is growing, nice asset, BES12 is a wild card but next quarter it could be the hero as their annualized growth in EMM could vault them to the top of the pile in that sector. Chen is at the very beginning of his growth story now, he has the cash and the proof that they don't need it to buy his growth going forward. We had a currency hit, good call there fellow CB member !!, it was just under 2% but it shouldn't be a factor in the next Q so that's good. We are selling new phones at low risk/margins which is good, they have a 5-year contract on this program and that one is ticking away as they resurface back into the handset market. His 5-year plan looks very good, it is slow, but on track here.

On a day when we could have expected to see negative press and a sub $ 9.00 stock, I'll take what I'm given, I might have to sell some call options while I wait for the 2016 Q1 report, big deal!

[Soumaila Somtore]

This is the part I like the most : Cash and investments balance of $3.27 billion at the end of the fiscal....highest balance in company historyl
Q4 Highlights
-- Normalized positive cash flow of $76 million in the quarter, reversing
normalized cash use of ($784) million in Q4 FY14
-- Cash and investments balance of $3.27 billion at the end of the fiscal
quarter, an increase of $608 million over Q4 FY14 and matching the
highest balance in company history
-- Non-GAAP earnings of $0.04 per share, reversing a loss per share of
($0.08) in Q4 FY14
-- Non-GAAP operating income of $2 million reversing an operating loss of
($156) million in Q4 FY14
-- Non-GAAP gross margin of 48.3% and GAAP gross margin of 48.2%, with a
third consecutive quarter of positive hardware gross margin
-- Software revenue of $67 million, a 20% increase over Q4 FY14
-- Announced a partnership with Google to support Android for Work
-- Launched the BlackBerry Classic in December, with support for the
Classic and the previously-released Passport by major carriers,
including Telus, Bell, Rogers, AT&T, Verizon, Vodafone and Orange
-- Completed the acquisition of Secusmart, a leader in high-security voice
and text encryption
-- After the quarter at Mobile World Congress, announced the full-touch
BlackBerry Leap and unveiled the upcoming BlackBerry device portfolio
-- Also at Mobile World Congress, announced the BlackBerry Experience Suite
software portfolio that brings BlackBerry's productivity, communication,
collaboration and security across all smartphone and tablets running
iOS(R), Android(TM), and Windows(R)
-- Other product announcements at Mobile World Congress included BES 12
Cloud, integration of WorkLife and SecuSUITE with Samsung KNOX, and
Vodafone Germany's rollout of Secusmart technology


BlackBerry Reports Non-GAAP Profitability and Positive Cash Flow for the Fiscal 2015 Fourth Quarter - MarketWatch

[Corbu]

Five key takeaways from the BlackBerry Ltd?s earnings report that surprised markets today | Financial Post

BlackBerry Ltd’s fiscal fourth quarter profit beat analysts’ estimates on Friday, demonstrating that its turnaround may be starting to pay off.

BlackBerry shares swung from gain to loss to gain in premarket trade reflecting mixed investor sentiment, dropping more than 3% and then swinging up more than 6%. By mid-morning they were trading up about 4% to US$9.70 on the Nasdaq and nearly 2% to $11.83 in Toronto.

Here are the key points from the results and conference call with chief executive officer John Chen and chief financial officer James Yersh:

1. Revenue troubles

The Waterloo, Ont.-based technology company’s revenue fell 32% from a year earlier to $660 million in the final three months of the fiscal year, missing analyst estimates of $786 million. It’s BlackBerry’s lowest three-month sales figure since 2007, according to the Financial Times.

“BlackBerry continues to do a good job controlling operating expenses and eliminating its cash burn during its business transition, but the total revenue was still a big miss and we still have concerns about the demand side of the equation,” said Morningstar analyst Brian Colello.

2. Newer generation smartphone sales

BlackBerry recognized revenue on 1.3 million BlackBerry devices sales, while 1.6 million were sold. The number is unchanged from a year ago, yet BlackBerry reported 3.4 million phone sales at the time.

“We don’t have any old device inventory,” Mr. Chen said.

The company recently unveiled several new smartphone models, including both low-cost and high-end options. Since September, BlackBerry has launched the Leap, the Passport and the Classic and plans more this year.

Mr. Chen said BlackBerry is “seeing traction with new handsets” and expects the average sales price to trend higher. CFO James Yersh attributed this to the “increased scarcity of legacy devices in the channel.” In the fourth quarter the 1.6 million BlackBerry smartphones sold were at an average price of US$211, compared with US$180 in the previous quarter.

Mr. Chen also noted that more than 90% of products shipped in the quarter were newer generation, higher-margin devices (Passport and Classic).

3. Winning back carrier support

On Friday’s earnings call Mr. Chen appeared optimistic on future growth in BlackBerry’s hardware sales.

He emphasized that the company now has the “best carrier and partner support in years,” stating that BlackBerry devices are currently offered by 160 carriers at 7,000 retail outlets globally. Early sales reports from Verizon and AT&T are “positive” after the carriers began selling the BlackBerry Passport and Classic in recent weeks, Mr. Chen said.

4. Software business progress

With BlackBerry focusing more of its efforts on providing services and software for companies, investors should be pleased to hear that software revenue rose 20% on an annual basis to $67 million. Mr. Chen noted that this business also grew 24% on a quarterly basis, while Mr. Yersh noted that software represented 10% of revenue.

Mr. Chen said BlackBerry is seeing positive traction in its enterprise business “as many good things are happening.”

This includes 2,200 customer “wins” in the quarter such as Delta Air Lines, the Government of Canada, and the Australia Transportation Safety Bureau, along with notable clients in the financial sector.

However, Mr. Chen also noted that BBM is slightly behind in terms of monetization.

5. Other financial positives

The company boosted its cash reserves to $608 million in the quarter, bringing its total to $3.27 billion – the highest in the company’s history. As a result, Mr. Chen said “our financial viability is no longer in question.”

BlackBerry posted profit of 4� per share, a positive surprise of 8� given the average analyst estimate of a 4� loss. That marks its second straight profit surprise.

[Superfly_FR]

Hey guys.
I.am.dancing.

We've got a wizard CEO And a fantastic crew.
An you, gang, gave me all I needed to know within minutes on my fabulous passport as - for the first time since that thread started - I couldn't follow up real time. THANKS !
Double dance, since my business appointment should bear fruit !

Cheers, it's almost beer thirsty and my first one will be 'with' you !

Posted via CB10

[randall2580]

Volume is HUGE so far today, very interesting to watch it play out.

I always enjoy listening to Chen on his conference call, he says a lot if you care to listen. Sounds like his biggest challenge right now if convincing customers he's righted the financial ship and that they are positive moving forward, in fact he said those very words at the summation at the end.

Also heard that's also his biggest internal challenge as well, as he admitted that morale isn't where he'd like it to be, but by righting the financial ship, folks who aren't afraid they might be "next" work to better moral.

I think as others have said the best thing that came out today is that they are profitable at this level of revenue. That's really huge as many of the analysts were right about revenues being down, phone sale levels etc, but as Morgan rightly pointed out Mr Wry Smile got them again when they missed what it cost to run the company.

For those wanting the company to spend money on marketing phones to consumers, I think you will be waiting some more on that score. Interesting discussion about R&D and cutting that spending in the conference call. Doesn't sound like Chen feels he has a lot of discretionary funds still, at least that's what I got from that.

Morgan - a question if I may. Really enjoyed your summation. Of the 3.25 million, they are still going to have to keep a ring around 1.2 of that as the stock price hovers at the $10 level, leaving bond holders little incentive to redeem no? I realize that's a long way off, but it's the one thing that holds some of that money back for now no? That still leaves 2 billion cash for more Secusmarts or Morvitos as we go on I think thats important to note too, but the debt is still there as far as look at the whole cash pile.

[Kris Erickson]

OT Alert: Halo up .75$. Yes sorry to put an OT on a good day IMO, too bad I sunk all my disposable cash into BB @9.75. I knew HALO would bounce back up, told a friend of mine that yesterday he didn't believe me.. his loss.

[spiller]

We had a currency hit, good call there fellow CB member !!, it was just under 2% but it shouldn't be a factor in the next Q so that's good.

You had a better call - you nailed that 2%!

[Corbu]

Pretty good summary plus a word on employee morale coming from the Guelph Mercury! Let's hear it for the good folks of Waterloo!
Improved financial results key to employee morale, says Chen

WATERLOO — At the halfway point in his turnaround plan BlackBerry chief executive officer John Chen says the best way to keep employees motivated is to improve the smartphone maker's financial performance.

"The company needs to be financially stable. I don't know of any way to improve the morale of a company's people if the company is not doing well," Chen said Friday in conference call with analysts to discuss BlackBerry's fourth quarter financial results.

"All of the people here are professionals," he said. "If the company does not do well they know some negative thing is going to happen down the road. The No. 1 thing we want to do is stabilize the company's financials, and people understand that."

BlackBerry now employs about 2,700 people in Waterloo, down from a peak in 2011 of 11,000. Worldwide, the payroll is about 7,000. The company is hiring in small numbers and trying to recruit university co-op students.

The smartphone maker reported a net profit of $28 million US, or five cents a share for the quarter ended on Feb. 28. That compares with a loss of $148 million US, or 28 cents a share, for the same period a year earlier.

Revenue fell to $660 million US from $793 million US.

"I think as we do better financially and having a good road map, which we do and we are delivering these products, my experience is the morale will gradually turn positive," Chen said.

"Obviously, it is easier for me to say it because I see it through a different lens, but I would say the morale of the company today is a lot better than a year ago," he said. "It probably still needs to be a lot better."

Chen said the company will focus on three areas in fiscal 2016: sustainable profitability, free cash flow and stabilizing revenue.

"We are a little ahead of our turnaround milestone, so I like to remind everybody that we are only halfway through," he said. "Our focus now is to stabilize revenue, and I am mindful that transitions like this are never easy and never quite smooth."

BlackBerry put out four new phones in the past year, including the Classic and Passport models, launched the BlackBerry BES 12 enterprise software, and started the project to monetize the BBM messaging service.

"Today, the Classic and Passport are carried by over 160 carriers and over 7,000 retail stores in 86 countries, and this number will continue to up," Chen said. "This is the best carrier-retail support worldwide we have seen in a number of years."

Chen said the company hopes to make money on BMM through ads, BBM money and virtual goods. He said the company is generating revenue from more than 20 million ads requests per month.

"We have just introduced the virtual goods, and premium subscription for the vanity pins are now generating monthly-subscription fees," he said.

During 2014, the company launched two new BBM services for enterprise customers — BBM Protect and BBM Meetings

"We are starting to see pickup and strong interest there," Chen said. "In the quarter, we signed a deal with the Inland Revenue Service of the United States for BBM Protect."

Another 400 companies are trying BBM Meetings, he said.

[primusd]

I think as others have said the best thing that came out today is that they are profitable at this level of revenue.

Sorry, I may be misreading earlier comments and analysis, but are they? Without the one-time occurrences, including tax-related, is net profit still positive?

[bspence87]

I'd like to weigh in, if I may, with my thoughts.

First off - revenues are disappointing! Especially the lack of enthusiasm in Chen's guidance. He diverted questions about BES12. Slightly discouraging, but...

Going forward, we know how little they have to spend on operations to make money, so any uptick in revenue should be largely profit.

There was SOME uptick in software revenue and we have to believe that a large portion of the uptick was from avenues that kicked in mid-quarter. I don't see them losing customers in this field, as they are an undisputed leader in almost every category of software. So, if we assume that all of the (new) avenues were only open for half of the quarter, we got a $20mil increase in half a quarter, would be $40mil over an entire quarter. This is without any further growth... Small, but a start

Hardware has to be reaching it's bottom. As Chen noted, they're mostly only shipping Passports and Classics. Both are well received and we've just started to see the Classic's revenue. Any pre-Passport phones that they are selling, are at nearly break-even anyways. Passport is seemingly not slowing down, and we're getting into the prime of Classic sales. We'll have a month of Leap sales. All-in-all, I could see an increase in hardware sales.

One other disappointment today was the lack of big announcements. Don't get me wrong, getting into China is a good step, but Chen has spoiled us in all of his previous earnings calls!!

Right now, I'm definitely more confident that our investments are safe, but less sure about how big they can grow. Really need to see some increased revenue (and revenue streams) over the next few quarters!!!

Posted via CB10

[georg4BB]

Good to see that Chen is still confident regarding future handset sales!

Yesterday I have received a Passport and a Classic as loan devices for testing purposes.
I'm starting to fall in love for the Passport.
But to be honest, I would prefere a new full touchscreen device with the quality of the Passport, and I know, I'm not alone - we read it over and over again, that folks want to upgrade their Z10/Z30s.

When Chen can profitable sell the Passport in relativly small quantities, he should be able to produce and sell a high end alltouch device successfully and with low risk, to satisfy the demand in the userbase. There is no reason, not to try it, Imho. Maybe a sister device to the slider (same specs, but without physical keyboard) would be a good idea, because then both devices share components and design which should reduce costs.

Sorry for the OT archair stuff.

[BACK-2-BLACK]

.......I use to think that BES12 was our savoir ......., BES12 is a wild card but next quarter it could be the hero as their annualized growth in EMM could vault them to the top of the pile in that sector. Chen is at the very beginning of his growth story now....

why do you say this? Concerning to read this...

Is it because it is too early in the growth phase and you feel BES12 hasn't gained as much traction at this point?

He did mention in the Q&A, "give me two more quarters...mid summer" to start realizing the BES12 effects. I believe we always heard that from him and mentioned here in the forums as well.

Did you pick up on signals that it might be slower? or not as effective?