[saintforlife]

It seems like Thorsten Heins had the perfect strategy on paper:

1. Release Z10 with BB10 - Stop the bleeding to other popular touch screen smartphones, show that BB can make a mainstream touch screen device, basically keep BB relevant
2. Release Q10 next - Knowing that hard core BB keyboard users will hang on longer, it made sense to release the Q10 after the Z10
3. Next launch the Q5 - After two high end devices, it was time to address the prepaid/lower end market in emerging economies in Asia with the lower speced Q5.
4. Next big launch - Z30/A10 - After about a year, it is time to show off a new phablet form factor device to round off the portfolio.

It was a great plan. What went wrong?

[GoJaysGo]

Very poor execution and marketing of said strategy.

[dwane32]

The whole plan is good, but way too late. BB10 should have launched instead of the Storm (aka iphone killer...not). They have steady lost market share since launch of the first attempt at a touch screen

Posted from my amazing Z10

[z10fido]

The problem was each step relied on the first step to work. And the first step didn't work. This is why we are now onto plan b.

Posted via CB10

[wildbanger]

Too late and too safe in running their business

Channel : C000FA856 | Z10STL100-3/10.2.0.1047

[z10fido]

I think they underestimated how bad public sentiment was /is towards bbry. A few more apps couldn't hurt. But apps would have came with sales. There is nothing really wrong with the devices.

Posted via CB10

[birdman_38]

The moment Thorsten Heins announced BlackBerry 10 would be available in the US 2 months later while standing on American soil.

[jeffydude05]

Blackberry went wrong when it thought it didn't need to counter the iPhone. Not evolving their plan, over confidence/arrogance. Once your brand is ruined, it takes a long time to build it back up. Consumers moved on and developers ignored them.

[njblackberry]

No product or brand differentiation. We all bought them early, but no one was able to answer "what's new"?

And "nothing being wrong" (picking up the phrase) isn't good enough. BBRY doesn't have first mover advantage.

[Craig Abernethy]

Because they told everyone BB7 would be amazing, Then it wasn't.. then everyone left BlackBerry.. Now everyone is stuck in "BlackBerry is S**t mode" and won't come back

Think how many people bought BB7 phones? So imagine if bb10 would of launched when BB7 did, In it's place

Posted via CB10

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

The question is where did they go right?

Hardware was not "special", and was over priced compared to other hardware release at the SAME time.
OS was not finished. Far from being feature rich, and failed to deliver a true BlackBerry experience. Never mind the poor initial battery life and reboots.
Platform was far from what was needed. Deal breaker for most consumers, much less being worth a premium on the hardware.

Thor kept having that "If you build it they will come" dream, and he believed it. BlackBerry didn't do anything that really made it seem like they were even serious about the launch here in the states. By the time devices where available the buzz had died down and people were already questioning the chances of a come back.

Plain and simple they were not ready to do the launch!

[fanisk]

I will speak for GREECE, here the carriers don't even include in their offer Z10 or Q10 !

[Pilchard]

I think it's as simple as too little, too late. They arrogantly ignored Steve Jobs and paid the price. Now the market has moved past them, the ship has sailed, all very sad.

[scribacco]

I think they underestimated how bad public sentiment was /is towards bbry. A few more apps couldn't hurt. But apps would have came with sales. There is nothing really wrong with the devices.

Posted via CB10

Nothing wrong for a 2011 device, all wrong for a 2013 one

[sentimentGX4]

BBRY made so many bad choices. The decision to use QNX as the base of BB10 and their roadmap for BB10 development are two foundations for their problem.

BB10 took too long to develop, the finished product had hardware requirements that were impractical for low end or even mid-tier devices, and the development costs appear high.



BB10 built on top of Android would have eliminated most of BBRY's current problems. Even an acquisition of WebOS could have significantly sped up and reduced issues in BB10 development. Or Linux? Why not use Linux as a foundation like Nokia, Samsung, Intel, and Canonical??

[BBnygel]

Perfect devices. Iphone is the worst telephony device way back. But when the apps backed it up. It became the strongest device ever. What the phone lacks the apps can fill.

Posted via CB10

[scribacco]

The question is where did they go right?

Hardware was not "special", and was over priced compared to other hardware release at the SAME time.
OS was not finished. Far from being feature rich, and failed to deliver a true BlackBerry experience. Never mind the poor initial battery life and reboots.
Platform was far from what was needed. Deal breaker for most consumers, much less being worth a premium on the hardware.

Thor kept having that "If you build it they will come" dream, and he believed it. BlackBerry didn't do anything that really made it seem like they were even serious about the launch here in the states. By the time devices where available the buzz had died down and people were already questioning the chances of a come back.

Plain and simple they were not ready to do the launch!

Overpriced or not would not made a difference..consumers that buy smartphones need app today not sometimes in the future

[Troy Tiscareno]

Blackberry went wrong when it thought it didn't need to counter the iPhone. Not evolving their plan, over confidence/arrogance. Once your brand is ruined, it takes a long time to build it back up. Consumers moved on and developers ignored them.

This is correct. The company was lost when the prior co-CEOs did virtually nothing for 3+ years when it was clear to everyone outside of Waterloo that the iPhone represented a sea change in the smartphone industry. By the time RIM finally acknowledged that they were on the wrong path, they were already on a rocketship hurtling towards the ground. IMO, blaming this on TH is a mistake. As someone else put it rather well, it's like being a captain dropped on the control deck of the Titanic an hour after it struck the iceberg. No amount of commands to the engine room were going to stop it from sinking; the damage was already done by the previous captain.

[Tre Lawrence]

What the phone lacks the apps can fill.

Bam.

I think the one thing that has made this transition especially tough is the absence of a competitive ecosystem.

[urbanfarmer]

By not kicking Basille and Lazaridis to the curb sooner than they did. The two of them hadn't done anything innovative for the previous 5 years and that's not good.

If the Z10 (or something like it) had hit the streets 2 years ago, we'd be having a whole different conversation today.

[njblackberry]

Perfect devices. Iphone is the worst telephony device way back. But when the apps backed it up. It became the strongest device ever. What the phone lacks the apps can fill.

Posted via CB10

If the iPhone is so terrible, can you explain why 31.7 million were sold in the last quarter? And BBRY - in their first full quarter - sold 2.7mm of their new "perfect devices"?

It can't just be apps.

[I will be back]

It's overpriced.
Z10 should be $400 when released and $300 by now
Q10 should be $500 when released and $400 by now

[Aljean Thein]

Lack of apps ( biggest problem )
When Z10 first released, a huge reboot problems occurred. Carrier reps warned their customers about it and lost tons of customers.
Blackberry Image
Pricing was ridiculous

[BB-04]

BBRY made so many bad choices. The decision to use QNX as the base of BB10 and their roadmap for BB10 development are two foundations for their problem.

BB10 took too long to develop, the finished product had hardware requirements that were impractical for low end or even mid-tier devices, and the development costs appear high.



BB10 built on top of Android would have eliminated most of BBRY's current problems. Even an acquisition of WebOS could have significantly sped up and reduced issues in BB10 development.

I agree with your road map assesment but, I think you are way off the mark with QNX. Android would have completely crippled the company as then they would loose the enterprise market.

How would using android lower hardware requirements? It would actually raise them as it takes quad core android phones to get the same performance apple and BB get out of duel core phones.

[BB-04]

I think what caused the slow BB10 adoption is the lack of apps. If they had the key apps I bet their market share would sky rocket.