What should Kevin tell Thorsten Heins at Shareholder Meeting Jul 9?
When I purchased my Playbook a little over a year ago, I chose not to do it through various distribution channels, but directly from Blackberry. I specifically asked the sales guy, an employee of (then) RIM, is BB10 coming to Playbook? He answered, "absolutely".
I had a chance to sell my Playbook half a year ago, but I didn't, because the CEO of the company made a public promise that BB10 would be coming to Playbook, and, being a supporter of Blackberry products for nearly a decade, I didn't want to miss out on the user experience and added functionality. I trusted Heins' word, and it wasn't him alone - many Blackberry execs made public promises, even recently(!) that Playbook would get BB10.
I get a lot of use out of the Playbook now. I use it for lecture notes, for watching videos, web-surfing, gaming, powerpoints, pdf's, etc. When my laptop died on me suddenly I connected a bluetooth keyboard and mouse and used my Playbook for work-critical purposes for over two weeks as my primary computing device until my laptop was fixed.
But I and we were promised more. BB10 gives us the ability to run Skype, Whatsapp and the thousands of great new apps being developed for BB10 (and which we were PROMISED AGES AGO). The upgraded Android runtime would have given us access to a whole new universe of apps, while the vastly improved browser over this laggy, fidgety, unstable checkered-screen dinosaur would have carried us for years to come.
To rip the rug out from under Blackberry's most devoted supporters like this is a stupid move. We are an installed base of nearly 2.5 million! To have pushed this update would have solidified us as future customers. Thousands who now use their Playbooks as doorstops would have picked up their Playbooks again and would have been introduced to the new, updated user and performance experience. Why spend MILLIONS on inane superbowl commercials when simply delivering on your PROMISES would have sent hundreds of thousands of your loyal customers back into extolling your virtues to all their friends?!
To show the finger to the thousands of Playbook developers who made the platform USABLE at a time it was completely useless is a complete betrayal. I feel terrible for KalemSoft, Pdf Reader, Book reader, Battery Watch and the many other small developers I've been happy to support; developers that made products I use daily, and that catered product development to the needs of the community here on the CB Forums.
I truly feel I have lost confidence in the ability of this company to deliver on ANY promise it makes. I was planning on upgrading to a Q10, or the A10. I have been recommending to my friends to look at those devices, and have been forwarding them stories about Blackberry's successes in the UK and France. Several android fanboys were just nearly swayed by my efforts. I'm ashamed to say, ashamed(!) for fruit's sake, that one of my friends now owns a Q10 because of MY lobbying.
I will no longer promote BB and intend to abandon the platform and the company. Why bother, when iOS and Android keep their promises, when Firefox and Ubuntu and Tizen mobile platforms are on the horizon? I'm willing to bet THEIR CEOs won't treat truth as an afterthought, won't lie to our face, without any shame. After reading through crackberry forums, I know I am not alone. This company has disappointed many of us for the last time.
I am a nobody, and I realize this. We tens and hundreds of thousands who stood by blackberry through its darkest days, who supported its developers and bought its products on the hope of a turnaround, on the promise of ever better technology, superior hardware and groundbreaking software - we are nobodies, and we realize this. What makes it sad is that we still believe in the potential of the technology. (I can't believe it... Thorsten Heins has turned me into a rambling WebOS fan.)
But Kevin is a somebody. Kevin runs the biggest Blackberry fan site in the world, speaking to hundreds of thousands of Blackberry users and abusers. Kevin has invested half a decade of his life, and a substantial portion of his worth (and future earnings potential) into the fate of Blackberry. (The poor guy was drinking on the post-earnings CB conference call, and I don't blame him.) And Kevin is going to be there at the shareholder meeting July 9th, when Thorsten Heins and his pack of liars have no choice but to sit there and take it.
So, what should Kevin say at the shareholder meeting July 9th?
Kevin, you have always been an optimist. I remember last summer, how you pulled the community through to what we all thought would be the BB10 unveiling in the fall. It wasn't pretty, remember? BGR and many others were predicting Blackberry's death and dismemberment. When BB10 was not delivered you kept it together and sold us on Thornsten Heins keeping his word for a January launch. The only thing this company still had was that man's word, you told us, and we just lost it. End of the day, the Playbook is just a gadget for me. This is your job, your life.
Kevin, if you're reading this, IT'S TIME TO TAKE THE GLOVES OFF. Tell them straight to their face that they've alienated their best, most loyal customers. Tell them they're a bunch of liars who covered their *** for a few months to liquidate some old inventory instead of being honest with their customers. (I hate myself for being gullible enough to think this would work, but) Tell them they only way they can regain our trust is by DOING WHAT THEY SAID THEY WOULD! That means a substantial Playbook update - including BB10 in whatever crippled version they can make work, including the Android runtime, including the browser update, etc.
If Microsoft can be hammered by users to bring back the Start button, or bludgeoned by negative feedback to rework its entire Xbox DRM/used games/always online strategy, there is no reason that Blackberry, with $3 Billion in CASH, cannot make this BB10 to Playbook upgrade work.
It is possible, and only YOU can make it happen, Kevin. It's time for OUR community to fight back. Name and shame them into submission. Hold them to their own promises. Help keep me and tens if not hundreds of thousands of others in the Crackberry family. That's what I think you should do on this conference call.
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P.S. Scanning the forums today, I see there are not a few delusional souls still defending Blackberry for killing the Playbook upgrade, or those who think that some kind of update is still in store. Let me spell it out for you sorry, pathetic fools: 1) you're doormats, 2) unless Kevin waterboards Heins at the shareholder meeting, aside from meaningless security patches, THERE WILL BE NO PB UPDATE EVER AGAIN. No Android runtime update, no opening of the platform for us to tinker with (why should they do ANY of this when they just ripped the bandage off once and for all?!) I was once just like you, thinking that Blackberry cared about its products, about its customers, or that the NEW Blackberry cared, or that at the very least, BB's CEO would not go back on his own RECENT word. Hahaha.
UPDATE:
I realize most people who are coming to this thread are not going to have the time or desire to read through the growing number of pages (nearly 9 now) of comments. Here are links to four comments I've made since my original post that I think elaborate well on my original points and respond to criticism of the action I am suggesting. If you're interested, check em out:
http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...1/#post8738671
http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...ml#post8745708
http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...ml#post8747648
http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...ml#post8748737