[redchilli88]

From my observation from the early days, the Blackberry OS has always been fairly "sophisticated" to achieve best results. There were and are so many BB users that have not unlocked the potential of their unit whether BBOS or BB10. Also a very large number of BBOS users are unaware that a lot of functionality of their device(s) is cropped by their IT dept. Steve Jobs was a genius. He said most people are fairly simple and not that smart. Give them something simple. Press a button to text, and here you go. Press a button to email and here you go. Press a button to call and here you go. BB10 introduces the HUB and everyone goes ( whoa?? ) they want their email button etc... if you give a Blackberry device to a 10 year old and it will take them at least a week to work it out. Give them an iPhone and it will take them half hour. That is the difference.

so that is why everytime and everywhere in the World you go, when you go into a carrier retail shop, you have some young dumf@%$k, that does not know how to operate a Blackberry. You come in for a Blackberry and they steer you towards a iPhone because it is easy to show off.

I really believe that Blackberry should have small dedicated retail shops. [ say 6x6m2 ] - cheap to lease- [just like an Apple shop] and where you can buy/try/feel/touch/taste/accessorise all things blackberry. Serviced by dedicated Blackberry people. The Brand will be much better for it and create the demand from the bottom.

the carriers are totally hopeless. Steve Jobs was right again. Bypass the carriers, create the demand at the buyer level and the demand will travel up....

[RubberChicken76]

The IT decision makers need to be the ones that are educated, specifically about BES10 and BB10 and UDS for cross platform. At this point BB doesnt really care if companies pick other devices, as long as they are managed by BES10. That is where the real money for them is.

Out of curiosity, anyone know how the bes revenue is split by BlackBerry between "software" and "service"? For some reason, I thought the CALs for BES were "software", while the monthly SAF they got from older devices was "service"? The margins on both are likely much higher than the devices business, which probably has negative margins right now.

[KemKev]

Why can't blackberry msg everyone on bbos that they have new phones...

I'm in Toronto, the backbone of Blackberry and each and every day I'm still showing people that BlackBerry has new devices. I still get " oh, who would've thought"

It's so sad blackberrys marketing team. Seriously how much would it cost to have a couple hot girls drive around in a car shaped like a BlackBerry like Red Bull does. Best marketing campaign ever for about $300 a day

New BB10 ads on the television this week (I am in the GTA) showing off the HUB. Let's hope this is just the beginning.

[Paisley Pirate]

Unfortunately this does not apply to many industries, and financial is one of them. In fact I think the majority of people over 40 will have a hard time learning anything outside of their day to day work activities.

Why do I have this sneaking suspicion you are that little ***** boy that always wants to pair up with me in the networking lab because he's "too smart" to actually do the work and learn how, so he wants to use the 50 year old in the class (me, who, incidentally, is also running the highest score in the class) to do their work for them?) to make himself look good, and try to claim the credit, when the 45 year old teacher walks around and notices AND comments about how you are sitting on your ***?

Yeah. I see you punks all the time now that I am back in college. And you wonder why the job isn't handed to you on a silver platter.... sigh...

[blackburberry]

I'm pretty sure Mr. Chen and his team have identified the gaps in marketing. Hence the house cleaning. We will have to be patient when it comes to see what the makeover looks like. I can only imagine all the layers involved in turning this ship around.

[mjs416]

Scenario 1:
Hey everyone, we're issuing the new BlackBerry 10 devices. Never heard of them? No... they work nothing like your current BlackBerry devices. Oh ok... I guess we'll have to provide and pay for hours and hours of training.

Posted via CB10

LOL! Hours and hours of training? Where do your work? Gimme a break.

Posted via CB10

[qwerty4ever]

LOL! Hours and hours of training? Where do your work? Gimme a break.

Posted via CB10

BlackBerry OS 10 - So easy to use, your grandmother uses it daily.

Now that would be a great advertising tagline for a television spot featuring a 40-something "grandmother" impressing her grandchildren and theur friends. One of the friends says, "Wow! She's your grandmother? She's kewl." Mabe get Courtney Cox from Cougar Town to star in the advertisement. ROFLMAO

[masterful]

They have Sunlife in bbw for bb10. So I wonder

Posted via CB10

[Oglon3r]

blackberry could've made a killing on the z30 if it had advertised and leased it to companies other than verizon here in the US. But everyone knows that it is far too late to even mention that. Everyone that has seen my z30 is impressed with the quality and surprised it is a blackberry at all

[Omnitech]

BlackBerry OS 10 - So easy to use, your grandmother uses it daily.

Now that would be a great advertising tagline for a television spot featuring a 40-something "grandmother" impressing her grandchildren and theur friends. One of the friends says, "Wow! She's your grandmother? She's kewl." Mabe get Courtney Cox from Cougar Town to star in the advertisement. ROFLMAO

I know at least one grandmother who uses BB10. And she's a heck of a lot older than "40-something".

[qwerty4ever]

I know at least one grandmother who uses BB10. And she's a heck of a lot older than "40-something".

My point was BlackBerry users are not dinosaurs stuck in the tar pits.

Posted via the BlackBerry Q5 using CB10.

[Omnitech]

My point was BlackBerry users are not dinosaurs stuck in the tar pits.

Well not all of them, anyway.

[Brandon Orr]

This is really odd. SunLife is based out of Waterloo and is a very Canadian proud company. I doubt they would shift away from a local company like BlackBerry. Maybe with the new BES stuff they'll allow people to choose whatever they want.

- Developer of PinGuin

[currentodysseys]

Seriously, when directed to the professional users, claiming that the learning curve would be too much to handle... kind of void argument imo.

For the example given in this thread, any serious financial advisor, I think, should be minimum capable of understanding and using a bb10 device. Being willing and being able to, are two different things. There is somehow the opinion out there that people over 40s are not tech adaptation capable... well just for those of you that claim that, I can imagine that most of you making these comments, have not had to tangle with DOS, or use "framework" for you text editing tool, or have to deal with any pc during the 90s... that was a challenge for those that did not know... a bb10 device is not.

The only "problem" is that BB10 has now some (quite a few on the latest updates) extra features that improve productivity, that people may not know about and would go: "I did not know you could do that on a bbry"... that added value and how to unleash this extra power is where the stakes are at imo. this is what bbry is about, modularity and customisation. Show people what a bb10 can do and I promise you, especially at this point, as much as an iphone can be "simple" to use, the flexibility of the ios is not there, when compared to a bb10 device. This is at least how I experience it.

That last point being subjective, I still believe that to say people with challenging tasks in their work life, not being able to operate a bb10 is not something that I consider a fact, unless they are unwilling to try and in negation. If that is the case, they only need to be teased enough so that they put their attention on it for 10 minutes... that would be enough to drive them to experiment and discover BB10. I think this is all they need. After that, it would be a matter of choice (multi factor decision of "likes", ecosystems, enterprise server setups, costs, byod, preference, brand loyalty in some cases etc), but inability "to operate" I consider an unthinkable factor when it comes to pairing a user and a bb10 device, unless that person is challenged or totally unwilling, characteristics that I would not appreciate any of my employees having.

Just my view on it anyway.


"Hey that is my Q... 10... via CB10

[Tank1978]

They use q10's!!

From my Q10

[Playbook007]

People over 40 can and are well educated. In University I saw the first PC. We dealt with DOS, basic,fortran , C plus programming, all the way up to today's computers and devices. Just because kids know the Internet and how to Google answers to everything doesn't make them smarter. In fact, it makes them very dependent. Just like the people who need an app or they are done. Plus most people over 40 don't put all their dirty laundry on Facebook. The number one site for HR department research. To the kid that mocks us 40 plus.....read your FB Profile carefully and see if your really employable.....look who's the ***** now.....ps it's already archived. Enjoy your future!

Posted via CB10

[skxj]

From my observation from the early days, the Blackberry OS has always been fairly "sophisticated" to achieve best results. There were and are so many BB users that have not unlocked the potential of their unit whether BBOS or BB10. Also a very large number of BBOS users are unaware that a lot of functionality of their device(s) is cropped by their IT dept. Steve Jobs was a genius. He said most people are fairly simple and not that smart. Give them something simple. Press a button to text, and here you go. Press a button to email and here you go. Press a button to call and here you go. BB10 introduces the HUB and everyone goes ( whoa?? ) they want their email button etc... if you give a Blackberry device to a 10 year old and it will take them at least a week to work it out. Give them an iPhone and it will take them half hour. That is the difference.

so that is why everytime and everywhere in the World you go, when you go into a carrier retail shop, you have some young dumf@%$k, that does not know how to operate a Blackberry. You come in for a Blackberry and they steer you towards a iPhone because it is easy to show off.

I really believe that Blackberry should have small dedicated retail shops. [ say 6x6m2 ] - cheap to lease- [just like an Apple shop] and where you can buy/try/feel/touch/taste/accessorise all things blackberry. Serviced by dedicated Blackberry people. The Brand will be much better for it and create the demand from the bottom.

the carriers are totally hopeless. Steve Jobs was right again. Bypass the carriers, create the demand at the buyer level and the demand will travel up....

Well said ! Completely agree with your "sophisticated OS " observation, I was still finding interesting features on BBOS7 right until trading up for my Z10 and I'm excited that this trend continues as the OS10 matures.

[jakie55]

This old dog loves learning new tricks.... just the geek in me. It is NOT age dependent!

[trwallace]

it still amazes me what people think about blackberry. Obviously they dont do much reading. Even where i work which i will leave blank for now they use old style blackberry phones a few q10 for some of the big brass but for the most part some old school blackberry bolds and most of these people dont have a clue about bb10 or even the fact they make new phones. In fact most of them think blackberry is no longer in business. I find it shocking that no one has a clue what is going on The media has been bashing blackberry for so long everyone just figures they are done for. I did make a mention that blackberry now can run android apps and that the phone is available and in most cases priced well for a switch from the old bold legacy device. It just kills me to see how difficult it is to get people on board now they are all convinced blackberry is dead. Have i seen any advertising to the contrary on blackberry in the last 6 months. nope. I know its alot more groundwork with corporate clients but at least come out and say your still in business and no the open letter wont do it. You need some advertising something to let people know that things are okay. Because the trend says people will be switching from the old legacy device to something other then blackberry and that is not a good trend in any way shape or form. Come on blackberrry dont go down without a fight.