[RubberChicken76]

Hardware still makes up over half of BlackBerry's revenue so the only way they will get out of the hardware business totally is if they grow the software side of things to the point where the revenue earned from software outstrips hardware revenue.

They could just as easily say, "OK - we're cutting our OS and hardware teams" and getting out of hardware. it would suck for people who like hardware, thousands would lose their jobs, but BlackBerry, the QNX/BES/BBM company would remain with maybe 1000 people and much higher gross margins.

Wouldn't be the first time it's happened. Bought an IBM personal computer recently?

[Petertek]

No bs, a company won't exist if it doesn't make money. Capitalism

[eyesopen1111]

I would say the Classic is a 2015 phone. Yea, they "released" it in late December, but carriers didn't' start selling until 2015. So, Classic, Leap, and Slider would be 3 phones in a year. That seems to be about the most they've put out in a year anyway. If they are getting ready to get rid of handsets, they sure keep putting out a lot of them.

Sure, I�ll give you the Classic as a 2015 device, not that I think it will help 2015 revenue very much. We�ll wait and see if the Slider makes it out by year's end. Finally, I agree with Troy that the Leap is the answer to a question that no one (even enterprise) appears to be asking.

So, the real problem is that none of these three models will sell well. In fact, based on the device portfolio's merit, I�d anticipate terrible sales results. Add to that the fact that we are likely not the only ones who see that BlackBerry is on its way out of handsets, sales will be hurt by that development, too. Given all of this, I don�t see how BlackBerry handset sales, already hurting, can avoid falling off of a (somewhat low) cliff over the next several quarters.

[redlightblinking]

Sure, I’ll give you the Classic as a 2015 device, not that I think it will help 2015 revenue very much. We’ll wait and see if the Slider makes it out by year's end. Finally, I agree with Troy that the Leap is the answer to a question that no one (even enterprise) appears to be asking.

So, the real problem is that none of these three models will sell well.

Based on what? A guess? Chen said they were selling 2 Classics for every Passport. If there was a good slider...I'd buy it. The Leap answers the call for a new full touch, so it has a place.

In fact, based on the device portfolio's merit, I’d anticipate terrible sales results. Add to that the fact that we are likely not the only ones who see that BlackBerry is on its way out of handsets, sales will be hurt by that development, too. .

"Sales will be hurt by that development"....What does this mean? What development?

Given all of this, I don’t see how BlackBerry handset sales, already hurting, can avoid falling off of a (somewhat low) cliff over the next several quarters.

The same way it avoided it for the last 9 quarters.

[kirson]

The same way it avoided it for the last 9 quarters.

Excuse me? If the trend line for the last 9 quarters were to repeat, Blackberry would have negative revenues. Their revenues have been declining at a pretty good clip. I believe they have come down in all but one of the past 10 quarters. Give Chen credit - fixing your cost structure is really hard work. But just to be clear, fixing your revenue line is much much harder.

[redlightblinking]

Excuse me? If the trend line for the last 9 quarters were to repeat, Blackberry would have negative revenues. Their revenues have been declining at a pretty good clip. I believe they have come down in all but one of the past 10 quarters. Give Chen credit - fixing your cost structure is really hard work. But just to be clear, fixing your revenue line is much much harder.

I believe I was giving Chen credit.

[ubizmo]

At the very minimum, I think that BlackBerry will always have at least a couple of loss leader devices to provide to their ultra-secure customers as part of their overall BES portfolio.

Z30STA100-5/10.3.2.500

Maybe Leap and Classic.

[world traveler and former ceo]

Maybe Leap and Classic.

Well, for 2015 they have the flagship Passport, the Classic, the LEAP and before year end their high end all touch / pkb "Slider"... Don't know what people are expecting.. new phones every quarter?

Blackberry is far from closing their mobile phone business.. they are just being smarter managing products, cash, inventory and gaging demand... While they continue to ramp up other strategic areas of their portfolio....

Ceo Chen knows what he is doing!



Posted via CB10

[prplhze2000]

Keep in mind the Classic was released at the end of 2014.

Posted via CB10

[eyesopen1111]

Based on what? A guess? Chen said they were selling 2 Classics for every Passport. If there was a good slider...I'd buy it. The Leap answers the call for a new full touch, so it has a place.

"Sales will be hurt by that development"....What does this mean? What development?

The same way it avoided it for the last 9 quarters.

Let's look at some of BlackBerry's performance results taken from the last earnings report as reported by, for instance, Bloomberg:

"...[BlackBerry's] sales slid 32 percent to $660 million from a year earlier. Three years earlier, BlackBerry posted revenue of more than $5 billion." That is some YOY slide, right? Losing a third of your business's revenue in a single year? And with hardware accounting for 42% of revenue, a big part of that slide was due to the fact that BlackBerry only sold 1.6 million phones all quarter, which includes all the Passport and Classic models sold. After all, BlackBerry's software revenue was up 20%, but to only $67 million total and accounted for only 10% of total revenue, so software wasn�t the problem though it wasn�t much of a solution either. It really shows that BlackBerry would only be a shadow of its former self if left with only software revenue.

But the point with respect to hardware is that the phones aren�t selling well at all. Trust me, if they were, Chen would be singing it from the mountain top and these performance numbers would look much, much better. Is this really news to anyone who follows BlackBerry closely? Do you have some positive numbers on BlackBerry sales that no one has reported yet? Because I�ve looked and I haven�t found any positive news on 2015 device sales like we had when even the Z10 was launched.

Re the development you asked about: Given the choices Chen has made, many people figure that BlackBerry is on its way out of handsets, but that Chen wants to buy his software division more time to grow revenues, so he's staying in hardware even though he admits that hardware is still losing money. As more people agree that BlackBerry is exiting the hardware business sooner or later, BlackBerry hardware will be tougher to sell, right? That's why I predict an even darker near-term future for device sales performance, layoffs, and overall contraction.

[canadian nick]

I think it's smart to reduce the amount of phones released per year but I don't think they picked the right phones lately.

Mid range phones are needed for enterprise the leap and classic make sense. As much as I love my passport, BlackBerry needed a new top end all touch device, maybe Z10 and Z30 sizes but with matching specs. This would reduce cost while covering more customers. I will probably buy the slider also but every time I use my Z30 I think this thing is perfect.

If BlackBerry is going to go android I don't see it working by being the same as everyone else. They would need a dual boot for or something like that, business on one side android on the other.



Posted via CB10

[asherN]

Hardware still makes up over half of BlackBerry's revenue so the only way they will get out of the hardware business totally is if they grow the software side of things to the point where the revenue earned from software outstrips hardware revenue.

Loving my Passport!

Business 101. Revenue =/= profit. I make widgets. They cost me $1.50 to make. I sell them for $1.00 a piece. I sell 10 billion of them. I have revenues of $10 billion. Yet, I'm losing $5 billion a year.

[skibnik]

Business 101. Revenue =/= profit. I make widgets. They cost me $1.50 to make. I sell them for $1.00 a piece. I sell 10 billion of them. I have revenues of $10 billion. Yet, I'm losing $5 billion a year.

Business 101. You sell 10 billion wigets which results in revenue generated of $10 billion, then you have to subtract the cost of engineering those widgets, the labour cost of building those widgets, and of course transportation, marketing , r&d etc.
Look at Twitter they have generated hundreds of millions in revenue but have never made a profit. So revenue does not = profit.

Loving my Passport!

[lnichols]

Well, for 2015 they have the flagship Passport, the Classic, the LEAP and before year end their high end all touch / pkb "Slider"... Don't know what people are expecting.. new phones every quarter?

Blackberry is far from closing their mobile phone business.. they are just being smarter managing products, cash, inventory and gaging demand... While they continue to ramp up other strategic areas of their portfolio....

Ceo Chen knows what he is doing!



Posted via CB10

Passport and Classic launched in 2014. Classic was late 2014, but 2014. Chen even revised his offerings down from the MWC forecast of 4 for 2015, to two, the Leap and Slider, and the slider definitely making it out in 2015 seams sketchy at best based Chen's response and body language in the interview.

Posted via CB10 on Z30

[BlackberryFan777]

BB will stay in handsets as long as an end-to-end solution is needed for enterprise. Even if its a minor loss leader they'll stay in but you may see a reduction in models available. Its possible down the road you could see only a Classic derivative and a mid and high range Slider. With the Slider serving dual roles as for pkb/vkb users.

This would be the best move for BlackBerry. Frankly, other companies may be able to build a product superior to BES12, especially for iOS-only shops, but the barriers to entry for any company trying to compete on an end-to-end solution would be almost insurmountable. Once Chen stops making handsets, he gives up billions of dollars in strategic barrier that his predecessors built-up, he gives up a fan base that can be mobilized for sales, he gives up 40% or more of his revenue, and he gives up the potential to have a real mobile computing platform, which means the potential to win big and profit immensely.

Having said that, I'd say there's at least a 50-50 chance that he's going to drop hardware simply because it's outside his comfort zone to run a company with ambitions as great as BlackBerry under Mike L. or Thor. So far, John Chen at BlackBerry has been the least impressive CEO at any tech company I have ever seen. He'll do anything to shrink this company to profitability.

Posted via CB10

[donnation]

Business 101. You sell 10 billion wigets which results in revenue generated of $10 billion, then you have to subtract the cost of engineering those widgets, the labour cost of building those widgets, and of course transportation, marketing , r&d etc.
Look at Twitter they have generated hundreds of millions in revenue but have never made a profit. So revenue does not = profit.

Loving my Passport!

I believe that is exactly what he was saying.

[midnightdoom]

Personally, it was the "BlackBerry Experience" announcement that persuaded me that Chen intends to pull the plug on handsets before very long. At the moment, the BB10 UX is the only that differentiates BlackBerry to the non-BES user. When you make the move to sell BES and the BB10 UX on other platforms, it's a pretty clear signal that the home platform is on borrowed time.

I'm not totally disagreeing on this, as it is one possible sign, but then again it could be no sign at all as both Microsoft and Google make the majority of their apps available on iphone to cash in on app revenue..

For me, when I used to have iPhone, this was a good way to test out google apps without buying android, and probably helped persuade people on iphone to switch to android for the native experience of those first party features.

Z30 10.3.1.2708

[ljfong]

Chen isn't stupid, and neither are the other folks who work for BB. Their decisions seem stupid if you assume that hardware will be here forever, but they make a ton more sense if you assume that they won't.

Sounds about right. Chen seems to be doing all the right moves to eventually ditch the handset business. You can't be stupid as a turnaround artist and Chen had proved himself to be one.

Posted via CB10

[Bbnivende]

I would say the Classic is a 2015 phone. Yea, they "released" it in late December, but carriers didn't' start selling until 2015. So, Classic, Leap, and Slider would be 3 phones in a year. That seems to be about the most they've put out in a year anyway. If they are getting ready to get rid of handsets, they sure keep putting out a lot of them.

Not really, same internals different bodies. Same double typing issues.

Posted via CB10

[boody78]

Chen has done everything exactly as he said he would since he took over. Why do people keep assuming he's lying about this stuff. He's pretty much a straight shooting guy. If he says their going to keep making handsets then I have no reason not to believe him.

Posted via CB10

[boody78]

Not really, same internals different bodies. Same double typing issues.

Posted via CB10

Um none of those phones have the same internals and as far as I know the "double typing" issue only applies to physical keyboards which the leap does not have, and I doubt you have used the slider so how would you know?

Posted via CB10

[addseo1115]

Thanks for updating the useful forum. I have enjoyed with all of your news here. Thanks again.

[jmr1015]

Um none of those phones have the same internals and as far as I know the "double typing" issue only applies to physical keyboards which the leap does not have, and I doubt you have used the slider so how would you know?

Posted via CB10

The Leap, Classic, Z10, and Q10 all use the same CPU and GPU, among other components.

[Bbnivende]

Um none of those phones have the same internals and as far as I know the "double typing" issue only applies to physical keyboards which the leap does not have, and I doubt you have used the slider so how would you know?

Posted via CB10

There is a thread on double typing on the Classic.

Posted via CB10

[boody78]

The Leap, Classic, Z10, and Q10 all use the same CPU and GPU, among other components.

Maybe, but the leap is a touch screen phone, the classic has a physical keyboard, I don't think we know the specs of the slider, and the other 2 phones were not included in the post I quoted. Also the cpu and the gpu together would be 1 component as they are integrated on one chip.

Posted via CB10