[Anthony Roberts5]

All I am hearing is omg I am leaving blackberry....this must be a joke....blah blah blah...is this the only phone we are getting....

People clearly this is not a high end device its a mid to low end phone that blackberry needs to release for those people especially enterprises and customer who don't want to spend much on a phone or have a $0 to $50 contract phone. You have to cater to those people...we are not APPLE.

There is tons and I means tons of evidence that we will have a 16:9 1080 and/or 2k device (16:9)

The device simulator for screenshots and so on gives you the option to use one of these resolutions

1080x1920
1440x2560
1440x1440 (Being the Windermere/Passport)

Plus we have seen patent renewal for the visa/victoria.

Plus John Chen said we are going to lay out a roadmap of these devices for 2015 at MWC!!!!!!, Last time I checked a roadmap isn't one device LOL.

MWC is right around the corner all at this point is speculation.

We have to remember even though we want high end touchscreen or hybrid phones, they need to cater to mid range and low end as well especially in north america. Not everyone is willing to fork out 600 to 700 for a phone....but if they have a phone that's $300 or less brand new with that passport design metal frame 5inch and 720p display and so on it will be fine. People use your common sense CLEARLY this phone not an upgrade for current Z10/Z30 users.

Blackberry problem is not the devices but one thing

MARKETING!!!!!! That needs to be blackberry focus right now

No more Work wide crap...No more business only...no more this and that because the mass market does not care......we need exciting captivating trailer/teaser commercials to captivate the consumer. Let's be honest blackberry commercials are extremely and I mean extremely boring and they are easily forgotten

[FrankIAm]

All current BB devices but the passport are mid-range at max. Like I previously said, that stupid phone would be the 4th of devices with very little differences. It's not gonna make anyone "Leap" over.

Catering the low end market is good, but they seem to keep doing just that. Keep in mind the Z30 has been out for more than half a year longer than the Z3, and there's no sign of a replacement, while the Z3 already has an "upgrade" or "refresh" for 1st world markets. Lets also not forget that its currently a Z30 on a different casing. Ah, thinking about the fragmentation just pisses me off...

I'm still not losing hope, however. I'm holding on to MWC 2015, only a couple of weeks more.

[skibnik]

The Leap is the upgraded Z3 for the North American low to mid range consumer market. I'm more interested in the new slider that's in development with its hide away keyboard!

Loving my Passport!

[Anthony Roberts5]

The Leap is the upgraded Z3 for the North American low to mid range consumer market. I'm more interested in the new slider that's in development with its hide away keyboard!

Loving my Passport!

Same here I have ZERO and I mean ZERO interest in an all touch screen only device its boring and played out...the visa/victoria are the phones that I want. I want to stand apart from the crowd especially if the phone has that auto eject keyboard signal from the OS and touch sensitive keyboard no one else will have that!!!

[Anthony Roberts5]

All current BB devices but the passport are mid-range at max. Like I previously said, that stupid phone would be the 4th of devices with very little differences. It's not gonna make anyone "Leap" over.

Catering the low end market is good, but they seem to keep doing just that. Keep in mind the Z30 has been out for more than half a year longer than the Z3, and there's no sign of a replacement, while the Z3 already has an "upgrade" or "refresh" for 1st world markets. Lets also not forget that its currently a Z30 on a different casing. Ah, thinking about the fragmentation just pisses me off...

I'm still not losing hope, however. I'm holding on to MWC 2015, only a couple of weeks more.

Couple of weeks?!?!? Dude it starts Monday March 2nd 6 days away

[FrankIAm]

Couple of weeks?!?!? Dude it starts Monday March 2nd 6 days away

Dammit, February! You're right.. next Monday's the day, then.

[Anthony Roberts5]

Dammit, February! You're right.. next Monday
's the day, then.

LOL its all good yah the short month messed me up as well. I think the upgrade path for BB Z10 and Z30 users will be the visa victoria.....I remember John C saying he doesnt want to build a slab phablet high end....everyone is doing that...hence why the visa or victoria will come to life....that is what I am hoping...

[Fistmaster]

Anthony Robbins is right.

But I have my passport and I don't care about new devices. Maybe next year. Passport is a beast.

Posted via CB10

[GEO1ER]

I sure hope not!

Posted via CB10

[Dave Bourque]

All current BB devices but the passport are mid-range at max. Like I previously said, that stupid phone would be the 4th of devices with very little differences. It's not gonna make anyone "Leap" over.

Catering the low end market is good, but they seem to keep doing just that. Keep in mind the Z30 has been out for more than half a year longer than the Z3, and there's no sign of a replacement, while the Z3 already has an "upgrade" or "refresh" for 1st world markets. Lets also not forget that its currently a Z30 on a different casing. Ah, thinking about the fragmentation just pisses me off...

I'm still not losing hope, however. I'm holding on to MWC 2015, only a couple of weeks more.

My guess is the only reason they are building this Z20 is to replace the Z10 which isn't in production anymore. which they'll need for the midrange line. No other reasons to build this thing. What fragmentation are you talking about?

Posted via CB10

[eyesopen1111]

Anthony Robbins is right.

But I have my passport and I don't care about new devices. Maybe next year. Passport is a beast.

Posted via CB10

How sure are you that BlackBerry will launch new smartphones in 2016? To me, 2015 seems like a potential make it or break it year for BlackBerry. Chen's contrarian style of avoiding flagship all-touch devices for all of 2014 is having predictably disastrous effects, but what if 2015 is no better than 2014?

Chen is asking us to believe that in addition to stopping BlackBerry's sales decline, he will actually manage to boost unit sales by 172% year over year to end up with 10 million devices sold by the end of 2015. That's over a million extra BlackBerry devices sold per quarter for every quarter of this year (as compared to last years' unit sales results of 5.8 million).

Time will tell whether Chen can make this happen, but to even have a chance, he'll need BlackBerry all-touch devices and millions of them to be sold this year.

[CarlosTavares]

Same here I have ZERO and I mean ZERO interest in an all touch screen only device its boring and played out...the visa/victoria are the phones that I want. I want to stand apart from the crowd especially if the phone has that auto eject keyboard signal from the OS and touch sensitive keyboard no one else will have that!!!

Although that sounds incredibly innovative I find it hard to believe that a slider will sell better than a spec'ed out full touch. Just don't think the demand exists overall. Perhaps among the BlackBerry faithful but not overall.

Posted via CB10

[LuvULongTime]

People clearly this is not a high end device its a mid to low end phone that blackberry needs to release for those people especially enterprises and customer who don't want to spend much on a phone or have a $0 to $50 contract phone. You have to cater to those people...we are not APPLE.

I agree and have no problem with them releasing a phone like this. What worries me is how they price it from a consumer standpoint. Anything a penny over $199 off contract is too expensive. IMO, this phone as rumoured is even too expensive at $199. I can only imagine the kind of mocking BB will take from the tech media if they release a device with these specs for $299. Who is going to look at it, let alone buy it, especially in the USA?

[cbvinh]

This is what I imagine BlackBerry doing these days:

BlackBerry: Hey businesses, what do you want?
Businesses: We want something with a large screen, tablet-like size, but it really needs to be portable and cheap to deploy en masse to our employees. We're still counting on you for security.
BlackBerry: Here's the Rio/Leap. It's cheap and comes with our proven security... with subscription, of course.

While we, consumers, might want a high-end full touch, there's not much volume in it and we're not willing to pay a premium for it. We will pay a premium for keyboard BlackBerry's because BlackBerry is the only game in town for keyboards.

I'm not saying there won't be a high-end full touch, but Chen's first project as CEO has been to deliver what businesses want, and that's the Classic. The next useful thing might be the Rio/Leap.

[LuxuryTouringZone]

I guess it must be the name "Leap" coupled with the combination of its poo specs that people cannot stand about it.

[Originalloverman]

Agreed as well looking forward to the visa only reason I didn't get the passport.

Send from the amazing powers of the  Z30

[DrBoomBotz]

The device simulator for screenshots and so on gives you the option to use one of these resolutions

1080x1920
1440x2560
1440x1440 (Being the Windermere/Passport)

I had promised myself I would never buy another thing from Blackberry but if option #2 has the same ppi as the passport I might be tempted.

[ArcPlug]

This is what I imagine BlackBerry doing these days:

BlackBerry: Hey businesses, what do you want?
Businesses: We want something with a large screen, tablet-like size, but it really needs to be portable and cheap to deploy en masse to our employees. We're still counting on you for security.
BlackBerry: Here's the Rio/Leap. It's cheap and comes with our proven security... with subscription, of course.

While we, consumers, might want a high-end full touch, there's not much volume in it and we're not willing to pay a premium for it. We will pay a premium for keyboard BlackBerry's because BlackBerry is the only game in town for keyboards.

I'm not saying there won't be a high-end full touch, but Chen's first project as CEO has been to deliver what businesses want, and that's the Classic. The next useful thing might be the Rio/Leap.

I completely agree. Putting out a high end all touch at this point is almost pointless, IMO. They would have to sell it cheap for tiny profit margins to move a substantial amount because save for a few hundred thousand BlackBerry die hards, no one is paying top dollar for a BlackBerry these days. They need to first grow their market share and get enough people hooked on BB10 before they do that. And mid to low end is where they're going to do get that growth, mostly through enterprise.

[BB_Junky]

Thankfully the Passport is no temptation to me what so ever, the Classic is pretty sweet.... other than that, I guess my Z30 will remain the best product BBRY has put out for me in the foreseeable future. I hate gimmicks, the folding keyboard is just something else that can go wrong for fail.
What ever they come up with I hope it catches the eyes of new comers, not just the overly reactive, incredibly crazy crowd here already.

Posted via CB10

[50fingers]

All I am hearing is omg I am leaving blackberry....this must be a joke....blah blah blah...is this the only phone we are getting....

People clearly this is not a high end device its a mid to low end phone that blackberry needs to release for those people especially enterprises and customer who don't want to spend much on a phone or have a $0 to $50 contract phone. You have to cater to those people...we are not APPLE.

There is tons and I means tons of evidence that we will have a 16:9 1080 and/or 2k device (16:9)

The device simulator for screenshots and so on gives you the option to use one of these resolutions

1080x1920
1440x2560
1440x1440 (Being the Windermere/Passport)

Plus we have seen patent renewal for the visa/victoria.

Plus John Chen said we are going to lay out a roadmap of these devices for 2015 at MWC!!!!!!, Last time I checked a roadmap isn't one device LOL.

MWC is right around the corner all at this point is speculation.

We have to remember even though we want high end touchscreen or hybrid phones, they need to cater to mid range and low end as well especially in north america. Not everyone is willing to fork out 600 to 700 for a phone....but if they have a phone that's $300 or less brand new with that passport design metal frame 5inch and 720p display and so on it will be fine. People use your common sense CLEARLY this phone not an upgrade for current Z10/Z30 users.

Blackberry problem is not the devices but one thing

MARKETING!!!!!! That needs to be blackberry focus right now

No more Work wide crap...No more business only...no more this and that because the mass market does not care......we need exciting captivating trailer/teaser commercials to captivate the consumer. Let's be honest blackberry commercials are extremely and I mean extremely boring and they are easily forgotten

I cannot disagree with you. Surely after coming out with the awesome passport, and later classic, blackberry and john chen must have something under the sleeves.... Rio or Leap targeted for different market segment, and I reckon a new wow wow device will hit the market sometime middle of this year, or q3. Remember JC has indicated last year, they working on few innovative device, and with leaked data from patent office, I think something is going on... 'running in the background '....... wait for the announcement at wmc, jc has something to surprise us....

posted with authority via my amazing passport

[Heinz Katchup]

My guess is the only reason they are building this Z20 is to replace the Z10 which isn't in production anymore. which they'll need for the midrange line. No other reasons to build this thing. What fragmentation are you talking about?

Posted via CB10

I agree. The BB Leap is a Z10 refresh.

Posted with X10 via CB10

[MarsupilamiX]

My guess is the only reason they are building this Z20 is to replace the Z10 which isn't in production anymore. which they'll need for the midrange line. No other reasons to build this thing. What fragmentation are you talking about?

Posted via CB10

Low-end Dave. Hardware wise, in the 120$ regions.
The Z3 LTE/Z20/Z30 face-lift/Z10s/Leap will be a low end device.
If you think that a Z3 LTE is a midrange device, you probably didn't realise where the market stands right now.
Heck, my HTC One M8 is currently a midrange device (build quality being the exception), going by specs.

[MarsupilamiX]

How sure are you that BlackBerry will launch new smartphones in 2016? To me, 2015 seems like a potential make it or break it year for BlackBerry. Chen's contrarian style of avoiding flagship all-touch devices for all of 2014 is having predictably disastrous effects, but what if 2015 is no better than 2014?

Chen is asking us to believe that in addition to stopping BlackBerry's sales decline, he will actually manage to boost unit sales by 172% year over year to end up with 10 million devices sold by the end of 2015. That's over a million extra BlackBerry devices sold per quarter for every quarter of this year (as compared to last years' unit sales results of 5.8 million).

Time will tell whether Chen can make this happen, but to even have a chance, he'll need BlackBerry all-touch devices and millions of them to be sold this year.

Just like you, I saw the obvious flaw in BlackBerry�s focus on keyboard phones. There is no growth in that market. Actually, it's pretty much the only smartphone segment (apart from small screened phones) that sees a negative growth for years.

BlackBerry's complete inability/unwillingness (the reader may decide which one applies) to make a touch flagship since the BB10 launch (Z10 and Z30 were never flagship devices), paired with their decision to launch the only 5 inch smartphone for 600$ with a 720p display in 2013/14, obviously crippled their marketshare and positive outlook so immensely.

BlackBerry needs a 120$, a 350$ and a 600$ touch phone. Already yesterday.
Apart from BlackBerry's ridiculous decision to overprice all of their devices by some 100% compared to the competition, apart from their lack of apps, the only thing that really hurts them, is that their product portfolio plainly sucks right now.

The Passport is basically a phone for no one, the Classic was DOA before it was even conceived, and whatever the Z3/30 are, they certainly aren't selling well enough to keep BlackBerry afloat.

Now, the funny thing is, that every BlackBerry CEO(s) had a huge failure.
The co-CEOs were arrogant and ignored the iPhone (obviously the biggest reason for BlackBerry's current situation, as that set everything in motion).
T.Heins thought that a "for sale sign" is a good idea to foster trusting bonds between enterprises and consumers alike.
J.Chen apparently has nobody who told him that keyboard phones don't sell, and are a negative differentiator in 2014/15.

In the end, I completely agree with you.
If BlackBerry wants to stay in the business of selling phones, they need some good touchscreen phones. Yesterday already.

This is what I imagine BlackBerry doing these days:

BlackBerry: Hey businesses, what do you want?
Businesses: We want something with a large screen, tablet-like size, but it really needs to be portable and cheap to deploy en masse to our employees. We're still counting on you for security.
BlackBerry: Here's the Rio/Leap. It's cheap and comes with our proven security... with subscription, of course.

While we, consumers, might want a high-end full touch, there's not much volume in it and we're not willing to pay a premium for it. We will pay a premium for keyboard BlackBerry's because BlackBerry is the only game in town for keyboards.

I'm not saying there won't be a high-end full touch, but Chen's first project as CEO has been to deliver what businesses want, and that's the Classic. The next useful thing might be the Rio/Leap.

There is no usefulness in the Rio/Leap for consumers.
As we know, BlackBerry will overprice and underspec it.
Giving the market a 120$ device for 300$, without an ecosystem.

If the leap/rio/Z3/Z20 isn't somewhere between 150-170$ without contract, BlackBerry shouldn't even bother to launch that phone, as long as the internals are based on the Z3.

In case of you having missed it: Keyboard BlackBerries don't sell in any meaningful numbers. The market simply moved on. Businesses and consumers alike.
The most interesting statistic for bigger business is, that they are going with high-end Android/iOS products (all touch obviously).
Since neither Notes nor iPhone 6+ are cheap, it stands to reason that businesses seem to be willing to pay more, when they get a better quality product.

No matter how expensive the phones are, there is apparently one thing basically everyone knows, who isn't a BlackBerry supporter:
Keyboard phones have a marketshare of 0.1% of the overall market of new phones sold.

I completely agree. Putting out a high end all touch at this point is almost pointless, IMO. They would have to sell it cheap for tiny profit margins to move a substantial amount because save for a few hundred thousand BlackBerry die hards, no one is paying top dollar for a BlackBerry these days. They need to first grow their market share and get enough people hooked on BB10 before they do that. And mid to low end is where they're going to do get that growth, mostly through enterprise.

I personally disagree. If you aren't a cheap Chinese manufacturer, you need a flagship for image purposes and to have a benchmark, of what your phones can actually achieve.
The Note series is a perfect example for that.

The Enterprise is dominated by Apple and Android nowadays. The days of the business stronghold are long gone, and businesses also discovered BYOD and apps for them.
For non-governmental buyers and those who aren't in heavily regulated industries, a BlackBerry offers far less for more money, than basically every other phone out there.

BlackBerry will surely not grow in any meaningful way with a focus on keyboard phones and enterprises.
Those are merely the tools that keep BlackBerry more or less alive. It's not a strategy that can actually grow the user base. It's a strategy to retain the least of a dying breed.
Growth is in the low to mid-range, here I agree with you. However, these phones need to have a touchscreen and be price competitive.
Low/mid-range keyboard devices, would just accelerate BlackBerry's demise.

[birdman_38]

I predict we'll learn of an all touch Passport at MWC as the high end touchscreen. They should also announce one with a proper 4 row keyboard but that likely won't happen on the heels of the AT&T release.

That and/or BlackBerry will produce a Tizen touchscreen model.

[anon(8982767)]

Sorry I can't get the Rio in waiting for my z50