[webosdropout]

First of all, as a disclaimer I would like to state I am no expert at anything and likely I am off in left field. Also, I happen to think the Z10 & Q10 are fine devices and I wish I had one (using Iphones at work).

But cruising and lurking around these boards and with the benefit of being a bit older I can see a pattern developing which other fine companies fell victims to.

For example, many posts focus on the Z10 Vs (enter the other brand here) and specs are compared ad nauseam. As if the future of Blackberry depends on having a superior product. Nothing is further from the truth.

Remember Dr DOS & Novell DOS? Far superior than MS DOS... yet who won?

How about WordStar, AMI Pro, Word Perfect? In their heyday much better than Office. Same could be said for Lotus 1-2-3, Quattro Pro etc...

Now here�s a challenge... GeoWorks was by far a better windowing system (multi-tasking) than Windows 3.0 & 3.1. Where are they now?

The same could be said on the hardware side, but you get the drift...

The point? Superior hardware & software do not win the day... Marketing does.

Look at Apple, they make fine devices. Not necessarily the best devices across the board but consistently good. However, they really pour on the marketing to make users believe their devices are worth 50% more than anyone else and should be upgraded once a year. That�s a gross over exaggeration but you get the drift.

Blackberry has shown it has no marketing wherewithal compared to the big boys. Besides they are a �one trick pony�. Ie. Cell phones only (I know other services as well but that�s going down). HTC apparently make fine phones as well but they are not doing well either.

So, my take on it is if Blackberry doesn't do something drastic it will be a relatively short ride into oblivion.

One solution might be to partner with somebody who could make them into a full turnkey provider. I happen to think Lenovo would be a good fit. I read an article recently where they were voted the #2 most innovative tech hardware companies. #1? Apple.

We have a Lenovo laptop at home, I am buying a Yoga 11S for my wife to replace her Playbook and its really good stuff. They are Chinese and possibly have oodles of cash reserve and a willing Asian and International market.

Without a larger partner who�s willing to spend some serious marketing BB will be fondly remembered along with Palm.

Maybe as an armchair quarterback I am oversimplifying the problem and solution. But frankly, from where I sit it doesn't look good right now...

[meltbox360]

I think you are 100% correct. Either marketing works or well it doesn't matter what they make, it won't sell.

EDIT: Here is another funny thing. Which companies have the most space devoted to them at my local BestBuy? Samsung followed by Apple. Guess what? Samsung sells more than Apple who sells more than all the other players. BlackBerry has a bunch of models and is in fact the only company with a working display rather than a fake but display mode sucks.

[phuoc]

FWIW, I third your notion.

[Stephen Severino]

I think business sales are more important than marketing to the general public at this point.

Posted via CB10

[meltbox360]

I think business sales are VERY important and BlackBerry needs to keep them to have a heavily rooted stable user base however consumers need to be brought in as well. I think at this point they can't remain viable for longer than three or four years if they don't go after consumers just as much. I think no matter what the company will survive another three years.

[sexybabe88]

I think business sales are more important than marketing to the general public at this point.

Posted via CB10

businesses are run by people who will invariably have their own bias and preferences

[njblackberry]

businesses are run by people who will invariably have their own bias and preferences

As opposed to consumers who have their own bias and preferences?

[4ron]

I totally agree with the commentary calling for more marketing. BlackBerry seems to be in its own mind set. Period.

Posted via CB10

[Stephen Severino]

If businesses start using BB10, consumers will as well. Isn't that how the legacy OS boomed?

Posted via CB10

[njblackberry]

That was true before the iPhone was invented,
BB boomed when there was no competition, and you used what your company gave you.
Once consumers started buying smartphones by themselves, BB started into their current decline. They couldn't compete.

[gebco]

Wow OP, have you been living the same tech life as me?! My first 286 used Dr DOS and came pre installed with Geoworks! That system was far superior to Windows 3.1 and handled resources efficiently. I learned spreadsheets on Quattro Pro (DOS). When I bought my Win 95 machine I think Corel bought QP from Borland and bundled it with Word Perfect. This got me into the world of mail merge well before others I knew were able to do it on the MS Office suite.

To this day I still have an old computer in the basement that is there only to access my GEOS files should I need them. And even on my Win7 machine I still use Word Perfect and QP.

Posted via CB10

[Caymancroc]

There are lots of things that make Apple great. The marketing is superior but so is the customer service, reliability, stability, style of the product, and ease of use. Their marketing simply portrays these great aspects successfully, as it should. Cannot say the same thing about Blackberry's commercials (elephant legs for Super Bowl commercial, flying carpet, etc).

Blackberry has poor customer service, is a bit harder to use, and lacks a huge ecosystem (including hardware and apps). At this point that really is key. If I want to use my mobile to control my Apple TV, or have the same experience on my iPad, or write a Pages document on my desktop and finish it on my phone or laptop, Apple reigns supreme.

Blackberry needs to fix these issues. One way it could compete is by turning the phone into a hard drive of sorts so that I am relying on it as my computer and hooking it up to screens with full size keyboard and mouse. However, the reliability is still not there with OS 10.X yet and backing up the device would be important.

Thank God Heins delayed OS 10. If he hadn't it would have been a complete disaster.

[JasW]

Marketing certainly helps shape perception. It is most effective when there is no real perception one way or another of the brand being marketed.

BlackBerry is in an unenviable position vis a vis marketing: like it or not, fair or unfair, the perception is that it is old school, yesterday's paper, and not hip.

Also: the apps. That links into marketing because the perception referred to above is reinforced when the curious find out the platform doesn't have Instagram, Vine, or what have you.

[Asdic Ping]

Apple weren't always a market leader in hi-tech stuff. Lets face it during the 1990's they were struggling, but the development of the ipod, iphone and ipad in the 2000's have changed all that. Their PC's probably still don't have a big market share compared with IBM compatibles which was their core business before the ipod etc. The problem facing Apple in the medium to long term is can they come up with more innovative products that will capture the public's imagination and turn that into sales. So I say, don't write off BlackBerry just yet.