[andrekb74]

I can't help but notice the scant disregard for Blackberry over here in the UK... Looking at many stores, they are hardly any photos of the Z10 or the Q10 in the shops... when you go in and ask about the phone it's like the store person is doing all he can to tell you get something else without actually saying it... In almost every store especially the multi-carriers (Carphone Warehouse, Phone4U etc) they are special displays for all the major brands with HTC, iPhones and Samsung taking pride of place.. Blackberry??? gotta search for them... In fact today I was in Carphone Warehouse where they had displays for all the brands with smartphones... all under a well lit logo with their flagship phones... the wall had display panels that went in this order... Samsung, HTC, Sony, Nokia, LG and Best of the Rest... the Z10 and the Q10 was there under Best of the Rest.. along with iPhone 4, BB Curve and some Samsung that was clearly a budget phone... Of course Samsung S4, iPhone 5, Window 8 had full desk displays as well.... with demos... No demos for for the Q10 nor the Z10.

Point blank... Carriers just aren't supporting Blackberry... I don't know how the arrangements go between carriers and manufactures.. but what ever it is.. Blackberry is getting shafted... So while Thorstein may say he's happy with carrier support.. on the ground it ain't working... It just isn't..

Don't know what any of you guys have experienced... But as far as I see this is one of the reasons why I can't see BB surviving... Unless BB themselves really up the direct marketing, which to me has be lapsed as well. My hunch is that BB is going into the OS business and the B2B business only with mass handsets as secondary... Again your thoughts...

Andre (De Bajan)

[dejanh]

Armchair analyst. Thanks for your op-ed. I don't really have anything to add or say.

Posted via CB10

[Atentozedten]

Key words there are "I" so as long as this is your opinion it is very much welcome here. Many including me will disagree but that's ok.

Posted via CB10

[TimJohnSmith]

BlackBerry does need to increase the funds they are making available for in store signage. But I don't think the lack if signage is the real problem. Overcoming negative image is the problem. That is where all of use BlackBerry fans can step up and help out where and when we can.

Posted via CB10 on my Z10 on Rogers

[andrekb74]

Why not? It's just my observation and opinion... I don't offer it as a 'fact'.

[andrekb74]

Of course it's opinion I don't profess to be some kind of mobile analyst... I'm a BB loyalist who has made some observations in my own daily walkabout..

[andrekb74]

I agree with that Tim re the overcoming the negative image... just seems to me that the carriers are not helping in the overcoming of that image... yesterday on Vodafone's FB page I saw the BB taking a kicking after they posting a pic of the Q10... whoever was running the site seem to chimed in with something along the the lines of 'why don't you like blackberry'... so guess what the next 20 response were about... I pointed out to them that perhaps they should spend more time telling people about the good things about the q10 and bb10 otherwise why bother to advertise it... of course they tried a lame attempt at repairing the damage... but that's what Blackberry is dealing with here..

[niss63]

I'm not in th UK, but it sounds similar to the US, as far as carrier support goes. I think BlackBerry is still on the ropes and it could go either way at this point.

The Z10 lacks some functionality and apps that are deal breakers for many people who are not loyal to the brand. At this time it may be for the best that BlackBerry is not being pushed heavily in all of the retail outlets.

Posted via CB10

[devin266]

Yep, I see that a lot here in the UK too. Everybody seems to be shunning it lately. There not seen as 'cool' by teenagers' nor do a lot of adults like them here. Judging by my Facebook it's the most disliked phone brand :/

Posted via CB10

[twbtr]

BlackBerry does need to increase the funds they are making available for in store signage. But I don't think the lack if signage is the real problem. Overcoming negative image is the problem. That is where all of use BlackBerry fans can step up and help out where and when we can.

Posted via CB10 on my Z10 on Rogers

I agree with this, when I first looked at the z10 at att in the US the rep told me flat out dont buy this phone, its the worst smartphone ive ever used. When I asked him to show me how to unlock the screen he said he didnt know how to. Obviously he had either not given the Z10 a chance at all, or his negative views towards BB from previous devices had kept him from giving it an honest chance, either way, a culture change is needed to remain competitive.

Posted via CB10

[hannibalmoot]

I agree with your concerns but Blackberry will survive..and thrive. They have a solid enterprise base to keep building on that will ensure their success regardless. They certainly have had to overcome a lot of adversities that other companies have not had to face as you point out, but phone by phone, they are slowly succeeding in spite of this.

BB will never be able to match some other companies with their advertising budgets, etc. It will be word of mouth and putting out quality products that will make them successful once again. Keep the faith.

[Tre Lawrence]

BBRY is bobbing and weaving. Yes, we give them grief for stagnating for a while, but some adjustments are being made which can allow it to exist in other iterations.

BBM, management of other platforms in secure environments, licensing opportunities and more. The hardware business is still major, but I love that they are seemingly putting pieces in place to ensure diversification.

[johnprague]

I was in an AT&T shop today and they didn't speak highly of the 10. They said they're getting complaints about the rebooting issue regularly and are now recommending returning it under the one year manufacturer warranty. The rebooting issue supports a return according to them. If people start doing this and move to a different device, BlackBerry will feel it.

Posted via CB10

[sakin13]

Plain and simple numbers guys.

If BlackBerry sells over 30 million bb10 phones in 2013 the company will do incredibly well. If the company sells between 20 and 30 it will survive but 2014 will be rough.
If it's below 20 million units it's bye bye... as we know it.

I guess that the next quarterly results will be vital to draw some conclusions.

Imo bb10 is absolutely fantastic and if the company had better marketing and promotion resources it would do phenomenal

Posted via CB10

[andrekb74]

Well I guess we'll see how it goes. But right now the carriers are not helping their efforts at all.

Posted via CB10

[andrekb74]

I agree re what immediate sales will mean.. but I'm looking ahead 5 years... while I love the hardware and the OS... it still feels like the enterprise play and the OS play will be way forward... I see mass hardware becoming secondary for the reasons I mentioned among others (namely for negative impression many of you mentioned)...

Posted via CB10

[sqa4life]

I stopped by a local att store here in Seattle to get a few accessories, the sale guy asked how I like the z10. I told him I like it. He said they got a lot of return on the z10 and mostly because of the reboot.

Posted via CB10

[Bdot-1]

It'll take a couple years most likely to get a good name again around the world.

Posted via CB10

[whoppo]

I stopped by the local AT&T store this morning to get a new sim card, hopefully improving my random reboot issue. The service guy there told me that they had just taken back more than 50 Z10's from a corporate customer, citing unreliability (unexpected reboots, freezing) and the 30 day email retention as reasons. My own employer used to have hundreds of BlackBerry phones and now I'm one of a handful of BlackBerry users left. I love my Z10, despite the reboots, but I don?t know if I'd place any bets on BlackBerry winning back enterprise customers to the levels they once had... I'm in no way trying to disparage BlackBerry, but their new flagship phone simply doesn't have the functionality or stability of the previous generation phones they're meant to replace.... yet. Many corporate users simply won't wait for BlackBerry to live up to the hype they been selling since last year.

[dbmalloy]

Well well.... quite the doom and gloom thread here.... bottom line.... does not matter what anyone's perception of sales or lack there of are.... the tale will be in June's quarterly reports... reading these threads is like watching all the Stock analysts releasing their "guesstimates" oh sorry... reports..... one group negative had z10 selling under 400,000 while the positive folds estimated a million plus... in the end it really did not matter unless you were in the stock market..... It is easy to relate personal experiences about anything... where I live in Canada... I can relate exactly the opposite of the OP... my local Rogers store has excellent signage and staff who while do not push the BB products... give it equal time... many of my clients have the same experience... remarkably... BB is actually seeing a rebound of sorts
...so in essence what is the point to relating any of this.....

[h20work]

Radio Shack has the Z available as special order only. Like them or not, they are a huge wireless retailer.

[koool1]

BlackBerry has a long road back from near oblivion. It's a niche product at best for the time being, until a base of BlackBerry 10 can slowly be built there is far more interest in Android and Apple Jo matter how many posters go up.

I think BlackBerry needs to focus on getting the bugs out of BlackBerry 10 and building a number 3 ahead of windows for now. This is a 3 year story not a 3 month and all is ok.

Posted via CB10

[jgrobertson]

These concerns are clearly understood by BlackBerry. So i am beginning to think they are intentionally keeping a low profile until they have the bugs out. Then hit the market strong with updated hardware in time for the Christmas season.


Posted via CB10

[Pete The Penguin]

I can't help but notice the scant disregard for Blackberry over here in the UK... Looking at many stores, they are hardly any photos of the Z10 or the Q10 in the shops... when you go in and ask about the phone it's like the store person is doing all he can to tell you get something else without actually saying it... In almost every store especially the multi-carriers (Carphone Warehouse, Phone4U etc) they are special displays for all the major brands with HTC, iPhones and Samsung taking pride of place.. Blackberry??? gotta search for them... In fact today I was in Carphone Warehouse where they had displays for all the brands with smartphones... all under a well lit logo with their flagship phones... the wall had display panels that went in this order... Samsung, HTC, Sony, Nokia, LG and Best of the Rest... the Z10 and the Q10 was there under Best of the Rest.. along with iPhone 4, BB Curve and some Samsung that was clearly a budget phone... Of course Samsung S4, iPhone 5, Window 8 had full desk displays as well.... with demos... No demos for for the Q10 nor the Z10.

Point blank... Carriers just aren't supporting Blackberry... I don't know how the arrangements go between carriers and manufactures.. but what ever it is.. Blackberry is getting shafted... So while Thorstein may say he's happy with carrier support.. on the ground it ain't working... It just isn't..

Don't know what any of you guys have experienced... But as far as I see this is one of the reasons why I can't see BB surviving... Unless BB themselves really up the direct marketing, which to me has be lapsed as well. My hunch is that BB is going into the OS business and the B2B business only with mass handsets as secondary... Again your thoughts...

Andre (De Bajan)

I've seen the BlackBerry ads for both both Q10 and Z10 in my local branches of CPW, P4U and PCWorld (P4U concession) and Vodafone - all in Birmingham and also in Nottingham where my parents live.

Posted via CB10 from my Q10.

[l1f3l355]

Yup when BlackBerry releases it's next quarterly report, the truth will be revealed. One way or another.

From the discussions so far, it seems STL 100-1 users have not been afflicted with the rebooting problem.

I hope BlackBerry doesn't go the way of Palm. They were the market leader with practically no competiton but yet managed to find a way to fail.

Posted via CB10