[rawat_sandip]

This can help expanding their market share & BlackBerry can earn money out of it.

Posted via CB10

[bakron1]

This can help expanding their market share & BlackBerry can earn money out of it.

Posted via CB10

I am sorry to say the bar has already been established long ago and Android and IOS are the dominant platforms at the moment. Even Microsoft with all their money and resources haven't made the dent in the market with Windows mobile.

No one is going to buy an operating system which requires an engineering staff to maintain it and a company willing to shell out the capital to produce devices that will utilize it. Unfortunately it's just the way it is in the current marketplace.

This is not being negative or spreading negativity or any of that garbage, this is reality.

[rawat_sandip]

Hmmm but then how they going to make money from the OS if not making any more hardware ?

Posted via CB10

[Elephant_Canyon]

Hmmm but then how they going to make money from the OS if not making any more hardware ?

They're not. They're going to end development after this year.

[tufcustomer]

They're not. They're going to end development after this year.

Source?

Posted via CB10

[web99]

BlackBerry is transforming itself into a software and services company. That's the indication that CEO John Chen and his team have made in countless interviews since his arrival 3 years ago.

With that in mind, it gives them less of a reason to spend it's limited resources on its hardware division or try to get other OEM' s to adopt its BB10 OS.

Posted via my BlackBerry Priv

[sentimentGX4]

The other OEMs don't want BB10. Android is a lot cheaper (free) and has broader appeal to consumers.

Not only that, BB10 has not proven to be a financial success and there is simply no reason for another OEM to bear this risk even if it were absolutely free.

Hmmm but then how they going to make money from the OS if not making any more hardware ?

Very often, businesses make bad decisions and they write off their investments. This is definitely one of those cases.

And it is not like BB10 went to complete waste either. BBRY milked the OS for everything it was worth and released many devices before it finally slowed/ceased development. Contrast this to HP and WebOS where it barely used the OS it purchased at all.

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

Hmmm but then how they going to make money from the OS if not making any more hardware ?

Posted via CB10

More hardware would require more development... which would mean more cost. Selling 500K devices (and still falling) just will not cover the cost of more BB10 development, as well as hardware designs and apparently very custom and expensive drivers.

There are a number of good mobile OS out there today.... but there are only really two complete platforms with the necessary ecosystems to meet the needs of today's smartphone owners. While our current unofficial access to Android Apps is enough to get by with. It's not the kind of thing you can build on - or that you can license to other to build on. The minute you do, the real owner (Google) might just put a stop to it.

[bb10adopter111]

In addition, there is no way for them to guarantee security with a licensed OEM phone, and the main strategic value of BB10 hardware is that it is the first in a complete vertical security solution. If Lenovo or someone else manufactures the phone independently, that benefit is lost.

Posted via CB10

[Troy Tiscareno]

This can help expanding their market share & BlackBerry can earn money out of it.

Former CEO Heins spent at least 18 months trying to find OEMs willing to license BB10 - he was actively meeting with OEMs in mid-2012, before BB10 even launched, and for the 9 months prior to the "for sale" sign. And then, when BB brought in an outside accounting firm to "explore strategic options", licensing BB10 was on the list of things to explore. Again, no takers.

Why?

It's simple: Android is free, and has a huge ecosystem. WinPhone is free (for phones and smaller tablets, anyway) and is part of Microsoft's ecosystem which dominates desktops, especially in enterprise. Licensing BB10 would cost money, and yet BB was unable to prove that customers would buy BB10 in big numbers (in fact, they proved the opposite). BB themselves have lost at least $8-9B (that's BILLION) on the BB10 project - yes, that's a net loss, meaning that BB10 would need to earn $9B in profit (not revenues) just to break even, and currently BB loses around $100 each time they sell a BB10 phone.

How would any of that inspire a third-party OEM to license BB10?

More importantly, if the answer to BB10's problems was simply to license it out to OEMs, that would have been done years ago, because BB has been well aware of BB10's sales numbers and probability of success for a long time already - essentially by summer of 2013, it was already clear that BB10 had failed as a product, but because BB had invested so much of the company into BB10 with no real "Plan B", it took a long time to create and execute a "Plan B" (Android/The Priv) and start the process of shutting BB10 down. To do otherwise would have imploded the whole company, and even though some folks here wouldn't care if that happened following BB10 shutting down (because they'd no longer care about BB), BB has an obligation to their shareholders to survive and make a profit - with or without BB10.

BB10 can fail, but BB can't - at least, not without causing much bigger problems for those involved.

[Soapm]

This can help expanding their market share & BlackBerry can earn money out of it.

Posted via CB10

Same reason Yugo didn't sell their manufacturing to another car maker.

[JulesDB]

One might think that BlackBerry10 could only be used in smartphones. And all the above arguments lead to this.

In my opinion OS10 could be better as a television OS like Tizen or as home automation driver or who knows what else probably with little adjustments.

You all have no fantasy. Neither BlackBerry has.

Posted via CB10

[kvndoom]

Name an OEM who would buy it, and I'm sure BlackBerry would gladly license it to them.

Waiting...

Still waiting...

{crickets}

BlackBerry Classic non-camera, Cricket Wireless

[kvndoom]

One might think that BlackBerry10 could only be used in smartphones. And all the above arguments lead to this.

In my opinion OS10 could be better as a television OS like Tizen or as home automation driver or who knows what else probably with little adjustments.

You all have no fantasy. Neither BlackBerry has.

Posted via CB10

The irony is that now these "smart TVs" are all... wait for it... app based. And guess which OS failed because it couldn't get apps!

Can you imagine the outrage from people who buy a smart TV and find out it doesn't have Netflix or Hulu built in?

BlackBerry Classic non-camera, Cricket Wireless

[Calvin8181]

BlackBerry 10 is an asset. It is a closed source OS. It belongs to the country. It cannot be sold to anyone. It is as simple as this.

Posted via CB10

[TGR1]

The irony is that now these "smart TVs" are all... wait for it... app based. And guess which OS failed because it couldn't get apps!

Can you imagine the outrage from people who buy a smart TV and find out it doesn't have Netflix or Hulu built in?

BlackBerry Classic non-camera, Cricket Wireless

Not to mention that TV sets is an even worse market to get into if you want to make money.

[GadgetTravel]

BlackBerry 10 is an asset. It is a closed source OS. It belongs to the country. It cannot be sold to anyone. It is as simple as this.

Posted via CB10

Leaving aside the fact that no one wants to buy it momentarily; why does it belong to the country?

[thurask]

Hmmm but then how they going to make money from the OS if not making any more hardware ?

Posted via CB10

By not losing money on it?

[glwerry]

BlackBerry 10 is an asset. It is a closed source OS. It belongs to the country. It cannot be sold to anyone. It is as simple as this.

Posted via CB10

? NO. It does not belong to the country. It belongs to Blackberry. If they wanted to license it to someone on another phone, they could.
As stated earlier, BB tried to make this fly in the past. It didn't fly.

Would anyone adopt it for a smart TV or some such? Possibly, but that might well incur more development costs that BB isn't willing to shoulder at this point.

Now, in terms of diversifying, BB as a corporation IS trying to do this: witness the deals to have QNX installed in new cars (Ford?). This is new, it's an area where the corporation is trying to grow its revenues from its software.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like BB10 is going to go very far into the future. We need to get used to this: I've been in IT since 1978 and I have seen LOTS of very fine operating systems go by the wayside. It's not always the most technically elegant that survive!

[Troy Tiscareno]

BlackBerry 10 is an asset. It is a closed source OS. It belongs to the country. It cannot be sold to anyone. It is as simple as this.

When did Canada nationalize BB10? I hadn't heard...

[tufcustomer]

When did Canada nationalize BB10? I hadn't heard...

I don't think they have lol. Sale of BlackBerry as a whole on the other hand can and has been blocked I believe.

Posted via CB10

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

I don't think they have lol. Sale of BlackBerry as a whole on the other hand can and has been blocked I believe.

Posted via CB10

It was rumored that a Chinese company (Lenovo) was interested in BlackBerry.. and that the Canadian government had concerns - or blocked the sale. Also rumors that the funding wasn't there...

But BlackBerry isn't digging minerals out of the ground and turning them into smartphones. In fact I don't think they do any manufacturing in Canada anymore (or even own property) and their work force there is pretty small compared to what it was. If BlackBerry wanted to pull up stakes and move to Silicon Valley or to Timbuktu.... other than losing some tax incentives or the Canadian Gov as a customer. What could the Canadian Gov do?

But this is a different world now, back three years ago there were a number of new mobile operating systems coming to market - Windows Phone, Ubuntu, Tizen, Sailfish, Firefox, BB10.... Lenovo might have considered BlackBerry so that they too could play that OS game. But today it's pretty clear that if you aren't Apple, you need to be running Android if you plan to sell phones.

[DenverRalphy]

If BlackBerry wanted to pull up stakes and move to Silicon Valley or to Timbuktu.... other than losing some tax incentives or the Canadian Gov as a customer. What could the Canadian Gov do?

There are special circumstances where a country can block the sale or a change of venue of a company. National Security being the main reason. ie.. If BlackBerry wanted to sell to a company based in a country like China, the Canadien government would have a pretty strong argument that while their infrastructure is heavily vested in secure communications through BlackBerry products and services, a sale to a company influenced by a country deemed non-friendly would be a legitimate concern to national security.

[edit] Most countries have certain provisions within their government. Using the USA as an example... Phil Zimmerman, the person who created PGP was taken to task after he open sourced his encryption to the world under the USA's "Exporting Munitions Without a License" provision. At that time, the encryption strength he devised was considered munitions... a stretch to be sure, but that's what the Gov't went with. Zimmerman ultimately won out... but it was a HUGE deal at the time. The only thing that saved his tail was that he didn't explicitly sell it to anybody in another country, he simply published his work for the world to see.

There are other reasons as well, though they aren't always so easy to enforce. ie... the sale or change of venue would have a significant negative impact on the region's economy.

I won't pretend to know the ins-n-outs of all the rules and regulations, but it happens from time to time. Though it usually happens at the federal/Gov't levels. State and County levels usually find themselves screwed, which is why you all too often hear about small towns being devastated by corporate takeovers and the ensuing closure of the local manufacturing plant.

[anon(2313227)]

Not sure where the OP has been but I think they tried to license for a long time now. The problem is no one is biting.

[sentimentGX4]

It was rumored that a Chinese company (Lenovo) was interested in BlackBerry.. and that the Canadian government had concerns - or blocked the sale. Also rumors that the funding wasn't there...

BBRY could have tried a partial sale of assets to Lenovo. I'm not sure Lenovo was interested in BB10, though, so going back to this thread Lenovo wasn't the savior for the OS.

Lenovo just wanted a Western hardware OEM and they finally got it by purchasing Motorola.