[BBBHonest]

Update Video Added In Post 6 (link below)
http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...6/#post8841706


Despite the enormous pressure of unfair and unrealistic expectations placed on BlackBerry's recovery, there is an easy to overlook problem with the way the BlackBerry Z10 has been marketed in-store (at least in the UK), that has undoubtedly damaged its sales. Simply put, the Z10's in-store presentation is horrible. Not only does the Z10 in-store demo actually go quite a distance towards repelling a potential buyer, it very often doesn't go anywhere at all. Other the last few months since purchasing my Z10, I have been popping in and out of phone retailers here in London to see if BlackBerry has handled the problem on their own; alas, up until two days ago, I was able to walk into Central London mobile phone dealers at random and come across the same problems I came across back in February, when I bought my Z10. For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, let me explain (I urge any of you based in London to try the following and post your findings).

Back in February, I walked into one of the major high street retailers, excited to get my hands on the brand new Z10. As a BlackBerry fan to begin with, I was an easy sale, but even I was nearly put off by the fact that, to my surprise, I was not able to try out any of the cool things I had read about, specifically the Z10's fantastic keyboard. I was able to try the demo, but bizarrely, the phone wouldn't allow me to try flick typing, or play around with the new swiping gestures, or do anything else I wanted to. Instead, the demo insisted on boringly frogmarching me through an overly didactic tutorial on email settings I had no interest in at the time. Despair not, I told myself. I asked one of the salespeople to give me a hand. Could they please show me how to try the flick-typing feature? No, strangely, they could not. They tried, but they could not. Could I just have a general play-about with the phone? Nope. I couldn't do that either, because the phone was in demo setting. Couldn't we just get the phone out of this infernal demo setting? No sir, that, unfortunately, wasn't possible. In the end, one of the salespeople was kind enough to briefly demonstrate a few of the features using his own Z10, which, he told me truthfully, was a fantastic phone. Again, he was right. The Z10 is brilliant, but I left the shop wondering how many 'neutral' mobile phone buyers were likely to have as much patience with his in-store presentation as I had had.

Since February, it has become a slightly unhealthy habit of mine to pop into mobile phone retailers and try to sample the Z10. Shockingly, nearly every time I have done so, the screen on the Z10 has either been frozen on a 'welcome to demo' screen (possibly the result of the phone being so tightly clamped into the security holster that the screen is actually bent), or the awful demo has infuriated me by insisting on dragging me through boring minute details on how to update contact information. (In the next few days, using the same title as this post, I will be posting a YouTube video of what I am talking about for any readers who don't know, although I suspect that at least some of you will have had the same experience.)

Now, I am an example of someone who wanted to buy the Z10 before I even stepped into the shop. But what about the millions of people who didn't have any particular preference? On the one hand, they've got this brand new BlackBerry Z10 that doesn't even seem to work in the shop, and on the other they've got the well-known iPhone, which from my in-store experience isn't burdened by any silly demo settings, and is simply placed on show for people to play with. The Samsung Galaxy is the same - easy to try out in-store, easy to fall in love with in less than thirty seconds. This is something BlackBerry have messed up big time. It was a mistake to assume that most people would want to spend five minutes patiently being guided through an irritating demo that systematically operates contrary to how the phone actually works in reality (again, I will post the video of me going through this in a couple of shops). I wish to stress this: I actually own a Z10, and I found the demo highly frustrating and confusing, not to mention boring. I contacted BlackBerry via their Facebook page regarding this about a month ago, but still, as of two days ago, absolutely nothing has changed.

So, what, in my view, should BlackBerry be doing about this? Simple: send word to retailers to abandon the demo setting in-store immediately, and instead follow the common sense guidance of the other major brands - just let the fantastic phone sell itself. Give people a chance to play with it for goodness' sake, and let them experience the new swipe gestures, keyboard, and Time-Shift camera features as they wish. A phone has got thirty seconds in which to catch the imagination of a potential buyer; to waste these precious moments on the Z10's slow, awkward, and frankly annoying demo features is crazy. How Blackberry could have launched such an important phone, and not had people on the ground actually checking this stuff out is beyond me, but it really is not too late for the Z10, or, more importantly, the upcoming A10, if BlackBerry handles this crucial and potentially catastrophic point-of-sale problem.

On a side note, I recently went into the Apple shop on Regent Street and asked the Apple salesperson to show me why the iPhone 5 was better than the Z10. After a few minutes he admitted confidentially that he couldn't. He loved the Z10 keyboard, the active frames, the swiping, and the hub; with a genuine look of surprise on his face, his final words were: 'I had no idea!'.

He's not the only one.

[jaydee5799]

Thanks for the post!
I agree with everything you are saying. It was the same for me. no real chance to swipe or use the keyboard. No one who was really versed in using the Z.

I agree!
Send your ideas on to someone who will listen....please!

Oh and Welcome to CrackBerry!mIf you need anything here please let me know. We will try to help!

[SK122387]

I totally agree!

Here in the U.S., in the T-Mobile stores I've been to, all the Z10s had a zip tie around the middle of the screen, to keep it from being stolen. While the zip tie does keep the Z10 safe, it also keeps people from swiping up on the bezel, or doing anything other than view the Demo Mode.

The Demo Mode itself should be more than what it is. The keyboard on the Z10 is so cool, but no one gets to experience it. Demo Mode is simply a run down of some features. There should be a Demo Mode and a Normal Use Mode or something, where people can see the Hub and Peek for themselves (though one really needs a couple days of use to really see how useful these features are in everyday life).

BlackBerry should have made some kind of custom mechanism to keep their BB10 phones secure, something like a claw, where it would securely hold the phone from the BACK, so customers could use the screen. You seriously can't do much on a BB10 phone with a zip tie in the way. As BlackBerry is always quick to point out, there is no home button, so for a UI that's so dependent on swipes and gestures, a zip tie obstructing the swipes pretty much makes a BB10 phone useless in an in-store display.

[BBBHonest]

I will be posting video of my last unpleasant experience with the in-store marketing of the Z10 later today. I actually wish I could just show it to the people of BlackBerry in private, and have them fix it, but the nature of things is that large companies don't generally listen to individuals, often for good reason. I fear that posting the rather embarrassing videos might not be the best way of advertising the Z10 in the short term, but if my effort can somehow affect change before the release of the A10, that is a good thing. It appears as though BlackBerry is so occupied with the huge task of managing the recovery on the macro level, that they still have not realised the utterly devastating nature of their lack of attention to point of sale presentation.

Posted via CB10

[Z10andy]

I agree also called into carfone warehouse the 02 store 3 store ee store Vodafone store and all blackberry's were on the same demo screen.

It's not showing why blackberry 10 is so nice to use.

Please take of that stupid demo setting and as the op stated let people see the real blackberry 10 devices.



Posted via CB10

[BBBHonest]

[OldSkoolVWLover]

[threads merged]

Thanks for the video OP, handled a few demos prior to buying as well.

[RafiqK]

You know what, I've been to TELUS, ROGERS and WIND when deciding to get the Q10..i really wanted to play around with then keyboard and so I was able to since it's a physical keyboard. But also I did want to try the operating system on both the Z10 and Q10, so that I can see how I type with the virtual keyboard and the physical keyboard and also just browse around the OS. But sadly..all 3 stores had that fake looking/frozen paper screen on it..so I was not able to even use the phone. Honestly that really sucked and I was a bit anoyyed.

Luckly I knew a friend that had a Z10 and a friend that had a Q10, so I was able to play around with it a lot. But I was just lucky in that sence..as most people if not all that would be interested on a BB10 device would not liky have a friend that already had a Q10 or Z10..so again I was just lucky.

Based on that I was able to make a decision and ultimately choose the Q10.

But if I didn't have these to two people, I would of been stuck. Like seriously how are you not able to test out a phone prior to purching??..to me that just plain idiotic and stupid. And it would make sence that BlackBerry would loose a lot of customers/new coustomrs simply on the bases that they were not able to test out the phone at a local store. I do not know if this was done on purpose by TELUS, ROGERS and WIND..or was done this way by BlackBerry. Either way BlackBerry should of been on top of this.

Posted via CB10 with my BlackBerry Q10

[whatsever]

They must make a active app that lets you interacts foto (timeshift ask some one to smile) - press here and chance smile, choose social media to share, type a text. just interactive and send. O you get a message, do this and see etc etc.

make it fun so that kids also like to play with it, put sound in it like hey check me out make it funny

[BBBHonest]

I am quite confident that BlackBerry has lost at least many thousands of sales due to this in-store setup. It seems an easy fix though: just turn off the demo setting and let people play with the phone. If they have further questions, they can ask a salesperson, and they've made the first step towards buying the thing. What I've found surprising is how long this has been going on without anyone from BlackBerry picking it up, and fixing it. They clearly do not have enough people on the ground handling sales and marketing from the customer's point of view. It's actually quite bizarre. The Z10 is a brilliant phone and should have sold, but it was never going to simply sell itself magically. BlackBerry have got to give themselves a chance here. With new phones set to come out, and the prices coming down on the Z10, they have a real chance to get the products into people's back pockets. In-store presentation is a small aspect of the greater project of recovery, but it's where things actually happen, or don't happen. I feel very strongly that if BlackBerry sort out this point of sale issue, they will see a huge increase in the percentage of people who take a look at the news phones, and then actually buy them.

Posted via CB10

[SDTRMG]

I agree they have too, they could have set up an in os demo that suggest how to leave an app when you open it etc.

Posted via CB10

[Philldoe]

Thar demo is not like the demo in ATT stores. You can swipe down to open a demo settings menu and tap Exit OS demo to actually /use/ the phone.

[X4xtraordinary]

Posted via CB10

[El Platanero]

Yeah and with my experience the phone was open for testing but the people there were trying to talk me out of it. I already had the holster on my hip before purchase. It wasn't happening. I'm not saying they need to sell BlackBerry. I'm just saying that if we walk in the store asking for a phone they need to at least work with what we are asking for.

Posted via CB10

[BBBHonest]

Yes, BlackBerry's biggest problem right now is fighting the negative bandwagonism in the media. Because it makes an easy story, everyone is taking turns kicking BlackBerry while they think it's down. BlackBerry will have to endure this for another year, but should be doing everything it can to combat it in the meantime. Unfortunately, this Quarter is a sort of read period with nothing new happening. Ideally, BBM would have been released about now, and a positive culture surrounding BlackBerry would have been building while we wait for new products and the build up to Christmas. The cut is Z10 prices is a good thing, but absolutely must be accompanied by meticulous, solid presentation at the point of sale.

I'm still looking for some kind of strong summer marketing campaign, and can't see it anywhere. School kids are on holiday now. Here in the UK, where are the BlackBerry marketing teams in malls and major train stations? Get the phones in people's hands for goodness sake. Right now, BlackBerry can't expect in-store salespersons to push their products for them. BlackBerry is going to have to do that themselves. That means paying for proper displays in key shops, as well as stands in major commuter hubs like Waterloo station, etc. I still don't feel like BlackBerry understand that it's time to strap their helmets on and fight the ground battles where the customers actually are. Pundits and analysts aren't the ones who are going to be buying millions of phones.

Posted via CB10

[Robert Roger]

BlackBerry posted fiscal first quarter results that missed analysts’ estimates by a wide margin. The company’s surprise loss was obviously troubling, but even more so was the fact that BlackBerry 10 device shipments came in at 2.7 million units, missing consensus figures by a wide margin despite the fact that this was the Z10′s first full quarter of sales and the quarter in which the Q10 launched. Following the company’s results, Jefferies & Co. analyst Peter Misek is now reporting that BlackBerry has slashed combined Z10 and Q10 orders to 1 million units per month, a 50% cut from the 2 million units BlackBerry had on order each month. In a note picked up by Barron’s, Misek says he’s not surprised by the cut at all, but rather is surprised that BlackBerry had previously “raised build plans at the end of May despite the worsening sell-through in the back of the month.”*Misek still has a Buy rating on BlackBerry shares with an $18 price target.

[BBBHonest]

Honestly, I don't pay a huge amount of attention to stock analysts. With exceptions, their advice is always to buy high and sell low. They also pay too much attention to numbers and not enough attention to culture. BlackBerry's enemy right now is culture. There is a toxic culture surrounding the recovery, and this is mainly the fault of the same analysts who are firing boring predictions around daily, stating that BlackBerry is dead. Such statements damage the buying culture of a product, and affect the mindset of potential buyers. Obviously, loads of people shorting the stock have been cheering it towards the ground, but the fact remains that the Q10 and Z10 are brilliant phones that can stand confidently beside any of the best phones on the market. That is why I have been hoping to see BBM released asap. BBM has the potential to make a cultural difference for the company when it goes cross platform. In my view, BBM for everyone is BlackBerry's ticket back, along, of course, with better in-store presentation of products. I happen to think the Q5 was designed poorly and looks cheap, but the other phones are a definite success....fingers crossed for the A10 or whatever is coming up...

Posted via CB10

[DINGSTER1]

BBHonest, you should send that video directly to whoever is in charge of U.K marketing and let them see the reality of what's going on

[greggebhardt]

Blackberry lost many of it users for good because of past experience with their hardware. Our company lost every 9900 due to it "bricking". We replace multiple times only to have it happen again. We gave up and went to the iPhone and have not looked back.

Why would I want to replace our iPhones for a Z or Q? And lets not talk about security as I do not belive that todays non BES Blackberrys are more secure than the iPhone. I bet even the BES units are being looked at.

[kill_9]

They also pay too much attention to numbers and not enough attention to culture. BlackBerry's enemy right now is culture. There is a toxic culture surrounding the recovery, and this is mainly the fault of the same analysts who are firing boring predictions around daily, stating that BlackBerry is dead.
Posted via CB10

The toxic culture comes from within BlackBerry, the organization, at the highest level and trickles downward. We gave Thorsten the benefit of the doubt when he officially assumed the role of chief executive officer of Research In Motion in February 2012. He failed to deliver on any of his version of Barack Obama's "Hope and Change" speech.

Posted via CB10 from the BlackBerry Z10

[BBBHonest]

I have to say that I cannot compare Heins to Obama on that way. I am actually happy with the things he has done, although I do agree that some things need to be handled better. It is much easier to sit on the sidelines and judge him (as we are all doing in our own way, I included), but I think there are realistic things he could have done, and hasn't, and then there are things he has been expected to do that were not realistic. There was no way the new BlackBerry phones were going to match expectations because the expectations were not realistic. I've been baffled by this stuff. Who in their right minds thought millions upon millions were going to rush out and buy the new BlackBerrys, which were unproven, and released into a quite toxic cultural environment? What these phones should do to be a success, is be recognised as a clean break from the past, and as very good products that can compete. These they definitely are. I've tried the iphone, and do not think it compares to the Z10 in speed and usefulness. It is also a better size, less prone to shattering, etc. However, iphone has a culture surrounding it that means that people will buy the iphone regardless of whether it is the best phone. It is a cultural symbol as well as a good phone.

What BlackBerry have failed to do is realise that they cannot expect people to care about their phones anymore. They hopefully have learnt that they need to go and get the business, which means aggressively getting the phones in people's hands so that the necessary cultural change can take place. Here I think the cross platform BBM has huge potential, although it should have been released about now to capitalise on the time between releases, and the summer holidays when kids are out of school and engaged in more social media than ever. And of course the in store marketing has been a disaster. Still, if BlackBerry get BBM out as soon as possible, and fix their marketing, BlackBerry will be back in very good shape by next Christmas. I know that seems a long time from now, but that is realistic.


Over the longer term, there is every opportunity for BBM to take on Facebook as a social networking hub. Google were not able to do this because it would have required people to set up accounts into a void, and hope that people switch. BBM will be able to simply expand what they already have established with millions of people, and start providing more secure and less invasive online profiles for people who already have BBM. That is a longer term possibility, but there is nothing stopping BlackBerry from attaining this, as well as knocking WhatsApp and Skype off the mobile communication map. There is massive potential for BBM over the next two years. Hopefully Heins has seen this and has plans to get it done.


Posted via CB10