[kevdogg3291]

I say this because if everyone watches that happened this Christmas season that the Lumia 520 was one of the most popular smartphones, due to the fact it was under $100 out the door on GoPhone. Blackberry needs to release the Q5 or the Z10 on prepaid for under $100 if they want to get the hardware into hands of people. This economy is still shaky, and many want a good smartphone experience, but do not want a 2 year contract, or a low cost option to Android or iPhone. It can be done, but the question is will BlackBerry be willing to go the low cost route to get more exposed to the OS?????

[milo53]

I say this because if everyone watches that happened this Christmas season that the Lumia 520 was one of the most popular smartphones, due to the fact it was under $100 out the door on GoPhone. Blackberry needs to release the Q5 or the Z10 on prepaid for under $100 if they want to get the hardware into hands of people. This economy is still shaky, and many want a good smartphone experience, but do not want a 2 year contract, or a low cost option to Android or iPhone. It can be done, but the question is will BlackBerry be willing to go the low cost route to get more exposed to the OS?????

Don't understand why they are building a new handset, cheap market, why not use the Q5?

[Troy Tiscareno]

Don't understand why they are building a new handset, cheap market, why not use the Q5?

Because it costs BB more than $200 to build a Q5. They are a for-profit business, not a charity.

[Aljean Thein]

They cant sell the Q5 or the Z10 for under $100. They will lose money! Better to make a new cheaper phone and sell it for cheap

[Thunderbuck]

They could sell an OS7 phone for under $200. And they'd enjoy service income.

Posted from CB10 running on my awesome Z30

[Dave Bourque]

They cant sell the Q5 or the Z10 for under $100. They will lose money! Better to make a new cheaper phone and sell it for cheap

That's the whole point of jakarta... guys Chen knows what he's doing. I'm pretty sure...

Z10STL100-3/10.2.1.1259

[Aljean Thein]

They should at least make the low end phone 4G. IDK about the signal in the emerging markets, but I wouldnt be satisfied with a 3G phone

[Loc22]

I believe that the ideal price of a phone should be under USD 100 without contract seriously.

Posted via CB10

[MiSsY_]

They should at least make the low end phone 4G. IDK about the signal in the emerging markets, but I wouldnt be satisfied with a 3G phone

In emerging markets 3G is substantial particularly where carrier infrastructure on higher bands is not established.
Hence the reason for the STL100-1, connecting to the HSPA network was super quick, and definitely more widely spread and more stable then 4G and I've used both devices on the same network.
Technically you could class the Z10 STL100-1 as a 3G phone since the HSDPA bands are considered to be 3G. So I'm pretty sure this is what the new device will have, think along those lines rather.

And as I mentioned the difference in speed between H and 4G is pretty minimal when you don't have a widely established infrastructure for 4G/LTE

Posted via CB10 from my Z30

[skibnik]

I believe that the ideal price of a phone should be under USD 100 without contract seriously.

Posted via CB10

You can't sell a product below the price it's costs to manufacture, the Z10 parts cost $154.00 not counting labour costs and shipping- packaging etc.

Z10 Running 10.2.1.1259 Take that Mr App Gap!

[GadgetTravel]

Um, not to be too much of a Captain Obvious here but; you do realize that Nokia went from like the largest cell phone manufacturer in the world to a failed company that let itself be acquired by Microsoft? And that now Microsoft is pouring cash into trying to get into the smartphone market again in a significant way. I'm not altogether certain Nokia should be a role model here.

[felixweber]

Um, not to be too much of a Captain Obvious here but; you do realize that Nokia went from like the largest cell phone manufacturer in the world to a failed company that let itself be acquired by Microsoft? And that now Microsoft is pouring cash into trying to get into the smartphone market again in a significant way. I'm not altogether certain Nokia should be a role model here.

Well, what's the difference to BlackBerry? Well, besides that nobody acquired them.
So I think this IS a great role model for us!

Posted via CB10

[GadgetTravel]

Well, what's the difference to BlackBerry? Well, besides that nobody acquired them.
So I think this IS a great role model for us!

Posted via CB10

Not much difference, you're correct, at least at this point in time. In fact, I would argue that Nokia's dedication to Symbian, in the face of a market that coalesced on Android and iOS is what doomed them and BB10 is very much a parallel. However, I do hope though that BB manages a different end game.

[TGR1]

Um, not to be too much of a Captain Obvious here but; you do realize that Nokia went from like the largest cell phone manufacturer in the world to a failed company that let itself be acquired by Microsoft? And that now Microsoft is pouring cash into trying to get into the smartphone market again in a significant way. I'm not altogether certain Nokia should be a role model here.

Nokia seems to be doing the right steps lately, though, although it is definitely still very early. But MS has the resources to feed its long term strategy. No way BBRY does.

If (and this is a big assumption) most of BBRY's issues are not with the phones or company but with people not being familiar with the new OS's strengths as some here say, then flooding the market with a dirt cheap phone isn't a bad strategy.

Having said that, IMO BBRY just isn't lean enough to be able to really trim its costs. And given their history, I have concerns the phone won't be priced competitively enough. At the low end, half hearted efforts, particularly in pricing, will kill the product. Just too much competition.

[axeman1000]

Not to sound negative, but according to the experts in the forums, no one would buy them and they would be too little too late.......so they have to do what they are doing, keep getting kicked when down and do what they do, build what they know to and let the people see for themselves, although marketing would really help.

BlackBerry forever, haters never!

[felixweber]

Nokia seems to be doing the right steps lately, though, although it is definitely still very early. But MS has the resources to feed its long term strategy. No way BBRY does.

If (and this is a big assumption) most of BBRY's issues are not with the phones or company but with people not being familiar with the new OS's strengths as some here say, then flooding the market with a dirt cheap phone isn't a bad strategy.

Having said that, IMO BBRY just isn't lean enough to be able to really trim its costs. And given their history, I have concerns the phone won't be priced competitively enough. At the low end, half hearted efforts, particularly in pricing, will kill the product. Just too much competition.

With old management I would totally agree with you. But I think Mr. Chen finally noticed that the ship is sinking....

Posted via CB10

[hashtagwinning]

Could they make a $100 phone that could run BB10 comfortably?
The Nokia 510 only has 1/4 of the ram of the Z10.
I guess we'll see soon

Posted via CB10

[BitPusher2600]

The OP makes a very valid point though. I work in retail, and man our prepaid Nokias have been flying off the shelf ever since we started carrying them. I'm a fan of Microsoft and I'm glad to see them doing well, and without a doubt, these cheap Lumias are helping Windows Phone move along well. The AT&T and T-Mobile variants really do sell out as quick as we get them. 4G and sufficient functionality, they already outperform these cheap Androids where they're still sticking ICS or Jelly Bean on 600-800mhz hardware. To put it another way, I definitely could not see harming BlackBerry's sales to try and create a modern BB10 device on the cheap, but the initial cost who knows. Nokia seems to be highly successful with these phones so far, but they've got Nokia and Microsoft money to have started the ball rolling too.

I should also mention one of our newer guys has the 521 and I've been able to see it hands-on. There are a few games that require more RAM, the store will tell you that you need more when you try to download it, but that's it. There is no in-between, the performance for everything else it does run is great. Didn't see a bit of lag in anything. That is a great formula for selling on the cheap.

Posted from BitPusher's Q10

[BergerKing]

Nokia with Microsoft money is certainly a different dynamic, but BB has to plan and manage things more economically. The phone they could throw in the ring and compete at that price point doesn't exist, yet.

[BoldPreza]

They could sell an OS7 phone for under $200. And they'd enjoy service income.

Posted from CB10 running on my awesome Z30

They could but that brings up a few issues. They would have to develop new hardware again as existing os 7 wasn't designed to sell for that price.

It does nothing to help adoption of their new platform.

Does nothing to help further develop BlackBerry 10 platform as it would not be optimized in that case to use less resources as Google has been doing with their platform and Windows with theirs.

It does nothing to get apps on either platform as it will be a huge fragmentation to the platform.

Among various other issues. Let them do their thing with Foxconn develop a low end BlackBerry 10 phone.

Posted via CB10

[castano22]

Microsoft has billions that they can poor into their mobile phones. So I wouldn't be surprised if they're loosing some money by selling their phones at such a cheap price but st least it's getting windows phones out there.

Posted via CB10

[skibnik]

Microsoft has billions that they can poor into their mobile phones. So I wouldn't be surprised if they're loosing some money by selling their phones at such a cheap price but st least it's getting windows phones out there.

Posted via CB10

Exactly they produce more than one product so losses from one product are made up by profit in another. BlackBerry doesn't have that luxury unfortunately.

Z10 Running 10.2.1.1925 Take that Mr App Gap!

[CairnsRock]

There definitely seems to be a place for the Foxconn BB10 device in the North American prepaid market.

[Loc22]

You can't sell a product below the price it's costs to manufacture, the Z10 parts cost $154.00 not counting labour costs and shipping- packaging etc.

Z10 Running 10.2.1.1259 Take that Mr App Gap!

Ooh really $ 154 not including labour cost? If it is so then they need to reduce the cost of production or sourcing for their parts. It's too expensive.

Posted via CB10

[Killjoyhere]

I think that is why john chen is pursuing the Foxconn deal. Using a larger manufacturer will bring costs down. It is strange then that Apple has never done that even though they could.

Posted via CB10