[SirJes]

BlackBerry Focus on Software, Services, Support BBOS 7 Until Dec 2015

"With BlackBerry 7 smartphones still selling better than BlackBerry 10 devices, the company plans to support BlackBerry 7 until December 2015. �Then we will discontinue sales of older BB devices, and provide exchange offers and upgrade offers for existing BB 7 users, to move to BB 10 platform,� said Lalwani."

[Omnitech]

BlackBerry Focus on Software, Services, Support BBOS 7 Until Dec 2015

"With BlackBerry 7 smartphones still selling better than BlackBerry 10 devices, the company plans to support BlackBerry 7 until December 2015. “Then we will discontinue sales of older BB devices, and provide exchange offers and upgrade offers for existing BB 7 users, to move to BB 10 platform,” said Lalwani."

Interesting.

[00stryder]

Makes sense, and I appreciate that they're already planning on taking care of users still holding onto BBOS. I'm just not sure how many will be left by that time that would make the direct migration to BB10 and not another platform. I guess we'll see.

Also to point out: for the "BB10 is dead" conspiring theorists out there, this is yet another instance where BB10 is referred to by name in BlackBerry's future plans of a more software-oriented focus.

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[donmateo]

I love this. Gives BES users time to fund their BES10 upgrade and also lets others know to start the transition to BB10. When a company gives a timeline like this, it is a nudge to move to the next gen, hence, as stated above, BB10 is here to stay. Cheers!

[m1kr0]

Yes, just seen the article. Interesting mention of 2 high end end two "mid segment" devices going forward. That part is not quite clear to me. The high end I can understand - Z30 and Q10, and the drop in pricing for the Q5 /Z10 to be mid level but then the Foxconn part does not make sense. Unless India won't ever see a low end Foxconn device and that doesn't make sense at all. Here's the full article at DNA India http://www.dnaindia.com/money/interv...rector-1943914

� � � � �
�It�s been easy for competitors to promote negative stories about BlackBerry, focusing on the business of the past. But I�m not focused on who BlackBerry used to be � I�m focused on what BlackBerry will be today and in the future.� John Chen, December 2013

[Bishkin]

�Then we will discontinue sales of older BB devices, and provide exchange offers and upgrade offers for existing BB 7 users, to move to BB 10 platform,� said Lalwani."

There is no need for some of the existing BB 7 users to adopt the BB10 platform come eol. Some already owned iPhones and/or Androids as their second phone now ....

[SirJes]

There is no need for some of the existing BB 7 users to adopt the BB10 platform come eol. Some already owned iPhones and/or Androids as their second phone now ....

Ok...I'll bit, what was the point of this post?

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[garnok]

it is fine for me....I'm still using BBOS . but i using also android for my primary phone...doesnt have any plan to upgrade to BB10. gonna using android or iPhone only in the future

[Kisimere]

Does that mean they are going to shut down BIS?

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[ray689]

Ok...I'll bit, what was the point of this post?

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Nooo don't bite haha. As far as the OP, did see that on a channel I follow. Sounds good to hear the devices are still in their plans.

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[sallenthornton]

Does that mean they are going to shut down BIS?

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I don't see how they could discontinue BIS due to its popularity in certain areas, but the phones won't be sold or supported after December 2015.

[Bbnivende]

Weird that the news comes from India and not from HQ. Note the reference to android apps !!

[00stryder]

I don't see how they could discontinue BIS due to its popularity in certain areas, but the phones won't be sold or supported after December 2015.

I think they'd likely keep BIS running on a level suitable for the specific location (I'm under the impression that they have several servers located worldwide?) I would think they'd scale back the resources and manpower dedicated to each service area as usage goes down until they decide at a certain point that it's not feasible enough to continue.

It'll suck for the users still holding onto their faithful 'Berries, but it shouldn't take the next two years to see that BlackBerry has completely moved on from BBOS.

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[tchocky77]

So this means BB10 has two years to sink or swim.

Assuming they don't bleed out (cash-wise) first.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using CB Forums mobile app

[Bishkin]

Ok...I'll bit, what was the point of this post?

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It simply means that BB7 users have not 1 but 3 platform choices to go to. iOS, Android or BB10, though not necessarily in that order. Unless BES caters to only BB10 devices, it is not a given ....

[00stryder]

It simply means that BB7 users have not 1 but 4 platform choices to go to. iOS, Android, WP or BB10, though not necessarily in that order. Unless BES caters to only BB10 devices, it is not a given ....

Fixed it for you. (Honestly, there's no indication that WP is less of an option for certain people, especially on the enterprise side, depending on their needs and existing infrastructure.)

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[SirJes]

It simply means that BB7 users have not 1 but 3 platform choices to go to. iOS, Android or BB10, though not necessarily in that order. Unless BES caters to only BB10 devices, it is not a given ....

I don't think anyone implied all BB7 users were going to upgrade to BB10 when the time came.

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[Bishkin]

I don't think anyone implied all BB7 users were going to upgrade to BB10 when the time came.

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I am not saying anyone did, neither will I be surprise if anyone did.

[russworman]

I don't see how they could discontinue BIS due to its popularity in certain areas, but the phones won't be sold or supported after December 2015.

Possible that they are going to use BIS to run back end functions for QNX devices like in car infotainment... that would be my guess

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[00stryder]

Possible that they are going to use BIS to run back end functions for QNX devices like in car infotainment... that would be my guess

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I like the way you think, sir.

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[Blackberry_Boss]

It'll be good for them to have less to focus on by letting go of BBOS. They can retain about 90% of those customers by implementing a lot of the old features into bb10 but just upgraded. App wise they need more native B4BB apps. It's not simple but it needs to be done and first on the list is Instagram then vine and Twitter and Facebook need to build there own damn apps.

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[russworman]

I like the way you think, sir.

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Just makes sense based on some things I remember seeing recently... wish I could remember where exactly...

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[sallenthornton]

I don't fully understand the intricacies of BIS or the infrastructure required to operate the legacy devices; would it be possible for Blackberry to sell that side of their business while it's still worth something?

[BK_NY_RAY]

Why not offer the exchange offers from day one?

IMO, waiting until 2015 to offer it is extremely dumb because some people don't even know about BB10, that its a completely new OS, might switch to the competition just because of that, might switch to competiton because the competiton has cheaper options or possibly other reasons.

[00stryder]

Why not offer the exchange offers from day one?

IMO, waiting until 2015 to offer it is extremely dumb because some people don't even know about BB10, that its a completely new OS, might switch to the competition just because of that, might switch to competiton because the competiton has cheaper options or possibly other reasons.

I wouldn't be surprised if they started promoting this soon. Like you said, the sooner the better, and it's better to get people migrated onto BB10 than to lose them to another platform. I didn't see them explicitly specify that the incentives would begin with the BBOS phase-out, though.

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