[lnichols]

Funny, but I don't recall another company doing both besides Apple who are sitting on a mountain of cash.

Posted via CB10

Funny Apple didn't have that mountain of cash forever, in fact they were almost bankrupt at one point. They built up that mountain of cash by making great hardware and software. BlackBerry sits on cash and never spends it. They have kept $3 Billion since the Mike and Jim days.

Posted via Z30

[Mr4aces]

I'm getting a bit tired of the fans who expect a CEO to be able to "sell" the public on devices they don't want. He wanted to make a BlackBerry for BlackBerry fans and 90% of BlackBerry shipments were to bb10. So he succeeded there.

Only way a ceo can sell big numbers to android fans is by releasing an android BlackBerry. It's not JCS fault the public perception of BlackBerry is so poor. You can blame that on 2 ceos ago. At least JC is making BlackBerry money again.

Posted via CB10

Wow, you on the inside looking out?

Or is your Weegee Board electronic?

[Mr4aces]

Funny Apple didn't have that mountain of cash forever, in fact they were almost bankrupt at one point. They built up that mountain of cash by making great hardware and software. BlackBerry sits on cash and never spends it. They have kept $3 Billion since the Mike and Jim days.

Posted via Z30

At least $1 billion of that is in notes. $3 billion is not much money in perspective to BlackBerrys SOO. They need closer to $8-10 billion minimum to accomplish what the public wants.

Apple built a facade for 9 months prior to launch of the iPhone and kept the OS basically the same for the years. RIM tried to copy instead of lead or develop the OS7 to something different with corresponding hardware. RIM/ML just waited to long because they were on top of the world. Who can deny BIS was a brilliant move, but to sit on the OS and not continue to update in a timely manner? Just look back and see how often the OS was updated 3-6 years ago.

Steve Jobs was not dealing with a tarnished pass. Beside it took Apple 10-15 years to recover from mistakes in the 90's. JC has been in there less than 2 years and you expect the same results?

[lnichols]

Your opinion.

My opinion is Heins was in command no matter what he inherited. When your in command you live with the cards that were dealt you. It would have been better to cancel the goods and take a lost or negotiate a settlement than to lose billions. There is no way all that inventory was ready at the same time.

Unless you are on the inside you do not know what extent the 10.2 was in development. So all that as far as I'm concern is hear say on CB. And what was so great about 10.2 that should have been done in 10.1? If he was any kind of a CEO he would have corrected the problems at all cost. When he was CEO there was still enough cash flow to do so.

Ask people with 9900 and PlayBooks what they think of Heins or the carriers that were promised BB10 devices and how many returns they ate because the devices were shipped without adequate OS. Ask the people that bought BB10 devices that waited for deliver and ended up returning them because the OS

"10.2.1 was all ready to go, and that OS was the first one that wasn't half a$$e"

Heins had the authority to correct these problems any top CEO will tell you the same thing. He was to passive for the job at hand.

The things that I noticed that John Chen did was bring top executives in each field that he trusted. No CEO knows everything they rely on people they trust. He also rules with a firm hand. BB10 has come a long ways in the time he has been in command. I have always said BB10 was crap compared to the functions of OS7. The 9900 still performs functions and is the device of choice to many even though it is outdated. I now feel that with the changes BB10 is almost there.

Heins did kept the same people that pulled RIM down and was overwhelmed. To bad all that cash flow is gone.

We will see what happens in the next 6 months. Not knowing the inside everybody is second guessing JC/BlackBerry. I'm confident the direction he takes will be for the good of BlackBerry. It make not please you, but in order for BlackBerry to survive drastic changes have to be made. There is no way JC is preparing BlackBerry for liquidation otherwise it would have been done last fall. He has to much at stake to not ride this out.

Unless you have had experience in an executive position it is hard for you to understand what influences the collective decisions of the company.

Just my opinion from the outside looking in.

Posted via CB10

10.2.1 was completely done under Heins and was leaked while Heins was still running the show. 10.2 was launched on the Z30 under Heins. Heins brought in outside execs too, Christian Tear and Frank Boulben. Heins did most of the flushing of the company, and had to deal with the financial impacts in the reduction and reorganization of the Blackberry workforce.

When Chen came in most of the workforce reduction and the financial impact was done via the CORE program. Chen has been bringing in mostly people he worked with at Sybase.

Oh and I had/have both the PlayBook And the 9900. 9900 did what was expected, but I was furious with Heins over the PlayBook. I don't have any love for Heins, I'm simply evaluating his tenure now compared to Chen and feel that he has done far more for BB10 than Chen has in both hardware and software after about the same time in the position. We'll see what Chen does, but like I said if he saves the company but no handsets and BB10, then the company saved is worthless to me and I will be with a competitors product.

Posted via Z30

[lnichols]

At least $1 billion of that is in notes. $3 billion is not much money in perspective to BlackBerrys SOO. They need closer to $8-10 billion to accomplish what the public wants.

Apple built a facade for 9 months prior to launch of the iPhone and kept the OS basically the same for the years. RIM tried to copy instead of lead or develop the OS7 to something different with corresponding hardware. RIM/ML just waited to long because they were on top of the world. Who can deny BIS was a brilliant move.

OS7 could not be enhanced much further. The architecture of the OS was stretched with the Bb7 hardware. It was not a platform that could support what a modern OS needed to do. Devs and even BlackBerry's own developer blogs have laid out the limitations of BBOS. The architecture of BB10 is far superior to anything on the market from a security perspective, unfortunately they road out BBOS too long and didn't start moving to a new platform until Apple and Android had secured the developed markets, and then the BBOS growth in emerging markets started being wiped away by cheap Android.

Posted via Z30

[Mr4aces]

OS7 could not be enhanced much further. The architecture of the OS was stretched with the Bb7 hardware. It was not a platform that could support what a modern OS needed to do. Devs and even BlackBerry's own developer blogs have laid out the limitations of BBOS. The architecture of BB10 is far superior to anything on the market from a security perspective, unfortunately they road out BBOS too long and didn't start moving to a new platform until Apple and Android had secured the developed markets, and then the BBOS growth in emerging markets started being wiped away by cheap Android.

Posted via Z30

I'm not saying they would keep the same "architecture". I said "develop" and if develop means BB10, why wasn't BB10 started in in 2006-7? They knew what was coming and where the market was going.

BlackBerry could have nipped the Apple and Android apps in the bud if they would have given the developers more money to develop apps. They negligent that portion of the changing industry. Why not spread that cash flow to monopolize? That is what Google did. Google didn't wait for people to develop apps.

MG I paid $700 for a 9900 4-5 years ago and people expect the same in house quality for $400 today? If BlackBerry was on top people would pay, but not today.

[lnichols]

At least $1 billion of that is in notes. $3 billion is not much money in perspective to BlackBerrys SOO. They need closer to $8-10 billion minimum to accomplish what the public wants.

Apple built a facade for 9 months prior to launch of the iPhone and kept the OS basically the same for the years. RIM tried to copy instead of lead or develop the OS7 to something different with corresponding hardware. RIM/ML just waited to long because they were on top of the world. Who can deny BIS was a brilliant move.

Steve Jobs was not dealing with a tarnished pass. Beside it took Apple 10-15 years to recover from mistakes in the 90's. JC has been in there less than 2 years and you expect the same results?

BIS was a brilliant move early on when mobile networks data was expensive. However with LTE it is not needed anymore. Mike L was clearly out of touch when he told Verizon executives that they shouldn't build an LTE network. They did wait too long when they were at the top. So we can agree on some things and disagree on others. Heins had less than two years before they axed him. I think both Heins and Chen are both Prem's minions and he is dictating the course more than they are/were. Heins did the dirtiest of the work, the cuts, and now Chen is trying to figure out how to make what's left the most value for an eventual sale. BlackBerry won't sell until Prem can get his money back out at a profit. If stock keeps dropping like it has been maybe they will actually be able to take it private. Either way time will tell and we both have our opinions on what has happened to date.

Posted via Z30

[DrBoomBotz]

At least $1 billion of that is in notes. $3 billion is not much money in perspective to BlackBerrys SOO. They need closer to $8-10 billion minimum to accomplish what the public wants.

Apple built a facade for 9 months prior to launch of the iPhone and kept the OS basically the same for the years. RIM tried to copy instead of lead or develop the OS7 to something different with corresponding hardware. RIM/ML just waited to long because they were on top of the world. Who can deny BIS was a brilliant move, but to sit on the OS and not continue to update in a timely manner? Just look back and see how often the OS was updated 3-6 years ago.

Steve Jobs was not dealing with a tarnished pass. Beside it took Apple 10-15 years to recover from mistakes in the 90's. JC has been in there less than 2 years and you expect the same results?

encapsulating traffic and sending it back to a noc had some benefits and some drawbacks at the time. Now it is pretty much pointless.

[lnichols]

I'm not saying they would keep the same "architecture". I said "develop" and if develop means BB10, why wasn't BB10 started in in 2006-7? They knew what was coming and where the market was going.

MG I paid $700 for a 9900 4-5 years ago and people expect the same in house quality for $400 today? If BlackBerry was on top people would pay, but now today.

Totally agree, on waiting too long. I wish they had just bought Palm and WebOS (especially since BB10 took a lot of WebOS design queues) as a short term solution and bought QNX as the long play. WebOS had developer momentum and even got Netflix at one point. Mike over estimated the talent of QNX and BlackBerry to get a new OS built with just buying a micro kernal. WebOS would have given them a ready to go solution that people were excited about, and the BlackBerry name was still good at that time. When QNX/BB10 were ready for prime time, like now, they could have ported all the WebOS apps into BB10. In the end, pride and stubbornness of Mike and Jim has gotten BlackBerry to where they are now.

Posted via Z30

[Mr4aces]

Totally agree, on waiting too long. I wish they had just bought Palm and WebOS (especially since BB10 took a lot of WebOS design queues) as a short term solution and bought QNX as the long play. WebOS had developer momentum and even got Netflix at one point. Mike over estimated the talent of QNX and BlackBerry to get a new OS built with just buying a micro kernal. WebOS would have given them a ready to go solution that people were excited about, and the BlackBerry name was still good at that time. When QNX/BB10 were ready for prime time, like now, they could have ported all the WebOS apps into BB10. In the end, pride and stubbornness of Mike and Jim has gotten BlackBerry to where they are now.

Posted via Z30

So true about arrogance.

The only reason the tread has so much about the past is to emphasis what a hole John Chen started with and it takes more than 20 months to produce the cash flow need to do what the faithfully users want, Not easy by any means.

[DrBoomBotz]

So true about arrogance.

The only reason the tread has so much about the past is to emphasis what a hole John Chen started with and it takes more than 20 months to produce the cash flow need to do what the faithfully use want, No easy by any means.

I also wonder if in addition to the arrogance their was fear and indecision that comes with having so much to lose.
Also having co-CEO's is great when it works and potentially horrible when it doesn't.

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

It amazes me how he has set the foundation for the new BlackBerry. His instincts are spot on and what you don't know is his next move and how he will execute it.

Just like any good captain he runs a tight ship.

I give him 5 Stars

He needs to loosen up a little and let investors know what his plans are....

[Chuck Finley69]

Chen did what Heins couldn't, save BlackBerry from crashing into the ground and exploding on impact like Palm did. The company was on the verge of bankruptcy liquidation and nobody wanted to buy company like HP did with Palm. Shareholders love Chen over Heins.

Posted via CB10

[mathking606]

Chen has made a lot of mistakes imo but with the situation that he was handed I can't say that any other CEO brought in wouldn't have made those same mistakes.It seems though that people forget that he took a company bleeding 1 billion a quarter and made them cash flow positive something that many BB critics thought they could never achieve again. Even if people argue some of this was due to licensing deals/etc, he was still able to create those licencing deals which past CEOS also had the opportunity to do. He has also refocused the company and imprinted a new vision within the organization. I would says chens score card is 7/10.

[Mr4aces]

Naysayers somehow for get those things. No matter how much credit the naysayers want to give Heins, it boils down to execution and timing.

Prior admins had no concept of deadlines everything was late or not finished. No wonder the carrier relations were severed.

Posted via CB10

[ljfong]

BIS was a brilliant move early on when mobile networks data was expensive. However with LTE it is not needed anymore. Mike L was clearly out of touch when he told Verizon executives that they shouldn't build an LTE network. They did wait too long when they were at the top. So we can agree on some things and disagree on others. Heins had less than two years before they axed him. I think both Heins and Chen are both Prem's minions and he is dictating the course more than they are/were. Heins did the dirtiest of the work, the cuts, and now Chen is trying to figure out how to make what's left the most value for an eventual sale. BlackBerry won't sell until Prem can get his money back out at a profit. If stock keeps dropping like it has been maybe they will actually be able to take it private. Either way time will tell and we both have our opinions on what has happened to date.

Posted via Z30

I agree that Chen is definitely Prem's minion. However Heins is more of Mike L's minion. Mike essentially handpicked him as successor because he shared Mike's vision of hardware. The fall out happened after he disagreed with Mike over the priority of PKB vs full touch.

[Prem WatsApp]

I agree that Chen is definitely Prem's minion. However Heins is more of Mike L's minion. Mike essentially handpicked him as successor because he shared Mike's vision of hardware. The fall out happened after he disagreed with Mike over the priority of PKB vs full touch.

Maybe they really should have launched the Q10 first, or at the same time instead of the Z10 alone... :-)

(at least that's what quite a few other people are saying)

With regards to Prem, his strong interest in retaining the chance of making a profit instead of losing was keeping the company alive and in one piece.

Check here what value investing is about:


Buying a dollar for fifty cents. The value that was and is contained in BBRY needs to be unlocked. Chen has done a good job at keeping the company alive, but much more work needs to be done, and probably a strategy adjustment. He needs to do more to unlock that value. Some value is in the marketing dollar that isn't getting spent.

Marketing is still the issue, when 10.2.1 (as a stable, mature version, plus the Z30) was released and when the Passport showed up, two major marketing opportunities were missed ...

:-D


�   BB10 -- Finger flickin' good... in any form factor!   �

[Mr4aces]

Next 6 months will be the tell of the tape. With BIS revenue dying faster than their growth. BlackBerry needs to double down.

Posted via CB10

[BrooklynBerryAddict]

Possted via CB10

[nt300]

Next 6 months will be the tell of the tape. With BIS revenue dying faster than their growth. BlackBerry needs to double down.

Posted via CB10

Yes and it was BB10 HW that was suppose to soften the blow. Instead JC messed that up big time. No full touch high end BB10 and no marketing. You can't grow a company with layoffs and gutting the HW division. That same division that's the bread and butter of the company.

Sure aim to become an only Software Company. That's a 10+ year vision. Not overnight. JC has shown he's quite incompetent when it comes down to BB10 HW.

Rocking a Z30

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

Yes and it was BB10 HW that was suppose to soften the blow. Instead JC messed that up big time. No full touch high end BB10 and no marketing. You can't grow a company with layoffs and gutting the HW division. That same division that's the bread and butter of the company.

Sure aim to become an only Software Company. That's a 10+ year vision. Not overnight. JC has shown he's quite incompetent when it comes down to BB10 HW.

Rocking a Z30

Na.... he said he'd have software revenues at $500 million by the end of the year. Just bought a company that should give them an extra $200 million.... only thing is it will cost them $300 million until he guts Good like he did BlackBerry.

I don't really know what Chen should have done... BB10 is a great OS, but it isn't a platform that can be built upon. At least not as long as it is dependent upon Android Developers. So really marketing or other devices... would they have made much of a difference? Sure a Z50 might have sold well to a portion of the BB10 userbase... but outside of that it would have done very little. With or without marketing.

I think Chen is like the TV Show where they buy and old house... fix it up and then flip it. I think Prem and Chen both taught that last year they would get an offer in the $15 range and Prem could break even. So Chen has been working to make BlackBerry "look" even better by making all these smart acquisitions. But the truth is that operationally these aren't really helping BlackBerry's bottom line - they just look good.

I don't think he is incompetent... he didn't really have much to work with. But yeah I get that what he is doing, doesn't align well with what Hardware fans would have wanted.

[Mr4aces]

In my opinion:

There are very few people that could have given BlackBerry this long to survive in this industry. The captain that goes down with the ship is to blame no matter who was in command before the fight.

Looking from the outside and not knowing everything that is the the works is like thrown darts at a fly.

Sure the captain has changed course several times to avoid the torpedoes, but that's what good captains do.

I will wait and see if by March the boat sinks or stay a float.

It is hard for people to understand the complexity of running something like BlackBerry. If it was easy anyone could do it. That being said, I don't fault him for not throwing money at advertising. Nor can I pass judgment on the acquisition, layoffs or the leaks OS. By March we will have a better picture.

Again just my opinion.

PIN 829A "You're only known for the worst thing you do" DSO 1978