1. dehdude's Avatar
    I haven't been to Crackberry in a while due to the negativity, but I have a soft spot for blackberry and sincerely hope they do well.
    I wanted to rant / discuss about my thoughts on blackberry as a whole on where they are and how they could have or could in the future be successful.

    If Blackberry has 4.. divisions, whats going on?

    QNX - My favorite division. So much potential here, so many verticals to explore, but they cannot do it all unfortunately and therefore must limit themselves by focusing on Medical and Auto (the 2 largest) as it should to succeed initially.
    Licensing is small revenues but is gaining marketshare. This is something which is important because it is not easy for a company to stage a large migration of an embedded software or OS for another company (retraining and new supporting apps etc) If they get their foot in, as long as they keep pace and innovate here they will have a customer for life and strong brand image.
    They need to leverage the brandname (QNX by BB) since companies using QNX are doing so not on consumer level. Make one requirement for auto makers to have QNX by BB appear briefly on startup? This would not tarnish the QNX brand but rather improve BB.
    ----------

    Unfortunately almost no more employees. With the move to google, and abandoning OS10, its a shame to think of how badly managed Chen was here.
    He undid everything Heins did in a short time and almost gave up on it immediately.
    For the record the Android handset is a good idea (now since BB10 can't sell), but would have been even better 3 years ago.
    Even better though would have been taking bb10 seriously (stupid because phones are its their main source of revenues) they missed big with a few items:
    Release a FULL TOUCH FLAGSHIP. Its not hard to see it has much bigger audience than a niche keyboard, then keyboard then keyboard device. BB10 fans waited and will still never get it so they missed this opportunity.

    These next 3 things while expensive to do would have been necessary for a fair shot at life for bb10.
    - Forget wasting resources on runtime use them for OS polishing, PAY the top 50 app devs for cascades release and put it front center in bb world.
    - Market the device! Hub, Camera rewind, virtual keyboard, multitasking, APPS, Security, quick reply etc.
    - Timing into the market, Z10 should have been a higher spec as a flagship then a q10(Same internals as z10 different body) released few months later ALONGSIDE a cheap loss leader Z3.
    This is a (sub $250 device) and take a small cash hit for the initial market share since they had the funds.

    If and when that does not take off, you pivot quickly to:
    1. Upgraded PB runtime which included gplay(Figure it out BB), or jumping right to adroid but having more time to skin / secure it since it would still be a year earlier than the priv now.

    ----------
    BBM
    W T F.. Were they all laid off?
    BBM channels is dead, BBM Video never happened (SilentOs has SecureVideo calling BTW), no substantial new features in forever.
    Does anybody know from the earnings if they have any user base for the new BBM meetings and such?
    Userbase is shrinking all the time, what about the money transfers, bbm channels direct selling, bbm music (with crossplatform it would work), making it a real social network!
    Dont link that, okay tie it with FB or Twitter, integrate texts into the app as before("mini hub" for non BB phones).
    None of this will happen sadly and Whatsapp will continue its dominance until BBM is irrelevant since nobody now has BBM and not WhatsApp installed..

    ----------
    EMM
    Purchase of Good, WatchDox and AtHoc.
    They seem to be pushing hard in this area as they should use their small advantage they still have.
    I see a problem however with how big this market will be, with the idea of a firewall (doc security, authentication, and secure VPN to access portals) and EEM services getting closer and closer, and some heavy weight players VMware IBM Microsoft, how much impact will they have.
    This is one area however I feel blackberry is in a strong position, especially with the Good buyout, they need keep pushing here and expanding their services side as this is their best hope for near term revenues.

    IoT?
    Releasing some new asset tracking devices soon, but there is not much on it yet. This area will be fierce but rightfully so as it will be a massive new market to play in.
    BB has some advantages here, but needs to move very fast to make use of them.
    I predict they will only capture a small share of the market due to their small size (not terrible though because a small share of massive money is still decent money)
    This division would be best to further partner with cisco who will be a giant in this area.
    ----------

    For what its worth, I still hold small number of shares and expect them to rebound to some extent, although perhaps only in 2 or 3 divisions the other being killed (Can you guess which ones? )
    09-29-15 02:54 PM
  2. Troy Tiscareno's Avatar
    Unfortunately almost no more employees. With the move to google, and abandoning OS10, its a shame to think of how badly managed Chen was here.
    He undid everything Heins did in a short time and almost gave up on it immediately.
    You can't blame that on Chen at all. BB10 was so disastrous for the company that they had a $4.4B write-down the quarter that Chen was brought aboard, and sales were already FAR below projections. BB as a whole company was burning cash like mad and was a couple of quarters away from bankruptcy at the rate they were moving. Heins began the cuts and Chen continued them, but the cause of the cuts was BB10.

    Even better though would have been taking bb10 seriously (stupid because phones are its their main source of revenues) they missed big with a few items:
    Release a FULL TOUCH FLAGSHIP. Its not hard to see it has much bigger audience than a niche keyboard, then keyboard then keyboard device. BB10 fans waited and will still never get it so they missed this opportunity.

    These next 3 things while expensive to do would have been necessary for a fair shot at life for bb10.
    - Forget wasting resources on runtime use them for OS polishing, PAY the top 50 app devs for cascades release and put it front center in bb world.
    - Market the device! Hub, Camera rewind, virtual keyboard, multitasking, APPS, Security, quick reply etc.
    - Timing into the market, Z10 should have been a higher spec as a flagship then a q10(Same internals as z10 different body) released few months later ALONGSIDE a cheap loss leader Z3.
    This is a (sub $250 device) and take a small cash hit for the initial market share since they had the funds.
    All of these ideas have been trotted out a hundred times before, and they're all just as unrealistic the hundredth time around.

    Successful businesses are about ideas, resources, and timing. When the iPhone was released in 2007, BB had no ideas, and by the time they got some, they were years behind. Then, the path they chose (their own platform - BB10) needed far more resources than they had to provide, and by the time they got it to market, they were at least 3 years (and closer to 5 years) out of the running - so horrible timing. Those are all management failures, but they doomed BB10 before the first developer ever swiped up. It makes exactly zero difference how good of an OS BB10 is or was; BB10 was fighting the last battle (the OS) when everyone had moved on to the next battle (ecosystems), which was a lot like knights with horses and swords and plate armor going up against a modern army with tanks and machineguns - BB didn't have a chance (and, even if they had a chance, they executed poorly at every opportunity).

    The one part you're right about is that BB should have adopted Android a LONG time ago. CB Kevin wrote an article back in 2009 about why they should, and investors were telling them to do so in 2010 when they bought QNX instead and elected to build their own platform. Try to imagine BB Android phones today, after 5 years of experience and development and perhaps $20B more dollars in the bank (BB10 cost them at least $8B directly, in my estimate). People on CB could have been arguing that BB's Android was "the best/most secure Android available" and likely would have been right. There would have never been an App Gap and BB might have 100M userbase today.

    Oh well.
    ljfong and JeepBB like this.
    09-29-15 05:28 PM
  3. KarateHottie93's Avatar
    At the end of the day nobody can predict the future. If possible, we'd all be rich.

    In a way I'm glad BB went the way it did as Windows Phone was able to take third place in market share and is now on pretty even grounds with the other two when it comes to major app selection. They are not near as updated but at least there.

    That leaves BlackBerry, now on the brink of death. At the very least, I will buy them out and save QNX OS when I get famous. It may sound like a joke but trust me, I will save BB if it comes to that.

    Posted via CB10
    09-29-15 11:41 PM
  4. MaxR_A's Avatar
    Mod please correct title to either 'could have been' or 'could've been'.

    Posted via CB10 
    andy957 likes this.
    03-21-16 10:55 AM
  5. Thunderbuck's Avatar
    I like your insights. I think you've provided a decent analysis of where BlackBerry is now, and where they can go from here.

    BB10 is dead, sadly. It had so much potential and so many good ideas, but at this point dwelling on that is just depressing. With the Priv, BlackBerry has proven that at least some of their best ideas can translate to Android. After spending a couple of weeks trying a Priv I have to concede that it's one of the best Android handsets out there now. Obviously, BlackBerry has a chance to leverage this with more Android devices and I can only hope the Priv has sold well enough to justify that.

    Android works well enough on the Priv that I think BB should seriously consider making it available for Passport users as well; it would certainly provide a new market for the device if it's still in production at all.

    BBM is still a great messaging platform. I know the lack of video is a problem but if BBM can be redeemed on non-BB platforms it could start making more sense.
    Laura Knotek and web99 like this.
    03-25-16 03:06 PM

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