Just an observation and some thoughts

After watching a '60 minutes' segment on Huawei posted in the thread Priv vs Nexus 6P - BlackBerry Forums at CrackBerry.com I am wondering if there's any future for BlackBerry in the Telecommunications field in terms of hardware?

Let's think about this now. Cisco is really the only major player left in the US and still don't make all the necessary components for a relevant 4G network. Though BlackBerry is a different type of company, could they have the possibility of manufacturing such components given that all other major players are foreign? If they could, they would have software, services, handsets and telecommunications. They would be one of a handful of companies worldwide to have and end-to-end solution not just in software security, but in hardware security as well.

Posted via CB10

Chen has mentioned some IoT hardware solutions.... don't really know what he is talking about or if they have any more potential than anything else BlackBerry has fumbled around with in the hardware market.

Originally Posted by BBd00d

Though BlackBerry is a different type of company, could they have the possibility of manufacturing such components given that all other major players are foreign?

BB doesn't have any manufacturing capabilities at all. They used to have a small assembly plant in Waterloo where they built their prototype phones and did low-volume (single-digit-percentages) of their overall phone production, but the vast, vast majority of BB phones were always built by outside manufacturing partners. That's the norm for the industry as a whole. Anyway, even the small Waterloo facility was closed and sold off in 2013, so BB is 100% dependent on their manufacturing partners.

Further, BB lacks the financial resources to do anything like what you are suggesting. The company as a whole is valued at the same price as the cash they have on hand, meaning Wall Street assigns ZERO value to the company's actual operations or holdings right now (actually, they assign approx $1B to all of that, but BB also owes $1.25 B in debt to Fairfax, plus interest). Essentially, BB has $2B in cash, but they need that money just to keep operating.

Example: they are rumored to be making 500k Priv phones. BB has to pay for the components and the manufacturing for these phones up-front, and if we assume the production cost of $250 per phone, that's $125M they have to pay out just to get the phones built - that's not development costs, industrial design, certification, marketing, distribution, etc. expenses. Given that BB has posted a loss for the last 13 quarters straight, they aren't going to be able to get credit to produce anything, so they have to pay cash and still have enough of a reserve to survive. Thus, they can't just spend themselves down to zero hoping that something is successful - they're already near the point of investor protests, and such a plan would result in the board being thrown out and probably the company being liquidated.

Originally Posted by Troy Tiscareno

BB doesn't have any manufacturing capabilities at all. They used to have a small assembly plant in Waterloo where they built their prototype phones and did low-volume (single-digit-percentages) of their overall phone production, but the vast, vast majority of BB phones were always built by outside manufacturing partners. That's the norm for the industry as a whole. Anyway, even the small Waterloo facility was closed and sold off in 2013, so BB is 100% dependent on their manufacturing partners.

Further, BB lacks the financial resources to do anything like what you are suggesting. The company as a whole is valued at the same price as the cash they have on hand, meaning Wall Street assigns ZERO value to the company's actual operations or holdings right now (actually, they assign approx $1B to all of that, but BB also owes $1.25 B in debt to Fairfax, plus interest). Essentially, BB has $2B in cash, but they need that money just to keep operating.

Example: they are rumored to be making 500k Priv phones. BB has to pay for the components and the manufacturing for these phones up-front, and if we assume the production cost of $250 per phone, that's $125M they have to pay out just to get the phones built - that's not development costs, industrial design, certification, marketing, distribution, etc. expenses. Given that BB has posted a loss for the last 13 quarters straight, they aren't going to be able to get credit to produce anything, so they have to pay cash and still have enough of a reserve to survive. Thus, they can't just spend themselves down to zero hoping that something is successful - they're already near the point of investor protests, and such a plan would result in the board being thrown out and probably the company being liquidated.

All of which is why the PRIV is priced at �579.99.

Originally Posted by Dunt Dunt Dunt

All of which is why the PRIV is priced at �579.99.

That is the UK price for the Priv. The US price point hasn't been released yet there are many factors that go into individual countries pricing such as exchange rates, shipping costs, tariffs, and taxes etc.

Posted via the CrackBerry App for Android

Originally Posted by skibnik

That is the UK price for the Priv. The US price point hasn't been released yet there are many factors that go into individual countries pricing such as exchange rates, shipping costs, tariffs, and taxes etc.

Posted via the CrackBerry App for Android

True... but even in GB that is expensive.

Just like in GB, once the price is release, the PRIV will be about the price of the iPhone 6s Plus.

I just think that if Samsung is having problems at the high end of the market, that BlackBerry isn't going to have much of a chance there. Maybe the keyboard has value....

I think if they sell the Priv at exactly the price point of the iPhone 6S, then a lot of people might consider this phone...otherwise it's just too expensive

BlackBerry never learns. They remind me of a petulant and insufferable child that just won't listen. They are just itching to fail so they can exit hardware completely.