[LuvULongTime]

Except the "they" in this case isn't BB, it is the local cell phone retailers. And the rules in emerging markets are often much looser than in developed markets. BB would likely be sued if they gave this advice to customers in the US.

I was under the impression the display that said 'android ready' was at the BlackBerry booth.

I disagree that they would be sued in NA for advertising android compatibility. They have essentially forked their own instance of android. They can promote alternate sites to grab apk's from that are not on BlackBerry World. Now I agree that they can't promote snap or Amazon, but other sites are not off limits.

Posted via CB10

[nabil114]

Apple and Android make better products than Blackberry.

[Barracuda7772]

Apple and Android make better products than Blackberry.

Apple makes overpriced phones with the perception of being "magical"

And samsung makes hardware with buggy and shoddy touchwiz or ux what ever their calling it now

Blackberry makes solid phones with a solid OS

Sent from the ocean using my waterproof Z10

[spikesolie]

Apple and Android make better products than Blackberry.

I disagree. First of all better can be subjective. Secondly If you said "apple offers more services" it would make sense.. but better? The specs of the 5s alone isn't really a world beater next to the z10 never mind the z30.

Get your bs out

Posted via CB10

[Edward in Toronto]

Don't forget that there's also that conspiracy theory going around that the NSA has torpedoed BlackBerry, because if everyone in USA would use an Apple or Samsung like device then it would be easier for 'The Program' to spy on them.

[anon(5828343)]

I wish it was as simple and unidimensional as just marketing but it, sadly, isn't and has not been.

I would agree that marketing and, specifically, marketing spend has been inadequate and that has no doubt contributed to the demise but the issues are far more multifaceted and complex.

Firstly, the product (BB devices) was quite simply eclipsed by others. BBRY underestimated Apple and the iPhone at its peril.

Secondly, BBRY arrogantly believed that smartphone users were uniquely interested in productivity and basic communications (emails, text, voice and BBM/Pin-to-Pin) and failed to realize that smartphone users welcomed and wanted more (surfing, entertainment, apps, GPS, etc).

Thirdly, BBRY failed to listen to understand that even the vast majority of its own users were not going to blindly follow BBRY simply because of BBOS. When it botched the launch of BB10, it not only failed to arrest the marketshare decline, it may have even accelerated it by not giving longstanding BBOS users an OS they would be happy to migrate towards and other OS users an OS that they would switch for.

Fourthly, BBRY failed to provide a hardware ecosystem (ie. tablets) to compliment and supplement its smartphone devices. Playbook was a great device that flopped through shear neglect and incompetence and the decision to drop BB10 for PB was disastrous for BBRY's credibility with longstanding users.

Fifthly, the failure of BBRY to build a robust native apps library (and I know this concern gets regularly dismissed because of the seeming availability of Android apps on BB10). The fact of the matter is the despite the availability of some Android apps on BB10 and the easier installation of apps on BB10 devices, run of the mill smartphone users are not willing to sideload Android apps regardless of how easy it is to do so.

Finally, in my view, arrogance is what ultimately killed BB (not just in the U.S. but pretty much everywhere). The sense at BBRY HQ that it could do no wrong was so pervasive that it failed to see how badly things were when it could still do something about it. Now, in the U.S. and, to a great degree, in Canada, people have become so invested in their non-BB OS that it may well be too late.

[Oglon3r]

Although I may agree with most of your premise, you point loses some credibility with me.

Too many people on here, when trying to make a point, throw out generalities like it is fact.

If I ever seen an article or ad stating why BlackBerry has failed and they said things along the lines of.

There is "a lot" of advertising, and BlackBerry has "basically none", it doesn't sound too thought out.

The US is "young" based on age census?

What census are you looking at, and young relative to what?

Posted via CB10

Have you ever by any chance taken more than 5 minutes wit the US or for that matter any country census data? Well if you had then you would know about age groups and that's how I determined the US has what they call a healthy population growth with a sustainable number of individuals age 18-35. Also my premise wasn't even remotely that, what I tried to get across was no matter how good a product or service is, if there is no successful advertisement there is no sustainable business. Also several fellas in this thread argue that the product was incomplete and that advertisement isn't the key to success. For that I would like to point you to many many companies that due to negligence, over-confidence or sheer laziness pushed utter garbage to the public and made millions because the media campaign was successful in deceiving the customers or end users. For example the entertainment industry does it all the time. They go and through advertisement entice the customer enough to go to the movie theater or purchase a movie, it doesn't matter the ultimate goal is to get our money. I experience it all the time. "oh look that ad on TV for that movie looks pretty tight.... go to see such movie.... oh wow all the good parts were in that commercial the rest was ****." Now look at tech companies and their respective fiascos remember the iPhone 2, the 5c, and 4s???? Remember honeycomb android and even BlackBerry STORM. Some.more food for thought

Posted via z30 STA100-5 the only high end business device on the market

[eric_bb]

Even the blackberry.com website is pretty lame, compared to Apple, Nokia, etc.

[lnichols]

Don't forget that there's also that conspiracy theory going around that the NSA has torpedoed BlackBerry, because if everyone in USA would use an Apple or Samsung like device then it would be easier for 'The Program' to spy on them.

Oh say they paid off Mike and Jim to sit on their *** and do nothing for years after the iPhone release. Pay them to delay the BB10 launch and the botch the PlayBook rollout? Sorry but the only person to blame for the issues is BlackBerry.

Posted with a BlackBerry Z10

[tangozulu]

Apple and Android make better products than Blackberry.

Apple makes lap tops and ipads which seem to be everywhere these days and in every movie (BTW-advertising at play) Iphones are bought to stay in the same ecosystem. BB makes no laptops or tablets.
And its not older and fewer but older and WISER
As you age running with the crowd is way less a concern or important.

[tangozulu]

Even the blackberry.com website is pretty lame, compared to Apple, Nokia, etc.

iTunes has to be the worst (lamest) software ever.

[tangozulu]

The US demographic is the youngest of the developed nations. Older Americans have a healthy crop of upcoming taxpayers to keep the system running unlike Canada and most of Europe. Thank the influx from the south for this.

[GingerSnapsBack]

iTunes has to be the worst (lamest) software ever.

This I'll agree with and I'm an iPhone user. I HATE using iTunes to do EVERYTHING with my phone unless I jailbreak and use iFunBox - which is my preferred method of dealing with my phone. iTunes is such a headache.

I miss the drag and drop of my Storm2.

[iz_26]

I feel they probably should have and could have executed with the Super Bowl commercial that they had from last year. The commercial itself wasn't too bad (wasn't great either), but there should have been more advertising after that to try to gain some type of momentum or at least make the brand somewhat visible again. More emphasis should have been put on great features, smoothness of use, true multitasking, etc.

[iz_26]

Don't forget that there's also that conspiracy theory going around that the NSA has torpedoed BlackBerry, because if everyone in USA would use an Apple or Samsung like device then it would be easier for 'The Program' to spy on them.

This is actually a big part of the problem too. Because BlackBerry won't help the "powers to be" to spy on and monitor the masses, they started getting negative press and perception of BlackBerry has been negative. The people who REALLY run the governments also control the media, the food we eat, and pretty much everything. So I agree.

[BergerKing]

Moved to Armchair CEO, our subforum for Marketing and such.

[NinjaB]

...been saying this for ages.

I don't expect them to spend on par with Apple and Samsung, but only $40M?! That's ridiculous, and even worse than I thought.. that's the equivalent of sitting on your hands when u have had $2.5-3bn cash on-hand for the last few years. They should be spending at least 100+, as that's 10 years of that kind of spending and only 1bn spent!

marketing can fix 60% of the problems BB faces overall and in the US; perception, awareness, the "learning curve" through more familiarity with the OS and features.. and further down the line; sales and carrier support...

I'd be curious to see if things increased in 2013, but you can't be so scared to spend money that you hurt your company's future.. But if they eventually go under, unfortunately that will most likely be the reason. It sure won't be the phones, cuz they're incredible products - I think you'd be hard-pressed to say that they aren't at least on par with the top of the line Apple/Samsung/HTC phones...

[Ebuka Allison]

This is actually a big part of the problem too. Because BlackBerry won't help the "powers to be" to spy on and monitor the masses, they started getting negative press and perception of BlackBerry has been negative. The people who REALLY run the governments also control the media, the food we eat, and pretty much everything. So I agree.

BlackBerry allowed governments to spy on BBM/BIS communications. I remember a story about India (If someone could please help me out here)

[iz_26]

BlackBerry allowed governments to spy on BBM/BIS communications. I remember a story about India (If someone could please help me out here)

I do remember them doing that with the London riots that took place. They claimed the people starting the riots were using BBM to plan it all. Just an excuse for the gov to get BlackBerry to cooperate so that the gov could view the encrypted BBM data.

[ljfong]

Finally, in my view, arrogance is what ultimately killed BB (not just in the U.S. but pretty much everywhere). The sense at BBRY HQ that it could do no wrong was so pervasive that it failed to see how badly things were when it could still do something about it. Now, in the U.S. and, to a great degree, in Canada, people have become so invested in their non-BB OS that it may well be too late.

The arrogance is also what generated intense amount of disproportional hate against the brand. Note that Apple is also a very arrogant company, but they are also a very successful company (at least for now). So if Apple slips and makes combo of colossal mistakes the way BlackBerry did, I expect Apple to get the same level of hate too.

[chickenman18]

Blackberry is the only one to blame for the current position it is in. In the marketplace, there is one mantra that keeps all companies on their toes... And that's "Adapt or perish".
Blackberry thought that the iPhone was a fad. Android versions began shortly afterwards. So, Blackberry now has the Z10 and Z30. While they may be uber cool devices, let's not forget that the marketplace was not patiently waiting for Blackberry to develop it's version of an all touch device. Developers aren't exactly clamouring to build apps either. So when people say that it's marketing that caused the downfall, it isn't really accurate IMHO.



Sent from my iPhone using CB Forums mobile app