1. lukeoverhere's Avatar
    That's cute, always loved that one. Seriously though, for a company who made so many mistakes and is grasping at straws, why wouldn't you do the most obvious thing which is protecting and reinvesting in your most reliable, long-term money stream? Who says you can't change the price rules at this point in the game? If it didn't work, fine, but if it -did-....
    01-22-19 08:44 AM
  2. Dunt Dunt Dunt's Avatar
    Bottomline they've generated significant SAFs revenue off these devices for 7 years without lifting a finger - whatever infrastructure they maintain to keep BBOS / BES running must've been bought and paid for long ago, otherwise it would've folded like everything else. The fact they've kept it alive means is an in-the-black reason ($121 million last year, not as much as before but not pocket change); therefore there must be a price they could rethink it at which it would continue to make overwhelming financial sense - am pretty certain we would pay that price. The fall from grace though probably makes this very difficult to see.
    Everyone saw the significance of SAF fees.... Think Mike and Jim both knew without those fees BlackBerry was in trouble. And Chen clearly wanted to capitalize on them. But market pressures were such that BlackBerry could not keep making phone that required carriers to support something they didn't want to support...

    FYI - BES works on today's networks - it still servers a purpose for Enterprise Customers.
    If BlackBerry offered a consumer BES.... why would consumers want it? Or why would they pay extra for it?

    BIS was needed back in the early days... when Active Sync wasn't around and when mobile networks measured data in kilobytes.
    01-22-19 09:43 AM
  3. conite's Avatar
    That's cute, always loved that one. Seriously though, for a company who made so many mistakes and is grasping at straws, why wouldn't you do the most obvious thing which is protecting and reinvesting in your most reliable, long-term money stream? Who says you can't change the price rules at this point in the game? If it didn't work, fine, but if it -did-....
    SAF/BIS is what built BlackBerry. We can all agree on that.

    In 2010, everyone knew the writing was on the wall, panic ensued, and QNX was purchased to form the core of a modern OS to try and compete before the SAF/BIS/BBOS train went completely off the rails.

    This is history, and these are the facts. Apart from you (9 years later), no one is disputing this.
    01-22-19 09:44 AM
  4. lukeoverhere's Avatar
    T-Mobile still supports all our Blackberry 9900 BES data and I believe AT&T does as well or at least until recently, I thought this was kind of a bought and paid for long ago sort of thing for them. And if not why wouldn't Chen further incentivize it to the carriers via fees from customers?

    Consumers of course don't want BES they complacent with push support speed and activesync; it is businesses like us that want the BES and would pay good money for it.

    Foremost, Bold is an excellent writing tool with mouse trackpad for highly accurate and quick writing and revising (trackkeyboards are in comparison disgustingly slow & unreliable) and field input, copy/cut/paste; highly valuable for any service-based business like ours. The instantaneous email sending and receiving and traditional computer-like keyboard navigation shortcuts, lightning fast contacts access (10k+ contacts, access speed to your contacts only recently matched on keytwo but still slow to access fields and save in comparison) basically making an incredible text only Evernote/CRM in your contacts, quick-add calendar with immediate surgically precise field input access (classic / keybbs have this ridiculous process where first you open an item, then edit it, then enter timing, ad nauseum that is so inefficient) all in combination make for incredible competitive advantage in information and overall time management. Scratch Blackberry App World, scratch the basic browsing - the highly optimized mouse trackpad & keyboard, messaging, contacts, and time planning capabilities alone are a fantastic value. And whoever the heck is still hanging and on paying like of us, are probably the people that see this too. Saw quite a few of them posting even still in 2019 in the "9900:resurgence of popularity!" forum describing similar things.
    01-22-19 10:08 AM
  5. lukeoverhere's Avatar
    SAFs made $121 million last year - how much was BBOS and how many users remain (and if possible can you cite a source?)? Surely if EOL for BBOS is currently set for further in the future (2020) than bb10 (this year), there are likely -still- more BBOS users correct? Why can't it make the company again? Again why not charge these people more right now? They're clearly attached beyond all belief and if things actually petered out in 2020 alright then what is the difference, but if people actually -did- pay it, it would more clearly define this special segment of jerks like me.
    01-22-19 10:21 AM
  6. conite's Avatar
    SAFs made $121 million last year - how much was BBOS and how many users remain (and if possible can you cite a source?)? Surely if EOL for BBOS is currently set for further in the future (2020) than bb10 (this year), there are likely -still- more BBOS users correct? Why can't it make the company again? Again why not charge these people more right now? They're clearly attached beyond all belief and if things actually petered out in 2020 alright then what is the difference, but if people actually -did- pay it, it would more clearly define this special segment of jerks like me.
    2019 results:

    Total revenue, software&services component, SAF component (in millions)

    Q1: $217, 193, 16
    Q2: $214, 197, 12
    Q3: $228, 219, 9
    01-22-19 10:55 AM
  7. lukeoverhere's Avatar
    Oh was looking a year ending 02/28/2018; okay so on track for roughly $40M ending 02/28/2019; is this not a great nest egg of raving fans customers for any new company? How is new pricing hasn't even been explored publicly or privately directly with the most likely remained customers (i.e. power-users)? Why is this thought of as a stream to be maintained instead of complacency watching it SO slowly eek away for 7 entire years?
    Attached Thumbnails Revival of a marketwise neglect: Smart phone without all the "gizmos!"-blackberry-annual-report-2018-_untitled.jpg  
    01-22-19 11:23 AM
  8. Chuck Finley69's Avatar
    Oh was looking a year ending 02/28/2018; okay so on track for roughly $40M ending 02/28/2019; is this not a great nest egg of raving fans customers for any new company? How is new pricing hasn't even been explored publicly or privately directly with the most likely remained customers (i.e. power-users)? Why is this thought of as a stream to be maintained instead of complacency watching it SO slowly eek away for 7 entire years?
    The carriers don’t want to support BIS plans even if BB wanted to continue BIS plans with carriers. There are no current devices and revenues are decreasing 25-30% / quarter.

    BB has milked this out far longer than expected. We’re entering the land of not supporting fixed costs and contract agreements with carriers expiring.
    01-22-19 12:54 PM
  9. bb10adopter111's Avatar
    The carriers don’t want to support BIS plans even if BB wanted to continue BIS plans with carriers. There are no current devices and revenues are decreasing 25-30% / quarter.

    BB has milked this out far longer than expected. We’re entering the land of not supporting fixed costs and contract agreements with carriers expiring.
    Very true. But personally I would switch back to a BIS model without a second thought and happily pay $15 a month to be off of Android and iOS.

    Posted with my trusty Z10
    elfabio80 and anon(10218918) like this.
    01-22-19 12:59 PM
  10. Chuck Finley69's Avatar
    Very true. But personally I would switch back to a BIS model without a second thought and happily pay $15 a month to be off of Android and iOS.

    Posted with my trusty Z10
    I was the same way. I think problem is BB and carrier each need or want that $15/month to be worthwhile for either side.
    01-22-19 01:08 PM
  11. bb10adopter111's Avatar
    I was the same way. I think problem is BB and carrier each need or want that $15/month to be worthwhile for either side.
    Yes. BIS through carrier is definitely not the model anymore.

    I wish BlackBerry has explored a BIS-like cloud proxy and VPN service with a recurring revenue model. They could have added all kinds of paid Enterprise-oriented services to it, especially in terms of white listing email addresses and websites, security scanning, etc.

    That would have been much more in keeping with their traditional product offering and would have leveraged their strengths instead of trying to copy Google and Apple

    Posted with my trusty Z10
    ezubeBB2013 likes this.
    01-22-19 01:14 PM
  12. conite's Avatar
    Oh was looking a year ending 02/28/2018; okay so on track for roughly $40M ending 02/28/2019; is this not a great nest egg of raving fans customers for any new company? How is new pricing hasn't even been explored publicly or privately directly with the most likely remained customers (i.e. power-users)? Why is this thought of as a stream to be maintained instead of complacency watching it SO slowly eek away for 7 entire years?
    The crux of your argument is that if Blackberry produced more BBOS devices, people would actually buy them.

    This, to me, is the fundamental flaw in your premise.

    Plus, re-establishing a hardware business, recoding and redeveloping another mobile OS for modern hardware - all for a small number of sales, presents no ROI (a massively negative one in fact).
    Last edited by conite; 01-22-19 at 01:53 PM.
    01-22-19 01:16 PM
  13. Dunt Dunt Dunt's Avatar
    Yes. BIS through carrier is definitely not the model anymore.

    I wish BlackBerry has explored a BIS-like cloud proxy and VPN service with a recurring revenue model. They could have added all kinds of paid Enterprise-oriented services to it, especially in terms of white listing email addresses and websites, security scanning, etc.

    That would have been much more in keeping with their traditional product offering and would have leveraged their strengths instead of trying to copy Google and Apple

    Posted with my trusty Z10

    The Cloud BES they offered was fun to tryout... but it really didn't add anything that an individual could justify the cost of it. But if it came with 50GB of storage, Backup options for the phones, and a personal VPN with controls to limit traffic (like block some Google Services)...
    anon(10218918) likes this.
    01-23-19 11:33 AM
  14. bb10adopter111's Avatar
    The Cloud BES they offered was fun to tryout... but it really didn't add anything that an individual could justify the cost of it. But if it came with 50GB of storage, Backup options for the phones, and a personal VPN with controls to limit traffic (like block some Google Services)...
    Agreed. If they had really committed to maintaining their historical leadership position in secure and reliable enterprise communications through a subscription model as their primary strategy and added in the same plus privacy for consumers, instead of chasing the major mobile OSes, they possibly could have built a sustainable business and added genuine value to the mobile market.
    anon(10218918) likes this.
    01-23-19 11:54 AM
  15. Lukong15's Avatar
    https://forums.crackberry.com/blackb.../#post13386576

    To the poster who said their isn't a market for dumb phones...wrong...Java was strong until Android was able to make iPhone like devices at a lower price and right now KiaOS is kicking butt also have you heard of those minimailist phones.


    Dear OP, you understand my pain

    Why do phones have 10 Cameras, but only 1 MicroSD Card?
    05-15-19 12:59 AM
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