[FlashFlare11]

I've been a rather passionate BlackBerry fan for the past four years and have loved supporting this company because I truly enjoy the products it produces.

With the recent news that BlackBerry has formed a committee to review strategic alternatives, it seems that many have resigned to the possibility that BlackBerry as we know it won't exist in the near future.

My question is: is there any possible way for BlackBerry to find success under its current strategy, albeit with a few changes? By success, I mean being able to be profitable and maintain its status as an independent, publicly-owned company that produces both hardware and software.

Could a change in current product line-up, as well as more compelling software additions, coupled with huge turn in market direction do anything to reverse their position? Or is it completely out of the company's hands?

Posted via CB10

[Skatophilia]

Personally I think they need to wait it out a little bit here. I mean the Z30 is coming out, and BBM for the other platforms hasn't been released yet. After those things happen then we'll see what goes down. Before that, I don't see the reason for such alarms.

[qbnkelt]

I've been a rather passionate BlackBerry fan for the past four years and have loved supporting this company because I truly enjoy the products it produces.

With the recent news that BlackBerry has formed a committee to review strategic alternatives, it seems that many have resigned to the possibility that BlackBerry as we know it won't exist in the near future.

My question is: is there any possible way for BlackBerry to find success under its current strategy, albeit with a few changes? By success, I mean being able to be profitable and maintain its status as an independent, publicly-owned company that produces both hardware and software.

Could a change in current product line-up, as well as more compelling software additions, coupled with huge turn in market direction do anything to reverse their position? Or is it completely out of the company's hands?

Posted via CB10

I don't think that BlackBerry has reached the point of no return. But they do need a keen understanding of the consumer market, a clear vision of what they want to accomplish, the discipline to pursue it, and effective execution.

Some of those things I'm not seeing.

[kevxn]

I've been a rather passionate BlackBerry fan for the past four years and have loved supporting this company because I truly enjoy the products it produces.

With the recent news that BlackBerry has formed a committee to review strategic alternatives, it seems that many have resigned to the possibility that BlackBerry as we know it won't exist in the near future.

My question is: is there any possible way for BlackBerry to find success under its current strategy, albeit with a few changes? By success, I mean being able to be profitable and maintain its status as an independent, publicly-owned company that produces both hardware and software.

Could a change in current product line-up, as well as more compelling software additions, coupled with huge turn in market direction do anything to reverse their position? Or is it completely out of the company's hands?

Posted via CB10

BB10 is a great platform. However, to build a strong ecosystem, BlackBerry needs to sell itself to a giant who can sacrifice short term profit.

Posted via CB10

[berklon]

When they released their first BB10 device, the odds were stacked against them.

Right now their chances to succeed are less than 1%.

There's just not enough about BB10 that's making people to ignore iPhone/Android. Not the hardware or the software. Even if some key apps come, it's still suffers greatly in ecosystem. The Blackberry mindshare is that the company is outdated and boring. They don't have enough time, money or talent to turn it around.

To make it even tougher is the latest news of putting themselves up for sale. You can believe that A LOT of people are seeing this is the final nail in Blackberry's coffin and they aren't going to invest any money in this company. I have to believe many companies have backed off on Blackberry considering how much money they'd lose in a big purchase of their products.

Blackberry is done... there's no way around it.

[luisoman2000]

Blackberry needs to pull a nokia/microsoft. No way around it.

Sent from my LT28h using Tapatalk 2

[ajst222]

What strategy? In all honesty, I can't see one. They've been all over the board.

Posted via CB10

[Rickroller]

The only way I see BB pulling out of this one is merging with a much larger more prominent name like Samsung or Sony and licence their software only. Drop the whole BB10 shtick and simply have someone market it as QNX software.

Face it..the whole BB brand is tarnished. Sure.. Some people are die hards, but with a 2% market share in NA most people just don't like the name anymore and what it's synonymous with, battery pulls and spinning clocks as well as lack of apps (still an issue).

Even going private doesn't stop the bleeding of customers jumping ship left and right. And with all the recent news (be it all true or not)..there isn't going to be a lot of confidence instilled in the consumer place right now..which is going to just accelerate the hemorrhaging.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

[jeffydude05]

The only strategy I see is cutting cost and you can't do that forever. I know they want to keep the cash balance up, but they need to spend some of that money on marketing. I don't see anyone wanting to partner with them, I see companies wanting the patents. Maybe they need to go private and drop the consumer market.

[STV0726]

Right now their chances to succeed are less than 1%.

Right...

90% of all percentage statistics are made up on the fly.

~STV on Z10STL100-3/10.1.0.2025 TMO US

[ajst222]

The only strategy I see is cutting cost and you can't do that forever. I know they want to keep the cash balance up, but they need to spend some of that money on marketing. I don't see anyone wanting to partner with them, I see companies wanting the patents. Maybe they need to go private and drop the consumer market.

You bring up a good point. Right now, BlackBerry is too focused on running the business, if you get what I mean. They are trying too hard to stay out of the red. That might not sound like a bad thing, but it is. Instead, they should be focusing more time and money on actually getting out there with the product itself and stop being so worried about the books. But I'm afraid that once they do realize that, they won't have enough money or momentum to propel their product and brand/image where it needs to go.

Posted via CB10

[Troy Tiscareno]

BB has been looking for a buyer or partner for over two years now. Many have taken a look but no one has liked what they saw enough to put in a bid that BB has considered. The thing is, all hope was on BB10, and 6 months ago, they could point to BB10 as a possible success. Today, there really isn't anything they can point to as a potential turn-around. They went all-in on BB10, and their hand wasn't nearly good enough.

IMO, no one is going to want to buy or partner with BB now. I believe that it's more likely that BB will "continue looking" for a few more quarters, at which point the BoD will throw in the towel and break up the company to sell the pieces, because that's the only way they're going to get the shareholders any money back.

This recent announcement is understood in the business world to be an acknowledgement from BB that they've failed, and don't see any light at the end of the tunnel. That's going to affect the decisions of anyone who was considering buying into BB's ecosystem. Companies that were considering moving to BES10 and/or BB10 will reconsider, and many will decide to go another direction rather than be stuck with hardware and software that won't have future support. App developers will make the same decision: those who were considering developing for the platform will turn their energies elsewhere.

Many people here want to keep giving BB "more time", but they've run out of time. I'd guess they will have burned through a big portion of that $3B they reported having last Q, and the shareholders have NO intention of letting them take their account down to $0. After 2 full Q's to try to get BB10 sales going, the shareholders aren't going to give BB any more rope.

That's what I see, anyway.

[jeffydude05]

You bring up a good point. Right now, BlackBerry is too focused on running the business, if you get what I mean. They are trying too hard to stay out of the red. That might not sound like a bad thing, but it is. Instead, they should be focusing more time and money on actually getting out there with the product itself and stop being so worried about the books. But I'm afraid that once they do realize that, they won't have enough money or momentum to propel their product and brand/image where it needs to go.

Posted via CB10

Honestly it seems like Heins was brought in to trim the fat and get the company ready for sale/acquisition.

[BlackBerry Guy]

When viewed in context of the strategic review, the moves they've made recently like opening BBM, and multi-platform management on BES 10 now appear to be made to slowly transition themselves more into a software and services company and to add value to their name. This current crop of hardware I think is their Hail Mary pass. Even if they're out of hardware all together, I'd like to see BlackBerry around in some form or other.

[heyfarhaan]

I think there will be a gradual tilt towards BlackBerry as people's contracts expire etc. Only the fanboys, like myself, would buy a $600 phone straight up. I believe the market is extremely impatient when it comes to BlackBerry and all the negative publicity isn't helping the BlackBerry cause. Strange move from BlackBerry saying they are up for sale so early in the BB10 lifespan. This isn't motivational for people wanting to switch to BlackBerry and for developers who develop for the platform.

Posted via CB10

[fearmantis]

Long live BB Z10!

BB Z10 Rocks!

[traprjohn]

Geez, tough crowd. I waited two years for the Q10 to come out. Is it early 2012, late 2012, then Feb 2013. Where is the damn keyboard. Another 5 months and I have my Q10. Love it.

There are some of us that just like the phone and will hang on to the end. I know all of you posting are the same way. You have passion for the company and product or you would not be on crackberry bothering to express your opinions.

I wish BBRY the best and hope they survive anyway they can. 1%, 2%, 4% is all good if they are still in business.

Posted via CB10 w/ my Q10

[The Aficionado]

I think the best solution is for them to price their products more aggressively

The q10 and z10 can stay at high margins, but why not make the q5 $0 on contract and $250 without

They would be selling at cost but would gain a lot of users

We have already seen that bb10 products sell once the price is brought in line to how good the hardware actually is

This one simple change would work wonders

Bb is already doing all it can to bring in apps. If the platform can't take off without app support then it is doomed.

Posted via CB10

[The Aficionado]

Yes I also agree there hasn't been enough time yet to draw conclusions

Let bbm cross platform be released. Let the z30 be released. Let the company get through a back to school and a holiday season, and give enterprise some time to adopt bes 10 and bb10 devices

The company has jumped the gun a bit with the "for sale" announcement. I have a friend who was ready to go out and buy a q5. Now he thinks that by putting up the company for sale they have already admitted bb10 is a failure

Thorsten heins is just looking for a payout and a graceful exit

Posted via CB10

[rodan01]

The current smartphone market is out of reach for BlackBerry. To survive they would need to redefine the market as Apple did in 2007.

The value is not in the OS anymore, the value is in the apps and services. HTML5 will be powerful and efficient enough for the 80-90% of the apps in a couple of years. So the apps will be independent of the OS. Most people, the base of the pyramid, will use Chrome OS or Firefox OS, machines optimized for HTML5, no Android, no iOS, no Windows, and of course no BlackBerry.
So the question is what apps will be essential in 5 years or more and what hardware those apps will need to work?

The Apps that will rule the future are an evolution of the search engine that are concept based, not text based. Apps capable of bringing meaningful information to people and not in a passive way like on demand search. It has to be active, make propositions.
Those new systems has to collect all the relevant information of the user, what she sees, hear, writes, the location, food, drinks, temperature, financial status, emotions, had sex last night, etc Process that information from the user, their friends, relatives, etc. and propose useful information, answers, collaborations, activities, products, new friends, places, food, movies, music, etc..
So ads will evolve from brand positioning by repetition to solutions to immediate problems. If the system detect the user hasn't eat in five hours and there is a restaurant the user likes in the next block, the system will propose the restaurant to the user, and the restaurant will pay to the system a fee according to the consumption of the user. Expand this to everything and you have pure life efficiency.

Technology has to permeate life completely. There is some people that think privacy and security are important, they are so wrong. Lack of privacy, the acquisition of all the data from the users, and converting that data in value for the users is the important thing for the future. Security breaches and lack of privacy are a meaningless problems compared to the benefits of ubiquitous information and the value systems can generate with that information.

The operating system war will be over soon and big tech companies will concentrate in more interesting developments.

What can BB10 solve that Android or iOS can't solve?

[kevinnugent]

Personally I think they need to wait it out a little bit here. I mean the Z30 is coming out, and BBM for the other platforms hasn't been released yet. After those things happen then we'll see what goes down. Before that, I don't see the reason for such alarms.

Then why did they announce this now? Food for thought.

[ajst222]

Honestly it seems like Heins was brought in to trim the fat and get the company ready for sale/acquisition.

Wow...very well could be the case.

Posted via CB10

[anon(870071)]

I've been a rather passionate BlackBerry fan for the past four years and have loved supporting this company because I truly enjoy the products it produces.

With the recent news that BlackBerry has formed a committee to review strategic alternatives, it seems that many have resigned to the possibility that BlackBerry as we know it won't exist in the near future.

My question is: is there any possible way for BlackBerry to find success under its current strategy, albeit with a few changes? By success, I mean being able to be profitable and maintain its status as an independent, publicly-owned company that produces both hardware and software.

Could a change in current product line-up, as well as more compelling software additions, coupled with huge turn in market direction do anything to reverse their position? Or is it completely out of the company's hands?

Posted via CB10

I think one of their major goals right now is to roll out bbos 10. And with the soon to be launched cross platform bbm will open an entire new channels of sale and profit!

Sent from my SGH-I957R using CB Forums mobile app

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

The current smartphone market is out of reach for BlackBerry. To survive they would need to redefine the market as Apple did in 2007.

The value is not in the OS anymore, the value is in the apps and services. HTML5 will be powerful and efficient enough for the 80-90% of the apps in a couple of years. So the apps will be independent of the OS. Most people, the base of the pyramid, will use Chrome OS or Firefox OS, machines optimized for HTML5, no Android, no iOS, no Windows, and of course no BlackBerry.
So the question is what apps will be essential in 5 years or more and what hardware those apps will need to work?

The Apps that will rule the future are an evolution of the search engine that are concept based, not text based. Apps capable of bringing meaningful information to people and not in a passive way like on demand search. It has to be active, make propositions.
Those new systems has to collect all the relevant information of the user, what she sees, hear, writes, the location, food, drinks, temperature, financial status, emotions, had sex last night, etc Process that information from the user, their friends, relatives, etc. and propose useful information, answers, collaborations, activities, products, new friends, places, food, movies, music, etc..
So ads will evolve from brand positioning by repetition to solutions to immediate problems. If the system detect the user hasn't eat in five hours and there is a restaurant the user likes in the next block, the system will propose the restaurant to the user, and the restaurant will pay to the system a fee according to the consumption of the user. Expand this to everything and you have pure life efficiency.

Technology has to permeate life completely. There is some people that think privacy and security are important, they are so wrong. Lack of privacy, the acquisition of all the data from the users, and converting that data in value for the users is the important thing for the future. Security breaches and lack of privacy are a meaningless problems compared to the benefits of ubiquitous information and the value systems can generate with that information.

The operating system war will be over soon and big tech companies will concentrate in more interesting developments.

What can BB10 solve that Android or iOS can't solve?

You never know.... Company I work for still has some 11 year old Windows XP machines in use, and doing what they need. Some things change very quickly, and some things don't.

Most people in the 60's probably thought we would have a base on the Moon by now and would be traveling to Mars on a regular basis by 2013. But I doubt many of them expect that we would carry around a small mobile device that could make phone calls, holds thousands of their favorite songs, allow them to watch TV, find answers to almost any question (by just asking "her"), that could map a route to any location. Sometimes the things you expect never materialize, and things you never thought could be done or that you would even want... happen.

We live in today and for BlackBerry to survive they need to be providing tomorrow's technology TODAY (instead of last years technology).

Most likely I would never use Miracast, but just the fact that my Premium device didn't have it when so many other did....


As for BBRY succeeding under the CURRENT STRATEGY... not a chance. They need to make some big changes very quickly!

[theloststory]

Well, the problem with Blackberry is invisible marketing. Or non existent. We are the big fans and thats why we know, but other people are ONLY hearing negative reports in media.

We are thousands of fans here. If we start posting positive things about the BB, it may go viral and help the company.