1. anon(3732391)'s Avatar
    I really like this idea, and think the security issue should really be played up by BB as much as possible. There is a change happening and people are becoming more security conscious. Good post OP.

    Personally I have always thought it would be good to use the example of your home, show a home totally unlocked with random strangers rummaging through the personal items in that home, then show a home that is locked with a security system. Then ask which would you prefer? (I actually use that example when trying to convince friends to give BB a try, and it works)

    I'd love to see THAT video!!
    02-23-14 12:45 AM
  2. Omnitech's Avatar
    The answer is simple: they can't afford consumer-level advertising. BB is BROKE. They just borrowed $1.25 BILLION dollars just to survive, and last quarter alone, they lost $4.4 BILLION dollars, between cash and other value. Chen is doing his best to keep the company as a whole alive, and that may very well mean that the phones won't survive. If they do, they're going to have to survive on word-of-mouth demand-creation, except for regulated enterprises, where BB is paying for corporate account repts to go into those businesses and work to convince them to stay with BB (because that's what matters to those enterprises, not consumer ads).

    Chen has made it VERY clear that the company cannot currently afford to target (mature-market) consumers, and so are focusing on the areas of their greatest strengths: regulated enterprises and emerging-market consumers. He hopes to return BB to profitability in 2016, which means you can look forward to BB losing money for the next 2 years. Remember, these are HIS words, not mine.

    A LOT is riding on the success of Jakarta. BB needs a high volume of sales in order for their smartphone business to survive, and their best bet is in the emerging markets where they've been strong with BBOS in the past: Indonesia, South Africa, Nigeria, Malaysia, etc. But even those markets are dropping BB in droves, and it's still very much in question whether BB can be price-competitive in those markets, where sub-$150 Android phones are quad-core, 1080p and getting better every month. If Jakarta fails to sell like gangbusters, it's going to be VERY hard for BB to justify staying in the phone business. The "back-up plan" is clearly making BB a software-and-services company, which would mean it would be come a company of around 1000 people (from around 5000 right now), and I'm sure Chen is working hard behind the scenes to prepare for that, because it's far from clear that the phone business will be sustainable for BB.


    I agree with most of that except I don't think people in developing markets are sitting around comparing how many cores their potential new smartphone's CPU has. People on CB who live in those places have already pointed that out many times.

    And we don't need to GUESS about BlackBerry's focus on enterprise and move away from the mass consumer market, they have made explicit announcements about this.

    On the other hand, BBM IS the best opportunity going for the company right now, if they play their cards right. I certainly would never have expected WhatsApp to be given that kind of crazy valuation.

    The fact that they have FINALLY added a "store" to BBM is a good move, they need to demonstrate there is revenue potential there.

    As far as pushing the privacy angle - I would not bank on it. BlackBerry has been VERY reticent to push that angle, most likely for fear of pushing the buttons of their many military and cloak-and-dagger clients. I think they have already lost that unique opportunity, which they should have started pushing last year. They have been pushing "security" - particularly BES-connected security - and not "personal privacy". It's a shame really, that could have been a unique opportunity for them.

    Regarding BBM specifics, the "large media sharing" thing is probably simple prudence - it would be very easy to blow up the bandwidth of their network by turning on such a feature and this could result in massive performance problems for all their users if they did not invest a lot of money in capacity upgrades to handle that massive increase in traffic. A single 16MB image or video is probably the equivalent of several hundreds of user chat-hours. Not trivial.

    They also need to:

    • Improve overall BBM delivery reliability, especially on iOS/Android
    • Provide better syncing and large-cache performance
    • Provide better chat history/scrollback facilities
    • Provide more obvious/effective "status/presence" indicators
    • Improve notifications API on BB10 to remove stupid limitations like no 3rd-party access to BBM notifications on a granular level
    • Produce a desktop app
    • Finish REAL Emoji support, not "Emoji emulation" (for SMS if nothing else)
    • Last but not least: they need some UNIQUE BENEFITS, not just "we're slightly more secure/private". Think outside of the box, people.


    They are making baby steps. I hope they can find a way to accelerate those steps.

    They also desperately need a better PR/Marketing message. This has been an Achilles Heel for the company for years. They need to be proactive and they need to make an effective case for their unique benefits, not a few me-too things and some bland humdrum about better security without any tangible examples of what that actually means.
    02-23-14 12:52 AM
  3. spyeagle's Avatar
    I'd love to see THAT video!!
    Lol, so would I! Think it would be good if it was funny too, random stranger pulls some size 30+ granny panties out of the dresser, another person taking selfies with the home owners cat and dog.. You get the point. I picture Encino man for some reason when I think of this.
    anon(3732391) likes this.
    02-23-14 12:56 AM
  4. Omnitech's Avatar
    Attractive guy and girl out and about messaging back and forth with FB character looking over their shoulders reading everything and then relaying it like an agent whispering into a lapel mic. First msg is to girl, "hey wanna grab a coffee " and immediately the environment around her is filled with coffee vendors all up in her face - she's shocked and scared. She texts back, "just going to buy some jeans" FB character whispers into mic a environment is filled with irritating jeans ads. The look on her face is. WTF? Guy texts back, "how bout pizza later?" and the girl gets a huge greasy pizza thrown right in her face. Voice over kicks in : "Want some privacy? Get free, secure BB Messenger on iPhone and Android" and then very simple URL and a scannable QR are shown.

    Very nice concept.
    02-23-14 01:01 AM
  5. Peevish's Avatar
    I disagree. He needs to take a shower first.
    He seems like the type of man who poops Doing anything else.

    Posted via CB10
    02-23-14 01:09 AM
  6. cbvinh's Avatar
    I disagree. He needs to take a shower first.
    SPOILER!

    Actually, the answer is "open your eyes"...
    02-23-14 01:17 AM
  7. ravenskman1's Avatar
    What Mr. Chen needs to do tomorrow morning....

    Give me one of his company's $4Billion lol
    02-23-14 01:37 AM
  8. milo53's Avatar
    This post is def going to rustle some jimmies

    Why?, it's true and accurate.
    02-23-14 02:28 AM
  9. freedomx20a's Avatar
    I really like this idea, and think the security issue should really be played up by BB as much as possible. There is a change happening and people are becoming more security conscious. Good post OP.

    Personally I have always thought it would be good to use the example of your home, show a home totally unlocked with random strangers rummaging through the personal items in that home, then show a home that is locked with a security system. Then ask which would you prefer? (I actually use that example when trying to convince friends to give BB a try, and it works)
    yes we gotta play on their fear! Everyone thinks their info is worth millions because everyone in their own mind is important. So we gotta pull that out and show them they are in DANGER. FEAR TO SELL THE PHONES! is the key
    spyeagle likes this.
    02-23-14 02:55 AM
  10. lnichols's Avatar
    Why?, it's true and accurate.
    Some people here don't like true and accurate. They live in the same reality distortion field Mike, Jim, and TH lived in where BlackBerry is number one and the BlackBerry way is what people wanted.

    Posted via CB10
    pankaler likes this.
    02-23-14 07:38 AM
  11. Omnitech's Avatar
    Some people here don't like true and accurate. They live in the same reality distortion field Mike, Jim, and TH lived in where BlackBerry is number one and the BlackBerry way is what people wanted.

    And some people seem to spend most of their time looking to characterize things in black/white terms when they are not so simple, and look to sort people into 2 supposedly opposing camps so they can stir the pot more.

    I suggest doing less to pit people against each other and more to find common ground.

    I know, it's a archaic concept these days.
    _dimi_ likes this.
    02-23-14 12:19 PM
36 12

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