This was brought up on today's Crackberry Live Podcast. The "prosumer" is the target customer that was mentioned in the announcement. Anybody have any idea who that is? Some kind of professional-consumer hybrid. To me, that would be something like a pilot, engineer, or healthcare professional. Except that each of these professional presumably has some profession-specific niche app that will never make it into the 3rd or 4th place platform.
To me, the target user for Blackberrry is the one that TH mentioned in his interview with Kevin - the "hyper-communicator". The problem is that most people associate that with people clicking on physical keyboards who don't really need BB10.
Great thread. I'm trying to figure this one out myself in the context of the current smartphone industry.
Assuming developers are going to give up on BB10 now, and given that professionals like you said probably need specific apps, then who is the target here?
If we had to write a persona for a typical BlackBerry "prosumer" customer, what would that look like? Maybe we can use this thread to build that out.
I was wondering myself. And then it hit me. It the normal consumer who thinks he's smarter than everyone else. I don't think Blackberry intend to stay in hardware at all. This statement was to calm the hordes of "prosumers" at the front gates.
I think most of the users here at Crackberry would consider themselves as prosumers. That's why there's maybe less angst than normally would be in this situation. "Hey, I'm OK. They still love ME!!"
I think most of the users here at Crackberry would consider themselves as prosumers. That's why there's maybe less angst than normally would be in this situation. "Hey, I'm OK. They still love ME!!"
Prosumer is a term used to describe a group of consumers back in 2000-2010ish - effectively Hein was announcing that he was going to be travel back in time.
An example of a prosumer is a serious hobbyist. Like someone who buys an higher end SLR camera but doesn't use it to earn a living.
In the phone world, people that post a lot on forums or dabble in developing like many at XDA would be pro-sumers.
Personally I only hear the term prosumer thrown around with cameras/camcorders. Prosumer models would be advanced point and shoots, large sensor compacts, entry/mid-level dslrs, etc. Like you said, something a serious hobbyist. Wants to get the best results from his equipment but doesn't make enough money from his hooby to justify a pro camera. I'm not really sure how the term applies to the cell phone space though.
Prosumer is a term used to describe a group of consumers back in 2000-2010ish - effectively Hein was announcing that he was going to be travel back in time.
That's it! They are targeting the users from a decade ago with the devices they loved. They can do kind of Looper thing where the pallets of Blackberrys show up in 2003 with a note to bury gold in the desert after they are sold.
That's it! They are targeting the users from a decade ago with the devices they loved. They can do kind of Looper thing where the pallets of Blackberrys show up in 2003 with a note to bury gold bars in the desert after they are sold.
Only good news is that Prosumer for me means a Q30 (or bigger Q10 with another name) is more than possible.
Historically for Blackberry: Pro= physical keyboard and i really think BB10 shows its best with instant actions and keyboard shortcuts.
So Blackberry has certainly its place as a prosumer brand, i just hope they will learn from the disastrous pricing of the Z10 (and Z30 seems more reasonable).
This evening again an iT friend of mine (android user) was really interested in my Q10 so maybe Blackberry just hit rock bottom and will eventually start again on a sound basis made of pros and "hyper-communicators" that really want a Blackberry for what it can do like nobody else.
I think a prosumer is someone who would not want to watch Netflix on his phone. They are saying that they are going after people who want a quality OS without the need for all of the apps that they don't have.
Also, a prosumer is interested in security and multi-tasking and a system that doesn't crash. He is interested in good voice call quality and reception and using a phone for communications, either e-mails or BBM messaging etc.
They really have no other choice so they have decided to define this segment as prosumer and hope that the letters "pro" in the word make it seem like some kind of status category.
By downsizing, they can be profitable for now with a much lower percentage of the consumer market while hoping things turn around.
They can now say that this lower percentage is really all they want because it fits their definition.
Might work if they get rid of Heins and bring in a new CEO who doesn't have the history of trying anything and everything that Heins has tried. Start fresh with the same products but with a different CEO.
It is the only way they might be able to gain some respect from Wall St.
I think a prosumer is someone who would not want to watch Netflix on his phone. They are saying that they are going after people who want a quality OS without the need for all of the apps that they don't have.
They really have no other choice so they have decided to define this segment as prosumer and hope that the letters "pro" in the word make it seem like some kind of status category.
By downsizing, they can be profitable for now with a much lower percentage of the consumer market while hoping things turn around.
They can now say that this lower percentage is really all they want because it fits their definition.
Might work if they get rid of Heins and bring in a new CEO who doesn't have the history of trying anything and everything that Heins has tried. Start fresh with the same products but with a different CEO.
It is the only way they might be able to gain some respect from Wall St.
VERY, VERY, VERY hard for a large business to scale down and become a small business.
Professionals will pay more for a device if it is truly better than consumer grade products, or if it has features that are unavailable in cheaper devices. The problem that BB has is their hardware isn't better, there OS isn't better, and their ecosystem is almost nonexistent and about to disappear on them. They only thing BB has is a MDM system that works with their devices to make them secure.... but there are levels of security and the question becomes is how many will PAY for BB's security.
Based on BB still using the test installations in their figures and the cuts to license fees, I'm thinking that it isn't very many... and at this point it will be even fewer until something stabilizes the company.