This is the first time I've posted in a long time, but I've been a long time lurker and I've always kept up to date on BlackBerry news. I don't get it, why aren't they licensing BB10? They say it's in the deck of cards with their "strategic options" but they haven't said a word about it!
Get Dell on board.
HP.
HTC.
All those companies that have either netted negative or barely broke positive sticking on Android. Throw them BB10!
Why wouldn't they? Get BB10 into the hands of more people with different manufacturers. BlackBerry 10 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia It's even mentioned there! Although I don't know the credibility of it, as it is on Wiki and isn't cited.
Either way, start licensing BB10!
Android is free, I'm sure blackberry can't afford to give away an os for free. And why would anyone pay for an os that gets so little interest from the public?
1.) No manufacturer wants to take a chance on BlackBerry 10, especially when Android is free and has a good app and content ecosystem
and/or
2.) BlackBerry isn't serious about licensing BlackBerry 10
I think it's some combination of the two. Without BIS, BlackBerry now, more than ever, needs to depend upon its hardware for revenue. While it could charge a licensing fee, why would anyone want to pay to use an unproven OS? In addition to this, BlackBerry has always followed a tightly integrated business model. It's entirely possible that it may lose some advantages by opening the OS up to other manufacturers. It's not something BlackBerry is used to and may feel uncomfortable doing so.
I, for one, would like BlackBerry to try everything possible on its own before it resorts to giving the OS to others.
HP had a pretty good mobile OS, but couldn't - or just didn't use it.... why would they want to use another OS that is on the fringes.
I do agree that there are a lot of OEM that are having problems, and that one of the main reasons is that there are so many of them all trying to make the same products. They really need some to differentiate themselves make their product stand out.... like an all aluminum body??
But the FACT is BB10 is NOT able to do the thing that people want.... The Z10 is now 0 dollars on 2-year contract, and it still isn't selling. That is because it does not have the support of 3rd Party Developers. Thus when someone goes to their bank they find out that BB10 isn't supported, they go out to eat at a restaurant they find the app the restaurant now uses for a loyalty rewards doesn't work on BB10, they go to their favorite retail store and again BB10 isn't supported and they want to play the latest game that all of their friends are playing and of course BB10 can't do that either.
SO WHY WOULD AN OEM WANT BB10? Even if it were FREE it isn't worth much in any market where apps are a part of everyday life.
Last edited by scalemaster34; 09-20-13 at 08:45 AM.
Reason: wording/spelling
I really think that BB10 needs to get licensed. Android is viewed as a success based strictly on the number of phones using it. If a few manufacturers could make a few more handsets with BB10, it would really help promote the OS.
This could be the key that gets them back into third place in front of Microsoft.
Most people buy Android phones because they are cheap. Giving away (or licensing cheap) BB10 would create a jump in user numbers that would lead to more apps, that would lead to more users, and so on...
Blackberry could imitate Google and make money from advertising on low end BB10 phones.
And note that the hardware division is *not* the big money-maker for Blackberry. So, why keep it?
OS10, BBM, and MDM are all their cash cows. They need to focus on these and ditch the rest.
I really think that BB10 needs to get licensed. Android is viewed as a success based strictly on the number of phones using it. If a few manufacturers could make a few more handsets with BB10, it would really help promote the OS.
This could be the key that gets them back into third place in front of Microsoft.
Most people buy Android phones because they are cheap. Giving away (or licensing cheap) BB10 would create a jump in user numbers that would lead to more apps, that would lead to more users, and so on...
Blackberry could imitate Google and make money from advertising on low end BB10 phones.
And note that the hardware division is *not* the big money-maker for Blackberry. So, why keep it?
OS10, BBM, and MDM are all their cash cows. They need to focus on these and ditch the rest.
While I agree that there is some value in getting other manufacturers on BlackBerry 10 the fact is that it's probably extremely hard for those guys to justify that kind Of investment.
Blackberry could imitate Google and make money from advertising on low end BB10 phones.
Google spent 15 years building their advertising systems, which are the best in the business (makes sense; it's Google's PRIMARY business), and Google owns something like 80% of all online advertising revenue.
BB has nearly zero online advertising infrastructure, plus very little marketshare. Who is going to pay to run ads on BB's ad system over Google's?
The fact is that BB makes the vast majority of its money by selling smartphones. It has almost no cloud infrastructure or services. Trying to adopt Google's model would be a disaster for BB, at least in the short term.
Licensees wouldn't offer much. Licensees would take all the high end hardware sales. Look at what happened to apple with the cloners in the mid nineties.
It's a new, unproven 1.0 product, competing against a free Android (or Tizen) and Windows Phone (which has lot more mileage already) Firefox OS and Ubuntu are also options.
Considering that, who'd pay money to license BB10, especially when even the parent company seems to be struggling with it.
Too bad they couldn't just sell you one mega phone for 10 billion dollars and report record profits, then, right?
Well you said they didn't get the buy in of third party developers. I am a third party developer.
And people leave because there are no apps for their bank. I'm a TD customer, we have a great app.
And you mention something about going to a mall and missing a shopping app or some vague reference to a missing game.
Any game I've wanted I have on my phone. And I would never let a shopping app touch my phone.
So, case in point - if the reference is to 'everyone' then the reference is wrong. You could maybe say average American, but that's NOT the market blackberry is aiming for .
You have to remember, BlackBerry was on the cusp of breaking even and just cut their operational costs by about 30 percent which would bring back profits. The company doesn't need a billion new devices sold (would be nice) or record profits, they just need to start turning a profit - which they are in line to do.