The BBRY Café. [Formerly: I support BBRY and I buy shares!]
View Poll Results: Did you buy shares ?
- Voters
- 1129. You may not vote on this poll
- Did you notice the stock that was shown in the ad in the Indian paper. I think it was BlackBerry's way of saying we are back and our stock is going to grow. You only have to look wider.
I like the message.
Posted via CB1010-09-14 05:15 PMLike 9 - Can't belive this BBM channel has close to 10mill subscribers?
Attachment 304631
C00124E76
Posted using BlackBerry passport.
http://businesstech.co.za/news/mobil...gement|ww|bbm|
Posted via CB1010-09-14 05:39 PMLike 2 - Here's the link for those who want to vote in the poll. FYI: bbm is waaaaay ahead.
South Africans still love BlackBerry
Posted via CB10
10-09-14 05:50 PMLike 5 - Here's the link for those who want to vote in the poll. FYI: bbm is waaaaay ahead.
http://businesstech.co.za/news/mobil...gement|ww|bbm|
Posted via CB10
Essentially, I'm encouraging look, but don't vote.
Let's be selective in which polls we want to pollute.10-09-14 05:57 PMLike 4 -
- I think this shows that they are focused in the countries where they see growth and stability. Forget the US for now. Love how this focuses on the youth and give a positive to the blackberry image in India. Huge potential in one of if not the fastest developing country.
Thanks for posting, still lots of good stuff coming out that's not in the mainstream news.
Posted via CB1010-10-14 12:22 AMLike 5 - OT: Tesla
"Tesla CEO Elon Musk last night unveiled a dual-motor high-end Model S vehicle, which will be able to travel 275 miles on a single charge and accelerate from 0-60 miles per hour in 3.2 seconds - the same as the McLaren F1. Dubbed the P85D, the sedan will have "auto-pilot" software that includes self-parking. Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) plans to start shipping the car in December."
Come on BBRY, get to $40 a share already! I want one!
Posted via CB1010-10-14 06:00 AMLike 8 -
- Excellent PP review (from India):
BlackBerry Passport review: The only truly innovative smartphone of 2014 - Tech2
Our verdict
One thing’s for sure. You can hate or love it, but you have to admit that the BlackBerry Passport is the only truly innovative smartphone of 2014.
It’s clear that BlackBerry is swimming against the flow with this one and it’s also clear from BlackBerry executives that they understand that a purpose-built smartphone for a niche audience won’t exactly appeal to every consumer, nor make any major dent in overall smartphone sales figures. But with BlackBerry seemingly turning the corner under its new CEO John Chen, buyers won’t be worrying about BlackBerry’s future and what happens to their investment.
There’s definitely far greater consumer confidence in BlackBerry today and the company itself seems very confident. And that shows in the unapologetic pricing, where’s it’s clear that this expensive smartphone (Rs 49,990, though Amazon is offering a Rs 5000 voucher on each purchase) is not for everyone, but aimed at those who can afford it because they are successful and time is money for them since productivity enables success. So, most likely the average BlackBerry Passport owner already has an iPhone and a tablet or two.
So, if productivity matters to you, if you like physical QWERTY keyboards and the wide screen makes perfect sense to you, then the BlackBerry Passport should be in your pocket. Exclusivity is another pull — in a world where the iPhone is commonplace now, some want something different and more exclusive and you could also expect those in this category to look at the Passport.
This is BlackBerry’s comeback smartphone, and whether it is wildly successful or a moderate success, or even a failure, the company has got everyone’s attention. And I think that’s the strategy at work here — not about setting sales registers afire, but about making a statement–that BlackBerry is not dead, but alive and kicking, that it has the courage to innovate and that the company has a razor sharp focus back on the enterprise and productivity. And if it sells well, that’s just icing on the cake. The Passport is not BlackBerry’s saviour but just one of the milestones in BlackBerry’s attempt to reinvent itself.Last edited by Corbu; 10-10-14 at 08:41 AM.
10-10-14 08:01 AMLike 9 - BlackBerry Is Still A Passport For A Double - Forbes
BlackBerry Is Still A Passport For A Double
Comment Now
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Two weeks ago, BlackBerry (NASDAQ: BBRY) unveiled a new smartphone line, that included the Passport. CEO John Chen hopes the Passport, with its five inch screen and continued QWERTY keyboard, will be a catalyst for a resurgence for the troubled Canadian company. This week, I asked Mike Koza if he still thinks BlackBerry is a potential double. Given that almost 16% of Mike’s portfolio is invested in BlackBerry, and it is his top holding, I wanted to find out Mike’s take on BlackBerry’s latest financials, their new smartphone, and the IBM (NYSE: IBM)/Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) partnership.
I talked to Mike about BlackBerry before in April and August, and we also heard from our Marketocracy community in May.
Mike’s Marketocracy track record shows an annualized return over the last 10 years of 18% with an investment style similar to Warren Buffett’s. Berkshire Hathaway and the S&P 500 both show annualized total returns just short of 9% during the same period.
Over the past 10 years at one time or another, Mike has invested in a total of 333 stocks, and he has made money on 205 (62%) of those stocks. Mike excels at determining an accurate sense of the strength and value of a business that he is assessing to purchase. He reviews a company’s financial statements as though he owned the business.
You can view Mike’s top five holdings, learn more about his strategy, and track his progress with monthly Performance Insights emailed directly to you at the end of each month by visiting our website.
One of Mike's top five holdings is Blackberry. His Marketocracy track record shows an annualized return of 18% over the last 10 years. (Photo Credit: NY Times)
One of Mike’s top five holdings is Blackberry. His Marketocracy track record shows an annualized return of 18% over the last 10 years. (Photo Credit: NY Times)
Ken Kam: Mike, BlackBerry rolled out their new smartphone in September. Do you think that is what it will take for the stock to double in the next few years, or are they just off the rails?
Mike Koza: Well, there is certainly was a lot of buzz. They sold 200,000 units in two days, and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) had to post on their website that they’re out of stock until further notice. At $800 a unit, that’s pretty impressive. Even Tim Allen was pitching the phone on the Jimmy Kimmel Show.
Ken: So, do you think that is what it will take for the stock to double in the next five years?
Mike: I’ve been pretty clear from the earliest that there are four things that have to happen for BlackBerry to double. First, they have to stop taking large charges. In the past, they were claiming sales when there were no end-user purchases. Because of that, they had to take big losses when there was still supply in the channel. Now, it appears they’re not claiming revenues until there is an end-user purchase, not just a carrier purchase. They recently booked $2.1 million in revenues. That looks promising, but the end-user is down, so there is still concern.
Ken: What are the other factors you’re looking at?
Mike: The other factors are that they have to remain cash flow neutral, they need to stabilize the device channel by actually getting devices in the hands of the consumers, and last, they need to grow revenues.
Ken: Are those factors being met?
Mike: As far as I can tell, they’re close to being cash flow neutral. It certainly has improved, and that’s important. The cash burn was destroying them earlier. As I said before, it appears they are down on end-user purchases, but that may be a residual effect from the problems that have been going on for years. The initial sales of the Passport look promising, but I will still wait and see.
Ken: What about the revenues? What do you see there?
Mike: Their service revenues are a concern. That was a high margin business. At one point, they were able to claim around 80% gross margins from those sales, but they’ve been declining for years. For me to stay with this as a potential double, they need to stem the decline so they can book some profits from this division.
Ken: Assuming that they are able to stabilize the revenues from service contracts, where does the company get their revenue growth?
Mike: Hardware will have to make a comeback, and it appears there is a potential for that to happen. The only problem is that it’s a low margin business, so it will have to grow faster to make up for the earnings. Given that, Chen believes that they have the potential to sell 10 million units.
Ken: How does the company, then, replace the high margins they were getting from the service contracts?
Mike: It appears that it will come from software. Did you read the recent 6-K statement about software?
Ken: I did, but what did you see?
Mike: First, I suggest when one reads SEC filings, that they start from the end and go backwards. Read the narratives supplied by the company. The ones from this last quarter were very interesting.
Ken: What did they say?
Mike: Let me find it for you. Right here, it says, “The Company expects to realize approximately $250 million in software revenue in fiscal 2015 from BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Server), technical support, and other value added services and expects to double that figure in fiscal 2016’”. I was really surprised when I read that.
Ken: Why was that?
Mike: I would assume that they would under-promise and over-deliver, but they seem to be pretty confident that that’s going to be a high growth sector for them.
Ken: If that does happen, what will that mean for their profits?
Mike: According John Chen, their software sales should generate gross margins of at least 70%. If they’re able to grow this division to $500 million, as they claim, that will generate $350 million worth of gross profits. The way I look at it, they will become profitable again. Again, we’re assuming that the service division stabilizes and the hardware division meets its targets.
Ken: What will you do if they don’t grow their software revenues?
Mike: I think that will be a good sign to get out. I’ll be watching their quarterly reports to see if those projections are being met.
Ken: Mike, do you own a BlackBerry?
Mike: I do. It’s a Z10 though. I had an iPhone, but it gave me headaches. The BlackBerry is easier to type, and it has a nice voice command. It doesn’t have a stock trade app, but the apps they do have, do a nice job.
Ken: How does it compare to the iPhone? What about the Apple/IBM partnership?
Mike: They’re in different markets. BlackBerry smartphones are for users who need a secure platform to conduct their sensitive business. They’re for businessmen, lawyers, police, government officials, and the like. It’s not for people who want to update their Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) or Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) accounts.
My Take
Mike outlines a well planned thesis on what it will take for BlackBerry to double. He is making sure that the company doesn’t take large charges, remains cash flow neutral, stabilizes its device channel, and grows their revenues. I like that he’s studying every detail in the quarterly reports to make sure that the company has a clear plan and is meeting the key factors in Mike’s analysis. That is key for a professional money manager to find stocks that will double.
Connect with Ken Kam on LinkedIn.10-10-14 08:08 AMLike 15 - OT:
BBC News - #BBCtrending: Why South Koreans are fleeing the country's biggest social network
Why did Telegram become the alternative? Why not BBM?10-10-14 09:43 AMLike 5 - Not sure if this is truly the case but....
Telegram is so secure that it is considered "unhackable." Its founders, Nicolai and Pavel Durov, have even invited people to try and hack it.
The two founders reportedly offered anyone who could hack their server $200,000 earlier this year. This competition led several people to take an interest in Telegram.10-10-14 09:56 AMLike 2 - OT:
BBC News - #BBCtrending: Why South Koreans are fleeing the country's biggest social network
Why did Telegram become the alternative? Why not BBM?
Sharing:
Sharing is easy on Telegram. In BBM, sharing files (pictures, videos, other file types) is not as smooth or easy as it's on WhatsApp. But Telegram has made it as easy as WhatsApp sharing. You can share multiple files very quickly. BBM forces you to share one-file-at-a-time and does not allow you to share all different filetypes.
UI Speed:
Telegram UI is optimized based on host OS. BBM is slow to load on iPhone and Android (unless you are using latest gen device) and even when it loads, it takes couple of seconds BBM app to self-refresh and load content.
(Sure, there are some people who get BBM to load very fast, but that's not the case for majority of users).
BBM iPhone and BBM Android does not take advantage of host OS UI guidelines and as a result suffers from slowness, lag and confusion. iPhone users are used to seeing a particular iOS compliant UI. That's intuitive to them. So are Android. But BBM isn't a host OS compliant app in terms of User Interface (UI).
BBM's security, live location sharing (Glympse), powerful groups (with their own to-do-list, albums etc) hold value only AFTER you get basics right. BBM has some amazing features but lacks in basics department (sharing, speed/smoothness of UI).
That said, BBM is awesome on native BlackBerry devices. But we are talking about non-BB devices here.10-10-14 10:27 AMLike 9 - Telegram has some advantages over BBM that people care about more. For example:
Sharing:
Sharing is easy on Telegram. In BBM, sharing files (pictures, videos, other file types) is not as smooth or easy as it's on WhatsApp. But Telegram has made it as easy as WhatsApp sharing. You can share multiple files very quickly. BBM forces you to share one-file-at-a-time and does not allow you to share all different filetypes.
UI Speed:
(Sure, there are some people who get BBM to load very fast, but that's not the case for majority of users).
BBM iPhone and BBM Android does not take advantage of host OS UI guidelines and as a result suffers from slowness, lag and confusion. iPhone users are used to seeing a particular iOS compliant UI. That's intuitive to them. So are Android. But BBM isn't a host OS compliant app in terms of User Interface (UI).
BBM's security, live location sharing (Glympse), powerful groups (with their own to-do-list, albums etc) hold value only AFTER you get basics right. BBM has some amazing features but lacks in basics department (sharing, speed/smoothness of UI).
That said, BBM is awesome on native BlackBerry devices. But we are talking about non-BB devices here.
LoL how do you argue with that? the ios devices that we have at home, BBM works Just fine.10-10-14 11:08 AMLike 3 - and our fav TranscendAsset reports that
"$BBRY Makes you wonder why those 400 BBRY JAN 15 '16 20 Calls were bought yesterday..." maybe hackers are long BBRY =)10-10-14 11:12 AMLike 6 -
- Lol if this is true I'm off to Hawaii for a month
http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...n-sold-966902/
Passport is great phone. Love typing on this wide keyboard. Thumbs type/fly like Roger Federer use to float over Tennis court.
Posted using BlackBerry passport.10-10-14 11:28 AMLike 7 -
If you are using BBM frequently, the lag is reduced simply because the app/UI elements are already loaded in memory. But if you don't use the app frequently, it is kind of re-loading elements to the memory and that is what causes the lag.
To fix this: BBM needs to make their UI iOS and Android UI guideline compliant. This will not only make their app load faster but it'll also make it more intuitive for iOS and Android users. WhatsApp is optimized on BB devices - it follows BB10 UI guidelines. Similarly, BBM needs to follow host OS guidelines to get that speed and intuitiveness.
Plus, of course, BBM needs to get the basics of sharing right. All these powerful features like Groups on Steroids (with their own group album, to do list, calendar), Glympse etc are AWESOME and will DIFFERENTIATE you from other messenger-apps but only after you get the basics right.10-10-14 11:29 AMLike 3 - lol yeah, but compare it to other apps (WhatsApp, Telegram etc) and you'll notice that there is a noticeable lag. And this is even more pronounced if you don't use BBM a lot on iPhone.
If you are using BBM frequently, the lag is reduced simply because the app/UI elements are already loaded in memory. But if you don't use the app frequently, it is kind of re-loading elements to the memory and that is what causes the lag.
To fix this: BBM needs to make their UI iOS and Android UI guideline compliant. This will not only make their app load faster but it'll also make it more intuitive for iOS and Android users. WhatsApp is optimized on BB devices - it follows BB10 UI guidelines. Similarly, BBM needs to follow host OS guidelines to get that speed and intuitiveness.
Plus, of course, BBM needs to get the basics of sharing right. All these powerful features like Groups on Steroids (with their own group album, to do list, calendar), Glympse etc are AWESOME and will DIFFERENTIATE you from other messenger-apps but only after you get the basics right.
If some one really want to use BBM then it works and I do have friends who are one android and IOS devices and we get by just fine.
Seems like people in south Africa and Indonesia have no issue with BBM?
Posted using BlackBerry passport.10-10-14 11:39 AMLike 4 - Agree with you. Just like many people have problem with passport poking their heads or not being able to put it into in their pockets. One complaint I saw was that he or she can't take out passport from their jeans pocket while sitting.
If some one really want to use BBM then it works and I do have friends who are one android and IOS devices and we get by just fine.
Seems like people in south Africa and Indonesia have no issue with BBM?
I don't want to get into the whole "Is BBM working optimally on iOS and Android or not?" since quite frankly, I really don't know. I'll leave up to you more knowledgeable users to determine that.
FWIW, my point is this, though: if I were JC, I would make sure BBM is indeed, unquestionably, working optimally on those platforms. If, as chrys says, it takes this: "BBM needs to make their UI iOS and Android UI guideline compliant", then so be it. Quite frankly, I would rather have seen the Koreans switch to BBM rather than to Telegram which, btw, also seems to have a desktop Mac/PC version (as well a WP version... but none for BB devices). I would want to make my product the undisputed best, the de facto standard. If it takes some fine-tuning, let's do it promptly and settle this matter once and for all. And let's look forward to BBM getting more traction. Enterprise is fine but general visibility is also good. BlackBerry is not yet dealing from a position of strength here...
Well, so much for my uneducated opinion...10-10-14 12:50 PMLike 5
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