[helopilot06]

Perhaps, but entitled to his/her opinion just the same as any of us. Right?

I don't think anyone is entitled to blanket statements that stereotype an entire country to include several upstanding members of this forum. It's not helpful it's not insightful and it's pretty damn insulting. If that's the way this thread wants to go I'll excuse myself from it. SF wanna chime in? If that's how we want to play then I'll happily go elsewhere.

Posted via crackberry10 on my new Z30!

[bbjdog]

I don't think anyone is entitled to blanket statements that stereotype an entire country to include several upstanding members of this forum. It's not helpful it's not insightful and it's pretty damn insulting. If that's the way this thread wants to go I'll excuse myself from it. SF wanna chime in? If that's how we want to play then I'll happily go elsewhere.

Posted via crackberry10 on my new Z30!

He was only venting out some heat from the way BlackBerry has been treated. It's not right to stereotype everyone in US , you have good and bad in every single race in this world. I can speak for myself and don't want you to leave. This is a global thread that I like and all the people in it.

Posted via CB10

[ablefunzo]

Three Passports in this picture. Don't mean to show off but just to show love and support. Red for wife. Black for kids. The one taking pictures is my daily driver.
Attachment 320191

Attachment 320192

You deserve an award for dedication

Posted via CB10

[Corbu]

From the G&M
This one is pretty long. Apologies to those who would rather use the link:
Will keyboard-lovers give BlackBerry Classic a chance? - The Globe and Mail

Will keyboard-lovers give BlackBerry Classic a chance?

SEAN SILCOFF
The Globe and Mail

John Chen is about to put in place the last piece of his turnaround plan for BlackBerry Ltd. by doing something almost unheard of in the smartphone business, or the tech industry in general: launching a flagship product with old features the company previously abandoned in the name of progress.

On Wednesday, the chief executive officer of the Waterloo, Ont.-based company will unveil the Classic, a smartphone aimed at its most die-hard, change-averse customers: executives and other keyboard-dependent “power users” who have held on to their aging BlackBerry Bold phones rather than upgrade to the company’s newer touchscreen products. Mr. Chen will make the point by unveiling the Classic in the museum-like Italian neo-Renaissance-style surroundings of Cipriani, a restaurant in New York’s financial district with painted ceilings and marble columns.

The Classic will restore familiar BlackBerry features like the “belt” – a row of four physical keys for calls, accessing menus and going back one step, anchored by a mouse-like trackpad. The company is also bringing back many keyboard-based shortcuts that were mainstays on older BlackBerrys, such as typing C to compose a message. Those features disappeared from newer “BlackBerry 10” smartphones in 2013.

This is more than tinkering with product features: It is the centrepiece of Mr. Chen’s effort to reconnect the struggling firm, which once ruled the smartphone market, with core customers it ignored in its push to match Apple and Android touchscreen devices. Gone is the pursuit of consumers; back is a focus on business people who mainly use smartphones for typing e-mails, and on serving the needs of employers who manage fleets of smartphones, whether or not they are BlackBerrys.

Mr. Chen, 13 months into his BlackBerry rescue attempt, has vowed to win back business and government customers by improving the company’s software and services offerings and also by improving its smartphones. He launched Passport, an oversized smartphone aimed at business users in September, but the Classic is his attempt to offer something familiar to old friends.

In an open letter this fall, Mr. Chen said he was guided by the adage, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” and recently told reporters: “I’ve spoken to a lot of people and they want it; a lot of people say ‘I am waiting for this.’”

But is the Classic the right product to bring BlackBerry back to the smartphone fore? Or will it calcify the company’s reputation as a has-been and herald its exit from making phones altogether? Even insiders aren’t sure.

“A small subset [of users] will be pleased, but the overall market has completely moved past what this product will offer,” said one former senior executive who worked under Mr. Chen. “This is a short-term capitalization play: They can meet [pent-up] demand and probably make some money off it. … But my overall thesis is that BlackBerry will be out of handsets at some point.”

Courting loyalists

Kristina Rogers is the kind of customer John Chen has in mind for Classic. Ms. Rogers, a Canadian based in Istanbul who heads the consumer products group of consulting giant Ernst & Young, now known as EY, is a diehard BlackBerry user who has made do with the all-touchscreen Z10 since 2013. But as a travelling executive who writes many e-mails, she misses the keyboard and plans to upgrade to a Classic.

“People who are actually typing still appreciate the tactile feeling of the buttons,” she said. Judging by all the people she sees using old BlackBerrys or keyboard accessories for iPads in airports, Ms. Rogers expects many others will do the same. One such user is Peter Brorsen, deputy executive director of the European Institute of Peace in Brussels, who has used BlackBerrys for a decade. He never upgraded to BlackBerry 10 and considered leaving the fold “but I couldn’t really find an alternative.

“Maybe we’ll finally get a modern phone that’s useful at work, too,” he said of the Classic.

Mr. Chen believes there are millions of people like them. He has set a relatively modest target for BlackBerry’s hardware division: If it can sell 10 million handsets a year, it will break even. If not, it shouldn’t be in the phone business. That’s a sliver of the global market (BlackBerry, which sold 3.7 million handsets to end users in the first half of this year, has less than a 1-per-cent market share), but even that could be a struggle; Morgan Stanley analyst James Faucette estimates the company will sell only eight million handsets next year, that division will lose $180-million (U.S.), and BlackBerry will struggle to meet its other revenue targets.

BlackBerry has fallen steadily in the smartphone race since Apple released the iPhone seven years ago. After trying unsuccessfully to compete with touchscreen phones built on its old software, then-co-CEO Mike Lazaridis decided BlackBerry needed a new operating system. But BlackBerry 10 took longer to develop than promised and was conceived at a moment when the leadership was split; Mr. Lazaridis wanted to focus on handsets while co-CEO Jim Balsillie favoured repositioning around offering software and services to carriers. Their successor Thorsten Heins chose hardware, but Mr. Lazaridis, then on the board, grew disillusioned when the new management focused on touchscreens at the expense of its flagship keyboard products.

That was followed by a disastrous launch of BlackBerry 10 in early 2013. Consumers were indifferent to the all-touch Z10 and many long-time power users were bewildered by the Q10, which had a keyboard but was missing popular mainstays like the belt. The user experience was different and non-intuitive compared with past BlackBerrys; customers couldn’t figure out how to perform basic functions, including cutting and pasting, and even answering the phone.

“It was such a foreign experience, [long-time users] literally threw up onto it,” one former senior insider quipped. Insiders say the company has sold fewer than seven million BlackBerry 10 devices to end users; at its peak four years ago, it shipped nearly twice as many smartphones in one quarter.

Weeks after the BlackBerry 10 launch, U.S. wireless giant Verizon gave the company a list of seven items it suggested should be changed immediately to make the devices more appealing, one former senior insider said. That included restoring the “back” button. BlackBerry’s software engineers felt it was no longer needed because of touchscreen functions, but carriers and customers wanted it back. “Verizon got real pointed with us,” the insider said. “They stripped us down.”

It wasn’t until Mr. Chen arrived that those concerns had the CEO’s full attention. When Mr. Chen met with CEO-level BlackBerry users, many told him the Bold 9900, released in 2011, three years after the original Bold, was the best product the company ever made – even though it supported few apps and featured a sluggish Internet browsing experience. Mr. Chen decided the company should make a phone that ran on the new operating system but restored the physical keys and functions core users missed that made a BlackBerry feel like a BlackBerry.

“I still would like the user to experience all the new features,” Mr. Chen said in an interview this year. “[Launching the Classic] is my statement to tell the world that we value our customers, we understand why some of the discontinuity happened, we are trying to bridge that particular gap.”

Mr. Chen killed every other product in development except Passport (a product he initially didn’t like but which was well advanced in development) soon after his arrival and directed his engineers to deliver the Classic as soon as possible. Developers initially struggled to meet his demanding timeline. Early models were “so ugly, like a child’s flip-flop” sandal with a big rounded top, one insider said. The Classic is now rectangular and a bit taller than the 4.7 inch-long Q10. Meanwhile, developers had to write a lot of code on top of the new touch-oriented operating system to ensure the physical buttons functioned properly.

What BlackBerry has produced, based on company previews and early reviews of the Classic, looks to be a sturdy smartphone that is far from cutting edge, but may be enough of an advance to impress old-fashioned users. The device has an eight-megapixel camera (industry standard on new smartphones, including Passport, is now 13); the screen, at 3.5 inches diagonally, is smaller than the five-inch standard on top-selling “phablet” smartphones, but much bigger than the Bold 9900 (2.8 inches) and the Q10 (3.1 inches). While the company has improved its app offerings by making Amazon’s array of Android programs available, it still lags rival platforms. Its touch pad will not work properly in many Android applications as the programs were built for touchscreens and not with physical buttons in mind, tech blogger and app developer Eric Harty said in a recent posting.

“There’s probably a segment of loyalists” who will like Classic and see it as an upgraded Bold, said John McKinley, former chief technology officer with several Fortune 1000 companies, including Merrill Lynch. But “I don’t think this gets you new customer” demand, he added.

A big question is whether core users like banks and governments will order the device in big numbers. Sources at three Canadian banks say they haven’t rushed to make major orders, and are increasingly letting employees pick their own smartphones. Many are choosing Apple’s iPhone 6.

“One of the mistakes that BlackBerry made was to move away from their loyal customer base,” independent technology analyst Rob Enderle said. “The result was that they lost a lot of customers to Android and Apple – because if you have to relearn something anyway, you might as well learn something totally new” and it will be hard to win them back. The Classic, he added, “is the phone they should have led with two to three years ago.”

Some insiders who recently left the company aren’t convinced that trying to right a historic wrong is the right answer for BlackBerry.

“It’s such a nondescript offer that the only people who will be interested are those who are genuinely mourning the loss of a Bold,” one said. “Of the people who say they’re interested, only a fraction of them will actually follow through. I do believe it will be a letdown.” Another said users expecting an updated Bold might be put off.

“The pitch is familiarity. The story sounds good. But it’s still a completely different operating system.” Besides, the source added, it is likely to appeal to “a small market. What you are left with are people who don’t want to learn something new. It’s not a bad idea to go in and grab some of those users, at least for one product cycle.”

Will it be enough to keep BlackBerry in the devices business? “I don’t necessarily see the Classic being a saviour,” said Desmond Lau, an analyst with Veritas Investment Research. “BlackBerry needs to keep innovating every year.”

With files from freelance writer Rachel Greenspan and reporter Tim Kiladze

[bbjdog]

What! you beat me to it. Now I'm sad! Truly is very long! Don't like the way they have already painted the picture, before it's released. It's already sold out at shopblackberry.com. How do those idiots feel now.

Posted via CB10

[cjcampbell]

Time for a musical interlude. Since the reception to The Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer was good last week, I thought I follow up with another great one of there's.

[bungaboy]

I don't think anyone is entitled to blanket statements that stereotype an entire country to include several upstanding members of this forum. It's not helpful it's not insightful and it's pretty damn insulting. If that's the way this thread wants to go I'll excuse myself from it. SF wanna chime in? If that's how we want to play then I'll happily go elsewhere.

Posted via crackberry10 on my new Z30!

Not to prolong the issue, but, doesn't the First Amendment to the US Bill of Rights permit people to freely express their opinions?

While, I don't agree with what he/she said . . . do you get my drift?

It takes all kinds to make the world go round.

[Corbu]

What! you beat me to it. Now I'm sad! Truly is very long! Don't like the way they have already painted the picture, before it's released. It's already sold out at shopblackberry.com. How do those idiots feel now.

Sorry about that bbjdog!

Par for the course for the G&M, if you ask me.

Still, we need to report what is out there, good or bad. Don't loose faith!

[bungaboy]

All shopblackberry.com sites are sold out.

Posted via CB10

You better have mine on the way or . . .

[plasmid_boy]

I don't think anyone is entitled to blanket statements that stereotype an entire country to include several upstanding members of this forum. It's not helpful it's not insightful and it's pretty damn insulting. If that's the way this thread wants to go I'll excuse myself from it. SF wanna chime in? If that's how we want to play then I'll happily go elsewhere.

Posted via crackberry10 on my new Z30!

Don't take it so seriously. Why let an opinion on a website affect your emotion and actions?


Posted via CB10

[theRock1975]

Late breaking news exclusively for the "I support BBRY thread"
The wall-huggers phenomenon continues to affect the State of Hawaii.

Picture courtesy of the private vault from John Chen of BlackBerry


I finally got near a WiFi spot fast enough to upload a pic!

Check this guy out:



Posted via CB10

[bungaboy]

From the G&M
This one is pretty long. Apologies to those who would rather use the link:
Will keyboard-lovers give BlackBerry Classic a chance? - The Globe and Mail

So, why wouldn't they name the "former senior executive" if their opinion was so important?

“A small subset [of users] will be pleased, but the overall market has completely moved past what this product will offer,” said one former senior executive who worked under Mr. Chen. “This is a short-term capitalization play: They can meet [pent-up] demand and probably make some money off it. … But my overall thesis is that BlackBerry will be out of handsets at some point.”

Well the good thing is "former". What does that tell us?

[bbjdog]

You better have mine on the way or . . .

What will the dog do next???????????

Good laugh Bungaboy.

[Shanerredflag]

Weekend!!!

Passport'n stuff all day long.

[cjcampbell]

Most have probably seen this but my avatar dictates that I simply have to post it anyway. lol

[slipstream89]

Slipstream89 hit the buy button and then you have to translate the error message, which states out of order. Cheers mate!

Posted via CB10

Bbjdog! You sir are awesome haaha I've been slipping glad you are there to catch my mistakes haha

Posted via CB10

[helopilot06]

Not to prolong the issue, but, doesn't the First Amendment to the US Bill of Rights permit people to freely express their opinions?

While, I don't agree with what he/she said . . . do you get my drift?

It takes all kinds to make the world go round.

Last thing I'll say on this...

It does however it also prohibits discrimination. Yes I find it offensive that this thread has a habit of reverting back to US bashing as it did when carriers dropped bbry phones and with the nsa probing allied nations, both times btw mods stepped up and said to cut it out cause it's not what we are here for.

Let's look at the facts, the US is a commercial country that's economy is driven by the average consumers buying preferences. So the fact that people don't respond favorably to more professional phones has nothing to do with a "anti-freedom anti-democracy" mindset. As Mr Chen has stated dozens of times they are not focusing on the consumer market yet and as such yes they have lost a lot of potential for followership here. However, saying what he said That's the most inflammatory, preposterous, IGNORANT By very definition stance I've ever heard in my life. If we want to look at the constitution and law in the US there are laws in nearly every jurisdiction that prohibit inflammatory hateful speech, which the supreme court has ruled is not protected under the constitution hence why you can be sued for slander

And I'm sure that there are others on here that would agree. So yes pardon me if I'm tired of it after hearing it over the 2 years I've been on this thread, buying bbry stock, and products.

All of that not directed at you directly bungaboy but for the knowledge of all. We could all generalize about every country represented on this thread but that's not what we are here for. Let's be respectful of each other and not stray into petty arguments derived off of petty drivel that have no basis in factual reality.

Posted via crackberry10 on my new Z30!

[chrysaurora]

Hey chrysaurora,

Please don't take this the wrong way, and, I don't have your numbers for the previous trade, but, I would have to believe that you held a very nice profit in those original options back when the stock hit it's 52-week high of $ 18.32/shr/US. I'm not a fan of purchasing options as they rarely work out for me, I would rather sell options to others and keep their money. And so to me, and just so you know where I'm coming from, options aren't a good way to deal with the vulgarities of this kind of market. Let's let the past not cloud the present here, at this point, I see a very nice rally in BBRY coming soon. I expect us to run the stock price into strong resistance in the area just below $ 14.00/shr, so that is when you should be looking at your investment again and timing an exit because they are call options. I expect the stock to base out and work off that resistance level before moving higher. I can't see beyond that challenge though, on a limited time basis, it could occur in a couple of months or over many months. The stock will perform according to the expected or consensus based EPS going forward. If there is a growth driver like handsets of enterprise uptake, the stock could run to $ 25.00 quickly. I don't know today how their platform will accelerate, it's just too soon to know the uptake and plan for higher stock prices. This upcoming Q3 report is a big one in my mind and the most important bit of news to come along in years.

I know I didn't give you much to feel good about here but options are a problem for me, I love the leverage but every time I see 40% annualized premiums in calls I want to sell them to others and not buy them for myself. Having said all of that, let's get back together when those Q3 numbers drop!

Thanks

My numbers, I had roughly 400 lots of Strike $35, expiring Jan 2014 in all my accounts combined - RRSP, TFSA, and regular brokerage.

Yes, thats how blind I was. To my mind, 20-30% of existing BB customers were going to upgrade to BB10. That's basically 30% of 80 million at that time = 16-24 million BB10 device upgrades and that'd have made BB super duper hit!!!! But then Mr. Heins decided to overprice Z10, Z30, Q10 by atleast 50%, and 10.0, 10.1 did not have feature parity with other OS. It's only now, after 10.2.1 that BB10 has pretty much gained parity with other OSes, exceeded other OSes in some areas and slightly lags behind in some, but overall at parity).

Having burnt my fingers once, I now have only 30 lots of strike $15, expiring Jan 2016. I purchased them for $1.03 premium. Because stock has been tanking in last few days, it's already at significant loss now. But I am not a trader as such, I'd hold them until atleast mid 2015.

My real hope is that stock would be $23 or so by Jan 2014. In which case, I'd have recouped my losses from $35 expired options of Jan 2014. Anything over $23 would be profit to me.

[Reed Richards]

OFF-TOPIC:

J.J. Abrams released the names of the new characters in the upcoming Star Wars film by doing mock-ups of old trading cards. Have you guys seen the name of the new, ahem, "droid"?:

Meet BB-8

That's hilarious.

[kfh227]

Bb8

Cb4 was my immediate reaction
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CB4

Posted via CB10

[kfh227]

Missing is the Brooklyn chocolate which is awesome

Posted via CB10

[slipstream89]

Just some free time right now but we know these new sales won't hit until next Q now but just for the heck of it.
All as of right now on shopblackberry, this is only for NA. Started to check Germany and France they have less stock

Classic- 11 instock (think they may have had a small batch added)
Black Passport - 712 instock
White Passport - 143 instock
Red Passport - Sold out
Porche Design - 14 instock
Bold 9900 - 154 instock
Q5 White - 881 instock

Everything else has been sold I doubt they will be restocked anytime soon. Seems to be quite a bit of Q5 instock still

[DaSchwantz]

Chrysaurora, I also lost some money on calls at the time of the bb10 release due to the delays and low conversion rates. John Chen's strategy is the one the company should have followed for the bb10 release right from the get go. Since he took over, I've made my money back on the stock, and then some.

I'm also now buying January 2016 calls (although at a more conservative strike), and hope to get more on Monday. Will likely sell some to lock in my cost base as well as selling some near month OTM covered calls the next time I think the run in the stock price has peaked. I don't think it's a smooth ride yet, as the revenue question may continue to provide fodder for shorts.

If you hold shares, it's just one more way to make money off the premiums and volatility, but I'm even more conservative on that side, because the last thing I want is to lose any of my shares at any pre-fixed price, even if it was out of the money at the time of writing, lol.

Posted via CB10

[W Hoa]

Chasing down some old news with the morning coffee and came across this from months ago, yet new to me:

Hon Hai (Foxconn) has never been satisfied with simply being a manufacturing giant and is trying to evolve into an information technology services provider.

FIH Mobile Ltd., a Hong Kong-listed subsidiary of Hon Hai, established a strategic alliance with cellphone vendor BlackBerry in late December, and the two companies plan to set up a data center in Indonesia, analysts said.

Hon Hai Precision confirms plan for US$1 billion investment in Indonesia - The China Post

[W Hoa]

More bad news