[Corbu]

GOLD BlackBerry Passport Unboxing!

[BBhombre]

Why did my post disappear? Is it because I gave a counter opinion to the gentleman that said shorting Apple was his plan?

[Bla1ze]

Why did my post disappear? Is it because I gave a counter opinion to the gentleman that said shorting Apple was his plan?

Because you're being a jerk and if you wish to continue, I can make your whole account disappear. If you're just here to cause a flame war, you can sod off.

[Corbu]

Samsung Might Be Going Shopping - Bloomberg View

Can Samsung buy happiness?

The Korean electronics conglomerate is sitting on $63 billion in cash and eyeing everything from chipmakers to software providers to help it create the kind of technological ecosystem that Apple has so handily constructed (and which Samsung so visibly lacks).

Samsung has reportedly been in talks to buy BlackBerry, apparently because it's enthralled with the mobile operator's patents and a secure network that manages e-mail traffic for the U.S. government, military agencies, and, of course, major corporate customers.

If Samsung picked off BlackBerry, that might allow it to lock a loyal group of customers into its hardware universe. It's a niche audience, for sure, but it's a devoted audience and Samsung needs as much of that kind of loyalty as it can secure amid bruising battles for mobile market share.

Analysts have been chattering lately about a number of other deals Samsung could pursue, according to my Bloomberg News colleagues. All of that talk makes a lot of sense to me, I suppose, if Samsung wants to compete with the likes of Apple - and also if it simply wants to prove that it can be a mobile device winner again.

But Samsung has a software problem, largely because it hasn’t had much success making any of its own. It created the Tizen operating system for smartphones, TVs, cameras, wearable devices, and other gadgets, but Tizen hasn’t gotten much traction. Android, a Google product, still provides the brains for most of Samsung’s own hardware.

Even in the heyday of Samsung’s mobile device dominance, observers predicted that the company’s weakness in software would haunt it. Commoditization would decimate margins on all but its highest-end products, and it wouldn’t have an operating system that could snare consumers inside an ecosystem.

Those fears have basically been realized and Samsung has been pushed into the commoditized hardware corner of the market where profits and dominance can be fleeting.

The Internet-of-Things threatens to exacerbate the situation. Apple and Android are fighting to provide the platform for our connected lives in a market that the research firm IDC says could be worth $7.1 trillion by 2020. Samsung is pushing hard into the connected-home-and-hardware space. But if it never makes software to tie its products together, those devices will eventually fall prey to commoditization and low margins, a fate already visited upon the mobile phones Samsung produces.

If Samsung wants to use its war chest to acquire its way out of its current set of problems, it will have to do so in the context of a complex, family-owned business trying to solve a larger problem of power and relevance beyond the smart phone wars. Samsung

The Lee family controls Samsung’s 74 companies through a complicated web of holding structures centered around…wait for it, wait for it…an amusement park company. But they directly own very little of Samsung's stock.

Conglomerates like Samsung are common throughout Asia, and shareholders have become less enamored of their opaque, messy holding structures. They’ve tended to price the overall companies as less valuable than the parts housed inside these various corporate stables.

(Those brief years when Samsung was a mobile device powerhouse with rising fortunes were important in part because they kept shareholders happy and the stock price up, despite the company’s complexities.)

Chinese tycoon Li Ka-shing recently restructured his sprawling companies - Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa - to separate the real estate and non-real estate assets and get rid of some complexity. The market loved that move.

Samsung has tried to simplify things too, by, for example, spinning off stakes in its chemical and defense units. Unless it really has a vision for software and an inventive hardware ecosystem, tacking on a series of acquisitions won’t help make it seem like a more streamlined, well-managed entity. And it’s the rare company that can engineer successful shopping sprees.

I think that Samsung can certainly buy a lot of companies that will make it seem more Apple-like in the near term. But at its core it is a top hardware-maker and electronics manufacturer that influences large swaths of the hardware world.

For example, Samsung is slated to be the main chip supplier for Apple’s next generation of iPhones. Only a handful of companies can make components at a scale large enough to satisfy customers like Apple, and Samsung is arguably the leader of that rarefied group. Samsung also makes some of the best home appliances on the market and it’s a top global hardware brand.

Samsung is never going to be Apple, a maker of sexy, high-margin products that dominate new consumer markets like payments and healthcare. If it’s trying to compete in that game, it's a strategy that will probably end in tears.

[BanffMoose]

Or in other words a $32B increase in market cap. Enough to buy BBRY six times. If they are selling 75M iPhones per quarter, I'm thinking they might just buy Blackberry for the patents. Eliminating the #4 mobile OS would just be a convenient bonus.

LOL. IBM used to say they grew a Microsoft whenever their earnings were greater than Microsoft's entire market value back in the '90s.

[CDM76]

LOL. IBM used to say they grew a Microsoft whenever their earnings were greater than Microsoft's entire market value back in the '90s.

And oh how the tides have changed haha

Posted via CB10

[awindsr]

Very OT :
Thought I remembered a couple of oil/gas questions directed towards M8. Was wondering if something like this a Mr.Spock eyebrow raiser?

Although progress toward solar salvation has been slow, Aramco is still investing heavily in other potentially revolutionary alternative energy solutions. This month, it*spearheaded*a $30 million investment in San Francisco-based Siluria Technologies, which plans to produce low-cost gasoline from natural gas*� for $1 per gallon.*

Have any of you heard of Siluria Technologies?


From :
http://www.ozy.com/acumen/how-saudi-...il-habit/33512

Saudi Aramco write up. About 1/2 way down the page.





Posted via CB10

[bigbadben10]

Bla1ze. That reply was da bomb. I am lighting one up now! Thank you!! Ben.

Posted by my fabulous Passport

[lcjr]

I may start posting more here now. Thanks mods!

Posted via CB10

[lcjr]

Ben, I take it you made it back home ok?

Posted via CB10

[bigbadben10]

Lenny. Yes sir. Awesome trip eating grilled fish at the beach. Losta rays, cold ones and wonderful local people. Made authenitc homemade salsa tonight.

Duck confit to finish.






Posted by my fabulous Passport

[lcjr]

Well done Ben! Glad you had a great time and made it home safe. Also thankful for you sharing your adventure by posting pics so we back at work could live vicariously thru you. Lol

Posted via CB10

[bbjdog]

Blazing guns come out.
Keeping the peace in this crazy thread.



Posted via CB10

[nickelodeon008]

I hope everyone realizes that Apple did report excellent earnings and Iphone sales but hidden in the numbers is the 17 % decrease in Ipad sales. Their larger phones are taking away sales from their tablets.

Posted via CB10

[FastLane228]

It's actually called 'My Stocks Portfolio' and it's available in the Amazon app store. But thanks for responding.

Posted with X10 via CB10

lol, I have both, My stocks portfolio and Portfolio Watcher.. two different apps


"Data" the new Greed

[lcjr]

@ nickelodeon008: Yeah, that makes since. I tell ya, I see more and more larger phones these days. I swear I seen a guy walking as he was talking into what looked like a tablet. Lol perhaps folks are using their tablets at home now since there's larger phones now.

Posted via CB10

[sidhuk]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/t...w/46035434.cms

Posted using BlackBerry passport.

[Bacon Munchers]

I hope everyone realizes that Apple did report excellent earnings and Iphone sales but hidden in the numbers is the 17 % decrease in Ipad sales. Their larger phones are taking away sales from their tablets.

Posted via CB10

Evening guys (and lady?):

The numbers don't lie; or do they?

No doubt Apple is no slouch, but let's not also add to your info that the Lions share of device sales increases are overseas, now that they have launched worldwide.
Word is that the North American market is shrinking back, along with Samsung.

[BeowulfTheGeat]

I think people in here have to admit that the Apple results are quite sobering. There is a lot to learn from Apple, as many of us know. I don't own a single Apple product, but I recognise that they really 'get it' at that company. Whether it's in enterprise or the consumer market, the challenge for BlackBerry this year will remain the cultural one. They have done a lot to begin a positive change in this area, but this is quite the do or die year for them in this regard.

I actually think it would be fruitful to avoid the generic complaining about media bias in here and think instead about how BlackBerry can change media sentiment. This thread has got a bit sour over the last few weeks with 'trolling', yes, but also a lot of plain whining.

Let's 'support BlackBerry', but let's do so with a good dose of common sense and realism. Putting our 'owners hats' one, we are still looking at a company that makes phone you can't really buy in shops and about a messaging app that most people haven't heard of. (Only yesterday I had a girl ask me what BBM was and then decline to download it because she already has WhatsApp and Viber). That's the real world at the moment, and having our heads in the sand or cursing the media and 'sheep' with all the damnations of deuteronomy won't help anything.

Chen has done a brilliant job on a lot of fronts, and 2015 does seem to hold good things for BlackBerry, but I'd love to read more balanced and varied assessments of the company in here as we go along. A lot of us - I include myself - did not expect Apple to manage this, but I think we can learn from it...

What CAN we learn from it?

Posted via CB10

[awindsr]

Apologies if already posted :

http://stafforddaily.com/short-inter...by-5-7/322964/

Short Interest of BlackBerry Ltd Increases by 5.7%

BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) has witnessed a colossal rise of 5.7% or 6,725,456 shares in its short figure. The short interest augmentation took it from 118,642,376 on December 31,2014 to 125,367,832 on January 15,2015. In terms of floated shares, the short interest was calculated to be 25.6%. The days to cover are 6 given that the daily volume averaged 21,627,814 shares.

BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) ended the session with a positive gain of 0.04 points or 0.38%. However, the shares rallied during the session and at the close the shares traded at $10.56. The stock began trading at $10.38 and hit an intraday high of $10.63. The volume for the day was 7,053,476 shares. The previous close of the counter was $10.52. The company has a 52-week high of $12.63 and the 52-week low level is $7.01. The market cap of the company is $5,583 million and there are 528,702,000 shares in public circulation.

BlackBerry Limited, formerly Research In Motion Limited, is a designer, manufacturer and marketer of wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. Through the development of integrated hardware, software and services, it provides platforms and solutions for seamless access to information, including e-mail, voice, instant messaging, short message service (SMS), Internet and intranet-based applications and browsing. The Companys technology also enables an array of third party developers and manufacturers to enhance their products and services through software development kits, wireless connectivity to data and third-party support programs. In September 2014, the Company acquired Movirtu, provider of virtual identity solutions for mobile operators that allows multiple numbers to be active on single device.

Posted via CB10

[Bilaal]

What CAN we learn from it?

Posted via CB10

Well, for starters, we must not forget what the plan is for BlackBerry.
Yesterday's news regarding APPL was indeed sobering, but let's not get distracted by it.

The game plan for BBRY remains the same and APPL's success story yesterday doesn't change that for John Chen and Co.

Samsung on the other hand and every other Android manufacturer must think and take appropriate measures, they're the ones competing directly for the consumers wallet.

Posted via CB10

Edit: Yesterday, I saw a comment (on CNET or maybe even BGR) about smartphone manufacturers which mentioned how BlackBerry has "retreated back to the Enterprise". I must admit, it was nice seeing that rather than the old "BlackBerry is dead" at least one person gets it lol.

[BeowulfTheGeat]

Well, for starters, we must not forget what the plan is for BlackBerry.
Yesterday's news regarding APPL was indeed sobering, but let's not get distracted by it.

The game plan for BBRY remains the same and APPL's success story yesterday doesn't change that for John Chen and Co.

Samsung on the other hand and every other Android manufacturer must think and take appropriate measures, they're the ones competing directly for the consumers wallet.

Posted via CB10

Edit: Yesterday, I saw a comment (on CNET or maybe even BGR) about smartphone manufacturers which mentioned how BlackBerry has "retreated back to the Enterprise". I must admit, it was nice seeing that rather than the old "BlackBerry is dead" at least one person gets it lol.

Yes, the media situation is much better now than it was 12 months ago. Much better. I don't think BlackBerry have much of a clue about consumer sales, but I do think they know enough about making great devices (when they decide to). If they make the businessperson their consumer, and those who want a 'serious', and goodlooking (and different?) device, then they can do well. Apple make one (or two now) phone and sell the same thing over and over. A lot of people - like myself - like having something different, and will always prefer a company that puts out a range of different devices for different purposes.

What BlackBerry need to figure out, and I fear they won't, is that it is more important to make $0 on millions of devices at the moment than to making money on 'every device', as Chen said, when they are only selling enough devices to fill the back of a Ford F-150. At the moment, I think they need the Passports and Classics, etc for specific people, and smart-looking, underpriced, quality phones purposed to increase the OS user base.

BlackBerry think with their heads, and appeal to that aspect of people.

Apple think with their heads and appeal to people's hearts.

That's the main difference, and why Apple are the darling of the smartphone world.

Posted via CB10

[Shanerredflag]

Not sure why the influx of negative leaning thoughts, however...if the regular snarky crowd shows up here it won't be tolerated...perhaps that has something to do with it.

I don't think it's wise (or realistic) to compare BlackBerry with Apple, they spend more on advertising in one quarter than BlackBerry grosses.

We need to focus on the plan...stop bleeding, create independent business groups, achieve profitability then grow from there... which we are achieving.

Blue sky's aren't here yet but getting closer....which is the entire point.

Classically Posted.

[bungaboy]

@ nickelodeon008: Yeah, that makes since. I tell ya, I see more and more larger phones these days. I swear I seen a guy walking as he was talking into what looked like a tablet. Lol perhaps folks are using their tablets at home now since there's larger phones now.

Posted via CB10

[jake simmons3]

so shorts are either tiring more rope around there next or they know something that we dont know