[kfh227]

Go Seahawks head coaching staff! What would most likely result in a loss?
A) run
B) pass

What would result in a 99.9% chance of winning?

Run, run, run. You need a net of 0.5 yards in three plays by whom is probably the top RB in the league.

Oh, Belocheck should have given up a TD with a minute left. He got lucky.

Posted via CB10

[Andrew4life]

An interesting discussion from StockTwits regarding upgrades to Classic/Passport. According to these people, GoC finally updating from legacy devices, while Ontario Hydro upgrading Z10s and Z30s already.

JXMartins - $BBRY Gov of Canada is upgrading old bbrys to the new Classi... | StockTwits

Posted via CB10

FYI, Ontario Hydro hasn't existed for about a decade and a half now.
Just saying.

[bspence87]

FYI, Ontario Hydro hasn't existed for about a decade and a half now.
Just saying.

Lol, very true. Maybe he meant Hydro One (or is just full of it).

Posted via CB10

[world traveler and former ceo]

An interesting discussion from StockTwits regarding upgrades to Classic/Passport. According to these people, GoC finally updating from legacy devices, while Ontario Hydro upgrading Z10s and Z30s already.

http://stocktwits.com/message/32070836#32070836

Posted via CB10

Yes this is great news not only for new device sales of Passport and BlackBerry Classic but BES12.... great base for blackberry to build upon..

[Bacon Munchers]

In other related news, Mobile iron isn't performing so well:


MobileIron, Inc. (MOBL) of the Application Software sector closed out the day Wednesday at $8.82, a loss of -2.43% and return on investment of 30.40% trading at a volume of 267,076 shares. MobileIron, Inc. (MOBL) performed below average with a weekly performance of -2.97% moving into this week with a quarterly performance of -0.45% and a 52 week low of 15.45%. MobileIron, Inc. (MOBL)�s monthly performance sits at -9.07%, profit margin -47.00%, 0.00% insider transactions. MobileIron, Inc. (MOBL) is a good stock in the Application Software industry with analyst rating of 1.9

[CDM76]

Has anyone read the RCMP review of the Moncton shootings? One recommendation was that all RCMP officers receive a work issued cell phone. Currently the only phones authorized for use by RCMP is BlackBerry due to security concerns. That's 33,000 RCMP officers. Say 20% have BlackBerry devices already, that could be approx 26,000 new BlackBerry phones!
Although this idea may never see the light of day, it would be a nice boost to BlackBerry's sales.


http://www.rcmp.gc.ca/news-nouvelles...oncton-eng.htm



Posted via CB10

[world traveler and former ceo]

In other related news, Mobile iron isn't performing so well:


MobileIron, Inc. (MOBL) of the Application Software sector closed out the day Wednesday at $8.82, a loss of -2.43% and return on investment of 30.40% trading at a volume of 267,076 shares. MobileIron, Inc. (MOBL) performed below average with a weekly performance of -2.97% moving into this week with a quarterly performance of -0.45% and a 52 week low of 15.45%. MobileIron, Inc. (MOBL)�s monthly performance sits at -9.07%, profit margin -47.00%, 0.00% insider transactions. MobileIron, Inc. (MOBL) is a good stock in the Application Software industry with analyst rating of 1.9

I believe they report quarterly results this week... should be interesting....

[Superfly_FR]

No, but I like it .

Classically Posted.

OT !

I put some words on it a day i was lazy and ... hum ... inspired ?

[MollyMorton]

One month till the 2015 device announcement, and still no leaks?!? I want to know what's coming!

Posted via CB10

[Andrew4life]

One month till the 2015 device announcement, and still no leaks?!? I want to know what's coming!

Posted via CB10

There are no leaks because there are no phone releases coming soon. Please don't spin the story. BlackBerry will be showcasing a concept phone at MWC, not releasing a phone. You likely won't be able to buy the new phone till summer.

[BlackistheBerry]

Nothing really new, but still...
We are buoyed by uptake in new enterprise offerings: Sunil Lalvani, MD, BlackBerry India | The Financial Express

If only he could make the change on the ground though.
Have been in India for around 20 days, and have yet to see a Passport... most people have seen the first one in my hand.
Have seen a few BlackBerrys, but a lot less than what I saw last year.
Apple and Samsung are advertising like crazy, along with the other companies, and offering a lot of incentives and offers by tieing up with providers, etc.
It's hard to imagine BlackBerry being able to get anywhere close to them in terms of the marketing budget, and I guess Chen HAD no choice but to start from another end, to build the company again, and get back users, etc.
Once the enterprise users start using them, and people start seeing more BlackBerrys around, they will realise that the company's not dead.
But it will take time. In countries like India, which are changing at a very very rapid pace, people always want the 'new'. And to bring back the 'old', the old will have to do something new....

[Corbu]

Food for thought:
In Smartphone Market, It?s Luxury or Rock Bottom - WSJ
By CHRISTOPHER MIMS
Feb. 1, 2015 8:53 p.m. ET

For Apple Inc. and Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone maker often described as the “Apple of China,” it is the best of times. For most of the companies’ competitors, not so much.

In December, Xiaomi became the world’s most valuable tech startup, worth $46 billion. And last week’s blowout quarterly results for Apple were credited to just about everything—from consumers’ lust for big phones to Chief Executive Tim Cook ’s steady hand on the tiller—except for the most important factor of all.

Apple and Xiaomi’s successes reflect the world’s growing income inequality.

Take a look at the chart accompanying this article. It shows the average selling price for smartphones from Apple, Xiaomi and all makers of Android-based phones. It succinctly captures a trend that has damaged the fortunes of just about every smartphone maker other than Apple, Xiaomi and a couple of other companies at the low end of the market: a hollowing out of demand for smartphones priced in the middle range.

The falling price of the average Android phone is driven by supply and demand, of course. As smartphone components become ever-cheaper, devices by Xiaomi, Coolpad Group , Vivo and countless no-name Chinese manufacturers whose wares are rebranded and sold throughout the developing world, keep driving down the price at which a smartphone is “good enough” for most users.

Xiaomi is masterful at this game, and its online-only sales and narrow range of products allow it to sell its phones at rock-bottom prices, says ABI Research analyst Nick Spencer. (Xiaomi also has curated a massive user community that serves as a powerful marketing engine.) This has forced competitors to react.

In the most recent quarter, profits of Samsung Electronics ’ mobile division plunged 62% from a year earlier, leading the South Korean company to declare that it would attempt to sell less-expensive phones, just like Xiaomi. Chinese mobile giant Huawei Technologies, meanwhile, is going in the opposite direction, and will attempt to sell only high-end phones.

But these trends don’t explain the fortunes of Apple, which did the seemingly impossible last quarter—that is, sell more phones, but at a higher average price, than in previous quarters.

Only one kind of product behaves like that: a luxury good.

By maintaining its own walled garden of services, with a huge selection of apps that are often better-implemented than on Android, Apple has sufficiently differentiated itself from the mass of Android phones to charge consumers on average two to three times as much as they would pay for a comparable Android device.

In China, Apple has become the luxury brand most frequently given as a gift, ahead of Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Chanel, according to a survey released last week by Hurun Report, which tracks luxury goods in China.

As the market for smartphones matures, they have come to resemble any other consumer good. A recent piece in The Wall Street Journal on America’s “two tier” economy outlined the way that makers of everything from homes to groceries are responding to the hollowing out of America’s middle class: They are moving either to the high or the low end of their respective markets. The same thing is happening to phones.

The twist here is that smartphones are sold all over the world, and this split market is hardly just a product of what’s happening in the US. Indeed, Xiaomi doesn’t even sell its wares outside of Asia. But just as a growing class of global rich is creating a demand for the highest-end phones—made by Apple—so, too, is a growing middle class creating demand for phones made by Xiaomi and its ilk.

“Middle class” is by nature a relative term. To be part of the world’s richest 1%, you need make just $34,000 a year, Foreign Policy noted in 2012.

Xiaomi’s best-selling phone, the Redmi, sells for about $100 in India, where someone purchasing his first Xiaomi phone certainly qualifies as well off by the standards of his countrymen, who make on average about $600 a year.

It’s no mistake that the low end of the smartphone market appeals to both ever-poorer Americans and ever-richer citizens of the developing world, when you consider that many economists agree their fates are linked. Outsourcing and, to a lesser extent, automation have depressed the wages of the American middle class even as they increased them everywhere else.

Thus, the commoditization of smartphones has led to price trends which highlight the fact that there have always been two distinct markets for smartphones: A luxury market, and everyone else.

Predictably, distribution of profits between these two markets mirrors the distribution of wealth between the buyers of these goods. Analyst Horace Dediu estimates that in the past quarter, Apple captured about 90% of all profits in the mobile market. The world’s top 10% control 87% of the world’s wealth, according to economist Justin Wolfers.

If current macroeconomic trends continue, two things will happen. The first is that, as long as it can maintain its luxury brand, Apple should continue to show strong revenue, if not growth. Analysts say there are about 350 million iPhones in use in the world, which means Apple has already captured nearly 5% of the world’s population.

The second thing that will happen is that the average selling price of Android phones will continue to drop, as manufacturers battle each other to offer the most value at the lowest price. The good news in this fight is that hundreds of millions of people gaining access to the cheap but serviceable smartphones made by Xiaomi is hardly a Dickensian outcome.

[bspence87]

Food for thought:
In Smartphone Market, It?s Luxury or Rock Bottom - WSJ
By CHRISTOPHER MIMS
Feb. 1, 2015 8:53 p.m. ET

Ugh, makes me sick. 90% of the profits!

Posted via CB10

[bungaboy]

OT: Speaking of leaks.

[world traveler and former ceo]

Ugh, makes me sick. 90% of the profits!

Posted via CB10

While evading paying their fair share of taxes in the USA...

[kfh227]

One month till the 2015 device announcement, and still no leaks?!? I want to know what's coming!

Posted via CB10

1 month and 4 days but who is counting ;-)

[jake simmons3]

There are no leaks because there are no phone releases coming soon. Please don't spin the story. BlackBerry will be showcasing a concept phone at MWC, not releasing a phone. You likely won't be able to buy the new phone till summer.

I'm pretty sure they said they will be releasing there device roadmap for the year at MWC

[Corbu]

I'm pretty sure they said they will be releasing there device roadmap for the year at MWC

No question.

From an earlier post:

From the latest transcript:

In terms of BlackBerry roadmaps for 2015, we've got this to look forward to:

BBM and IOT: CES - January
Handset roadmap/strategy: MWC - March

[masterful]

Does this mean like the 1.5b debt convertibles like BlackBerry have?

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has filed to sell $5B worth of floating rate and fixed-rate notes. The floating-rate notes are due 2020, and the fixed-rate notes due 2020, 2022, 2025, and 2045. (prospectus)
Pricing hasn't been set yet. Goldman and Deutsche are underwriting. Given Apple's huge cash balance, and its history with such offerings, buybacks are a likely use of the proceeds.
Apple's cash/marketable securities balance totaled $178B at the end of FQ1 (much of it offshore), and its debt balance stood at $36.4B. The company spent $5B on buybacks during the quarter, and has spent $73B on them over the history of its $130B capital return program.

#BBFactCheck

[app_Developer]

Does this mean like the 1.5b debt convertibles like BlackBerry have?

Apple's previous offerings were not convertible. These probably aren't either.


Sent from my iPhone 6 using Tapatalk

[sidhuk]

Does this mean like the 1.5b debt convertibles like BlackBerry have?

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has filed to sell $5B worth of floating rate and fixed-rate notes. The floating-rate notes are due 2020, and the fixed-rate notes due 2020, 2022, 2025, and 2045. (prospectus)
Pricing hasn't been set yet. Goldman and Deutsche are underwriting. Given Apple's huge cash balance, and its history with such offerings, buybacks are a likely use of the proceeds.
Apple's cash/marketable securities balance totaled $178B at the end of FQ1 (much of it offshore), and its debt balance stood at $36.4B. The company spent $5B on buybacks during the quarter, and has spent $73B on them over the history of its $130B capital return program.

#BBFactCheck

Didn't know apple had debt? 36.4B? Spent 5B buying their own stock. Must be nice having their own money. BlackBerry on the other hand, has about 1.25B worth shorts (same amount as convertible bonds) and have paid up taxes the way suppose to be. Better to join the apple success than BlackBerry failure. But then again, love for the underdog and cheap shares, swing able every week and good turn around story. I ll stick with BlackBerry


Posted using BlackBerry passport.

[Corbu]

I am no tax expert but this might be of interest, in the context of the above:

Slightly dated but still applicable.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/04/...ebt-sale/?_r=0

By raising cheap debt for the shareholder payout, Apple also avoids a potentially big tax hit. About two-thirds of Apple’s cash — about $102 billion — sits overseas in lower-tax jurisdictions. If it returned some of that cash to the United States to reward its investors, it could have significant tax consequences for the company. In some ways, the bond issue is a response to that tax situation.

And this:
Obama Proposes One-Time 14% Tax on Overseas Earnings - WSJ

Mr. Obama wants U.S. companies to pay a 14% tax on the approximately $2 trillion of overseas earnings they have accumulated, a White House official said Sunday. They would face a 19% minimum tax on future foreign profits. Companies could reinvest those funds in the U.S. without paying additional tax.

[early2bed]

Apple Euro denominated bonds offer a little over 1% interest. Imagine paying that little to borrow someone's money for years. Since a lot of sovereign European debt has negative yield - you pay them to keep your money - bond buyers will accept 1% interest on Apple bonds.

[Corbu]

BBC News - BMW fixes security flaw that left locks open to hackers

http://grahamcluley.com/2015/02/bmw-security-patch/
Did your BMW just download a security patch?

It appears the vulnerability revolved around the insecure transmission of data, as the patch rolled out by BMW appears to have enabled HTTPS. Something you would probably have hoped that BMW’s engineers would have thought about in the first place.

[masterful]

BBC News - BMW fixes security flaw that left locks open to hackers

http://grahamcluley.com/2015/02/bmw-security-patch/
Did your BMW just download a security patch?

Wow. Wondering who they partner with

#BBFactCheck