[sidhuk]

Lifting the Lid on Containerization | Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog

Thanks for the post corbu. Seems like BlackBerry is in business. Reading all the BlackBerry is dead slogan again for last couple of a days felt like BlackBerry closed the shop.
I am glad that some of the posters here just figured out yesterday that BlackBerry hardware sales are down and they should stop making hand sets.
WOW.
BlackBerry is making money on the hand sets. When some one makes money on something means they don't go out of business. Meaning they always have chance to be In the game.
Chen called for special investors event to explain this right after the last earnings that things to expect. But, for some reason, some experts found out on their own just with in last two weeks. Priceless.
The most funny part of all of this jungle is that they all remember in a negative way what Chen said at that event but none remembers any positive future plans that Chen talked about.
Sooooo. People do take this thread very very seriously after all? I thought that it was just a playground for bunch of BlackBerry supporters.

Posted with BlackBerry Passport

[bbjdog]

Maybe my strategy is flawed, but I don't necessarily look at it like that. Yes, staying comfortable with your initial position is very important. However, if there was always time to get in, where is the incentive to invest? The whole idea is trying to stay ahead of the curve and make a prediction when the majority of the market disagrees with you. That contrarian viewpoint is how the big bucks are made. I've seen too many opportunities come and go and am always afraid of missing the boat. Just because BBRY hasn't taken off for the past 3 years doesn't mean that it'll stay below $10 for any amount of time. Past performance is NOT a predictor of future results in investing and especially in a company with new leadership and strategy. In fact, if Friday goes well, that may ignite some buying pressure that will mean we never see the opportunity to buy this stock below $10 again. Wouldn't that be nice?

I would not say your strategies have flaws! Everyone invest the way they see fit, it's your money and that's the bottom line.

There are long and short investor's. I invest in the long term and I don't care that much about this quarter (I care, but not in the sense of home run). Minor improvements will suite me fine.

Good luck to all and let's hope for good results!

[hobbes_nyc]

Advertising for the Passport was nothing short of amazing! I don't think BlackBerry could have done a better job of getting this phone out there to the public. The media were all over it, celebrities were seen using the new device and the wave of international media promotion went on for many months.

What are you on about?
I've never seen a single ad for the passport
I've never seen anyone with a passport other than me
I live in NYC...couple of million people here lol
People have asked me...'what phone is that' or 'is that a phone?' meaning they've never been exposed to the passport

What media were all over it? Again never seen any media related things with the passport
What celeberties? You mean Kim and her love for her Bold from 2008?
Cmon mate, this is fantasy now

Point is this: I'm in my early 20s in NYC.
Nobody my age has heard of this phone
Nobody older than me, coworkers, managers, friends,etc have heard of this phone

And yet you're saying blackberry promotion of the passport was amazing
Nah


Posted via CB10

[sidhuk]

What are you on about?
I've never seen a single ad for the passport
I've never seen anyone with a passport other than me
I live in NYC...couple of million people here lol
People have asked me...'what phone is that' or 'is that a phone?' meaning they've never been exposed to the passport

What media were all over it? Again never seen any media related things with the passport
What celeberties? You mean Kim and her love for her Bold from 2008?
Cmon mate, this is fantasy now

Point is this: I'm in my early 20s in NYC.
Nobody my age has heard of this phone
Nobody older than me, coworkers, managers, friends,etc have heard of this phone

And yet you're saying blackberry promotion of the passport was amazing
Nah


Posted via CB10

You live on another planet? I see passport adds all the times here. Specially during NBA games.
I have seen passports. Apparently at least 5 of them at my GYM alone. that's where people workout.
People live in other parts of the world than NYC USA.
I don't know what are you talking about?

Posted with BlackBerry Passport

[ZayDub]

Tim Allen (comedian/actor) has a Passport and gave a plug during a tv appearance and also on his new show. A famous chef from Canada (I believe) also displayed it during an interview I saw. Rapper, Drake is a promoter of the Classic on his IG page....etc. There were other examples but I can't recall at the moment -- my point is that these people are quite popular and their followings are extensive. Advertising/promotion doesn't come cheap -- and getting free celebrity endorsements is priceless when the majority of people follow the lead of the celebs and try to emulate them. That is all.

Tour 9630 > Bold 9650 > Q10 > Classic or Passport???

[bbjdog]

What are you on about?
I've never seen a single ad for the passport
I've never seen anyone with a passport other than me
I live in NYC...couple of million people here lol
People have asked me...'what phone is that' or 'is that a phone?' meaning they've never been exposed to the passport

What media were all over it? Again never seen any media related things with the passport
What celeberties? You mean Kim and her love for her Bold from 2008?
Cmon mate, this is fantasy now

Point is this: I'm in my early 20s in NYC.
Nobody my age has heard of this phone
Nobody older than me, coworkers, managers, friends,etc have heard of this phone

And yet you're saying blackberry promotion of the passport was amazing
Nah


Posted via CB10

When they ask you if it's a phone, correct them and say it's your laptop and phone combined together. One of the most powerfull way of advertising, is to get inside your head without you knowing. Blackberry is doing that!

[MollyMorton]

Advertising for the Passport was nothing short of amazing! I don't think BlackBerry could have done a better job of getting this phone out there to the public. The media were all over it, celebrities were seen using the new device and the wave of international media promotion went on for many months. You still see the Passport getting plenty of online promotion today, something like twice that of the boring iPhone.

If BLackBerry had to pay for all of that media space and clicks it would have cost them a billion bucks far exceeding anything Apple would spend. The world knows about the Passport, the real problem is a lack of availability of the product, they need to get the product out there to the impulse buyers. I didn't need another phone, I bought it because I knew I would rock some people in meetings and it is the most complete business phone on the planet today. I can't tell you the number of times I have been communicating with wall huggers and they tell me they need help with something but only have 1% left on their phone. I charge my Passport twice a week and it is never shut off. I go out for the day with just 8% left on the battery and don't care, try that with an iPhone.

The media went crazy on the Passport, tons of reports, plenty of online voting, you don't sell products on TV any more, a large number of us record shows and watch Netflix, we don't see commercials any more. BlackBerry has been nothing but outstanding in their ability to take a unique product and let the media run with it. Clicks is where its at these days.

That's actually really interesting info. Thanks for that. Here in the UK we haven't seen that kind of thing at all. What was encouraging was seeing reps in Carphone Warehouse with the Passport voluntarily telling me it was more powerful than the iPhone 6. Still, I think a billboard or two in Central London, or on the Underground, was needed. I really am not sure why that hasn't happened. This is an international hub and literally millions of people move in and out every day. I do understand the they can't afford to spend loads, but some nice billboards at Waterloo and St Pancras train stations (major hubs) would have been great if they couldn't afford a smattering on the London Underground. The average person doesn't really pay that much attention to tech sites and needs a nice 'offline' ad.

Anyway, fingers crossed and all that.



Posted via CB10

[jake simmons3]

Jesus we have lost close to 25 percent in less then a month over the GS and MS report.

[MollyMorton]

The silly ad hominem attacks avoid something interesting and useful. Within a somewhat narrow slice of society, the Passport has gained some recognition of its existence. At the same time, others have claimed not to have seen a single one, or any mention of one. London, NYC, etc are major world centres, and the guy above was right to say that having a look around at what random folks are carrying is a very good indicator. Perhaps some of you are familiar with the experiment that very accurately estimates the number of taxis in a given city by simply standing in a few different places and counting cabs for a short period of time.

The way I see it, if I commute through Central London every day, and NEVER see a BlackBerry ad, then they aren't connecting to the general public. It may seem shocking to people who do follow this stuff, but when considering the entire population, almost no one reads online device ads or reviews. People have varied lives and all sorts of other interests. There IS a BlackBerry kiosk, and a nice one, tucked into the basement at Selfridges in London, but that's virtually the only place in the whole city that people are going to stumble across the new line of phones.

In London, and NYC (which I cannot speak about because I don't live there), a few - literally a few - well placed physical ads (billboards) would do absolute wonders, reaching literally tens of millions of people every day. For whatever great things BlackBerry have been doing, I'm afraid this particular miss has been a big mistake. They've got to get some ads on the Underground if nowhere else, especially as their presence in stores is almost nonexistent at the moment.

Posted via CB10

[sidhuk]

https://forums.crackberry.com/e?link...token=Gij5iU2C
Passport is dead. And these DA are selling at regular price? When was this so called passport released? 6months ago? Not sure why I got this phone.
Sorry guys. I give in. Gonna look for an Iphone. And call it a day. World peace is more important. It is just a phone.
And gonna dump all my BlackBerry shares today.

Posted with BlackBerry Passport

[bbjdog]

I can't believe that people buy stuff because they see an ad! What's that word I am looking for? Can't think of it now. When I buy something it's because I do research and find what I like and not what is shoved down my throat!

[bigbadben10]

I am fabulous my friend. You know it's funny when folks say they have not seen a single Passport. I live in a small village so to speak. Yes I can make fun of myself quite easily....haha. Within the first week of me getting my Passport I was at my daughter's soccer game and would you believe there was another Passport there. Talked to the guy who was a lawyer. It was his first BlackBerry...came from an iPhone and he loved it. My daughter's training coach also has a Passport. My mate Eric saw a guy in a smaller village north of me with a Passport. There are three Passport's in my house. Most of the young people I meet know exactly what a Passport is. Whether they like it or not...they clearly are AWARE of it. Well done BlackBerry for creating a device that apparently nobody has heard of!!

Posted by my fabulous red Passport

[bbjdog]

https://forums.crackberry.com/e?link...token=QKgdXmgP
Passport is dead. And these DA are selling at regular price? When was this so called passport released? 6months ago? Not sure why I got this phone.
Sorry guys. I give in. Gonna look for an Iphone. And call it a day. World peace is more important. It is just a phone.
And gonna dump all my BlackBerry shares today.

Posted with BlackBerry Passport

Your just a sheep! Lmao!

[Superfly_FR]

Anyone who is interested can go and look at BlackBerry's own annual reports, and see what they push to the fore, and what made the money.

Are we talking revenues or margins ?
As for the reports, they're all here : Financial Documents - US
Food for thoughts (wasn't that obvious, already in the 2010's ?):

Gross Margin
Consolidated gross margin increased by $415.4 million, or 42.9%, to $1.38 billion, or 40.0% of revenue, in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009, compared to $968.2 million, or 51.4% of revenue, in the same period of the previous fiscal year.
The decrease of 11.4% in consolidated gross margin percentage was primarily due to a decrease in the blended device margins primarily driven by the introduction of certain new feature rich products that incorporate new technologies which were adopted at a faster rate than historically, lower than anticipated unit shipments of previous generation products and a higher percentage of device shipments which comprised 83.3% of the total revenue mix in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 compared to 80.9% in the same period of fiscal 2008.

Gross margin percentage for devices is generally lower than the Company’s consolidated gross margin percentage.

The decrease in gross margin percentage relating to devices was offset in part by improved service margins resulting from cost efficiencies in RIM’s network operations infrastructure as a result of the increase in BlackBerry subscriber accounts.

[BACK-2-BLACK]

.....Point is this: I'm in my early 20s in NYC.
Nobody my age has heard of this phone
Nobody older than me, coworkers, managers, friends,etc have heard of this phone
....

curious, but how did your hear about the passport?

[3MIKE]

https://forums.crackberry.com/e?link...token=2l-0iNMs
Passport is dead. And these DA are selling at regular price? When was this so called passport released? 6months ago? Not sure why I got this phone.
Sorry guys. I give in. Gonna look for an Iphone. And call it a day. World peace is more important. It is just a phone.
And gonna dump all my BlackBerry shares today.

Posted with BlackBerry Passport

[Corbu]

On the advertising question, I was recently reading this interview with Maurice L�vy, the boss of Publicis, who handled BlackBerry's account both in the UK and in the States, through Razorfish:
We spoke to Publicis boss Maurice L�vy about why he's not buying Dunnhumby, and why he still sends handwritten notes | Business Insider

ML: The Razorfish difficulties were in fact kind of a perfect storm, if I may. We had a client called Blackberry who went from consumer to B2B. So 90% of the revenues [from that account] vanished simply by a decision to change the approach.

More details here:
Publicis Groupe UK revenue hit by retail and Blackberry | Advertising news | Campaign

Maurice L�vy, the chairman and chief executive of Publicis Groupe, said: "In the UK the decline is mainly coming from the retail sector and the fact that the international business for Blackberry was concentrated in the UK."

[...]

L�vy said: "Blackberry has moved from consumer communication to business to business and something like 90 per cent of spend has evaporated."

L�vy said the decline was being felt at Razorfish and would continue to affect the agency because Blackberry "is not returning to a consumer communication programme".

"Their [Blackberry’s] strategy is closer with the business, and it’s the right strategy by the way, and so we should expect this will last," L�vy said.

We all know that BlackBerry severely cut its advertising budget last year, consistent with their transition to their new operating model and, perhaps, with the times, which might in any event well call for a different advertising and media approach. Who knows, we may well see them pick things up on the advertising side in the future if the balance sheet looks good and if the situation justifies it. But first things first...

[howarmat]

stop the personal attacks or some of you will be taking the weekend off

[Munx]

Be prepared for tomorrow:

"CFO James Yersh who said at CES that revenues are expected to hit a "low point" in the fourth quarter and then to grow from there driven by hardware sales."

JC and team have already told the market it's going to be a low revenue quarter and my thinking is they may therefore decide to recognize as little revenue as possible. Put in a very low number, maybe low $6xx or even $5xx, and call that the bottom. It then becomes a growth story in future quarters.

Shorts, analysts and press will likely focus on the headline number so there may be a lot of negative noise. Shorts in particular will be looking to do damage...they smell blood.

GL all.

[hobbes_nyc]

curious, but how did your hear about the passport?

Had a pearl and a curve when everyone had them
Then the iphone
Then another iphone
Remembered how much I liked the blackberry keyboard
Start lurking crackberry for a while out of curiosity what blackberry was up to these days
yup, blackberry is still a garbage phone maker/cant compete with iphone
Still lurk for months anyway with desperate hope for something good
News of the passport comes around which I saw here
NICE
Copped it, love it

Posted via CB10

[Bacon Munchers]

Jesus we have lost close to 25 percent in less then a month over the GS and MS report.

Glass half empty.
Think of the potential gains to those who buy at the bottom...

... Like say, Morgan Stanley et al?

[Bacon Munchers]

Be prepared for tomorrow:

"CFO James Yersh who said at CES that revenues are expected to hit a "low point" in the fourth quarter and then to grow from there driven by hardware sales."

JC and team have already told the market it's going to be a low revenue quarter and my thinking is they may therefore decide to recognize as little revenue as possible. Put in a very low number, maybe low $6xx or even $5xx, and call that the bottom. It then becomes a growth story in future quarters.

Shorts, analysts and press will likely focus on the headline number so there may be a lot of negative noise. Shorts in particular will be looking to do damage...they smell blood.

GL all.

You could be right Munx, but remember that Chen has an obligation to stabilize things, and crashing his own investment, along with certain high-hands seems counter productive.

I may stand alone here, but all said, I see a slight uptick tomorrow.

[Reed Richards]

It sounds like the advertising for the Passport, and its prevalence, vary significantly from place to place, perhaps more so than the other BB10 phones.

I'm pleased to hear that people are seeing it in some cities. The experience in the U.S. Is frustrating... AT&T still has an exclusive on the phone, and there is no unlocked CDMA variant that would work on the major carrier, Verizon.

From what I've seen, online news or blogs are the way people are learning about the Passport, not ads. The Classic seems much better known to the general public.

Good luck to everyone tomorrow. In the wake of all the negative sentiment, think about how Samsung and others wouldn't get involved with BlackBerry if the company hadn't stabilized and didn't have clear strengths. And yet here the company is, with new ties and partnerships. To me that says a lot for its possibilities.


Posted via CB10

[BACK-2-BLACK]

Had a pearl and a curve when everyone had them
Then the iphone
Then another iphone
Remembered how much I liked the blackberry keyboard
Start lurking crackberry for a while out of curiosity what blackberry was up to these days
yup, blackberry is still a garbage phone maker/cant compete with iphone
Still lurk for months anyway with desperate hope for something good
News of the passport comes around which I saw here
NICE
Copped it, love it

Posted via CB10

Maybe there were others like you, past BB users, same demographics, craving the keyboard again...

but you know what it is like in NYC.....

you never see the same person twice, so you would never know or able to ask them....

[randall2580]

Marketing - there is marketing exactly where Chen said he would put it. EZ-Pass for example. Giving free licences to businesses brought over a very large amount of new accounts, now BlackBerry has to translate those into paying customers and we'll see how well that marketing is doing.

Look at the CrackBerry front page. QNX is hosting a webinar about their products to devs who can make use of it. Many more examples like this I can site if you like.

When you have a limited budget, and need to keep cash on hand precious, you make decisions on your markets and how to attack them. Chen's been asked in a number of calls and interviews when he's going to market the phones (remember the phones are just one division of BlackBerry now). His answer is consistent, he's not ready to do that yet.

I think it's important to look at the bigger picture for the whole company now remember Chen has said he will allow the BES guys to make decisions the handset guys would probably not have if they still ruled the roost.

If you are just going to look at this one factor - advertising to consumers - you're going to be disappointed.