[bbjdog]

Something worth noting in bold.

A3. Priv has been on the market for 5 months. Since rollouts are still happening, we need to wait before making announcements regarding any production interruption; furthermore, it is still out so we need to give it a chance. John wants to wait until he has tried everything before making the decision here and one must still take care of the enterprise adoption cycle.

[early2bed]

Yeah, it doesn't look good. Also, Chen still seems to think it's a good idea to go and ask potential customers what they want in a phone.

He already tried this, remember? When he first came on, he visited a lot of customers and asked what they wanted. The customers told him that they wanted the keyboard phone and with the trackpad back. A year later he brings out the Classic. That's a year spent giving existing customers what they said they wanted. Whether that was a wise decision is debatable. The Classic certainly did not revive the hardware program. I always wondered what customers would wait a year for you to get them what they want rather than go buy a different smartphone when they need to.

[world traveler and former ceo]

Thanks Corbu... interesting Q7 and A7.....

"Growth of software and services.... monetization of IP, IOT devices.... acquisitions...."

What's missing in the answer?..... HW/mobile phones....

Did I interpret correctly?

Posted via CB10

[JohnQQ365]

It's gonna rain again... Remember last summer I called bbry $6 when it's at 9? TAwise, this time it's going to be $6 at best, but $4 if worst.

Be prepared. Lol.

Posted via the CrackBerry App for Android

[Corbu]

It's gonna rain again... Remember last summer I called bbry $6 when it's at 9? This time it's going to be $6 at best, but $4 if worst.

Be prepared. Lol.

Very funny.

[anon(8865116)]

Anyone know why the QNX careers site isn't returning any jobs? Seems odd, maybe just a bug

[Klipspringers Shoes]

He already tried this, remember? When he first came on, he visited a lot of customers and asked what they wanted. The customers told him that they wanted the keyboard phone and with the trackpad back. A year later he brings out the Classic. That's a year spent giving existing customers what they said they wanted. Whether that was a wise decision is debatable. The Classic certainly did not revive the hardware program. I always wondered what customers would wait a year for you to get them what they want rather than go buy a different smartphone when they need to.

Well, I agree with Guy Kawasaki and Steve Jobs on this one: customers cannot tell you what they want. They will ask for the same old thing + 10%.

You are right: Chen asked and brought the trackpad back, and it made little to no difference. No customers jumped out and asked for the Passport, and yet the Passport is the best BlackBerry device since the release of BlackBerry 10. In fact, when there were leaks of the Passport screen on Crackberry, even the Crackberry crowd thought it was absurd. Brilliant, wasted device - absolutely brilliant phone.

Also, just on a common sense level, who is supposed to be the darn expert? If I'm a carpenter, I'm not going to go around asking plumbers and bakers and candlestick makers how I should make a chair. If I'm worth anything, I'm going to use my own brain and vision and create something, and then proudly take it to market....and promote it.

Anyway, I'm going to leave this particular topic for now as it's been discussed several times over the last week or so now. I would only suggest in closing that Chen's strategy in football metaphor has become a little tiresome:

'Up the middle, up the middle, up the middle, punt'. - Chen style.

Posted via CB10

[TGIS]

Well, I agree with Guy Kawasaki and Steve Jobs on this one: customers cannot tell you what they want. They will ask for the same old thing + 10%.

You are right: Chen asked and brought the trackpad back, and it made little to no difference. No customers jumped out and asked for the Passport, and yet the Passport is the best BlackBerry device since the release of BlackBerry 10. In fact, when there were leaks of the Passport screen on Crackberry, even the Crackberry crowd thought it was absurd. Brilliant, wasted device - absolutely brilliant phone.

Also, just on a common sense level, who is supposed to be the darn expert? If I'm a carpenter, I'm not going to go around asking plumbers and bakers and candlestick makers how I should make a chair. If I'm worth anything, I'm going to use my own brain and vision and create something, and then proudly take it to market....and promote it.

Anyway, I'm going to leave this particular topic for now as it's been discussed several times over the last week or so now. I would only suggest in closing that Chen's strategy in football metaphor has become a little tiresome:

'Up the middle, up the middle, up the middle, punt'. - Chen style.

Posted via CB10

We get you're a BBRY short already

[Ecm]

Closed for a few minutes...

[Ecm]

[WARN]Once again, it seems a reminder is in order.

Discuss, debate, even disagree. BUT do so in a civil manner. Do NOT make personal comments about each other. Do NOT attempt to provoke another member into making inappropriate comments.

If you feel that someone is trying to provoke you, do NOT reply with insults or rude comments, as you will earn warnings and/or infractions as well as the instigator. Ignore the post and report it for the moderators to handle.
[/WARN]
A handful of unnecessary comments (and where they were quoted) have been deleted.

/open

[_dimi_]

So how low is Apple going to go, Morgan? Are we talking -15% or like a proper crash? Would you say there's a correlation between not asking consumers what they want and stock performance? Looking at it long term, as always.

Posted via CB10

[Klipspringers Shoes]

We get you're a BBRY short already

Come on. I am not a 'short'. Even if I were, and I'm not, there would be zero value in posting messages in here. This thread has about zero effect on the stock market. Let's be sensible. My concern is with the stock price and the company. I believe in the potential and vital importance of the HW division, and I don't think Chen is poor CEO for BlackBerry, despite his strengths, and I think he is doing a very poor job indeed as regards HW especially. That is my opinion based on the evidence, and I am open to civilised debate and disagreement. Such discussion can only help us as investors and supporters of BlackBerry.

Posted via CB10

[_dimi_]

Come on. I am not a 'short'. Even if I were, and I'm not, there would be zero value in posting messages in here. This thread has about zero effect on the stock market. Let's be sensible. My concern is with the stock price and the company. I believe in the potential and vital importance of the HW division, and I don't think Chen is poor CEO for BlackBerry, despite his strengths, and I think he is doing a very poor job indeed as regards HW especially. That is my opinion based on the evidence, and I am open to civilised debate and disagreement. Such discussion can only help us as investors and supporters of BlackBerry.

Posted via CB10

Are you neither long or short? I'd say that makes you pretty average...?! ;-)

Posted via CB10

[bbjdog]

Something worth reading

http://blogs.blackberry.com/2016/04/...reduced-price/

Posted via my BlackBerry Passport

[Klipspringers Shoes]

Are you neither long or short? I'd say that makes you pretty average...?! ;-)

Posted via CB10

That comment sums up a lot. As I said, let's steer things in the direction of sensible, rational discussion about the company we all care about: BlackBerry.

Posted via CB10

[bungaboy]

Something worth reading

Starting Today, Enjoy the PRIVilege of Privacy at a Reduced Price | Inside BlackBerry

Posted via my BlackBerry Passport

Fine print: *Price drop applies to the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and The Netherlands, and includes VAT where applicable. Canada not included.

[spiller]

They must invest in marketing not just to advertise their phones, but to revive the BlackBerry brand. Passport and PRIV are killer devices, but they still went belly up partially because nobody outside of CrackBerry cares for BlackBerry, or is even aware of the fact that the company still exists; "oh, BlackBerry still makes phones?".

Going Android was a indeed good move. But if Chen wants to continue making phones, he must invest in a powerful marketing campaign to fix the diminished brand. Otherwise, the HW sales will remain anemic, hence it will continue to contaminate the overall BlackBerry brand.

Posted via CB10

People know they exist. But consumers aren't buying them. 1. it's not cool to have a blackberry. 2. aren't they going bankrupt? 3. they aren't going bankrupt but they might stop making phones and then my phone won't be supported.

Throwing marketing dollars at people will not overcome these barriers. Marketing isn't cheap either.

If they can save the HW business at all it will be because of prosumers/professionals who seek out the device and buy one, or enterprise sales. Or as Morgan says move into Direct sales at lower price point cutting out the carrier.

If they can break even with the above and show the hardware is not going away, then they can look at consumer advertising again. Revenue was $460M this past quarter, $180-190 of that was hardware revenue. An apple sized marketing campaign is probably 100M per quarter. So marketing is dead for the time being.

[Corbu]

BlackBerry expects handset business to break even this year | GulfNews.com

Aims to sell 3m devices, if not the company will exit the division and focus on software side

Published: 18:24 April 5, 2016 Gulf News

Naushad K. Cherrayil, Staff Reporter

Dubai. BlackBerry thinks this fiscal year will be the years its handsets returns to profitability, executive chairman and CEO John Chen told Gulf News on Tuesday.

In September 2015, he said his goal was to make the company break even within a year by selling 5 million handsets for the year; however, the company only sold 3.2 million units.

Chen still maintains it will only take one year to turn the company around, but after cutting costs, he says the company can be profitable in 2016 by only selling 3 million devices.

He said the latest fourth-quarter results were “solid” as the company has made progress on the key elements of its strategy, which are to grow its software faster than its mobile operating system, achieve profitability on its handsets, and generate positive cash flow.

“We will seriously consider moving to the software business only if hardware sales does not pick up,” he said.

The Canadian company expects a 30 per cent growth in software and services business this year, due to investment the company made in the internet of Things (IoT) sector.

Chen said that since coming to Blackberry two-and-a-half years ago, the first thing the team did was to repair the balanced sheet, generate cash [we have done that in last eight quarters in a row], and implement a good strategy on security, enterprise, handset, and IoT.

In the last 12 months, BlackBerry spent more than $1 billion to acquire six companies, including Good Technology, WatchDox, Encription and AtHoc, to drive the cross-platform software and IoT strategy.

“We have good cash in hand right now, and we have a strategy and will invest in that strategy. Our intention is to do one thing at a time but to do it correctly,” he said.

This year, he said that BlackBerry will see some growth and the only way to grow is to create more presence in the market.

“Part of me being here is to focus on expanding our market presence. This is my first stop, so it shows how important this region is, and next [he will be going] to India. We have ambitious plans but we will not be doing everything at the same time. You will we see us being aggressive in distribution this year,” he said.

He said that he has met with telco operators in the UAE, and they said they said they would love for the enterprise segment to use BlackBerry phones, so “we will work with them”.

“This year, I will be pushing two Android devices and the Passport [BB10] with the telco operators,” he said.

The company’s first Android device — Priv — launched in November 2015 with premium build quality, physical keyboard, large screen, and enterprise-friendly apps. It was priced at Dh2,899.

“Priv is highly priced, but this year we will launch a mid-range device,” he said.

When asked if the next model would be Vienna, he just laughed and said “you know it?” He did not say when the new device would be released.

On whether two devices are enough to compete in the market, he said that it is enough to break even in the handset business. Then, he said, once you get the foundation solid [technology and financial], then you can do more.

Priv is present in 34 countries and 80 telecom operators. Chen said that the company still has work to do in expanding across the globe.

He made it clear that if the trend of dwindling smartphone sales continues, the company will shut down the division and focus entirely on security and enterprise.

[Corbu]

Two more years support for BB10 | GulfNews.com

Company aims to positioning itself as the most secure Android smartphone for enterprise

Dubai: While BlackBerry doesn’t intend to abandon the BlackBerry 10 operating system, it will not produce handsets running on BB10 anymore.

“We will support BB10 for minimum two more years as a lot of governments are using it, such as Canada, the US, Germany and UK. Two more operating releases are coming out — one this year and one by April — and then we will assess,” said John Chen, executive chairman and CEO of BlackBerry.

Even if BlackBerry not longer makes any devices, he said that he will still support the governments for two more years. “After two years, it depends on how much security we can pack into Android. If we can make Android phone as secure as Blackberry 10, which will be difficult, but if we can make it then the two lines will merge. If it doesn’t, then I have to look for an answer to the customer,” he said.

Chen said the company is banking on positioning itself as the “most secure Android smartphone for the enterprise.”

[bbjdog]

Fine print: *Price drop applies to the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and The Netherlands, and includes VAT where applicable. Canada not included.

LOL


So my Canadian tire money is worthless!

Posted via my BlackBerry Passport

[spiller]

BlackBerry probably has a lot of unsold Passport, Z10, Q10, Classic and Leap stock.
We have already seen Passports (both silver and OG) run Android in the wild.

disclaimer: I love my Passport since October 2014 and to this day there has not been a phone which is better for me.

But if they repurpose the BB10 devices and update them to Android, they WILL be more attractive to new customers. It will increase BB marketshare, and mindshare around consumers. I will never update to Android, but if they offer this option for Passport, Z30, Classic owners, then people can continue using their BLACKBERRY devices longer. And it will increase the chance of other people seeing BB devices in the wild.

Could they use this method?

No they can't as they would need to create the drivers for Android on the old chipsets. Too expensive.

I'll guess this $4xx Android device planned for enterprise sales will have similar internals as the Passport (808).

[cjcampbell]

People know they exist. But consumers aren't buying them. 1. it's not cool to have a blackberry. 2. aren't they going bankrupt? 3. they aren't going bankrupt but they might stop making phones and then my phone won't be supported.

Throwing marketing dollars at people will not overcome these barriers. Marketing isn't cheap either.

If they can save the HW business at all it will be because of prosumers/professionals who seek out the device and buy one, or enterprise sales. Or as Morgan says move into Direct sales at lower price point cutting out the carrier.

If they can break even with the above and show the hardware is not going away, then they can look at consumer advertising again. Revenue was $460M this past quarter, $180-190 of that was hardware revenue. An apple sized marketing campaign is probably 100M per quarter. So marketing is dead for the time being.

AAPL spends over $1 billion a year on advertising. There's no way BBRY could come even close to that spending budget. If they were to jump into some sort of campaign, it would have to be sustained for a while, not just a quarter. They are in a tough spot when it comes to consumer perception and hopefully can somehow, some day, overcome that.

Posted via CB10

[app_Developer]

If they can break even with the above and show the hardware is not going away, then they can look at consumer advertising again. Revenue was $460M this past quarter, $180-190 of that was hardware revenue. An apple sized marketing campaign is probably 100M per quarter. So marketing is dead for the time being.

I totally agree. Just to add to your point, Apple actually spends more than $300M per quarter on advertising alone (worldwide)

[anon(8865116)]

Anyone think they can actually hit 3 million devices? I think they can if they get the other two devices out early FY 2017. What I'm concerned about is whether they can keep the break even at 3 million with new mid range devices. I actually find it pretty crazy that the Priv was only 40% of devices sold (from corbu). I wonder if we'll see any significant impact to sales when the Priv hits $500 retail

[Klipspringers Shoes]

People know they exist. But consumers aren't buying them. 1. it's not cool to have a blackberry. 2. aren't they going bankrupt? 3. they aren't going bankrupt but they might stop making phones and then my phone won't be supported.

Throwing marketing dollars at people will not overcome these barriers. Marketing isn't cheap either.

If they can save the HW business at all it will be because of prosumers/professionals who seek out the device and buy one, or enterprise sales. Or as Morgan says move into Direct sales at lower price point cutting out the carrier.

If they can break even with the above and show the hardware is not going away, then they can look at consumer advertising again. Revenue was $460M this past quarter, $180-190 of that was hardware revenue. An apple sized marketing campaign is probably 100M per quarter. So marketing is dead for the time being.

Sorry, and I won't hammer on about this, but people DO NOT know they exist. I'm sure I'm not the only one who bought a Z10 and then had people two or three years later frequently expressing surprise that it existed. I'm sure I'm not the only one who experienced the same thing when I bought a Z30, and then a Passport. Even years afterwards, it has been very common to get comments of shock and surprise that the phones existed, or even that BlackBerry as a company existed. Most people simply have absolutely no idea when a BlackBerry device comes out.

Posted via CB10