[Superfly_FR]

Very well said, Morgan. Could not agree more. Thank you.

Let me double these exact words, thanks Morgan.

[W Hoa]

BlackBerry Advances Global Expansion of Its AtHoc Crisis Communication Software

BlackBerry AtHoc's key product updates include:

• Eight New Languages: Native language support through multiple worldwide datacenters for international customers leads to faster response and improved safety during a crisis.
• Enhanced Geographical Targeting: New custom map layering makes targeting users faster and easier for complex global organizations.
• Flexible Mobile Operations: Simplifications to the mobile experience, including customized user groups for operators and streamlined alerting for end users, optimize the ability to send and receive critical information during a crisis via the AtHoc mobile app.
• Augmented Performance: AtHoc continues to improve performance. With this latest update, it delivers up to 50 percent faster page loads in the product areas used most often, meaning it takes less time to start communicating during a crisis, keeping people and organizations safe.
• Enhanced Security and Privacy: AtHoc continues to invest in making its platform the most secure as well as adhering to global privacy standards.

​http://finance.yahoo.com/news/blackberry-advances-global-expansion-athoc-140000700.html

[Corbu]

Good read:
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/6...ry/?set=603536
Quantum Computing Paranoia Creates a New Industry

[rarsen]

A general article on Warren Buffett as am thinking of our heartfelt loss of our straight shooting friend Bunga:

Warren Buffett's best advice for young people has nothing to do with business
http://people.com/movies/warren-buff...bo-documetary/

[Corbu]

Meet the Channel: Richard McLeod, BlackBerry | Information Technology Channel Leadership News content from The VAR Guy

Thanks SE!

[Corbu]

QNX Auto Blog: Thank You to QNX Partners for a Wonderful CES

[rarsen]

General information from the IoT file:

Internet of Things: CIOs are getting ready for the next big revolution | ZDNet
Almost three quarters (71%) of IT leaders are now gathering data for IoT initiatives, according to 451 Research. Analyst IDC, meanwhile, expects global IoT spending to reach almost $1.29 trillion during the next three years.

The first big Internet of Things security breach is just around the corner | ZDNet
Gartner estimates that currently 5.5 million new 'things' -- devices from toasters and kettles to cars and hospital equipment -- are being connected to the internet every single day, and total 6.4 billion by the end of the year 2016.

[Corbu]

Roland Quandt @rquandt

Invite for the BlackBerry Mercury launch in Barcelona at MWC just came in, yay And they're calling it a flagship! Still, SD625, promise.

rarsen, Greened, morganplus8 and 5 others like this.

[Superfly_FR]

BlackBerry + BlackBerry Mobile : now we have a "startup-like" in line ... let's see how it goes north !
Cleaning up the Confusion: What you need to know about BlackBerry and BlackBerry Mobile | CrackBerry.com

[Corbu]

Car wars: Why ‘Canada is dead last’ in the potentially huge self-driving industry | Financial Post

[Corbu]

Optiemus to make and sell handsets for BlackBerry in India - The Economic Times

KOLKATA: BlackBerry, the brand that ruled the smartphone world before the advent of iPhone and touch phones, is set for a return to the country with Delhi-based Optiemus Infracom signing a 10-year a brand licensing agreement with the Canadian company.

Optiemus, a distributor of mobile phones and accessories, has bagged exclusive rights to design, manufacture and sell the once iconic smartphone brand, besides providing customer support in India and some neighbouring countries, two senior industry executives told ET.

“The company will focus on BlackBerry handsets priced between Rs 12,000 to Rs 20,000, which is the fastest growing segment in India,” one of them said. The Delhi-based firm will localise BlackBerry handsets completely for the Indian market and expects to sell two million handsets in one year, the person said.

BlackBerry will also license its security software and service suite to Optiemus whereby it will launch BlackBerry smartphones running on Google Android operating system and position them as ‘secured’ handsets. The handsets will also receive security updates directly from BlackBerry, the executives said. When contacted, Optiemus chairman Ashok Gupta declined to comment. An email sent to Black-Berry remained unanswered as of press time on Thursday.

Optiemus, which has been the distributor of BlackBerry smartphones in the country since November last, had recently set up a smartphone contract manufacturing operations with Taiwan’s Wistron in the country. BlackBerry handsets will be made at this facility, the executives said.

Besides India, Optiemus has the licence for the BlackBerry brand in Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh.

[bspence87]

Optiemus to make and sell handsets for BlackBerry in India - The Economic Times

Very exciting! Looking forward to hearing some numbers about the deal; could be a nice little sum to add to the recurring revenue.

[Radagast2012]

Very exciting! Looking forward to hearing some numbers about the deal; could be a nice little sum to add to the recurring revenue.

2 million phones, let's assume an ASP of $200 USD; that's $400 million a year. Anyone have any guesses what sort of cut BBRY will get?

[spiller]

2 million phones, let's assume an ASP of $200 USD; that's $400 million a year. Anyone have any guesses what sort of cut BBRY will get?

Wild guess.... 15 per phone for software plus 15 per phone if/for physical keyboard IP. maybe its tiered to decrease on volume.

[Superfly_FR]

Sorry for the OT, but if any of you has experienced a trip in Oman, please : http://forums.crackberry.com/other-c.../#post12751515

[morganplus8]

2 million phones, let's assume an ASP of $200 USD; that's $400 million a year. Anyone have any guesses what sort of cut BBRY will get?

Corbu can correct me on this but I remember one analyst saying he thought $ 5 - $ 15 bucks per unit would be about right at a 90% margin so that's $ 27 MM on 3 MM units for a Fiscal year. Obviously this isn't a barn burner of a business for BlackBerry but those numbers can grow and there is no mention of how the secure software side, and updates, will factor into those numbers. The BlackBerry name "royalty" is .05/shr/3mm/units and the rest is anyone's guess right now. It is more important to note that BB is no longer losing money on HW at this point so that's the real gain in all of this. You can create multiples of those handset numbers to see how this could balloon over the next few years.

I want to know more about how they will scale up QNX at this point as the unit sales numbers are 10 - 20 times higher for them with the same margin. Then there is software and services, we haven't heard from Chen as to where growth is for Fiscal 2019 in that sector. We hope they project superior % growth versus their peers in this area .... then there are acquisitions to consider with all of that cash.

A nickle a year in earnings for HW really doesn't move the needle that much does it?

BBRY stock: We are at an inflection point, the Bollinger Bands are as tight as they have ever been over the past 5-years setting the stock up for another major move. The company has been very quiet lately, little information to help us forecast growth and Trump is doing his crazy act on an hourly basis so we sit here. The general market does look great though, if someone can cause Trump to back off the "stupid" throttle for a bit, we could have a monster rally from here. For instance, one minute he hates healthcare, the next, he likes that sector. He is clearly not an investor in the stock market.

[Corbu]

FTR, unless I have missed it, there has not yet been an official announcement of that Optiemus deal. The only source, for now,. seems to be that ET piece I posted earlier.

As an aside, it appears Optiemus will use the services of Taiwan's Wistron. As will Apple, which just announced a manufacturing deal in India:
B’luru gets first bite of Apple; Peenya facility to make iPhones- The New Indian Express

[kadakn01]

Some 13F updates:
Iridian Asset Management increases position by 6.5M shares, now has nearly 21M shares.
More to come.
Also a side note to add on what M8 said. The volume for Jan was the lowest month ever since 1999. And the range on both a daily and weekly are at the lowest ever for this period of time.

[_dimi_]

Corbu can correct me on this but I remember one analyst saying he thought $ 5 - $ 15 bucks per unit would be about right at a 90% margin so that's $ 27 MM on 3 MM units for a Fiscal year. Obviously this isn't a barn burner of a business for BlackBerry but those numbers can grow and there is no mention of how the secure software side, and updates, will factor into those numbers. The BlackBerry name "royalty" is .05/shr/3mm/units and the rest is anyone's guess right now. It is more important to note that BB is no longer losing money on HW at this point so that's the real gain in all of this. You can create multiples of those handset numbers to see how this could balloon over the next few years.

I want to know more about how they will scale up QNX at this point as the unit sales numbers are 10 - 20 times higher for them with the same margin. Then there is software and services, we haven't heard from Chen as to where growth is for Fiscal 2019 in that sector. We hope they project superior % growth versus their peers in this area .... then there are acquisitions to consider with all of that cash.

A nickle a year in earnings for HW really doesn't move the needle that much does it?

BBRY stock: We are at an inflection point, the Bollinger Bands are as tight as they have ever been over the past 5-years setting the stock up for another major move. The company has been very quiet lately, little information to help us forecast growth and Trump is doing his crazy act on an hourly basis so we sit here. The general market does look great though, if someone can cause Trump to back off the "stupid" throttle for a bit, we could have a monster rally from here. For instance, one minute he hates healthcare, the next, he likes that sector. He is clearly not an investor in the stock market.

But combine the deal in India with the much larger (?) TCL deal, and a more or less similar deal in Indonesia.. although I remember reading production capacity figures in an article for the Indonesian market which were higher. It wasn't in English so can't find it right now..

Posted via CB10

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

But combine the deal in India with the much larger (?) TCL deal, and a more or less similar deal in Indonesia.. although I remember reading production capacity figures in an article for the Indonesian market which were higher. It wasn't in English so can't find it right now..

Posted via CB10

There is production capacity, and then there is demand. Each of these deals have talked about millions of phones.... what they haven't laid out is what they will do differently from what BlackBerry has unsuccessfully been doing - just the BlackBerry name alone doesn't sell phone. The unofficial Optiemus report did mention getting the price down to a $170 USD starting point, much better than BlackBerry's budget friendly $250 USD Z3. But need to know what the hardware set will be and how it compares to the rest of the market at that same price (or even lower)

Personally I don't hold out much hope for either India or Indonesia, both those licensees are distributor, not manufacturer. They will have to pay someone to design and build their phones. They will be competing against OEM's that don't have an extra finger in the pie (with BlackBerry it's two extra fingers). The TCL deal is the more interesting one and has the potential to be competitive - both on price and quality.

[morganplus8]

But combine the deal in India with the much larger (?) TCL deal, and a more or less similar deal in Indonesia.. although I remember reading production capacity figures in an article for the Indonesian market which were higher. It wasn't in English so can't find it right now..

Posted via CB10

You are making me think now, I believe the $ amounts/estimates came from a BNN video and the production numbers were part of an article that stated 1 MM units per month of production. I guess all we can do is surmise that 3 MM nets $ .05/shr and 6 MM nets $ .10/shr and so on. It's a royalty against the BlackBerry brand at this point. The good news is that it takes a 10% margin to apply and maintain this royalty system and that's super cheap and non-time consuming so that Chen can turn his attention to software, IP licensing and QNX! These are long-term contracts so BB is definitely stepping out of direct manufacturing distribution/control for 10-years now. MBLY sports a 25 P/E and should BB get back in the green, I would think we could achieve those levels too. Certainly 6 MM handsets adds to the bottom line.

[_dimi_]

You are making me think now, I believe the $ amounts/estimates came from a BNN video and the production numbers were part of an article that stated 1 MM units per month of production. I guess all we can do is surmise that 3 MM nets $ .05/shr and 6 MM nets $ .10/shr and so on. It's a royalty against the BlackBerry brand at this point. The good news is that it takes a 10% margin to apply and maintain this royalty system and that's super cheap and non-time consuming so that Chen can turn his attention to software, IP licensing and QNX! These are long-term contracts so BB is definitely stepping out of direct manufacturing distribution/control for 10-years now. MBLY sports a 25 P/E and should BB get back in the green, I would think we could achieve those levels too. Certainly 6 MM handsets adds to the bottom line.

So EPS of 0.65 could result in 16.25 USD per share? :-)

Posted via CB10

[BanffMoose]

The good news is that it takes a 10% margin to apply and maintain this royalty system and that's super cheap and non-time consuming so that Chen can turn his attention to software, IP licensing and QNX! These are long-term contracts so BB is definitely stepping out of direct manufacturing distribution/control for 10-years now. MBLY sports a 25 P/E and should BB get back in the green, I would think we could achieve those levels too. Certainly 6 MM handsets adds to the bottom line.

The issue may become one of "how well can BlackBerry keep up with monthly security updates" with so many new models coming out. Wasn't the DTEK50 having problems with not receiving security updates for a while last year? I thought I heard there were problems.

Posted via CB10

[CDM76]

The issue may become one of "how well can BlackBerry keep up with monthly security updates" with so many new models coming out. Wasn't the DTEK50 having problems with not receiving security updates for a while last year? I thought I heard there were problems.

Posted via CB10

Not sure about others. But on my DTek50 one of the updates had the previous month in it, which made it appear to be previous months update but in fact the version was the current monthly version. So they just made an error and forgot to change the month in date portion of the update. No big deal, except here on CB where it was evidently proof that Blackberry is the world's worst company ever and completely incompetent in everything they do.

As I'm a beta tester I submitted a bug report for it, and was advised of the mistake by Blackberry. I noted it was corrected the following month and No known issue since.

I haven't heard anything else about problems issuing updates.

[StormieTwo]

I run a unlocked Dtek50 here in Ontario and I haven't had any issues beside what was mentioned above. My current security Patch is dates Jan5. I do recall it arriving a few days after that though.