[take99]

Also going back to an earlier post I made, DoD is supposed to make a decision for their MDM contract late April, although I have read elsewhere 'by summer'.

[helopilot06]

Was thinking the same thing. Surely if it is just one store it is more likely a promotional offer rather than a company wide reduction.

Also I saw some people say that amazon has been known for put on promotional offers like this for new phones before.

Anyone in the US care to shed light on this.

Posted via CB10

It has happened frequently. Its how Amazon generates buzz for themselves. But dont be fooled. they are making more money by cutting prices than selling the phone out right lol. Its genious

[helopilot06]

BlackBerry wine . . . . goes down fine.

Attachment 150951

me and the wife had a bottle of Blackberry merlot tonight lol

[helopilot06]

I don't know how to interpret the impact of the new phones...here's the problem...how do you make money off low end devices? Lenovo and other Chinese firms can pump out Android phones at a very low cost. I would be more excited about new $ generating services - even if it supported Apple and Samsung handsets! We just need to get that short number down to see the shares rip.

You have to understand that BB is changing their business strategy. They are not going to compete just focusing on Service revenue as thats just now how its done anymore. But, hand set sales, QNX in everything, and this idea of changing mobile computing.. thats forward looking, thats what will be profitable. NOT service revenues in the long term

[Kid Vibe]

I still think Levono is going to license BB10...they need some kind of OS to run on their recent Hardware purchase...and they would be a great fit when BlackBerry releases their mobile computing solution...would sure help the share price too.

Posted via CB10

I hope something does happen in relation to this quote. Buddha Bing Cha Ching.

[helopilot06]

I hope something does happen in relation to this quote. Buddha Bing Cha Ching.

I really doubt this will happen. The main strike point of BB10 or any BB OS is security. Licensing it out would create the opportunity for vulnerability and I think alot of Governments would have a problem with a chinese company having the license to BB10. Just my .02

[plane6065]

Lewis Hamilton gets 3rd place in the Chinese Grand Prix - a lot of look at Blackberry sponsorship logo. :-)

[zhaolianf]

Lenovo is doing good with Andriod phone. The number of local BB10 app is nearly zero. Most of people don't know BlackBerry. Why Lnovo licenses BB10? except BlackBerry pays Lenovo to do so.

[helopilot06]

Lenovo is doing good with Andriod phone. The number of local BB10 app is nearly zero. Most of people don't know BlackBerry. Why Lnovo licenses BB10? except BlackBerry pays Lenovo to do so.

You're exactly right. Plus I really have a hard time seeing BB licensing out. I just feel it would burn so many bridges. Lower control over a product less security

[Shanerredflag]

Lenovo is doing good with Andriod phone. The number of local BB10 app is nearly zero. Most of people don't know BlackBerry. Why Lnovo licenses BB10? except BlackBerry pays Lenovo to do so.

Do most people know Levano is running Android...or do they simply like the form factor of the device? Also, can Android provide an OS they can leverage in their laptop buisness...no.

It's all speculation...one thing is certain though, Levano has shown interest in BlackBerry .

Posted via CB10

[raysgrumpy]

Do most people know Levano is running Android...or do they simply like the form factor of the device? Also, can Android provide an OS they can leverage in their laptop buisness...no.

It's all speculation...one thing is certain though, Levano has shown interest in BlackBerry .

Posted via CB10

I guess you've never heard of Chrome OS? Last I checked, it is on a whole lot more "laptops" than Blackberry

[Shanerredflag]

Guess you haven't heard about googs track record in China. Man, you fanboys sure show your dark side when someone suggests another alternative.

Posted via CB10

[zhaolianf]

Do most people know Levano is running Android...or do they simply like the form factor of the device? Also, can Android provide an OS they can leverage in their laptop buisness...no.

It's all speculation...one thing is certain though, Levano has shown interest in BlackBerry .

Posted via CB10

People do know Lenovo is running Andriod. Except iPhone, almost all smartphones are runing Andriod in China.
I believe Lenovo do have interesting on BlackBerry,but it's not licensing. Lenovo has ambitious to become a company like Apple,Microsoft. To acquire Blackberry,Lenovo will own hardware and software, that will help Lenovo to realize the goal. But I don't see it will happen.

[cjcampbell]

People do know Lenovo is running Andriod. Except iPhone, almost all smartphones are runing Andriod in China.
I believe Lenovo do have interesting on BlackBerry,but it's not licensing. Lenovo has ambitious to become a company like Apple,Microsoft. To acquire Blackberry,Lenovo will own hardware and software, that will help Lenovo to realize the goal. But I don't see it will happen.

As has been discussed before, Lenova couldn't afford BlackBerry.

Posted via CB10

[CDM76]

As has been discussed before, Lenova couldn't afford BlackBerry.

Posted via CB10

And that doesn't take into account gov approval process for such a sale to happen.

Posted via CB10

[tmurphx5]

You're exactly right. Plus I really have a hard time seeing BB licensing out. I just feel it would burn so many bridges. Lower control over a product less security

Licensing software doesn't mean you hand over all the code or 'crown jewels'. Microsoft have been doing it for years.

Anyway here is some more thinking on the topic of licensing.

Has BlackBerry Already Signed a Licensing Deal for BB 10? | The Gadget Masters

[Markymark 23]

As has been discussed before, Lenova couldn't afford BlackBerry.

Ditto. And has also been discussed before, there's a huge difference between licensing and acquisition and the two keep getting confused or used in the same sentence as if they're the same thing. Licensing - a definite possibility. Acquisition - not gonna happen unless the acquirerer is a trusted western entity ( I'd name examples but that'll just start another pointless debate) which would maintain the current and future integrity, to highlight just one consideration, of BBRY's uncompromised leadership in communications security. IMHO.

[m0de25]

For those concerned about Lenovo, etc. licencing BB software, that govt and businesses would regard it as a safety issue ...

Would this scenario make sense and kill this type of concern? Have Blackberry produce only high end phones, which would the only phones in the lineup capable of synching BES10 as well as the only models with Balance. Then, OEMs like Lenovo can build the rest of the BB10 lineup (average consumer not concerned with bulletproof security , low end for 2nd and 3rd world markets)

[Markymark 23]

Licensing software doesn't mean you hand over all the code or 'crown jewels'. Microsoft have been doing it for years.

Anyway here is some more thinking on the topic of licensing.

Hmmmmm......that article on a licensing deal already signed or in the making raises an interesting possibility. The writer is correct.....the boss and Boulben really have said two different things, haven't they? Not cheapening the brand and increasing market share = the sky's the limit!

[Kid Vibe]

BlackBerry And Sandridge Doomed? Ask Prem Watsa And Sanjeev Parsad - Seeking Alpha

We think the fair value is around 40 something and the time horizon is long-term as always, but we feel very confident in the management team.

Can someone who is a sub post the rest of this?

[bungaboy]

Licensing software doesn't mean you hand over all the code or 'crown jewels'. Microsoft have been doing it for years.

Anyway here is some more thinking on the topic of licensing.

Has BlackBerry Already Signed a Licensing Deal for BB 10? | The Gadget Masters

When a news article or story has a question in the title or headline the answer is . . . . . NO!

[bungaboy]

BlackBerry And Sandridge Doomed? Ask Prem Watsa And Sanjeev Parsad - Seeking Alpha

We think the fair value is around 40 something and the time horizon is long-term as always, but we feel very confident in the management team.

Can someone who is a sub post the rest of this?

BlackBerry (BBRY) and Sandridge (SD) are probably two of the most undervalued companies out there right now. The negative publicity coupled with the short term mindset of the market place has attracted famous and talented investors such as Prem Watsa (CEO of Fairfax Financials, "The Warren Buffett of the North") and Sanjeev Parsad (Founder of Corner Market Capital) to invest in them.

To help investors better understand how these investors are thinking about their investments, I took the opportunity to ask them a few questions during the annual shareholder meeting at Fairfax Financials (FFH.TO) in Toronto.

Prem was nice enough to give me a few minutes in regard to his thoughts on BBRY and SD.

BlackBerry:

Me: With the departure of Mike Lazardis (Co-Founder of BBRY and former CEO), does your investment thesis still stand from when you first bought into the company?

Prem Watsa: I am really good friends with Mike, and he is a technical genius. He built a $20 billion (in revenue) at its high from nothing. He has now left the company in great hands and Thorsten [Heins, Current CEO of BBRY] has done an amazing job in turning around the company. We think that Mike left the company because he knew that he left it in good hands, and that the team Thorsten has hired will help the turnaround effort. Mike also told me that it felt like leaving his son and letting him get married. He will not sell his shares and continues to support the company.

Me: What's your time horizon on BBRY and when do you plan to sell?

Prem: The turnaround story won't happen overnight, and it's only just getting started. The z10 is attracting nearly 30-40% of other smartphone users, and I think that's unbelievable. Another thing I want you to think of is the kind of market the smartphone business its in. We have nearly 6 billion phones around the world, and only 1 billion of them are smartphones. People are estimating smartphone shipments of 1.6 billion in 2016. If BlackBerry is able to maintain a 5% market share, then you have to roughly sell 80 million smartphones. They shipped 6 million last quarter, 1 million new phones and they are already profitable. We think the fair value is around 40 something and the time horizon is long-term as always, but we feel very confident in the management team.

Me: How do you feel about competition going forward?

Prem: Competition is going to be fierce going forward, I mean you got companies like Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG) with the a\Android, but BlackBerry has the security like no other. You can't get the kind of security you want on an iPhone. But we think BlackBerry has its place in the market.

Reflection:

While my discussion with Prem was short and concise, simply from his tone of voice, I can feel the kind of confidence he has in Thorsten and his team. To add on a side note, Prem had a BBRY booth at the annual shareholder meeting, and nearly 50-60% of the smartphone users had a BlackBerry. You can truly feel the excitement being built around the new platform, but the typical response I got from current BB7 users was that they are waiting for the Q10.

I understand that the loyal customer base is still [made up of] keyboard fanatics, but to have this loyal base really brings value at a time when competition is so fierce. The mere fact that there is this huge installed base waiting for a product release could signal the beginning of this turnaround.

Aside from the questions and the research, I've never been more pleased to say that Thorsten and his team are doing the right things, while there are still execution blunders (marketing), the long-term prospects of the company continue to be bright. With a strong industry tailwind, if BlackBerry simply survives to fight another day, it will always have an opportunity to regain market share.

[La Emperor]

For those concerned about Lenovo, etc. licencing BB software, that govt and businesses would regard it as a safety issue ...

Would this scenario make sense and kill this type of concern? Have Blackberry produce only high end phones, which would the only phones in the lineup capable of synching BES10 as well as the only models with Balance. Then, OEMs like Lenovo can build the rest of the BB10 lineup (average consumer not concerned with bulletproof security , low end for 2nd and 3rd world markets)

Licensing is the likely scenario, as too many regulators especially in the US would squawk on the deal if the takeover is announced. It would be blocked.
Lenovo, HP, Dell and Microsoft are likely candidates as we see consolidation of devices in the next few years, and with their business reach shrinking, I can see one or more of them jumping on a BB10 powered tablet as well, not just smartphones.

Now for the low end smartphone devices, I totally agree with you. Here's why.

With a BB10 device, you have 2 phones in reality which is perfectly parallel to each other. No cross contamination of data, highly secure in the Balance world. Tailored for the business/consumer use. It takes advantage of the OS which makes the phone feature rich and at par with the current lineups of competitors likes IOS and Androids despite being behind in the hardware specs. Remember when the Z10 came out and the specs were blasted by media as "it is so yesterday, only dual cores,blah..blah, blah..". Some were even mocking it for not having the latest in hardware. Yet when bench marked for performance it is at par with S3 and Iphone5. No one said much about the Balance feature which the Z10 can do, or at least was not given emphasis.

Now ask yourself, how about making that feature in S3 and Iphone5? You probably can but not with their current line up of hardware ( or it would be super slow ). Perhaps the S4 with its 8 cores. Even then, lets see how the 3million ( I read somewhere it's 8 ) OS codes work in that scenario. Try to copy the Balance feature into the S4. That would mean you have to have you a similar OS running in parallel, on standby ready to called in a microsecond. Now we have 6 million codes running, and remember these are without the apps. Memory limitations would be in play and so as battery usage. Putting more hardware would be expensive.

That's why as I said before in this thread, the engineering marvel is getting the QNX to run in the small form factor, taking advantage of hardware it's allowed to play with. QNX runs on 100k code, and has been around for 30 years. It's battle tested and can run critical systems we all know. TH saw this coming from Siemens. He knows industrial computing very well.

Now back to the low end device. They can license to someone like Lenovo and make phones, without the Balance feature using half the hardware specs of Z10 ( oversimplifying here )and comes up at par with the S3 and Iphone5. Now that would be a beauty isn't it. With tremendous savings in hardware and of course cheap production labor in the East, it would make a perfect low end device. We can call it a Z5.. hahaha Remember this scenario could also be repeated in a tablet world.


Now with the bashing going on ( a bit OT here ), fueled by the media circus and lies being thrown around you have to wonder again why? Sony and HTC also released phones recently yet you don't hear much trash or at least the bashing is akin to the Pope ( sorry cant help it...) doing the review.

Perhaps BB really came out with something that can disrupt the duopoly, and they're trying to nip the bud before it fully grows. We will see.

I can hear fear. It's not coming out from the competitors. The media is doing it for them.. ( not everyone of course ..)

[cjcampbell]

A profit expected by the street now? Hmmmmm.. a slight rise in Monday maybe?

http://www.thegadgetmasters.com/2013...ext-two-years/

Posted via CB10

[Shanerredflag]

What a great day...enjoyed all your positive posts, watching Tiger warm up before he attacks and Lewis Hamilton pilots another podium victory in F1.

That and the smug comfort of knowing this investment will eventually pay off huge.

Posted via CB10