[Charles Martin1]

Wife changed her mind after she had the Q10 in her hands. Can't go back to such a small screen she said. Funny because she loved her 9900.

[spike12]

ah ! 2 minutes more to save/send the image lol

I was just about to post this too.. I guess we're all on twitter.

[lcjr]

Wife changed her mind after she had the Q10 in her hands. Can't go back to such a small screen she said. Funny because she loved her 9900.

I'll take one of these thank you.

[spiller]

Thanks for sharing that. Makes a person want to buy more shares!!

I want somebody to post an article that "Blackberry now has 79 Million subs!" - this is a new article and he states 79M. If that is current info, and that can be assumed since the interview was this week, then subs are UP for Q1!

[cjcampbell]

I want somebody to post an article that "Blackberry now has 79 Million subs!" - this is a new article and he states 79M. If that is current info, and that can be assumed since the interview was this week, then subs are UP for Q1!

I noticed the same thing and was wondering that myself.

[Tinomane]

I want somebody to post an article that "Blackberry now has 79 Million subs!" - this is a new article and he states 79M. If that is current info, and that can be assumed since the interview was this week, then subs are UP for Q1!

Heins said that in an interview?

[leafs123]

Heins said that in an interview?

It could have been the BNN, Bloomberg or Fox interviews he gave. I remember him saying the subscriber base but didn't put much thought to it.

[Soumaila Somtore]

I can't understand why I am thinking this but I am not seeing BBRY close today less than $16.19, and I don't feel like I am dreaming.

A big ol bunch of sideways trading today for BB:TSE
I don't expect much different for the remainder. I'll be surprised if it closes at higher than $16.15

[plasmid_boy]

I'll take one of these thank you.

Did you see the 24K gold one?? LOL..

[spiller]

Heins said that in an interview?

Find the highlighted text...do you think this can support an article on SA "Has Blackberry increased their subscribers to 79M this quarter?"

BlackBerry talks tablets, Q10, and steady plans for regaining the number one spot

By Stuart Miles
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92 minutes ago
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Rick Costanzo, VP of global sales at BlackBerry sat down with Pocket-lint to talk the future of BlackBerry, how the Q10 launch in the UK went, why one customer bought 400 BlackBerry Q10 devices in one go from Selfridges, and what Thorsten Heins, the company's CEO, meant by his comment that we wouldn't be using tablet devices like the iPad or PlayBook in 5 years time.

On how it is going right now

It is incredibly busy. We've just had the Q10 launch last week and we couldn't have been happier on how it went actually. It was a great start.

My thing is, I don't hang my hat on one single product or any one single product launch. What we spent two years actually doing was building BlackBerry 10 as a platform and the Z10 was the first physical manifestation of it and we are really pleased how that went. We launched in February and in one month we sold over one million devices and we are really pleased. March, April, May we are globally launching the Z10 and that scales up.

The Q10 launch was last weekend, we said we were going to launch six products by the end of the year so we have a pretty steady sequence and a pretty steady cadence. One step forward, after the other, after the other.

Q10. Very pleased. It's less than a week for it being out there, but what we've seen from the initial reaction, we are very pleased.

On those six devices promised for 2013

Top is irrelevant. You can go and take it in a number of directions. We've very clearly said that we are building BlackBerry 10 for different segments with different accessibility points. You will see some interesting surprises from us. I wouldn't draw the parallel with anybody, but with BlackBerry 10, we are still seeing the first two steps in that journey. They are two great steps for us and we are just going to take one step after another, after another. Everything we've shown to our partners, they've been pretty pleased with.

On future BlackBerry devices

I think we are addressing a lot of segments with those devices at the moment. What I am saying, is that they would be additive statements rather than substitutional.

Let me put it another way: what percentage of the touch market do you think we had before we launched the Z? Zero. So I look at the figures and I am pretty pleased with what we have achieved so far. It's one step forward. Now look at the 79 million customers we have around the world and how many of them are waiting for BlackBerry device with a physical keyboard? Quite a few, and because it is not all about upgrades, how many people used to be with us and gone over to other platforms and now say they really want to go back to a BlackBerry? In the UK 40 per cent of the Z10 sales were coming in from iOS and Android.

On the Q10 launch in the UK

We launched the Q10 deliberately at Selfridges to create an event and create some momentum and "gosh they knocked it out of the park". They did fantastically.

READ: BlackBerry Q10 review

Anecdotal stuff coming out of Selfridges was there were a bunch of people who went in and bought individual units, people were buying multiple units, but there were UK companies sending in their IT guys to buy 40 or 50. One company bought 400, which was just interesting in terms of how they actually carried them out of the store. That just shows you the pent-up demand there is for this device.

On being the only high-end Qwerty device maker

We had an internal discussion about what expectations we should set in terms of what the objectives were for the Q10. The guys were saying that we could be 97 per cent of the Qwerty marketplace and I said, "We are the Qwerty marketplace." I was very bullish.

On launching the Z10 first

We did it very deliberately. We wanted to establish the fact that we can do many things other than just physical keyboards. The fact that we are doing both and you'll see that continue, like we will continue doing physical and we'll continue doing all-touch. But we really needed to establish ourselves as we can do full touch and we can do it spectacularly well in a very different way to anyone else.

The benchmark was established five or six years ago and was successfully done and was copied, but it's a row of applications and when you want something you press a button, you do your thing, then you hit the home button to go back out and then another application, and again, in and out, in and out, in and out. It's cool and very successful, but we sensed a feeling of fatigue in the marketplace and that it was time to deliver a completely new user experience. Our view is that as long as we could build it powerfully and super, super, simple it would be an interesting place to go, and that's what we did.

READ BlackBerry Z10 review

With BlackBerry Hub you are never more than a gesture away from your messages. It's always about one step forward, and let's take another with Q10, and it's that process of building credibility and building the numbers, and getting one step forward with every product launch.

On the older devices like the Bold

They will keep going. The numbers have maintained so far. The heritage BlackBerry range is a platform that has been around for 12 years. BBOS will be around for a while.

On tablets being around in 5 years

I don't think Thorsten [Heins] was making a comment about the PlayBook, I think Thorsten was making a comment about tablets in general. I think what he was trying to express was that mobile computing doesn't have to manifest itself in one single interpretation. It's not only about tablets. I think what he was trying to say was that there can be multiple visions and different ways to deliver that experience. Rather than articulating a vision that says buy my tablet, buy my phone, buy my laptop, what if you can actually have a vision that says "this" [picks up the Z10] has the processing power of a laptop from about about a year ago and is connected to a highly secure service called BlackBerry and so it has NFC in it. What if I could combine all those elements to take it into a branch office where I don't work but it's 12 hours away around the other side of the world and authenticate myself as Rick and actually get this to power a larger screen?

On Microsoft's ecosystem

[Microsoft is] trying to sell laptops, tablets and phones. What I am trying to say is that you don't have to actually sell all those components, because the cost of ownership on all that has to be quite high. What I am saying is that if this could be [holds up the Z10 again] your processing platform and you are actually extending this out to different environments, that's a very different vision and the cost of ownership on that is very different.

Thorsten was trying to say, look, it's not all about tablets. There may be different ways to actually do this.

When we have something to say in terms of our interpretation of that we will let you know. Extend maybe one way to do it, but there is more than one way to go about delivering mobile computing. Don't fixate on the physical aspects.

On Samsung Knox

We have a very clear leadership on that and other people will make the attempt but this isn't anything new. There have been attempts to knock us out of enterprise since 1999/2000. We have managed to not only hold on, but accelerate and build and so we think we have modernised BlackBerry Enterprise 10 service. We think we are delivering a number of really cool things, it is cross platform so we will do support for iOS and Android handsets and tablets, we'll support our stuff, and the interesting thing about it, is that with our stuff it is a very simple end-to-end solution with one server.

But as Samsung Knox doesn't have a launch date yet, I would say welcome to the party, deliver a product first. Good luck.

On steady growth or waiting for that �ber device

It is a steady cadenced approach. It really is. We have some really cool stuff coming along that will really resonate. I believe resonance happens with a steady cadence. I really do.

There will be some surprises, I know there will be some surprises, but nothing that I want to tip my hat off to today, but I will say that what we are trying to do with the launch of BlackBerry 10 platform is something that would give us a steady cycle of innovation, and I won't tie myself into any timelines, but we have said six by the end of the year. You can take your guess as to when on that one, but we have a platform that scales. We very clearly are focused on the high-end of the marketplace, but you'll see some new stuff with BlackBerry 10 that will address new segments and new entry points that we are pretty excited about.

On the future

We've said this publicly, we are shooting for three. I think we've really established ourselves as number three in the UK marketplace, I think we really have. We have 10 per cent market share for January through March. At the end of the year we will look again and see where we are. Are we happy with three? Not a chance, you don't play a game to stand by the sidelines, but you have to take a pretty pragmatic approach and start somewhere, solidify number three, then go for number two, then go for number one.

[kfh227]

BlackBerry talks tablets, Q10, and steady plans for regaining the number one spot - Pocket-lint

Nice interview on a lot of topics with Rick Costanzo, VP of global sales

Best article I've read in a long time.

Posted via CB10

[YangFui]

Now look at the 79 million customers we have around the world and how many of them are waiting for BlackBerry device with a physical keyboard?

I hate to be picky, but does "79 million customers" necessarily mean "79 million subscribers"?

[Tinomane]

Shorts literally do not have a leg to stand on anymore. Such a big deal was made over the drop from 79-76 million subscribers and they already got back the 3 million. I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone would want to be short this stock. Financial suicide.

[kfh227]

Shorts literally do not have a leg to stand on anymore. Such a big deal was made over the drop from 79-76 million subscribers and they already got back the 3 million. I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone would want to be short this stock. Financial suicide.

My guess is that they can't or haven't read the balance sheet or cash flow statements. Financial suicide is a very accurate term.

With so much shorted this has to be big money involved. I'm mostly shocked that supposed professionals are this stupid.

Posted via CB10

[spiller]

I hate to be picky, but does "79 million customers" necessarily mean "79 million subscribers"?

That's a good question. What would be included in 'customer' numbers if it is not just handset owners? They including playbook sales? I don't think they would....90% of playbook owners probably have a BB handset and wouldn't be counted twice...have to assume handset owners (=subs)

[Charles Martin1]

Shorts literally do not have a leg to stand on anymore. Such a big deal was made over the drop from 79-76 million subscribers and they already got back the 3 million. I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone would want to be short this stock. Financial suicide.

The annoying thing is that it won't do the inverse to the share price...

[Charles Martin1]

I'll take one of these thank you.

Lol

[lcjr]

Did you see the 24K gold one?? LOL..

I'm waiting to see one! Post a pic if you find one before me. ready, set, GO!!

[m0de25]

I'm waiting to see one! Post a pic if you find one before me. ready, set, GO!!

White or black not enough? Check out the BlackBerry Q10 in 24kt gold | CrackBerry.com

[YangFui]

That's a good question. What would be included in 'customer' numbers if it is not just handset owners? They including playbook sales? I don't think they would....90% of playbook owners probably have a BB handset and wouldn't be counted twice...have to assume handset owners (=subs)

Thanks. I agree that tablet users probably aren't included in subscriber numbers but are they included in customer numbers even if they contribute a small percentage of the total number of customers? Could the customer count also include people who bought a BB device at some point but who have let their contracts or month-to-month plans lapse (in other words, people who bought a BB phone but who might not be actively using it...)? Also, how are users counted if they are in the enterprise and have a BYOD (bring your own device) such as an iPhone communicating with Blackberry Enterprise Service? Are those users counted as "customers" and/or "subscribers" even if they are not using a BB handset? What about people using BB handsets only in the enterprise against Blackberry Enterprise Service yet who have a traditional (personal) cell phone with another carrier? Are they considered customers and/or subscribers?

[spiller]

Thanks. I agree that tablet users probably aren't included in subscriber numbers but are they included in customer numbers even if they contribute a small percentage of the total number of customers? Could the customer count also include people who bought a BB device at some point but who have let their contracts or month-to-month plans lapse (in other words, people who bought a BB phone but who might not be actively using it...)? Also, how are users counted if they are in the enterprise and have a BYOD (bring your own device) such as an iPhone communicating with Blackberry Enterprise Service? Are those users counted as "customers" and/or "subscribers" even if they are not using a BB handset? What about people using BB handsets only in the enterprise against Blackberry Enterprise Service yet who have a traditional (personal) cell phone with another carrier? Are they considered customers and/or subscribers?

All valid questions. Which is why, I think, when blackberry uses the term 'customer' they imply it to mean subs (BB10 + BB7) but excluding, for now, iOS/Android through BES10.

[YangFui]

All valid questions. Which is why, I think, when blackberry uses the term 'customer' they imply it to mean subs (BB10 + BB7) but excluding, for now, iOS/Android through BES10.

Ah--that makes a lot of sense. It's confusing to me, though, that it was widely reported that BBRY lost 3 million "subscribers" and fell to a total of 76 million subscribers (reported during BBRY's last earnings report)--yet TH just mentioned 79 million "customers" during an interview... I assume that TH wouldn't play very loosely with such types of numbers. So if a subscriber is essentially the same as a customer then where did those 3 million additional subscribers come from?

[Tinomane]

Ah--that makes a lot of sense. It's confusing to me, though, that it was widely reported that BBRY lost 3 million "subscribers" and fell to a total of 76 million subscribers (reported during BBRY's last earnings report)--yet TH just mentioned 79 million "customers" during an interview... I assume that TH wouldn't play very loosely with such types of numbers. So if a subscriber is essentially the same as a customer then where did those 3 million additional subscribers come from?

I'm hoping from z10 and q10 purchasers lol

[fedakd]

Ah--that makes a lot of sense. It's confusing to me, though, that it was widely reported that BBRY lost 3 million "subscribers" and fell to a total of 76 million subscribers (reported during BBRY's last earnings report)--yet TH just mentioned 79 million "customers" during an interview... I assume that TH wouldn't play very loosely with such types of numbers. So if a subscriber is essentially the same as a customer then where did those 3 million additional subscribers come from?

I've already e-mailed investor relations on this matter. Will report back when I find out details.

[take99]

More Dod commentary

And Mark McKechnie of Evercore Partners, who has an Underweight rating on BlackBerry shares, nevertheless today applauds the company having gotten approval for BB10 devices from the U.S. Department of Defense:

We believe this is good news as it preserves the status quo, but point out that Samsung [Electronics (005930KS)] also got approval, which is negative for BBRY as Samsung had not been approved to date and thus offers more competition. We had noted this as an opportunity in our note earlier this week following a presentation by Samsung’s enterprise head, Tim Wagner (formerly of BBRY). Samsung’s stated goal is to break into the US government in a meaningful way in the coming quarters. Recall that Samsung has been making a big push with its SAFE program (“Samsung Android for Enterprise”) and Knox (increased security). Samsung has spent ~ $100M to date in branding for SAFE, and is working aggressively with the ecosystem players including MDM plays AirWatch and Mobile Iron, as well as GENBAND for signaling. The one challenge is the lack of a physical QWERTY keyboard which it does not appear Samsung will make, as it believes the tradeoffs for touch typing vs. hardware are more than offset by a larger screen size. In terms of sizing, web commentary indicates ~ 8M devices for the pentagon vs. 3.2M employees in the DOD. Also, Reuters had run an article saying the contract would be awarded in the April timeframe and start the year with at least 162,500 devices but eventually software for 8M devices.