[cgk]

6. MS surface tablets, they wrote down $1 billion worth of tablets?

But wait... I thought companies do write-downs of tablets and phones as part of some super-secret marketing plan? At least that is what this thread has taught me.

[plasmid_boy]

But wait... I thought companies do write-downs of tablets and phones as part of some super-secret marketing plan? At least that is what this thread has taught me.

You have extraordinary ability in selective learning

Posted via CB10

[plasmid_boy]

The Microsoft hate in this thread is eyeball rolling. 'Pot calling the kettle black' would be a generous analogy.

Blackberry could really use some "mediocrity" lessons from Microsoft.

Did your eyeballs rolled when you saw all the BlackBerry hate in this thread and other places?

Not true that the pot is calling the kettle black. BB10 is much better than WP, two of my students are using it because the phones were free and I hear never ending complains. I would say the pot is calling the kettle broken.

Posted via CB10

[cgk]

Randomly changing the subject, Tesco (UK's biggest supermarket) are doing the moto G for �99 - if you have their clubcard vouchers, you can double their value and pick it up for �50! - you have to wonder how low can we go?

[notfanboy]

Did your eyeballs rolled when you saw all the BlackBerry hate in this thread and other places?

Not true that the pot is calling the kettle black. BB10 is much better than WP, two of my students are using it because the phones were free and I hear never ending complains. I would say the pot is calling the kettle broken.

You're missing the point. The reason for the eye rolling is not because of the "Microsoft hate" by itself. It is the context in which it was happening. To spell it out, it is remarkable how fans of a failing company are calling another company a failure, when that other company is more successful. In terms of smartphone market share, it is no longer a contest although less than a year ago, it was declared in these parts that BB had already won. In terms of stock price and looking at a one year time period, had you put your money in MSFT instead of BBRY you would be enjoying at a 38% gain right now instead of glumly sitting on a 34% loss.

[plasmid_boy]

You're missing the point. The reason for the eye rolling is not because of the "Microsoft hate" by itself. It is the context in which it was happening. To spell it out, it is remarkable how fans of a failing company are calling another company a failure, when that other company is more successful. In terms of smartphone market share, it is no longer a contest although less than a year ago, it was declared in these parts that BB had already won. In terms of stock price and looking at a one year time period, had you put your money in MSFT instead of BBRY you would be enjoying at a 38% gain right now instead of glumly sitting on a 34% loss.

Was that the point?
I thought we were talking about the mediocrity of MS products, not how it is performing in the market relative to BBRY.

Posted via CB10

[notfanboy]

Was that the point?
I thought we were talking about the mediocrity of MS products, not how it is performing in the market relative to BBRY.

If that's the case, then I'm on topic and you're off topic.

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

Was that the point?
I thought we were talking about the mediocrity of MS products, not how it is performing in the market relative to BBRY.

Posted via CB10

This is a stock thread.... so comparing BBRY to MSFT is more on topic than trying to convince everyone that MS products are terrible.

And the health of a stock is a good indication that the company and most likely it's products are failing to deliver what people want.

[M65c02]

That's why they should buy BlackBerry. It would seal their control of embedded OS, industrial controls, and have the best mobile OS for free. All for less than what they paid for a crappy thing called Skype.

Edit: BTW, I still use Fortran.
Edit2: Wow, just realized I gone over 1000 posts

Want to weigh in more on the MSFT talk (and how it may impact share price) but time limits me for now. (You guys continue to move fast, (mostly) great stuff.) I still 99% agree, however, with your comment about MSFT plunking the cash to soak up BB for strategic reasons (more on this later). I too have been a big proponent of a similar scenario well before they announced the Nokia deal and I also thought that there would be no new suitors in the $8-9 range. BBRY at a solid $5/share, or maybe even $6, should entice MSFT for so many reasons despite their decision with Nokia. But I'm back in the money with my original thoughts of a 2014 sale. The key now is "What does Prem really desire?" ??

Stop trying to entice me with your talk of FORTRAN. (LOL) .... Ahhh, yes, the old IV, V and 77 (as I recall), the heady days of doing financial analysis in Fortran on so many different machines (and COBOL, Snobol, and PL-1 on the Sierras). So many of us could have ruled the world (or so I sometimes say) if our then energy placed into coding (and micro-coding) had the of/firmware of today. .... First (two) drinks are on me!!

[danprown]

And how is MSFT going to clear the national security review?

Just because it is a US company will not do. Harper has already nixed a sale of a CDN tech company to a US company even before the
national security review was in place legally.

[plasmid_boy]

Randomly changing the subject, Tesco (UK's biggest supermarket) are doing the moto G for �99 - if you have their clubcard vouchers, you can double their value and pick it up for �50! - you have to wonder how low can we go?

BB can't in the race to the bottom. They need to focus on the high-end, money-is-no-concern crowd.

[heymaggie]

Perhaps a Porsche UI design version of BBM that costs $199 in the App Store and Google Play.

[OMGitworks]

SNIP
Stop trying to entice me with your talk of FORTRAN. (LOL) .... Ahhh, yes, the old IV, V and 77 (as I recall), the heady days of doing financial analysis in Fortran on so many different machines (and COBOL, Snobol, and PL-1 on the Sierras). So many of us could have ruled the world (or so I sometimes say) if our then energy placed into coding (and micro-coding) had the of/firmware of today. .... First (two) drinks are on me!!

Did you ever do regression analysis on punch cards.... AH the good old days. Try bringing beer into a campus computer lab for late night assistance these days..........

[plasmid_boy]

And how is MSFT going to clear the national security review?

Just because it is a US company will not do. Harper has already nixed a sale of a CDN tech company to a US company even before the
national security review was in place legally.

BB goes into liquidation. MSFT buys everything. Setup a new company in the us called BlackBerry (a brand that it bought)? If there is a will they will find a way.

[notafanboy]

I only know one person who got a free wp on a contract . Long story short worst phone ever and returned the free phone. Besides the countless issues with the WP the echo echo was the worst during phone calls . It is to little too late for Microsoft. The hate the world has for MS is due to the years of abuse of having to deal with MS garbage products . Now people have choices and sure enough 97 % of the market will not touch a WP unless it is priced down to free.

Posted via CB10

[plasmid_boy]

We wont see any significant upside to the SP until a viable business plan is presented to investors by the new CEO. Lack of investor confidence is what is driving this down, I hope John Chen is crunching to get a good business strategy out to calm the market. He knows time is not a luxury

I agree. But the wind is also changing directions in the tech world. It takes a while to sink in, but people are beginning to realize that the NSA and American tech are directly linked. If the NSA serves a court paper, they are obligated to provide the info. Info that the NSA can use in turn to hack in without court papers. People are starting to understand that if you use Android, iOS, WP, etc., your information is in the hands of the NSA. Most of us have nothing to worry about because we have nothing to hide (well, maybe a few embarrassing pictures), but I would rather not have to deal with potential mistakes and mishandling of my personal information. So, if you are living in China (or any other country for that matter), would like your information in the hands of the NSA?
This, IMO, will likely be a consequential catalyst for BlackBerry. It is better encrypted and more safe with NOC. But also because the NSA can't hand BlackBerry a court paper to demand access. I am expecting that within the next few weeks or months, this issue would become a topic of mainstream media.

[jake simmons3]

Facebook Inc’s Messenger takes another shot at becoming your main messaging app | Financial Post

Looks like facebook is making there own messaging app.

[zzbsb]

I agree. But the wind is also changing directions in the tech world. It takes a while to sink in, but people are beginning to realize that the NSA and American tech are directly linked. If the NSA serves a court paper, they are obligated to provide the info. Info that the NSA can use in turn to hack in without court papers. People are starting to understand that if you use Android, iOS, WP, etc., your information is in the hands of the NSA. Most of us have nothing to worry about because we have nothing to hide (well, maybe a few embarrassing pictures), but I would rather not have to deal with potential mistakes and mishandling of my personal information. So, if you are living in China (or any other country for that matter), would like your information in the hands of the NSA?
This, IMO, will likely be a consequential catalyst for BlackBerry. It is better encrypted and more safe with NOC. But also because the NSA can't hand BlackBerry a court paper to demand access. I am expecting that within the next few weeks or months, this issue would become a topic of mainstream media.

Mark the words, we shall see time will prove you wrong.

[bungaboy]

Facebook Inc’s Messenger takes another shot at becoming your main messaging app | Financial Post

Looks like facebook is making there own messaging app.

Yup. More data mining for when NSA call. LoL

[morlock_man]

But wait... I thought companies do write-downs of tablets and phones as part of some super-secret marketing plan? At least that is what this thread has taught me.

Depends.

No one wants Windows RT.

It's a poorly-conceived offshoot of a fragmented OS that is spiraling into an oblivion of complexity. It's buggy, limited and not very useful at all.

Maybe you can make a blanket statement and say a write down is a write down... but people panned Windows RT without the blogging sites posting daily articles about how much it sucked and how Microsoft was about to go down the drains and leave their devices unsupported.

[morganplus8]

..... true .... and .... true.

Nokia's Q3 2013: $162 million profit from $7.79 billion revenue | The Verge

Everyone on this thread understands that you are not a business person as much as someone who hates BlasckBerry, we get it. But even you must know that your claims of Windows phones being a success are laughable. Read below:

Microsoft And Nokia: A Marriage Made In Hell? - Forbes
<< Microsoft�s purchase of Nokia�s mobile phone business has all the signs of a similar misadventure: desperation at a lack of internal innovations, acquisition in lieu of innovation, and a bet on a declining star.

But you need not rely solely on our research; a Microsoft-Nokia marriage has already been pretested. When Nokia�s mobile business started a steep decline with the takeoff of Apple AAPL -0.31%�s iPhone and Google�s Android, Nokia ran to Microsoft for cover, adopting Microsoft�s Windows Mobile platform while Microsoft invested in Nokia. The marriage failed. Windows Mobile did not take off, despite Nokia�s embrace, and Nokia�s market share declined from a peak of 41% to its current level of 3% despite Microsoft support. It�s unclear what Microsoft�s further investment in buying and licensing Nokia assets can achieve.>>

Will Microsoft Save Nokia?
<< Nokia (NYSE:NOK) has faced a rough year as the launch of its Lumia mobile phone failed to revive sales. Nokia�s shares have fallen 90 percent in five years, and it�s debt has been rated junk by two of the three major rating agencies.

Many anticipate that Microsoft will swoop in to rescue Nokia from financial difficulties if needed. Currently, Microsoft is paying Nokia $1 billion a year to use its software on Lumia smartphones. If Nokia�s problems intensify, support could extend well beyond that amount.>>

And so in the quarter that you claim Nokia was within $ 120 Million of breaking even, that's a pure lie. Nokia shows the $ 120 loss but that number is against the $ 250 million that MS gives them every quarter, in addition, MS pays for all of the marketing, which for BBRY, was $ 750 MM in Q2, they develop apps for Nokia and buy phones and distribute them too. The cost to MS is close to $ 800 million per quarter just to carry Nokia!!! If Nokia didn't have that kind of support, they would have gone bankrupt long before BlackBeery's BB 10 had ever come to market.

Do you have a sugardaddy? If you do, you would understand that MS is taking a bath to support Nokia. Now, MS has screwed their shareholders royally by buying such a huge money losing mistake. MSFT will likely lose $ 3 Billion on this purchase in the first year. My point is, the Windows phone is a complete bust and will not exist in the future if a new CEO has his way. BlackBerry is so much better off and it doesn't have a sugardaddy like Nokia has.

Spin in it anyway you want, Windows phones are a complete and total bust. The law of survival in business dictates that Windows phones will die. Think of how well BB 10 would have done if Windows had never done such a stupid thing with MSFT money.

[OMGitworks]

All true about Nokia. Unfortunately - I think the NOK and Motorola deals really hurt the recent attempts to sell BBRY. The big boys already got burned so they were likely hesitant to roll the dice on BBRY. Other big companies saw the pain and stayed away and/or offered less. Too bad as either MS or Google would have likely paid a premium and played the sugardaddy role to get BBRY through the rough patch.

[heymaggie]

The thing about Microsoft is that they have the resources to not give up. They have a huge money-making engine that can fund whatever they want to be in and keep at it. They did it with IE, Bing, Xbox, Surface, etc. There's no way that they will give up 3rd place in mobile to a peanut of a company like Blackberry.

[OMGitworks]

Depends.

No one wants Windows RT.

It's a poorly-conceived offshoot of a fragmented OS that is spiraling into an oblivion of complexity. It's buggy, limited and not very useful at all.

Maybe you can make a blanket statement and say a write down is a write down... but people panned Windows RT without the blogging sites posting daily articles about how much it sucked and how Microsoft was about to go down the drains and leave their devices unsupported.

MSFT needs a strategy. I think you underestimate the hatred for MSFT out there. It's at least as bad as BBRY. I think they thought they could sell tablets and phones because Windows, Word and Excel still rule the corporate environment. Up until now, they have mostly defended against OS and Office attacks, yes they were chipped away at, but large companies and governments are still in the Windows/Office default mode. It's clear there are other options and that they are losing a lot of the legacy/de facto advantage they had.

It is not unlike what happen to BBRY with its email device advantage. MSFT just has more cash and is more deeply embedded in the corporate world, but I have a feeling they are slowly being pryed out and tossed away. They may have more time and money than BBRY but they have the same issue as far as I can see it........

[danprown]

Not how it works. There is no "techinicality" that allows circumventing the national security review. Period. It is a political/military decision by the CDN government. BB into liquidation or not does not change the fact that if the CDN government deems a piece of infrastructure vital to its interest, a foreign-controlled entity cannot buy it. Therefore, the price goes lower and lower until a Canadian-controlled consortium/company buys it.

BB goes into liquidation. MSFT buys everything. Setup a new company in the us called BlackBerry (a brand that it bought)? If there is a will they will find a way.