[conite]

Killing of Hardware Division
No marketing strategy for Devices
Lack of faith in their Own OS, (Funny how chen use to say bb10 is the most secure OS and yet they left and went to Android which wasn't secure, whats next securing ios?)

Posted via CB10

That's called executing the job you were hired to do.

[BlackBerryPassport]

That's called executing the job you were hired to do.

He was hired to shut the handset division, finally some truth

Posted via CB10

[conite]

He was hired to shut the handset division, finally some truth

Posted via CB10

This is hardly a surprise. We've been talking about this for a long time. After bb10 was determined to be a bust, Chen was hired to switch the company over to software, and spend bare bones resources on the hardware - just enough to keep the lights on.

[Halifax Guy]

This is hardly a surprise. We've been talking about this for a long time. After bb10 was determined to be a bust, Chen was hired to switch the company over to software, and spend bare bones resources on the hardware - just enough to keep the lights on.

Well, the lights are on, but nobody is home.

Posted using a Q10, 10.3.2.2474.

[markmall]

BlackBerry's Board, and Fairfax Financial seem quite happy with his management over the last 2.5 years. He seems to be executing as promised. What are your credentials to evaluate him and determine "gross" mismanagement?

More, qualified, evaluation:

BlackBerry’s John Chen: Beating Jobs by Doing the Impossible in Three Years

I suppose you never criticize politicians because they are more qualified than you.

The fact that 99% of the population thinks Blackberry went out of business four years ago is CEO malpractice. Chen should have taken steps towards rebuilding the brand. Naming the first Android device "Priv" is CEO malpractice. I could go on.

[markmall]

BlackBerry's Board, and Fairfax Financial seem quite happy with his management over the last 2.5 years. He seems to be executing as promised. What are your credentials to evaluate him and determine "gross" mismanagement?

More, qualified, evaluation:

BlackBerry’s John Chen: Beating Jobs by Doing the Impossible in Three Years

This Board is the worst in tech. They are just collecting checks at this point. Prem is the only one who might do anything. He picked Chen so his ego says stay with him despite how it's going.

[markmall]

He was hired to shut the handset division, finally some truth

Posted via CB10

This is a myth you guys keep repeating. Chen released how many BB10 phones? The Android decision was not made until well after he joined the company.

[conite]

I suppose you never criticize politicians because they are more qualified than you.

A politician represents the views of his constituents, of which I am one.

A CEO implements the strategies of the board of directors and major shareholders. He clearly has done so, or he would have been replaced.

We have already discussed why he had to drag the device business along for a while. BlackBerry Android was a much lower cost avenue to keep that up a bit longer.

The icing on the cake is that BlackBerry Android seems to be something others want to licence. They can now discard the no-profit hardware business (in the case of BlackBerry, the monumental loss hardware business) and sell software to them at solid margins.

[markmall]

Yes, they did.Google initially disclosed that the program they were using to record the locations of wifi ssids to improve mobile location capabilities was accidentally also capturing snippets of data when the wifi connection was unencrypted, and preserved the evidence to show the data protection authorities of the affected nations that it had indeed been accidental, and deleted it when this was confirmed.

I say "accidentally" because even if you believe everything they claimed to do was a lie, a Google sufficiently evil to deliberately send cars around on the off chance that someone might be using a password on a random non-ssl site over unencrypted wifi at the exact time the vehicle is driving past has much easier options to collect usernames and passwords if they actually want that information for some reason.

Google: "I'm very sorry for raping your teenage daughter."

Consumer: "OK, just take it easy on me next time and hurry up with the cheap hardware. Your OS needs a faster CPU."

[markmall]

A politician represents the views of his constituents, of which I am one.

A CEO implements the strategies of the board of directors and major shareholders. He clearly has done so, or he would have been replaced.

We have already discussed why he had to drag the device business along for a while. BlackBerry Android was a much lower cost avenue to keep that up a bit longer.

The icing on the cake is that BlackBerry Android seems to be something others want to licence. They can now discard the no-profit hardware business (in the case of BlackBerry, the monumental loss hardware business) and sell software to them at solid margins.

Right. And now they are left with no business and no revenues for the foreseeable future. We agree completely!

[markmall]

This Board is the worst in tech. They are just collecting checks at this point. Prem is the only one who might do anything. He picked Chen so his ego says stay with him despite how it's going.

I just looked at that article. It reads like a cheap, paid PR piece. Given Chen's marketing style, I would bet he paid for that. Credit for bringing his own inner circle to Blackberry and none of them quit yet? Calling him a better turnaround artist than Steve Jobs? Did Steve Jobs drop MacOS and retreat behind some startup companies Apple bought? No, he made hardware work because he knew there was value in MacOS. Hilarious.

[conite]

Right. And now they are left with no business and no revenues for the foreseeable future. We agree completely!

I didn't say that.

I said they dumped their massive hardware losses and kept the profitable side - device software.

Plus their (now) rather large software portfolio going forward, may have completed the turnaround.

[Bbnivende]

How long BlackBerry will produce their Android skin, their for sale apps and their security updates is very questionable. If the Mercury has a fairly low rate of sales I think that the licensing deal may fail. TCL will need the active support of carriers to have a chance to succeed.

[markmall]

How long BlackBerry will produce their Android skin, their for sale apps and their security updates is very questionable. If the Mercury has a fairly low rate of sales I think that the licensing deal may fail. TCL will need the active support of carriers to have a chance to succeed.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Can they get the device displayed well in stores? BlackBerry has failed at this for years.

Posted via CB10

[app_Developer]

I don't think Chen was hired to just shut down the handset division. At least it's not that simple. He was hired to stop the bleeding on the hardware side, get their balance sheet in order, grow the software side as their engine for long term growth, and not totally freak out investors during the transition.

Stopping the bleeding meant (A) stop losing money on hardware AND (B) burn down their production commitments. Both things had to be done. People are not understanding part B of that. So...

• They continued to make phones to burn down their purchase commitments by making phones they could sell in reasonable quantities at minimal loss. In short, get the diehards to pay for the few hundred million $ in outstanding purchase commitments that were still on BBRY books.
• They didn't increase advertising spend because that would have violated objective A above and was unnecessary to achieve the prior bullet.
• They laid off a ton of people on the hardware side, including just about everyone working BB10 to support A.
• They transitioned to Android also to support A above.
• When purchase commitments were mostly finished, and the software acquisitions complete, and given that none of their phones (BB10 or Android) sold well anyway, they finally executed the last step of their transition and went to the licensing model.

All along they have been saying over and over again that they are transitioning to software. When they completed the final bullet above, they literally came out and said that the transition was complete. If the phones had sold better, and achieved breakeven, I think he would have kept the division. But it didn't work out that way. (and no, he wasn't going to spend a ton of money to try to make it work, because he didn't care enough about hardware to risk more money on it. That wasn't his mandate. He wasn't hired to increase risk.)

Complaining about Chen doing his job as he did is like going in for an appendectomy and then whinging about the surgeon stealing your appendix.

[app_Developer]

Prem is the only one who might do anything. He picked Chen so his ego says stay with him despite how it's going.

Why would Watsa be disappointed in Chen?

[Chuck Finley69]

Why would Watsa be disappointed in Chen?

Obviously, Prem Wantsa Z50 running 10.4.1 and obvious that all it would take is $1 Billion to build and market it for $99. JC said no way...Duh...

[markmall]

Why would Watsa be disappointed in Chen?

A better question might be why would he be pleased with Chen. Every single milestone or goal Chen set he failed to deliver on. Most especially bbry's profitability.

Posted via CB10

[markmall]

Obviously, Prem Wantsa Z50 running 10.4.1 and obvious that all it would take is $1 Billion to build and market it for $99. JC said no way...Duh...

Yep. $1 billion. I meant to do that. Just burning off parts in the bin.

Posted via CB10

[BlackBerryPassport]

I don't think Chen was hired to just shut down the handset division. At least it's not that simple. He was hired to stop the bleeding on the hardware side, get their balance sheet in order, grow the software side as their engine for long term growth, and not totally freak out investors during the transition.

Stopping the bleeding meant (A) stop losing money on hardware AND (B) burn down their production commitments. Both things had to be done. People are not understanding part B of that. So...

• They continued to make phones to burn down their purchase commitments by making phones they could sell in reasonable quantities at minimal loss. In short, get the diehards to pay for the few hundred million $ in outstanding purchase commitments that were still on BBRY books.
• They didn't increase advertising spend because that would have violated objective A above and was unnecessary to achieve the prior bullet.
• They laid off a ton of people on the hardware side, including just about everyone working BB10 to support A.
• They transitioned to Android also to support A above.
• When purchase commitments were mostly finished, and the software acquisitions complete, and given that none of their phones (BB10 or Android) sold well anyway, they finally executed the last step of their transition and went to the licensing model.

All along they have been saying over and over again that they are transitioning to software. When they completed the final bullet above, they literally came out and said that the transition was complete. If the phones had sold better, and achieved breakeven, I think he would have kept the division. But it didn't work out that way. (and no, he wasn't going to spend a ton of money to try to make it work, because he didn't care enough about hardware to risk more money on it. That wasn't his mandate. He wasn't hired to increase risk.)

Complaining about Chen doing his job as he did is like going in for an appendectomy and then whinging about the surgeon stealing your appendix.

Well, I would like to know,

What's was Chen Strategy on device business? Did he had any strategy?
BB10 is very efficient, Secure,best Multitasking and very Productive OS, so they don't need to produce a phone every year, one bb10 with better specs every 15/18 months with limited numbers not in bulk, would be good. I am not saying it would change the game but they would still be in game.
They could have turn their focus on software and slowly developed bb10 on every updates.

Their Plan B failed, when they couldn't sell bb10, they jumped to Android and try to sold the Priv with tags security and privacy at highly overpriced and it failed, Chen himself admitted about high prize of Priv being wrong decision.

BB10 is at its last stage, it's on end I know and mostly who are using bb10 knows this too, it's was and still is the best OS Period, much advance of its time. I am rocking with my Passport and have SE as my back up. They did a good job with Android no denying on this, but still long way to beat BB10.

Posted via CB10

[markmall]

Well, I would like to know,

What's was Chen Strategy on device business? Did he had any strategy?
BB10 is very efficient, Secure,best Multitasking and very Productive OS, so they don't need to produce a phone every year, one bb10 with better specs every 15/18 months with limited numbers not in bulk, would be good. I am not saying it would change the game but they would still be in game.
They could have turn their focus on software and slowly developed bb10 on every updates.

Their Plan B failed, when they couldn't sell bb10, they jumped to Android and try to sold the Priv with tags security and privacy at highly overpriced and it failed, Chen himself admitted about high prize of Priv being wrong decision.

BB10 is at its last stage, it's on end I know and mostly who are using bb10 knows this too, it's was and still is the best OS Period, much advance of its time. I am rocking with my Passport and have SE as my back up. They did a good job with Android no denying on this, but still long way to beat BB10.

Posted via CB10

Thank you. Your point about BB10 hardware is important. Like Apple, BB did not need to race other hardware manufacturers on specs every month. The Passport still runs the OS beautifully all these years later and BB10 users covet it. BB could have released one device a year or less. Oh, well.

[BlackBerryPassport]

Thank you. Your point about BB10 hardware is important. Like Apple, BB did not need to race other hardware manufacturers on specs every month. The Passport still runs the OS beautifully all these years later and BB10 users covet it. BB could have released one device a year or less. Oh, well.

Passport was released by end of 2014 (if I am not wrong) and it's 2017 it's still rocking,

If Chen had vision for BB10, he could say 'Lets change the strategy of Handset division, we will continue the development of bb10 slowly with few new additional feature in every small updates and release a phone year 16/18 months with limited numbers and concentrate on software side'

Am sure slowly but surely many people started looking BB10 more.

If they had not halt the development of BB10, developers would still love to build apps for it, but once BlackBerry stopped the development all knew that's the end.

Posted via CB10

[blackbp]

Make money for Shareholders by keeping their customers in dark ??
We are committed to bb10 with no development, no new features, no more bb10 devices and many more.

Well many would say bb10 didn't increased the sale expected so they went Android,
did Android venture succeeded??
Did Android saved the handset division?
Did Android increased their sales?

Still they would defend that going Android was their last option. The Only reason BB10 failed or couldn't get the sales was Because for lack of APPS period.

Now those who have bought Priv,Dteks would appreciate how we can customised our phone with widgets on homescreen, how many of them would have placed Whatsapp widget or BlackBerry Hub widget on homescreen? the number might be very few because no one would like to share their chats to anyone. I am saying this as I have used Priv and I am on my Passport,

BB10 is fulfilling my need, when time comes I will have to choose between Android or ios, even if I choose Android I won't buy any Blackdroid,Period.


Posted via CB10

Don't think the lack of apps...only. Many people doesn't need all the apps you think and many of them thinling they need and download those apps...in two days they are bored and never use them anymore...one fact is to consider that here in europe the only ones BB10 you can see on stores was Q5 and Q10 rarely a Z10 and no one knows what they was. I have never been able to find and see and touch other BlackBerrys in the store. I always had to buy them in online shop. Now, for real example, the people impact when they see a Passport is not this question:'how many apps can I find on it?'BUT THIS ONE!:"where can I buy it!"
Never seen in here any commercial for bb10!
I think that was one of the major primary errors!

Today, errorss or not I'm still on bb10. Why? Simply because for me it's all I need, I choose to stay because switching over smells a little like leaving the ship where I sailed magnificently 'for 14 years and leave it with still great skills....most of them far better than android or ios.

Posted via CB10

[johnny_bravo72]

Lol the bickering still continues even though OP already moved on 3 weeks and 17 pages ago.
Fun times.

[blackbp]

Lol the bickering still continues even though OP already moved on 3 weeks and 17 pages ago.
Fun times.

The title recalls the theme....I don't see any bickering.

Posted via CB10