1. eyesopen1111's Avatar
    From what I've seen, the Game of Smartphones is like the Game of Thrones: you win or you die. So-called flagship devices that don't match the specs of other market flagship devices will not sell well (at least not here in the USA). Moreover, calling poorly performing products "niche" is a distraction from the harsh reality of "we tried and we failed." This retreat to failure/niche is a slowed death, and a retreating army takes the most casualties.

    So, then, what's the problem-solution profile?

    Problem: several non-iPhone companies have attempted the under-spec'd flagship approach, not just BlackBerry. All have failed to prevail from what I've seen.

    Solution: so, while the iPhone has many different realities supporting what success it has, I think BlackBerry could improve its performance in the US (and other places) by changing its strategy regarding the high-end phone market away from avoidance and forward to engage and dominate. How? Just do the opposite of failure: (1) compete better on specs, (2) win on OS (BB10 is more fun and effective to use), (3) win on security, and (4) win on apps by being the best Android device due to the fact that a high-end BB10 should run nearly all Android apps like a native machine plus continue to run all native BlackBerry apps smooth as silk. (This strategy is open mostly since 10.2.1+.)

    At that point, BlackBerry could hold its head up high, without making excuses about either (1) low specs yielding Android side performance slowdowns and broader marketing problems that come with spec disparities or (2) low app count because it would have both sides of the Android and native app game covered, yielding more overall app choice than pure Android competitors.

    Marketing push: "Surprise, the best Android app smartphone is now a BlackBerry."

    "BlackBerry, now capable of running more apps than any other Android-capable device."

    "Your industry requires security, but your people demand all the latest apps. Sleep easy CEO, BlackBerry now has it all."

    Each device, whether on BES or not, should have an optional segregated "safe side," so security minded people can isolate potentially exploitable Android apps.

    Sent from my BB Z10 running OS 10.3.0.140.
    Jamie Brahm likes this.
    05-01-14 01:54 AM
  2. guygardner73's Avatar
    It's illegal to drop acid.

    Z10STL100-2/10.2.1.2141 O2 UK
    05-01-14 02:13 AM
  3. JamieWilson01's Avatar
    It's illegal to drop acid.

    Z10STL100-2/10.2.1.2141 O2 UK
    But so much fun!

    In the UK it's only illegal to possess not to be intoxicated by.

    Via CB10 from Scotland using Z10STL100-2/10.2.1.2947
    guygardner73 likes this.
    05-01-14 02:44 AM
  4. bakron1's Avatar
    Blackberry is now a "niche" brand, at least here in the USA. When the brand was founded way back when, there was no competition, so folks bought them by the millions.

    Now it's 2014 and Apple, Google and Microsoft are some of the largest companies in the world and have billions in cash and unlimited resources and are not going away any time soon my friends.

    Here is the USA the brand is dead, I am only hoping that the z3 will take off in the developing countries and give Blackberry some financial stability and market share back.

    As far as them being a major player in the the USA again, it's nots going to happen. Apple and Google are the household names here now and have embedded themselves into the culture here and are not leaving any time soon.

    I only hope that with a successful z3 launch will allow them to stay in the device business so they can continue to release new products into the future.

    I am fortunate enough to be close to Canada so I can still buy the unlocked devices that will allow me to receive updates in the future. As far as them ever being a player here in the market again? Only time and smart business decisions will tell.


    Sent from my z30 on T Mobile USA (10.2.1.2160)
    jpvj likes this.
    05-01-14 04:26 AM
  5. Jamie Brahm's Avatar
    I don't agree with your assessment of "niche" markets at all. Initially, for every product there is only one market, and then it becomes divided, specialized.

    Let me demostrate with two simple examples. First there was the clay pot. And then came the bucket (handle etc), eventually there was the fry pan, the stove pot, the cup, the mug, the bowl, and so on. With computers, initially there was only the room sized mainframe. Then came the desktop. then the laptop, then the smart phone, then the tablet, now wearables, soon folding smart phones and tablets.

    Within each market, there is division. You have your business computer, your media server, your sports portables, your business portables. Within the generic "does everything, but does everything badly" smart phone that has currently peaked its max wave on the market (the galaxy), there are users that prefer ruggedized, keyboards, smaller, larger.

    The main trouble with the continuing division of product specialization, is that the phones on the market at the moment are a) partly driven by novelty still b) partly driven by the slower take up of alternative smart devices b) none of the designs are all that specialized, they are kind "cloney".

    You raise an EXCELLENT point about the fact that blackberry now runs more apps than any other OS, by including android apks. And actually I think a great survival strategy in general, is playing to opposite of iphone, and samsung, and sony and microsoft type strategies and encouraging compatibility between devices, rather than putting up propreitary walls.

    But I think what everybody misses here is that this is a proto market. Like when everybody got mobiles back in the nineties, or the invention of the mouse. It takes very little time for that novelty to turn to bored familiarity.

    The iphone has taken a dip, at 15% or less market share. I don't see them coming back without actual innovation personally. Windows is temporarily boosted, but that seems faddish - windows phone is severely lacking in apps, and its also not microsofts biggest bread winner, so I doubt they much care - they are probably waiting till they can stuff full desktop windows onto one. Android is winning, but largely because its an open platform - anybody can play. And that like early playstation has boosted development.


    When it comes to blackberry - all they need to beat the iphone is gain 10% market share.

    Its worth remembering last years hip phone with no apps, windows - same as blackberry market share. Apple, only three times blackberries share (its really sunk). The only real winner at the moment is android, and thats not one company - samsungs sales have taken a dip too from last year. So the actual winners? -Other cheaper brands, like unknown chinese companys etc, possibly.

    It could partly be simply that the smart phone market has peaked - or that people are looking away from the big companies who invested in research, and to cheaper devices.

    And perhaps that says something nobody expected about product specialization, and product demand.

    (From 2013) --- > One in every five people have a smart phone of some kind. One in every seventeen own a tablet. One in every five have a PC. The only number we know is going to go up - fast- is the tablets - they are expected to eclipse PCs eventually.

    Tablets are showing much faster adoption rates than smartphones did. It took smartphones nearly four years to reach 6% penetration on a global level. Tablets did this in two years.

    There are around 5 billion phone users. less than 2 billion (1.75) of them are smart phones. Fully more than 1 billion of those btw, run nokia symbian OS, lol. Smart phones are only _nearly_ twice as used versus nokian symbian phones. They are less than half of phone users.

    With market penetration clearly slowing, maybe thats actually the peak of the wave. Maybe samsungs next quarter will offer then an even bigger hit. I think probably 1 in 5 people globally with a smart phone, does seem like about the max-ish. Most of the worlds population lives in poverty (about 2/3's are second word or third). So only 1 in 3 are wealthy enough for a smart phone, at best. A good number of those don't really want one.

    And if people only need new devices, say ever 5 years, that means sales generally for smart phones, without new adopters - they will all drop. Next years quarters, they year after - everyone will report drops - but maybe not blackberry? They still have their market niche, and can expand it... (no one can offer their same features for cheaper, and no one else is really playing in their niche - a niche in which people can afford to buy new phones reguarly - where samsung or iphone can readily be replaced by wingwong industrial, it seems more like blackberry cant, they are more unique)

    Its tablets and phablets that are the obvious growth market. Smart watches, perhaps when they are useable might be next for growth markets (they are still too big, and too underdeveloped).

    But smart phones - it might be a matter of just scrabbling over the increasingly less impressed and smart phone savey existing customers - indeed when with current tech, they are just as likely to go for lower margin knock-offs than don't have to invest in development - and that might be the death of big android companies like samsung, who have nothing without innovation to uniquely offer, but branding - a fickle calling card. Samsung and apple both work on faddishness, so far - they HAVE to come up with something star trekky, or their sales drop, and if they don't everyone else will have the same feature the next year.

    I think honestly that iphone and blackberry sales dips, and samsungs slight dip - are not really signs that anyone is doing badly, although blackberry could expand its market with some new - well thought out, innovative, designs - its more a sign that the smartphone wave has crashed, that indeed ontop of that the faddism, the "cool" factor, is also dying out.

    I keep hearing how some feel like their phones are either addictions, or burdens that keep them trapped in endless work or online socializing. we are still socially adopting the the notion of truely portable computing.

    Theres clearly something of a small sentiment of - gee, do i really want to live that sort of life, where I am connected all the time....That and peak market, and the rocket like adoption of tablets (for which the above is less of an issue)......maybe blackberry shouldnt be questioning itself at all....maybe it should be ignoring eveything anyone else is doing, or the fluctuations of fashion, and doing what they do best, using their design-y minds to make nice to use devices.

    And yes, APPS!
    Last edited by Jamie Brahm; 05-01-14 at 06:02 AM.
    05-01-14 05:26 AM
  6. Jamie Brahm's Avatar
    Google started as a simple low cost search engine. Microsoft started in a garage. So did apple. They didn't get successful at all by having lots of money to begin with.

    I think what you call an advantage, these companies behemouth size - is actually their disadvantage. They have maxed their markets - their primary concern is not customer satisfaction, but keeping people on a collar, so they don't stray.

    Its so often the corporate underdog, employing say, something like googles free OS - or playstations open platform license free programming language - or cheaper rates, or better deals, or smarter, more unique designs - takes the lead, because of the very fact they are competing from the bottom rung. They don't have the crowds attention, or take them for granted, they have to get it.

    Now apple is up to its neck in proprietory limitations. Google is starting to think and act the same way. Samsungs new smart watch ONLY pairs with its phones. Googles glass, ONLY pairs with android phones. Microsofts windows is well know for anti-competition.

    Rather than focus on lower cost, practical designs, microsoft and samsung and google are obsessed with the big, the huge - and sometimes that may pay off, like graphene (it will) - but even though google glass may flop, googles search engine is definately here to stay.

    Microsoft, I am not so sure. Nor samsung (long term). OS's will eventually be more voice and gesture, and facial expression drive, more AI. They may be more 3d, more spacial. There's no backwards compatibility with a desktop design, no program compatibility. If someone else makes this AI os, with a more human interface (and I know there are people working on this out there) - that may be it for ios, windows, whatever.

    Indeed the hardware platform for a AI OS, is likely a neural net (or even a quantum computer). So it wouldn't run on windows or mac hardware anyway. Anyone designing such a thin would do much better starting totally from stratch.

    Just like windows and mac beat dos, anyone with a better idea can come in a beat the game at any point.

    Same with phones, i don't think we can call "the game of phones" over by far. Its only just begun, it terms of design, and it terms of specialization and user markets.

    I have a quiet feeling that blackberry will actually win. Its the only ones who's design principles say a) it's a phone - it can call and do email and text and facebook and crap - we know your not running nasa's next space mission using this hardware, and so do you b) practically useful.

    Everyone else is on some kind of samsung/iphone crack.

    How many people have GPU's on their phone and have never played a high end graphics game in their life? Or bluetooth, but have nothing they have ever needed to pair it with? Or the internet, but all they do is check facebook, twitter, and read the occasional wiki page? Its a bit like the person with the 3000 dollar pc, who does nothing but web surf, and use word.
    Last edited by Jamie Brahm; 05-01-14 at 06:20 AM.
    05-01-14 06:04 AM

Similar Threads

  1. I don't have the hub icon
    By BK_NY_RAY in forum General BlackBerry News, Discussion & Rumors
    Replies: 23
    Last Post: 05-11-14, 05:10 AM
  2. Replies: 13
    Last Post: 05-09-14, 01:33 PM
  3. Multiple active frames for the same application?
    By BeeRanDyn in forum BlackBerry 10 OS
    Replies: 11
    Last Post: 05-03-14, 08:03 AM
  4. BlackBerry 10 BlackBerry Protect App.
    By Sayid91 in forum General BlackBerry News, Discussion & Rumors
    Replies: 11
    Last Post: 05-02-14, 01:36 AM
  5. Transfer of contacts from z30 to a Bold 9900
    By chrisk_5 in forum General BlackBerry News, Discussion & Rumors
    Replies: 4
    Last Post: 04-30-14, 10:10 PM
LINK TO POST COPIED TO CLIPBOARD