[sleepngbear]

The % sales of BB10 vs Legacy has grown each quarter.(yes, both of them) There's no evidence that gives reason as to why it wouldn't continue to do so. If you expected the sales of the new OS to be 100% from release day, you overhyped the idea. That's not an indication that nobody wants the new version, its a normal time to adopt for a big change.

Not to mention that a huge percent of mobile phones are purchased on contract, spread fairly evenly throughout the year. Granted BBOS sales slowed as we got closer to BB10 launch. But there's a plethora of reasons why everybody who may want to buy a BB10 device won't or can't the first weekend, month, quarter, or even year.

BlackBerry has everything working against it. This is not news. We all knew that this launch and the company turn-around would jot be an automatic slam dunk, nor would it be a quick event. Considering the market this new BBOS device is aimed at, I see nothing wrong with using it to keep up interest in the brand in areas where BB10 is not yet a viable option for consumers. There's a reason why BBOS was a popular option in certain parts of the world, and it's going to continue to be in some of those areas for some time to come.

[black.rhino]

I think it's very important that BlackBerry does not lose its existing customer base which might be very happy and satisfied with Bold or Curve. These folks may not like new OS or Swiping up and down...
Lot of people just don't like learning curve or buying unfamiliar stuff or don't have time for it.
This new device would get them higher hardware specs, better camera etc.Posted via CB10

When you use an android phone and upgrade in 2 years, look how far the OS goes. I suppose iOS changes the least in terms of software. If BB7 had been developed into a worthy upgrade, then there might be a point, i.e. BB8 and snappy hardware makes an upgrade worthwhile to the legacy clenchers. The new device is more like going from a 9900 to a 9360 or 9790.

I think this device is intended for marketshare, not as an upgrade for existing users. It fills the void that they were unable to develop BB10 into.

I would be curious to know if any BB10 users would rather pick up the new OS 7 device.

[WES51]

Should Blackberry disontinue support for OS7, I just go buy an iPhone.

I'm not convinced that BB10 is not more than simply a new flavor of the day among some kids.

[jwn66]

No, nope and nope.

[toneytone]

I sometimes get close minded and only look at things from my point of view much like most Americans. From my understanding data cost for the legacy devices remain much cheaper than OS10 devices and it's competitors. It's the main reason so many across the world chose BlackBerry in the first place. They won't be upgrading to a OS10 device so instead of losing them as a customer why not give them something to upgrade to.

Posted via CB10

[WES51]

instead of losing them as a customer why not give them something to upgrade to.

Thank you!

This is such a simple matter, yet it doesn't seem to resonate with most BB10 cheerleaders.

[sparkaction]

Thank you!

This is such a simple matter, yet it doesn't seem to resonate with most BB10 cheerleaders.

Why can't BlackBerry just sell existing Bolds at cost? Those are great devices with high build quality something very different than a low end DROID. Thus, the UX is optimal and the ability to convert that user to BB10 would greater than selling low quality berries.

[WES51]

Why can't BlackBerry just sell existing Bolds at cost? Those are great devices with high build quality something very different than a low end DROID. Thus, the UX is optimal and the ability to convert that user to BB10 would greater than selling low quality berries.

That would work for me as well. Just keep the support incl. all the necessary updates. I would even pay a higher monthly charge, if I could only keep things functioning the way they are.

To those who ask, what's actually wrong with updating: to me it only makes sense until things actually improve.

I don't like to go the hassle of updating just so I can play the latest game or have the latest set of icons on my screen or have my device respond 0.0002 seconds faster.

Indeed to me BB10's cloud based eMail is actually a step back from what I want.

So if I'm forced to use cloud based eMail in the future, then I'll do so over an established plattform and that won't be Blackberry.

[Aljean Thein]

Remember not everyone likes the new bb10. Some are completely fine with the current OS7 phones. This is a good move.

Posted via CB10

[h20work]

When you use an android phone and upgrade in 2 years, look how far the OS goes. I suppose iOS changes the least in terms of software. If BB7 had been developed into a worthy upgrade, then there might be a point, i.e. BB8 and snappy hardware makes an upgrade worthwhile to the legacy clenchers. The new device is more like going from a 9900 to a 9360 or 9790.

I think this device is intended for marketshare, not as an upgrade for existing users. It fills the void that they were unable to develop BB10 into.

I would be curious to know if any BB10 users would rather pick up the new OS 7 device.

I would have replaced my 9850 with a new bbos, but not one like the 9720. I have a Z on tmo, and a 9850 on vzw. I still use both, and when I travel overseas the 9850 still shines because of the compression. Wifi isn't available everywhere, and bis was a big advantage in those cases.

I'm far from a typical user, I usually take at least one if not two spare phones when I travel, plus a few tablets. I like having backup, and backup for my backup.

[Hazysky]

I sometimes get close minded and only look at things from my point of view much like most Americans. From my understanding data cost for the legacy devices remain much cheaper than OS10 devices and it's competitors. It's the main reason so many across the world chose BlackBerry in the first place. They won't be upgrading to a OS10 device so instead of losing them as a customer why not give them something to upgrade to.

Posted via CB10

Os7.1 to OS 7.1 in new casing isn't really an upgrade now is it? It's more of the same.

They could have at least updated the OS.



Posted via CB10

[johnnyuk]

Well thorsten said the Q5 was for emerging markets then put it on sale in the UK.

Posted via CB10

Exactly! The UK is where the marketing focus and direction confusion of the 9720 is going to utterly hit the fan. There is no doubt in my mind that the 9720 will be released in the UK as an upgrade for the millions of BBM addicted teenagers and the BIS die hards with low spec Curve phones. I don't agree with it but it's bound to happen, that's where there is a market, of some description, for it

But in that same market there is demand for and good sales of BB10 devices and the new QNX future BlackBerry have taken. I see TV adverts and web adverts for BB10 here every single day. The marketing is BB10 and nothing else.

Some poor saps will buy the 9720 in the UK thinking they're getting BB10 only to be bitterly disappointed and desert BlackBerry forever. Others in the UK will just be so confused by the "new" old BlackBerry that they'll just avoid BlackBerry altogether as a confused mess.

BlackBerry need to market the 9720 in the UK very carefully. And they won't
They will screw it up like always.

Posted via CB10

[BBThemes]

There is no doubt in my mind that the 9720 will be released in the UK as an upgrade for the millions of BBM addicted teenagers and the BIS die hards with low spec Curve phones

I actually think your looking at the wrong target market, although what yo`ve said will for sure be a bad side effect.
I don't know if you recall, but BB10 hasn't yet passed CESG approval in the UK, which is what it needs for high up government use, and for example GCHQ and armed forces use. Those contracts that were most likely on BB7 or BB6 are coming to an end you`d imagine as BB7 is 2 years old, so a new product running an approved OS will enable them to sell into that channel which is security and enterprise. Asi I say though, as a biproduct of this it will probably be in the shops and cause the problems you forsee.

[ubizmo]

Since the earnings report is aimed at shareholders, who have an interest in knowing about future revenue sources, I suppose Heins couldn't really have not mentioned the coming 9720, especially given the underwhelming BB10 figures. As I've stated elsewhere, the 9720 is intended to be a cash cow, to prop the company up while they try to get BB10 up to speed.

The problem, however, is that the general public in the developed world neither knows nor cares that there are now two concurrent BlackBerry platforms. So to the general public, the 9720 is just a "new BlackBerry". But the new BlackBerry is an old BlackBerry! At a time when BlackBerry is fighting desperately for recognition of its new platform, the 9720 gives a completely contradictory message.

I'm no CEO. Maybe the 9720 will earn BlackBerry a nice chunk of money. My concern is that it will lose more than it earns, by setting back public recognition of BB10.

Maybe the 9720 slogan should be, "BlackBerry: Still making phones that you don't want!"

[johnnyuk]

BBOS development has never stopped and if BB10 requires minimum dual cores and 2gb ram it will be years before we'll see a low end BB10 device, the PlayBook fiasco has proved this beyond doubt.

With the laying off of a number if BBOS Java programmers it looks like only BBOS bug fixing and stability work for a "new" device such as the 9720 remains. Can't see any real OS development happening as in new features, just bug fixing and stability. Some of BlackBerry's BBOS apps will still be developed such as the all important BBM but they are just bundled apps nowadays, not really OS features.

It's only the 2GB minimum RAM requirements for BB10 holding it back from the low end market. RAM gets cheaper over time faster than most components. It won't be years, not plural lol

BB10 wouldn't be as blazing quick on a single core CPU but it would still work and wouldn't crap out on the user. Not so when you run out of RAM!

A low end BB10 phone could just about get away with 1.5GB of RAM and maybe a limit of 4-6 Active Frames running simultaneously. BlackBerry shouldn't do it for the sake of the big Games that wouldn't run without the extra 512MB. It's not worth fragmenting things even further.

Posted via CB10

[johnnyuk]

I actually think your looking at the wrong target market, although what yo`ve said will for sure be a bad side effect.
I don't know if you recall, but BB10 hasn't yet passed CESG approval in the UK, which is what it needs for high up government use, and for example GCHQ and armed forces use. Those contracts that were most likely on BB7 or BB6 are coming to an end you`d imagine as BB7 is 2 years old, so a new product running an approved OS will enable them to sell into that channel which is security and enterprise. Asi I say though, as a biproduct of this it will probably be in the shops and cause the problems you forsee.

I know all about CESG approval as I'm a BES Admin in the Public Sector. What I also know is that Public Sector organisations flout those rules every single day through pressure to use other mobile devices for email. CESG don't exactly help matters when they only finish testing a version of a mobile device OS or MDM half way through its life. If we waited for CESG approval for everything we'd still be stuck with obsolete BB7 phones right now with another year to run on their contracts. For all we know in another years time CESG might still not have evaluated BES10 so we'd have to buy this awful stop-gap phone to use for another 2 years after that!The world of work moves on faster than CESG can advise. Inertia is making them irrelevant.

You're right that BlackBerry probably hope this will be a stop-gap phone for BES5 shops. The problem is it doesn't offer anything over the BB7 phones they've had for the last 18-20 months, it is deeply unappealing. It has "stop-gap" written all over it and yet from BlackBerry's point if view it had to be that way because they can't waste resources developing BBOS and its phones beyond their 2011 zenith.

If your organisation isn't at a high security sensitivity level then when faced with a choice of another 2 years of the same phones all over again or saying stuff CESG and buying BB10 phones and sticking them on BES10 I know what I would do (and did!).

That's the madness of this phone in a nutshell and why I wish it would only be sold through carriers to business customers. But BlackBerry will need that unsuspecting consumer purchase margin too so it will inevitably end up at retail in the UK and that's where this phone is bad news. It would be an unimpressive consumer phone in 2011 never mind 2013. It's a compromise too far, but we are where we are.

Posted via CB10

[BBThemes]

That's the madness of this phone in a nutshell and why I wish it would only be sold through carriers to business customers. But BlackBerry will need that unsuspecting consumer purchase margin too so it will inevitably end up at retail in the UK and that's where this phone is bad news. It would be an unimpressive consumer phone in 2011 never mind 2013. It's a compromise too far, but we are where we are.

Posted via CB10

agreed, I think it`ll end up as the usual xmas promo for cpw and p4u where you buy it on x tariff and get an xbox free or whatever, that's where its gonna be by xmas I think