1. bb10adopter111's Avatar
    BlackBerry will be lucky if it sells modestly well. Even 10 mill units in a quarter would be great for them.
    10 M PKB phones in 2 years would be a miracle. I hope it happens, but it defies reason that it could. Unless math no longer works. :-)

    Posted with my trusty Z10
    05-14-17 01:03 PM
  2. Mithrandrost's Avatar
    Further to my "Slabexit" question at the top of the thread, there seems to be a lot of "I miss BlackBerry" comments out there. True, could all be nostalgia. The proof will be in sales.

    Still, I am curious to know how much market research went in to the KEYone? Did they find that there a lot of regular cellphone users who were only lukewarm on vkb's?
    05-14-17 01:15 PM
  3. donnation's Avatar
    Further to my "Slabexit" question at the top of the thread, there seems to be a lot of "I miss BlackBerry" comments out there. True, could all be nostalgia. The proof will be in sales.

    Still, I am curious to know how much market research went in to the KEYone? Did they find that there a lot of regular cellphone users who were only lukewarm on vkb's?
    The only problem I have with what you are saying is that its not like BlackBerry hasn't done anything in the past several years. They've released several pkb phones and no one has bought them.
    jmr1015 likes this.
    05-14-17 01:20 PM
  4. southlander's Avatar
    10 M PKB phones in 2 years would be a miracle. I hope it happens, but it defies reason that it could. Unless math no longer works. :-)

    Posted with my trusty Z10
    I think they came close to that with bb10 and it was not at all adequate.

    10 mill in two years and I think bb mobile would drop bb.
    05-14-17 02:00 PM
  5. stanfordprof's Avatar
    Any proof that it's selling very well? They've probably only sold 10,000-20,000 which is peanuts in smartphones.
    "Ravenous" ... no way. It will be a blip on the radar of cell phone sales and we all know that.
    05-14-17 02:07 PM
  6. jamesharmeling's Avatar
    The only problem I have with what you are saying is that its not like BlackBerry hasn't done anything in the past several years. They've released several pkb phones and no one has bought them.
    Releasing pkb phones is not enough. The Keyone seems to have hit almost every corner of what we ( those who want) have been wanting,. Seems like the only thing missing are color options with this one. I hope to see a Keytwo in the near future, expanding and capitalizing on new and improved hardware and software.

    BTW, when will you have yours?
    05-14-17 02:10 PM
  7. anon(9353145)'s Avatar
    I think TCL/TCT would be happy if they could grow it to a fraction of a percent. Add in BB VKB devices, and then possibly a 2-3% if they market aggressively (and BlackBerry keeps up with security updates, keeps the swipe up on letters which is unique, and build out the platform reliably). I love capacitive PKB with shortcuts, so I'm personally hoping they sell enough to keep cranking out new models.
    05-14-17 02:11 PM
  8. donnation's Avatar
    Releasing pkb phones is not enough. The Keyone seems to have hit almost every corner of what we ( those who want) have been wanting,. Seems like the only thing missing are color options with this one. I hope to see a Keytwo in the near future, expanding and capitalizing on new and improved hardware and software.

    BTW, when will you have yours?
    As soon as it's released in he States, whenever the heck that is.
    jamesharmeling likes this.
    05-14-17 02:45 PM
  9. PantherBlitz's Avatar
    They've released several pkb phones and no one has bought them.
    To be fair their only Android PKB device was the Priv - and the missteps with that one don't need rehashed here.
    jamesharmeling likes this.
    05-14-17 03:12 PM
  10. bb10adopter111's Avatar
    I think they came close to that with bb10 and it was not at all adequate.

    10 mill in two years and I think bb mobile would drop bb.
    Different issue entirely. TCL is a diversified company and doesn't need each product to be a best seller. A single device can be profitable with 1M sales. A company cannot.

    Posted with my trusty Z10
    jamesharmeling likes this.
    05-14-17 04:39 PM
  11. southlander's Avatar
    Different issue entirely. TCL is a diversified company and doesn't need each product to be a best seller. A single device can be profitable with 1M sales. A company cannot.

    Posted with my trusty Z10
    Yeah. Possibly.
    05-14-17 05:34 PM
  12. bobshine's Avatar
    Different issue entirely. TCL is a diversified company and doesn't need each product to be a best seller. A single device can be profitable with 1M sales. A company cannot.

    Posted with my trusty Z10
    Doesn't work like that. What your saying is that they will take losses on the Keyone just to keep BB fans happy.

    They may have a bit of economy of scale, but I doubt it.
    05-14-17 05:52 PM
  13. southlander's Avatar
    Doesn't work like that. What your saying is that they will take losses on the Keyone just to keep BB fans happy.

    They may have a bit of economy of scale, but I doubt it.
    Well another problem is the KEYone has a PKB and different screen aspect ratio. So to get devs to cater to that it'll take unit sales. No one is going to customize their app to support say keyboard shortcuts if the phone sells 1 million units to start.
    05-14-17 10:55 PM
  14. bb10adopter111's Avatar
    Well another problem is the KEYone has a PKB and different screen aspect ratio. So to get devs to cater to that it'll take unit sales. No one is going to customize their app to support say keyboard shortcuts if the phone sells 1 million units to start.
    I agree with you, and with the previous poster that 1M devices is not sufficient to sustain the KEYone form factor. But, I suspect TCL is also aware that the FIRST iteration of this device is unlikely to be a hit, for the simple reason that the distribution network required to achieve multi-million unit sales is not yet on board.

    It's a chicken and egg problem, and TCL will have to accept losses early on if they want to relaunch the BlackBerry brand as a successful niche brand. Unlike BlackBerry, however, they have a sufficient portfolio to do this.

    If the KEYone continues to get good press and sells 1M units in the first year, and if users LIKE the phone, then TCL will have a reason to expect reasonable growth over time. There are still 20-40M legacy (BBOS and BB10) BlackBerry users out there who are up for grabs.

    Personally, I doubt that anyone at TCL thought that the KEYone would magically sell 5M or more units. They are pros at estimating mobile device demand. That's why they haven't built stock aggressively. They are likely looking at BlackBerry Mobile as a medium to long term opportunity. They want to establish BlackBerry Mobile as a solid second tier brand in the marketplace. Their competition is companies like Motorola, not Samsung and Apple.

    Posted with my trusty Z10
    05-15-17 07:06 AM
  15. stlabrat's Avatar
    500K total for Merc is short sighted (provided TCL can deliver within 3 month). at least 1 million is my estimate even at current pricing level. BB handset sales for Q4 2016 still got >200K, that got no marketing, no new handsets, no love from head quarter, no buzz for the BBOS and BB10... (yes, it drop down from 900K 2015 to 200K, but that is by purpose... to change to software company as Chen's wish got executed). https://9to5mac.com/2017/02/15/samsu...le-in-q4-2016/ IMHO. Love of BB is still out there... (the key is, Can TCL deliver? without marketing... before the demand went away... no body is going to sit there waiting forever... Let's see how many they can deliver in 3 month).
    05-15-17 08:03 AM
  16. tnewton3's Avatar
    I agree completely with you. My point is that there is nothing wrong with designing and selling a device to capture 0.25% of the Android market. 2.5M devices a year could be a very profitable niche for TCL, and they could still make a BlackBerry slab phone. I am one of the people who value the editing precision of the PKB.

    Posted with my trusty Z10
    Crazy to think 2.5M devices is such a small portion of the Android market. Do you think slab phones are becoming a little boring and some of said market want something different? Not an overnight switch but over the next 2-4 years we could see a change from slab which may make physical keyboards more popular or other innovations that differentiate slabs.
    05-15-17 08:24 AM
  17. bb10adopter111's Avatar
    Crazy to think 2.5M devices is such a small portion of the Android market. Do you think slab phones are becoming a little boring and some of said market want something different? Not an overnight switch but over the next 2-4 years we could see a change from slab which may make physical keyboards more popular or other innovations that differentiate slabs.
    I think manufacturers would love to differentiate their products, but the app store model makes it difficult to innovate on hardware features, because DeVos have to get on board to integrate them.

    Posted with my trusty Z10
    05-15-17 08:43 AM
  18. mister2d's Avatar
    Crazy to think 2.5M devices is such a small portion of the Android market. Do you think slab phones are becoming a little boring and some of said market want something different? Not an overnight switch but over the next 2-4 years we could see a change from slab which may make physical keyboards more popular or other innovations that differentiate slabs.
    People left physical keyboards to go to slabs. Those people aren't going backwards. Fans of PKBs need to accept that.
    05-15-17 09:28 AM
  19. tnewton3's Avatar
    People left physical keyboards to go to slabs. Those people aren't going backwards. Fans of PKBs need to accept that.
    I was stating that I think the standard slab phone will evolve into something different. Quite a bit of my friends are becoming bored of the standard slab device and looking for a change. I'm not saying that change is a PKB device but the slab will not live forever being just a slab with new iterations coming every 6 months.

    My wife is a die hard full touch user and she's wanting to try to K1 simply because it's not another full touch. She may hate it, but the fact is she's tired of the same old devices no matter what logo is on the back.
    05-15-17 09:38 AM
  20. cgk's Avatar

    I'm not saying that change is a PKB device but the slab will not live forever being just a slab with new iterations coming every 6 months.
    Why? Although people have tried different things, the basic form of the TV remote has remained the same for decades.
    05-15-17 09:40 AM
  21. mister2d's Avatar
    I was stating that I think the standard slab phone will evolve into something different. Quite a bit of my friends are becoming bored of the standard slab device and looking for a change. I'm not saying that change is a PKB device but the slab will not live forever being just a slab with new iterations coming every 6 months.

    My wife is a die hard full touch user and she's wanting to try to K1 simply because it's not another full touch. She may hate it, but the fact is she's tired of the same old devices no matter what logo is on the back.
    I see now. Well, I would love for PKB inputs to evolve into something better. I continue to get many compliments when I carry my Passport, but I can tell that those same people wouldn't be caught dead with a keyboard exposed on their phone by the way they look. They express a good amount of compliments, but they just go "eh" afterwards.
    05-15-17 09:42 AM
  22. tnewton3's Avatar
    I see now. Well, I would love for PKB inputs to evolve into something better. I continue to get many compliments when I carry my Passport, but I can tell that those same people wouldn't be caught dead with a keyboard exposed on their phone by the way they look. They express a good amount of compliments, but they just go "eh" afterwards.
    When I'm blasting out a text or email and someone sees my PRIV they first say that they didn't know BlackBerry still made phones. The next state they miss their BlackBerry keyboard. This does not translate into them going and buying a device, but one can hope for PKB devices beyond the K1.
    05-15-17 09:51 AM
  23. anon(679606)'s Avatar
    They will sell dozens... if their lack of advertisement persists, maybe not even that many... Priv is a better concept but for the ill-designed PKB

    Posted via CB10
    05-15-17 10:21 AM
  24. anon(679606)'s Avatar



    Why? Although people have tried different things, the basic form of the TV remote has remained the same for decades.
    Yes, and just got a xfinity k1 and it's a terrible layout... t'a kes voice commands, but who wants to hear you talk when they're slumbering on the couch?

    Posted via CB10
    05-15-17 10:24 AM
  25. AlawiiAlQrsh's Avatar
    People left physical keyboards to go to slabs. Those people aren't going backwards. Fans of PKBs need to accept that.
    Well, I have s7. Im going back to the keyone, am I normal ?
    05-16-17 12:10 PM
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