[iamci]

There are ways to manage inventory aside from stockpiling excess inventory or being under-stocked. Look up Just in Time inventory management. Of course they would need a good estimate of demand and if you believe Steve Cistulli then supposedly they had an idea of the demand levels.

Businesses can lose just as much from holding too much inventory as they can from lost sales. So I have to respectfully disagree with you OP.

Posted via CB10

[qwerty4ever]

Businesses can lose just as much from holding too much inventory as they can from lost sales. So I have to respectfully disagree with you OP.

Posted via CB10

Yep. Ask BlackBerry about the financial downside of holding excess inventory. , TCL was between a rock and a hard place considering the track record of recent BlackBerry smartphone launches dating back to the at-the-time innovative BlackBerry Z10 in 2012. However, there is a narrow window of opportunity for BlackBerry Mobile and the BlackBerry KEYone before consumer demand wanes due to lack of product available for purchase at wireless carrier stores and retail outlets.

[thurask]

First up, quality assurance. The device is built extremely solid. Like, corners all meet perfectly, the back is snug, no issues. When you are mass producing, that is really hard. I've had iPhone's with gaps in bezels, my Note5 had discoloration on it, and many other things over the years. This phone looks and feels great, and I believe part of it is due to the care put into the mfg process.

Until the screen falls off.

[iamci]

Yep. Ask BlackBerry about the financial downside of holding excess inventory. , TCL was between a rock and a hard place considering the track record of recent BlackBerry smartphone launches dating back to the at-the-time innovative BlackBerry Z10 in 2012. However, there is a narrow window of opportunity for BlackBerry Mobile and the BlackBerry KEYone before consumer demand wanes due to lack of product available for purchase at wireless carrier stores and retail outlets.

I'm not disagreeing with you but that is why I offered a possible solution to look into. This is not an impossible task for TCL but that doesn't mean they should look at this shortage as a blessing in disguise. Will JIT be the solution? I don't have enough knowledge on TCL to make that analysis but there are many other strategies for them to pursue as well.

It's not like they're the first company to run into this issue. Dell became so successful because they have a make-to-order strategy. They didn't have a great estimate of demand initially either. There's so many SCM techniques that can tackle inventory problems...

[whatsever]

I could agree with your story, but I also have another opinion that the device had some serious start up problems to build the device.

Still in my opinion when it wil come out in Europe in June is expected to be around 529,00 euro or I will wait till it drops and we have no subside for mobile here anymore.

[qwerty4ever]

I'm not disagreeing with you but that is why I offered a possible solution to look into. This is not an impossible task for TCL but that doesn't mean they should look at this shortage as a blessing in disguise. Will JIT be the solution? I don't have enough knowledge on TCL to make that analysis but there are many other strategies for them to pursue as well.

It's not like they're the first company to run into this issue. Dell became so successful because they have a make-to-order strategy. They didn't have a great estimate of demand initially either. There's so many SCM techniques that can tackle inventory problems...

I understand your point of view regarding the roll-out of the BlackBerry KEYone and its execution by TCL and BlackBerry Mobile. The early launch in the United Kingdom should have provided enough real-time analytics to enable a better stocked introduction in Canada and the United States of America a month later. Since the smartphone model (GSM) is the same for both countries staging a warehouse in Canada located near the international boundary serving as a distribution centre to retail and wireless carrier stores might have alleviated the "out of stock" situation. CDMA is another story unto itself.

[gallopiton]

Until the screen falls off.

Maybe the screen is falling off the phone because people are holding it wrongly?

[Alain_A]

If Apple says you need a PKB on your iPhone, the world believes it.

Posted via CB10

They better not cause that would be the end of BB. Cause apple software works really well

[ppeters914]

I think we can safely predict that no matter how little progress will have been made over the previous generation or how ridiculously priced it will be, tens of millions of people will buy the next iPhone.

.....which makes this AAPL stock holder EXTREMELY happy.



Posted via CB10 / AT&T /Z10 STL100-3 /10.3.3.2205

[cbvinh]

Any of these could be viable reasons for the lack of phones when the Blackberry faithful are attempting to order. My largest 'gripe' is the crickets when it comes to simple communication. If you let me know what is going on, I can be a patient person... When there's silence(a couple of tweets is not an appropriate response to what has been going on), it makes it very hard for me to maintain a positive attitude. That said, I have an order in with Amazon, and am still waiting patiently at this point.

Are you patient because at this point, Amazon is saying 1-2 months? Would BlackBerry Mobile be allowed such a luxury when there's been some people saying the product has been delayed a whole month already and that's already unacceptable? Some people want straight up what's going on and can deal with it. Other people can't jump at the chance to find something wrong, even if it's an honest answer.

My take on events:

Pre-reg: It was a mistake to have it since I don't think they knew what to do with it. People here clamored for it so they were pacified. Communications worked out better over Twitter, FB, and especially CrackBerry.

April 27th release: Done to meet April announcement, but that's wasn't enough to satisfy critics. Honest answer of month delay was met with more criticism.

May 18th pre-order: Happened as expected, but met with criticism that it /should/ have been released already.

May 31st release: They got it out the door, but stock is spread all over. CDMA should have been labeled as "pre-order" instead of "available", but /even/ had it been, there would still be criticism. Really, does it matter how they phrased it? "Available" or "Pre-order"? Neither is acceptable since people want it now and some are quick to criticize whether the reasons are told or not.

[cbvinh]

Agree that caution is probably a good thing given past experience. However, they could have mitigated the unknown to some extent by allowing people to pre-order on BlackBerry Mobile and Amazon. It's not quite the same thing, but that's what Radiohead do with their 'special edition' boxed sets - you order (and pay for it) months in advance, and then they know how many to manufacture.

Maybe not preorder MONTHS in advance, but it depends upon manufacturing time - and maybe that is something they need to address. If it takes one week to make a batch of KeyOnes, then they should be able to re-stock within a week (plus distribution time). If it takes a MONTH to make a batch then that is a problem, and they need to re-work their supply chain and manufacturing process. It is OK to be caught out by unexpected demand, as long as you can respond rapidly, and are open and honest about this. People will wait a week or two if you tell them "We're sold out but we're making more and it will be available in 2 weeks. Preorder now to reserve your one from this next batch."

People interpret pre-order as things delivering very soon. That's the unfortunate part these days. Even those wanting the CDMA version won't spend three weeks in pre-order mode, which is the current estimate from Amazon.

[cbvinh]

I understand your point of view regarding the roll-out of the BlackBerry KEYone and its execution by TCL and BlackBerry Mobile. The early launch in the United Kingdom should have provided enough real-time analytics to enable a better stocked introduction in Canada and the United States of America a month later. Since the smartphone model (GSM) is the same for both countries staging a warehouse in Canada located near the international boundary serving as a distribution centre to retail and wireless carrier stores might have alleviated the "out of stock" situation. CDMA is another story unto itself.

The U.K. is a receptive market to BlackBerry, which is probably why it launched there first. Canada is still receptive. The U.S. is most likely not, especially given there's been no immediate carrier pickup... and the U.S. market is all about carriers. Strong sales in the U.K. would not be a clear indicator of strong sales in the U.S., especially with this lack of carrier interest.

[donnation]

OP that all sounds great, but QC doesn't seem to be this phones strong point thus far with the myriad issues people are having with the quality of the device. Yes all phones have this, but let's not make excuses for this delay that the quality on this device is the reason for the delay.

The rest is just spin. They botched it, end of story.

[khlover520]

I also feel like due to the shortage of stock, it grows the hype more for the people who haven't got a KEYone yet. TCL hit it big with this phone.

[Niels B]

Cause apple software works really well

Says who?

I don't like iOS at all!

Posted via CB10

[BigBadWulf]

Says who?

I don't like iOS at all!

Posted via CB10

I'm not a fan either, but there's no arguing the quality of the software.

[WARN]This is off topic though, and it would be great if y'all dropped it.[/WARN]

[GoLeafsGo44]

I am not surprised at all that BlackBerry Mobile is going with Just In Time model...did they underestimate the launch demand? Likely! Did the retailers underestimate the demand and not buy/order enough inventory? Likely! BlackBerry Mobile will learn from this, in my opinion, and realize that our little niche market is actually bigger...

[stefan_]

Maybe the screen is falling off the phone because people are holding it wrongly?

Surely you are joking.

This screen issue seems quite serious. To OPs point the conservative stock will allow them to address this.

[GoLeafsGo44]

We have no idea how serious it is because we have no idea how many units have been sold. Squeaky wheel gets the grease

[anon(5364777)]

There were 6-8 units in my state at BBuy. Not that many sold = number of issues. Id say they were smart not to ship more. All these delays, assembly line quality is likely culprit.

[southlander]

I don't really have a problem with the phone being hard to get. Many phones have been like this lately. Pixel. IPhone 7 jet black etc.

There just seems to be some spin by bb as far as calling it available. But I guess if you're on a GSM carrier and look hard enough it can be found. Verizon as always is the problem in the US. And it's the largest carrier.

On the plus side there is a CDMA variant. Unlike the Passport.

[asiayeah]

I don't really have a problem with the phone being hard to get. Many phones have been like this lately. Pixel. IPhone 7 jet black etc.

There just seems to be some spin by bb as far as calling it available. But I guess if you're on a GSM carrier and look hard enough it can be found. Verizon as always is the problem in the US. And it's the largest carrier.

On the plus side there is a CDMA variant. Unlike the Passport.

I agree. I don't mind it's hard to get a phone. Besides we can just place an order online and then wait for it. At least we don't need to line up and camp outside a retail store unlike some other phones' launches.

I am fine as long as KEYone is a phone built to last.

It's also a positive news for BlackBerry KEYone. The worst is no one cares. However, given the high demand (even if it's due to low inventory), things are definitely very positive for BlackBerry Mobile.

[donnation]

Some of you seem to be confused as to why people were upset over this. It has nothing to do with the phone selling out and now not being available. It has to do with the fact that the communication surrounding the phone up until it became available was non existent. It has to do with the fact that the phone was supposed to go on sale on the 31st but actually went on sale the 30th. And it has to do with the fact that TCL delayed the launch of the phone nearly two months because they said they did not want to avoid any stock outs. There really isn't any defending any of that, they screwed it up and have been a total mess thus far surrounding this phone.

[asiayeah]

Some of you seem to be confused as to why people were upset over this. It has nothing to do with the phone selling out and now not being available. It has to do with the fact that the communication surrounding the phone up until it became available was non existent. It has to do with the fact that the phone was supposed to go on sale on the 31st but actually went on sale the 30th. And it has to do with the fact that TCL delayed the launch of the phone nearly two months because they said they did not want to avoid any stock outs. There really isn't any defending any of that, they screwed it up and have been a total mess thus far surrounding this phone.

To be honest, that doesn't sound like a big problem to me as a potential buyer. Perhaps it may upsets some investors at TCL or BlackBerry Mobile. The situation could only get better and I envy those who have got the phones already!

[Tim-ANC]

Some of you seem to be confused as to why people were upset over this. It has nothing to do with the phone selling out and now not being available. It has to do with the fact that the communication surrounding the phone up until it became available was non existent. It has to do with the fact that the phone was supposed to go on sale on the 31st but actually went on sale the 30th. And it has to do with the fact that TCL delayed the launch of the phone nearly two months because they said they did not want to avoid any stock outs. There really isn't any defending any of that, they screwed it up and have been a total mess thus far surrounding this phone.

I'm starting to wonder if the delay to 31May was due to QC issues?