[shupor]

It's a high end device. Compare it to others on the market iPhone 6 16GB ($650), HTC One M8 ($670), Samsung Galaxy S5 ($650), Samsung Galaxy Note 4 ($826). I think $599 is a good price.

iPhone 6 - AT&T
HTC One M8
Samsung Galaxy S 5 cell phone from AT&T
Samsung Galaxy Note 4

If you look at it that way then i agree. Question remains who the target market is. Potential converts from other platforms who are already deeply rooted in their ecosystem, existing die-hard BB users or on-the-fence BB users?
I don't see $50+ as being a big enough incentive to bring in new converts; the on-the-fence users have the carrier salespeople to deal with from stopping them from making the upgrade(assuming all carriers sell the phone to begin with ) and clearly BB has not made enough sales from the die hard users in the most recent years.
I consider myself a die-hard BB user and heck i was forced to make a switch recently, and even though i absolutely hate my current device (Galaxy S5) and can afford to spend $600 on drinks, i won't be spending $600 on the Passport.

The $50 price difference is not enough incentive for me to make the switch back to BB as the reason for me leaving has not been resolved to begin with, nevermind the arguably less rounded eco-system that i will have to deal with all over again.

At $500, i wouldn't mind buying one and dealing with the personal shortcomings i had from BB

[Hai Bo]

I am one of those who think that the Passport is overpriced and $499 would be ideal.
Yep, it has high specs. But if specs were the only reasons people buy smartphone, there would have been long queues outside of all the shops selling BBRY Passport right now, and after tomorrow BBRY would have sold millions of the Passport.

Lmao absolute BS my friend lol. Billionaire's don't look at price tags of things then moan about the price rofl.

**** me the lengths that people will go to make up stories.

Posted via CB10

I think that the billionaire just made that statement matter-of-factly because he made his evaluation of BBRY Passport as a whole brand, device, and ecosystem value, not just the specs. He đid not get over-hyped about the new phone but made a calm and accurate assessment. And that's why he's a billionaire.
And after making that statement, he would probably order a dozen of Passport to play skipping-stone, or skipping-smartphone just for the fun of it. You would be moaning not him, mate.

[jh07]

$599 is great to most loyalists, but what about people thinking of switching. I think that is the big question.

Posted via CB10

[Resilience]

Most people do not even buy off contract.

[all3n7]

I guess I have to sell some of my canon lens to get this passport. However my lens will last forever and will hold its value 10x better. hmm.. ok i'm selling my nikon lens, instead. lol

" Initiated from my QNX10 "

[tnewton3]

Personally I don't think the $599.00 off contract price is too high. What I would like to see is a reward for day one buyers and even week one buyers. It could be as simple as the BlackBerry branded headsets they used to include with the older BlackBerry devices. BlackBerry could also make you turn in your receipt, like a rebate and pick an accessory, headphones, pouch, BlackBerry branded case.

Crackberry maybe give 20-30% discount with proof of day one purchase or lower with proof of week one purchase.

I will be upgrading as soon as I can and having something like this would be pretty cool to me.

Posted via Q10

[insandouts]

Lmao absolute BS my friend lol. Billionaire's don't look at price tags of things then moan about the price rofl.

**** me the lengths that people will go to make up stories.

Posted via CB10

Tell that to Warren Buffet who drive a Buick and live in a modest home. That's why most of them are billionaires, because they live modestly. Go to Vegas and see who request comped hotel rooms, mostly wealthy people.

[stooy leown]

Tell that to Warren Buffet who drive a Buick and live in a modest home. That's why most of them are billionaires, because they live modestly. Go to Vegas and see who request comped hotel rooms, mostly wealthy people.

Nonsense. Name and show homes of 5 billionaires who live in what you call modest. And to say that about Vegas is a joke. Who would pay for anything if you know you can get it free.

Q10SQN100-2/10.3.0.1154 - CB10

[Nharzhool]

Nonsense. Name and show homes of 5 billionaires who live in what you call modest. And to say that about Vegas is a joke. Who would pay for anything if you know you can get it free.

Q10SQN100-2/10.3.0.1154 - CB10

Bill Gates! oh wait...

Anyway, I think $599 is way too high for this high-end, flagship device. Everybody knows that flagship devices with current hardware should never be more than $199 off-contract.

That's why the new Flagship Windows Phones are all sub-$200, as well as the iPhone 6 and iGalaxy S55S5SSS5S...waaaait a minute!

[Kean Seng Yap]

Gosh.. if that's the price.. then be happy with it.. z10 came out at 599.. and I got it at that price.. if you are not happy with the price get a damn phone with the right price in your mind and be happy about it.. no point whining and complaining.. close the matter..
It's a damn shame a businessman can't fork out a bloody extra 100bucks.

Look at damn apple man.. the durability sucks and yet people still buy that ****

Posted via CB10

[D3C0D3R]

This is all really funny...
Do people not realize that BlackBerry priced any lower, they would be basically saying "Hey guys, we surrender, if you buy one of our phones you'll get the quality that matches the price" and no one would give them light of day to try actually using the device, plus it would be quite hard to get profitable off of it.

$599 is a very generous price point and honestly I think it's an extremely smart move.


Z10STL100-3/10.3.0.1052

[W1ck3D86]

We all know it will start at $599 and in a few months it will sell for $350. So just wait to buy it, prices will drop

Posted via CB10

[Kean Seng Yap]

They never think.. I don't know what else to say.. why don't they just ask blackberry to give them for free? .. I think it would be better for them..

Posted via CB10

[robert_in_la]

Lmao absolute BS my friend lol. Billionaire's don't look at price tags of things then moan about the price rofl.

**** me the lengths that people will go to make up stories.

Posted via CB10

I worked for him for 5 years and he's my godfather so no its not BS as we where just talking about various stuff as we do every Sunday brunch. Like most people who have extreme wealth who from old established families they tend to be conservative and look at value.

[Carjackd]

Not at all as I'm getting a free set of Ginsu knives with my purchase ...plus a Shamwow!

Posted with my gorgeous Z30

Throw in a Schticky and I'm in! Buying one anyway tomorrow.

Posted Pantlessly via My Kick @ss Z30!!!

[allsportsfan]

There are comparisons on the web right now with the Samsung Note 4 which is supposedly going to be priced around $900.

People this is not the Q5 or Q10 so don't expect the flagship phone to be priced like one. $599 is a good price for this phone. I was expecting this to be $699 at the cheapest.

BlackBerry for once, coincidentally, with Chen as the new CEO now for almost a year has been getting the pulse of the market and needed to get the price down to get even more interest for a ultra premium phone.

Posted via CB10

[NYC10065]

$599 for the Passport, though? Given that it's got the most current spec I've seen on a BlackBerry, and that its novel form-factor might just start a fad that will drive demand, that doesn't seem out of line. And sales expectations for the Passport are VERY conservative at this point.

The price I'll be paying more attention to as a shareholder will be that of the Z20. That's a volume model that DOES need aggressive pricing to succeed.

Your comments are entirely appropriate. Of course, deciding whether $599 is "too high" is completely a values judgement and the answer depends entirely on what the objective of pricing it at $599 is for BBRY.

Chen said that he priced the Passport at $599 because comparable devices were being sold for $700 and "to get the market interested". Maybe he's right and maybe he's wrong but I very much doubt that much interest will be generated when you've only priced it $50 below the current "hot" device. But, as you very astutely point out, maybe Chen's and BBRY's expectations are so conservative that all they need to do is generate thousands of sales vs hundreds of thousands or millions of sales. If that is the case then pricing it at $599 could very well hit the mark.

[Spawn12]

Well as much as I wanted the 599 price point here in the uk, that won't be happening as someone just said in a thread that Selfridges here in London UK will be selling it at 529 uk pounds that works out in today's currency rates at 867 us dollars lol.

Yayyy for rip off ******* uk. I don't see this passport doing that well here in the uk at that price point. It should have been around 450 uk pounds. At 529 uk pounds this phone will sink without a trace.

Will wait till the price drops like it did on the z30 which I bought last year for 390 uk pounds.

Posted via CB10

[NYC10065]

Um, no one has seen numbers like that before. That doesn't mean BB should sell their phones at a loss because you deem their proportional sales and market share justifies it. BB will profit from the Passport, and that's what matters (regardless of how few devices they move).

1. "Profit" can only be generated through sales.

2. Sales can only be generated through effective marketing, promotion and market acceptable/attractive pricing.

Blackberry can say all it wants about the Passport being great but without #2, #1 is never going to happen.

The market determines whether a price is acceptable or attractive. Basically, the Z10 couldn't even be given away to save it from being a complete failure -- in the eyes of both the financial and consumer market (and the eyes of the BBRY board, it seems, since they fired a whole lot of the BBRY C-suite responsible for that device).

Some could argue given the grey market for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6-Plus that Apple priced the devices too low but they wanted to generate interest and, thereby, sales to ensure the device's profitability at an acceptable margin for their shareholders.

So, sure, perhaps $599 is a "profitable" price for the Passport in that it covers the costs and allows Blackberry to generate a positive margin. But what if it doesn't generate any or enough sales?

As we have seen before, getting the pricing and promotion right on these devices is critical. And, sure, maybe BBRY expectations are so low that selling tens of thousands of the Passport is enough. But Chen himself mentioned that he wanted to "try to get the market interested" so unless the market isn't the market at large but rather a small segment of it, I'm afraid $599 won't do the trick with enough of "the market" to be taken seriously.

[BroncoVAL]

Well either it's a coincidence or the price for Europe will actually be around 670 Euro (860$)...
From 599$ to 860$ that's totally unacceptable but there's still a chance Selfridges did like FNAC website and presumed about that price.
I hope so, if it finally ends up that expansive i'll buy it in the USA or Canada, but certainly not in Europe.

[bibochas]

It should be 199 and with 25% off

Posted via CB10

[mf1982]

I think the price point adds value for the early adopters and incentive to not wait.

Realistically if you compare the Passport to the Z30 it won't come down much lower than $500 for a year. Unlike the first Z's and Q's which were over priced, they can't really cut the price a ton more to generate more sales. An early adopter will maintain more value (if you paid $649 for a Q10 that goes for $300 now, it's a lot worse than a $599 Passport going for $400 in a year).

Posted via CB10

[cgallaer]

Nah. The price is right for launch. Give it a few months and it will come down.

Q10: SQN 100-5 v. 10.2.1.2102

[Kean Seng Yap]

Having lost so much market share in the world, I think blackberry now are in the niche market.. that's to what I think.. appealing to a certain crowds..

Getting the z3 out cheap is to get as many bb10 Os out to the consumers hands and whether you like it or not, the word of mouth is the strongest advertising tool you can ever have..

Passport on the other hand if I remember correctly appeals to a certain market and will only appeal to a certain market for that price..

Pricing at 599.. for the niche market and with crack berry polls coming and with the positive feedback I think it will do well..

For those that felt that 599 is too high, why don't you wait for several weeks and when the price is slashed u can get them..??

Just my 2 cents

Posted via CB10

[theouthouseprophet]

If you consider the lack of ecosystem, yes $599 is too much

Right now the reality is $1 is too much.