[tonythecanuck]

CNET gives Passport great review:

http://www.cnet.com/products/blackberry-passport/

Posted using my BlackBerry Z30.

[FalkirkEagle]

Just stopped at the first telus location in town, and not a single device in stock. That means no demo unit or even an area for it.

Amazing

Posted via CB10

Sorry to hear you weren't able to get one. I popped into a Telus store in London, Ontario last night after work (incidentally, London is one hour's drive away from BlackBerry HQ in Waterloo), and had no trouble getting one. The store even had two Passports on display, which was something I was a bit surprised to see.

The store staff told me that they had sold four Passports that day (mine included), so I know there's at least a few BlackBerry diehards in London, and BlackBerry probably gave the store enough stock to cover first-day demand.

At least you can actually get a Passport on the same day if the store has any in stock. Unlike Apple, who deliberately throttle their supply chain to whip up demand and then force people to wait 6 - 8 weeks for a new iPhone. Or they force them to jump through the 'pre-order' hoop.

[stealthbob]

Same thing in Burlington

Posted Pantlessly via My Kick @ss BlackBerry Passport!!!

I had to ask the question...did you have to get a special security tether wide enough to hold this beast?

He said yes it was a concern but the default one just fit.

[Carjackd]

I had to ask the question...did you have to get a special security tether wide enough to hold this beast?

He said yes it was a concern but the default one just fit.

Lol, they had one on display, put it in my hands for 5 seconds, told the sales guy to go get me one, and paid cash. Had my own in my hands on 5 minutes.

Posted Pantlessly via My Kick @ss BlackBerry Passport!!!

[Thunderbuck]

The price difference shouldn't be more than 50.

Z10STL100-3/10.2.1.3247

We can be choked about that, sure. You could argue that BB has to work harder for US customers and needs to price more aggressively.

Posted via CB10

[rav813]

It's interesting to see people's perception on pricing. I'm a pricing manager for a company that has a consumer arm. We sell our goods in Canada and the U.S. and I run the analytics and strategy for North America.

The first question I'd ask you is: do you know where the Passport is being shipped out of? My guess, based on historical data of BlackBerry, is Fort Worth TX. Having those devices show up to Canadian residents "hassle-free" means shipping them DDP (look up incoterms) to a distribution center in Canada.

Second, as someone mentioned earlier, is the FX hedging, which every company does. You can't possibly sell consumer goods that fluctuate in price every week/month, so you need to look at the forecast, your levels of profitability for shareholders, and mitigate the FX risk as much as possible. Those two alone are major driving factors for multi-national pricing strategies. Unfortunately for Canadians, the gov't enjoys raking in those duties, and without any way around them, someone needs to suffer the brunt of it....most times it's the consumer, especially when a company doesn't have money to burn.

Third, as another member posted, the Canadian market is 10x smaller than the U.S. It is also more conservative in its consumerism than the U.S. This translates into smaller regional volume, which means smaller regional profitability, which means slightly higher prices to compensate for the "cost of doing business".

[MarsupilamiX]

^
I understand all of that.
But it doesn't change the fact that the pricing is too high in Europe and Canada.

The Passport is 50 Euro cheaper than the new iphone, and more expensive than the current generation of Android flagships.

So I honestly couldn't care less about their abstract and theoretical model on how to set up their price, if they overprice in the end.

Europe is Android dominated and if you want new customers, you have to give them incentives.
Making your product more expensive than the one the Android customer is accustomed to, while at the same time having the worse product with less apps, less ecosystem, less specs, less certaint... Doesn't sound like a winning formula to me.

There is something called competition and competition influences the price as well.
You haven't talked about that though.
BlackBerry is not isolated and has about 1% of the market. They HAVE to look at the other manufacturers and have a competitive price.
And at 600 Euro, for what the Passport offers compared to other phones, it is overpriced in Europe.

Posted via CB10

[rav813]

I did not bring in Europe because I have not had much experience in that region.

[MarsupilamiX]

I did not bring in Europe because I have not had much experience in that region.

Damnit

You sounded like you might have a serious economic background, so I hoped that we might start a little discussion.

Oh well.
I do understand your initial point though...

I'll ask something else then:
How would you describe BlackBerry's pricing strategy, when you compare it with OnePlus and their One, or Oppo, or Huawei.

All of those chinese manufacturers pretty much sell you a Galaxy S5, for 290$.
We can be sure that they will try to get a footing in international markets sooner or later.

Now, how intelligent is it for BlackBerry to demand 750 CAD while we see a tendency of falling prices (ignoring the iPhone 6+ ofc) in the whole market?
Especially a tendency to incredibly capable midrange phones, which make high-end devices pretty much useless, if you don't want them as a status symbol.

Posted via CB10

[ZeroBarrier]

^
I understand all of that.
But it doesn't change the fact that the pricing is too high in Europe and Canada.

The Passport is 50 Euro cheaper than the new iphone, and more expensive than the current generation of Android flagships.

So I honestly couldn't care less about their abstract and theoretical model on how to set up their price, if they overprice in the end.

Europe is Android dominated and if you want new customers, you have to give them incentives.
Making your product more expensive than the one the Android customer is accustomed to, while at the same time having the worse product with less apps, less ecosystem, less specs, less certaint... Doesn't sound like a winning formula to me.

There is something called competition and competition influences the price as well.
You haven't talked about that though.
BlackBerry is not isolated and has about 1% of the market. They HAVE to look at the other manufacturers and have a competitive price.
And at 600 Euro, for what the Passport offers compared to other phones, it is overpriced in Europe.

Posted via CB10

I think you're looking at it a bit wrong. Both Google and Apple are behemoths in the mobile space and they both have services and other various means to make profit from users other than from device sales. BlackBerry is not in this same position, they depend on revenue made from devices sales in order to continue running the handset division of the company and as such you can't expect them to sell devices at a loss in hopes that enough users buy the device for them to just break even; it just doesn't make any sense.

Now, the initial sales of 200K Passports in the first 24 hours is a very healthy sign, but that doesn't mean that the device is profitable yet. Estimates of 750K-850K devices have been rumored for them to just break even. And let's be completely realistic and put it on the table; those 200K devices were sold to the BlackBerry addicts, the brand faithful, the CrackBerry loyal and those BlackBerry users that may not ever post here but are definitely CrackBerrians at heart. Now we have to keep a close eyes on how sales of the Passport either pan out, keep up or completely fall off the map.

In short, the way I see it the Passport is priced fairly in every market. The specs are there, the innovation is there, the software is there; the ecosystem is the only thing that's lacking but it'll get better in time. But we will always get users complaining about prices, that inevitable; and at the same time we've seen plenty of users from all the markets who have stated that the price was right and paid it without any complaints, even when they admit that saving a few dollars/pounds/euro/etc would have been nice, because of course everyone likes to save money.

Posted via CB10