[sad_old_man]

A fine malt sir, nothing else.

How many more wonderful intelligent people are going to come out of the closet on this forum. 24cabbie I was introduced yesterday to bourbon by another wonderful member of this forum. You must try it. I do like a good single malt as well but not at the same time. We'll not yet!

[Wongsky]

How many more wonderful intelligent people are going to come out of the closet on this forum. 24cabbie I was introduced yesterday to bourbon by another wonderful member of this forum. You must try it. I do like a good single malt as well but not at the same time. We'll not yet!

If Withnail & I taught us nothing else - you should never mix your drinks.

Mind you, Withnail did also say that lighter fluid was a superior drink to meths, so maybe his fictitious expertise in the finest wines known to man, was a bit, well, misguided.

[sad_old_man]

If Withnail & I taught us nothing else - you should never mix your drinks.

Mind you, Withnail did also say that lighter fluid was a superior drink to meths, so maybe his fictitious expertise in the finest wines known to man, was a bit, well, misguided.

I know the feeling. Meths has never been the same since they introduced that dye into it to put you off drinking it.

[untakenusername]

The problem with RIM/BBRY is that they still believe that if they build a far superior device, they will come out on top. Meanwhile, cheap Android devices and limited Ipads are cleaning their clocks.

I explained me owning an Playbook to my co-worker like this. It's like owning a Bugatti in your garage but you don't have the gas to drive it. People walk by and say "wow that thing looks nice". They may even salivate at the thought of seeing one. But when they find out what you can't do, they stop caring how fast the car is. They ignore the hand made seats, the engine, the cockpit controls, the awards won based on design, the records broken, even the special paint finish. All of it is irrelevant cause you can never take it out on the road and really explore those features. Meanwhile your neighbor has a Corvette...the guy down the street has a Lancer...and his neighbor has a Lotus. All inferior cars to your Bugatti...but they can actually drive them around...open them up...see what they can do.

Machiavelli had it right...

�It is unnecessary for a prince to have all the good points I have enumerated, but it is very necessary to appear to have them.� Apple clearly understands this.

You do know it's just a tablet?

[sad_old_man]

You do know it's just a tablet?

Ahhhhh blasphemy!

You are hereby sentenced to consume one glass of brandy per hour for the next four hours and let that be a lesson to you!

[Schmurf]

I personally view Apples business ethos with contempt. They do have reasonable products, nowhere near technically as good as BlackBerry, but do they know how to market them. Once you have hyped the users out of their minds and into the must have mentality, you can then ignore your customers. BlackBerry is nowhere near commingled close to that yet, but unfortunately think they are.

So, what you're suggesting is that BEFORE Blackberry treats us like *******, they should get us all freaky about their product and THEN they can give us the screw? Just bugging you, no serious intent there

However, you make a good point in that it seems many companies tend to get people hooked in and then ignore them. I think the reality is that it's tough to bring a complex product or service to a highly competitive market, provide excellent support, and remain profitable. It's typical for a company to work hard to get to be number one and then once there, lose their direction, wander around, and then fall by the wayside. It's a cliche, but also very true. It's the rare company that can get to number one and stay focused to remain there. I'm glad Blackberry has solid competition. Otherwise they would not be making better products. Now they have to outperform just to stay even. That bodes well for us. Thor has changes left ahead of him I think. If he can put those changes into place, then Blackberry will survive and do quite nicely. Blackberry may never become as ubiquitous as it once was (and I don't think that's what they want anymore), but I am good with that. Just make me a solid, secure device that gives me a great user experience as a business person. That's all I want.

Sorry for wandering there, but it's still related to your topic. Kinda. Sorta.

[Schmurf]

Damn! I didn't realize this turned into a drinking thread!

Pour me one too

[sad_old_man]

So, what you're suggesting is that BEFORE Blackberry treats us like *******, they should get us all freaky about their product and THEN they can give us the screw? Just bugging you, no serious intent there

However, you make a good point in that it seems many companies tend to get people hooked in and then ignore them. I think the reality is that it's tough to bring a complex product or service to a highly competitive market, provide excellent support, and remain profitable. It's typical for a company to work hard to get to be number one and then once there, lose their direction, wander around, and then fall by the wayside. It's a cliche, but also very true. It's the rare company that can get to number one and stay focused to remain there. I'm glad Blackberry has solid competition. Otherwise they would not be making better products. Now they have to outperform just to stay even. That bodes well for us. Thor has changes left ahead of him I think. If he can put those changes into place, then Blackberry will survive and do quite nicely. Blackberry may never become as ubiquitous as it once was (and I don't think that's what they want anymore), but I am good with that. Just make me a solid, secure device that gives me a great user experience as a business person. That's all I want.

Sorry for wandering there, but it's still related to your topic. Kinda. Sorta.

I fully understand what you are saying in your post and even what you are saying but without actually saying it.

The same thing happens when you try to convince a company that they DO need to do regular backups of data. The IT Director thinks that backups are happening as scheduled but that's never the case. You get called out for a major system failure and find out that it hasn't been done for several weeks. They don't deem that as their problem! You are the one that they can fix everything because they are paying a fortune for you as a consultant to fix these sort of problems. They will state their reasons why they are justified in their innocence with:

1. The IT Manager has been on holiday and he's the only one that knows how to do it.
2. What do you mean by backup?
3. The backup server was being updated last week.
4. Why are you asking me, that's your job.
5. The server never told me the backup system had a problem

Not all clients are the same but you are now left with a dilemma. It's your problem, fix it or lose the contract.

Result (only in my case I must state):

Employ people that possibly you could describe as PR people. I have a team that is attached to the development department that specifically visits sites on a regular basis to initially check for problem areas that could eventually cause problems for us. They are technically qualified and so can also fix issues that have occurred that users deem not important enough to justify a support call.

End Result:

1. User confidence grows dramatically.
2. Customer base grows dramatically, because CEOs do talk to other CEOs.
3. Initial increase in staff costs are more than covered by a decrease in Major System problems that you cannot restore.

A slightly different scenario than RIM but the essence is the same. Solve the customers problem whatever it takes and the rest looks after itself. BMW learned that lesson 40 years ago.

Anyway this is keeping me away from my brandy!

[anon3969612]

What state is Canada in ?

Denial?

[sad_old_man]

Someone once tried to get me to go there. I divorced her and it cost me a fortune!