The USA is going to take a lot of work

Post removed.

Pretty common reaction nowadays.

BB has a lot of PR to do to get back to where they were in 2007-2008.

Originally Posted by jrohland

I spent Thursday and Friday (yesterday) in a very high end technical training class in Maryland (near Washington, DC). There were 12 in the class including the teacher and myself. These are very smart, experienced information technology professionals who are top IT pros in their organizations or, very sharp rookies. Not sure what I was doing among them but, that is not important.

I was the only one with a BlackBerry. The more experienced tended to iphones, the younger had Android. I asked "if you are bored wearing the Apple uniform or tired of giving up your personal information to Google, I can show you the new BlackBerry Z10." There was no interest at all. One guy said "nice" but shut up when his colleagues glared at him.

I had spoken to one in the lunch room the previous day about BlackBerry the company and their new products. This is a very intelligent man. He trotted out the utterly ridiculous argument that it is too little too late. I retorted so, you mean there is no need to ever create anything new again? Since there are already products available for pretty much everything, no one should ever make another because they are too late. He shut up and walked away.

This reinforces what I already know. BB needs to market in the states sparingly. The change of attitude will come but with much time and effort. As more and more people see and hear of others with this great new phone, some will check it out. Most, will not. Too many will never have a BB.

Couldn't agree more. It is a Hamburger Hill Scenario for Blackberry. I don't believe they will crack the US until QNX can be demonstrated, in a slick Television commercial, to be able to do something mind blowing that the other platforms cannot do. You can depend on word of mouth, but I really don't think that is gonna get BB where they want to go because 90 some percent of Americans have the same attitude as your colleagues. I love my Z10, but I can see where some would say it really doesn't "one up" the competition.

It took a long time for BBRY to get itself into this, so it'll take a little bit of work to dig out.

If it can continually create competitive pieces (the Z10 is a decent offering), word of mouth will help. Eventually.

There needs to be a "Come back to BlackBerry" series of commercials on TV and ads online.

Go for the business users first, and then go for consumers. I have seen very few BlackBerry ads. They need to be aggressively marketing.

if you actually made the comments about uniforms and such i can see why you were met with less than positive reaction. A backhanded type insult is always a good way to start a conversation...

Those who are already vested in a platform are difficult to convince. BB still has a huge market they can get to and that is the people that don't have a smartphone, yet. I can leave Blackberry in a heart beat because all I have vested in it is a phone and less than $50 worth of apps. I stay a Blackberry loyal because I like the keyboard and can live with my current apps, though I wouldn't mind Instagram. Some people with iOS are several grand in, a cousin of mine has a previous gen MacBook, the previous gen iMac, iPad mini and iPhone5. A person like that, whatever you say about any other company will not even go inside his ear to go out the other, it will just bounce right back out that same ear. Blackberry doesn't have to worry about them, just worry about the part of the market that hasn't experienced a smartphone and the loyals like myself!

Some (minor %) people from the other platforms will still switch to Blackberry, its just the nature of the beast.

Originally Posted by howarmat

if you actually made the comments about uniforms and such i can see why you were met with less than positive reaction. A backhanded type insult is always a good way to start a conversation...

Yep.

Tough being a product evangelist for a company considered to be stodgy when you lead with that.

I wonder who has a worse image, blackberry or microsoft?

Posted via CB10

I agree that your approach may have been a little sharp, but I do agree it will take some time since most of the USA tends to follow the rest of the herd. I work in IT and see several folks intently watch me use my Z10. It's like it is painful to them. They so badly want to ask and play with my phone, but don't want the backlash from other folks because it's not the cool thing to have, even though it is. I think that interest WILL come, it's just going to be a slowly but surely type of thing because BlackBerry has to improve its image. Had BlackBerry never existed and came out with the Z10 there would've been a massive rush to get it.

In time my friends, in time..


Posted via CB10

Well if you were a **** to them id blow you off too irregardless of what platform you use...

Also why would people leave established platforms like iOS or Android for BB10? What does it do better than the aforementioned? IMHO the only thing going for BB10 is its gesture UI flow and some nifty things in the camera software.

There is no WOW with the Z10 and BB10 that can move consumers over. Google brings the wow every Google I/O and manufacturers bring the amazing hardware. Apple brings the wow every device release much to the dismay of haters everywhere. Just showing up to the fight doesnt mean people are going to give a crap.

Originally Posted by howarmat

if you actually made the comments about uniforms and such i can see why you were met with less than positive reaction. A backhanded type insult is always a good way to start a conversation...

lmao, ya! we gotta win them BACK over with kindness. :-D

Anyone who thinks that the current state of things in the smartphone market is here to stay needs to study a little history. This is still a new and very volatile market, with plenty of room for complete reversals of fortune. BlackBerry has introduced a fantastic product and I believe their future is very bright indeed. Apple is cool now, but what is cool today is often very much uncool tomorrow.

Posted via CB10

The thing is, generally, iPhone users are already very happy with their device. They love their apps, games, etc. People looking to switch devices are generally unhappy with their current device.

Also, I wonder how important things like gestures, and advanced multitasking are to people? The Palm Pre had the best multitasking, task switching OS I have ever used (including BBOS10), and still nobody bought it.

I agree with OP, BBRY should concentrate their marketing efforts in the markets they're strong in and emerging markets so that they gain more ground or at least don't lose any. North America is an uphill task which can only be tackled with good PR over time that will deal with the negative impressions about BBRY which borders on cultural in the USA.

I think the Iphone sheeps should try something different and better for once.

Originally Posted by Semi5

The thing is, generally, iPhone users are already very happy with their device. They love their apps, games, etc. People looking to switch devices are generally unhappy with their current device.

Also, I wonder how important things like gestures, and advanced multitasking are to people? The Palm Pre had the best multitasking, task switching OS I have ever used (including BBOS10), and still nobody bought it.

The pre had some great features but in a dying company.

The z10 just gets it right. People will be happy with their iPhone until they reality that it is inferior and no longer cool. Will happen over time.

Posted via CB10

"if you are bored wearing the Apple uniform or tired of giving up your personal information to Google, I can show you the new BlackBerry Z10."

A comment like that makes it sound like YOU'RE wearing a Blackberry uniform.

No one likes getting things shoved down their throats - especially when it's done with a back-handed comment like that. There's nothing wrong demonstrating a new phone to someone, but I wouldn't go out of my way and make a fuss about it. That comes off kind of cultish in my opinion.

Originally Posted by paulinVA

There needs to be a "Come back to BlackBerry" series of commercials on TV and ads online.

Perfect song from group, Player (?) -- Baby Come Back

"Baby come back.
You can blame it all on me.
I was wrong and I just can't live without you."

Originally Posted by jrohland

I spent Thursday and Friday (yesterday) in a very high end technical training class in Maryland (near Washington, DC). There were 12 in the class including the teacher and myself. These are very smart, experienced information technology professionals who are top IT pros in their organizations or, very sharp rookies. Not sure what I was doing among them but, that is not important.

I was the only one with a BlackBerry. The more experienced tended to iphones, the younger had Android. I asked "if you are bored wearing the Apple uniform or tired of giving up your personal information to Google, I can show you the new BlackBerry Z10." There was no interest at all. One guy said "nice" but shut up when his colleagues glared at him.

I had spoken to one in the lunch room the previous day about BlackBerry the company and their new products. This is a very intelligent man. He trotted out the utterly ridiculous argument that it is too little too late. I retorted so, you mean there is no need to ever create anything new again? Since there are already products available for pretty much everything, no one should ever make another because they are too late. He shut up and walked away.

This reinforces what I already know. BB needs to market in the states sparingly. The change of attitude will come but with much time and effort. As more and more people see and hear of others with this great new phone, some will check it out. Most, will not. Too many will never have a BB.

Shall we all take a lesson from Samsung? Its not about having the better phone, its about how much money you spend on marketing. Eventually people buy what they perceive to be the best technology -- even if their perception is wrong. As the phones fall into the hands of happy users and core apps come online the user base will pick up. It wasnt until samsung spent a gazillion dollars on marketing that the S III became the defacto android device.

Not just the US... Lots of people including my wife that will never look at a BlackBerry again. At least not anytime soon.

Not to worry though, there are people who aren't happy. People switching from iPhone to android all the time.

Posted via CB10

apple died when steve left this universe. the fact that they released a gui for the apple tv that steve jobs, himself, rejected is a hint of whats to come for apple. i expect many more mistakes will come to fruition from this company that has literally taken over the world and the worlds $$$.

and remember, people love the underdogs. apple used to be an underdog, but is now obviously a corporate company of insane greed. people are only going to take that abuse for so long until the day they realize theyve been fooled for years.

Blackberry needs a couple of years for everyone's phone contract to come up for renewal. People can not just dump their current phone now that Blackberry has released the Z10. Hopefully, Blackberry can keep the interest going for that time frame.

Originally Posted by Phaethonas

I think the Iphone sheeps should try something different and better for once.

Better? There's nothing out there better...yet. Notice how every new offering, including the Z10 is compared constantly to the iPhone? Ever heard the term, "iPhone beater"? That was created when every smartphone after the iPhone was trying to beat Apple at the game it had perfected. The Z10 is hardly "better".

Different? Yes...totally, and it does interest me.

But, better...no. Not at all.

My opinion is that they are making a mistake putting too many eggs in the USA market.
This market along with the European is already very established and although it can be broken into in time as no platform will stay forever, BB doesn't have the $$ or time to wait.

I find it hard to believe BB will not release some low cost devices for the emerging markets. This seems to be a real focus for Samsung and Nokia.

Nokia sells about 80 million dumbphones / quarter...yes, 80 million. Chinese cheap and cheerful dumbphones are selling in that quantity as well. Thus, there is a massive opportunity to switch those users over to smart phone devices. That seems to be what Nokia is doing with it's Asha line (<$50 off contract) which is a budget smartphone and it's WP8 520 and 620 (about $150 off contract).
Samsung are going to release their Tizen line as well going after people moving from dumbphones to smartphones.

If BB forgets about this market they are going to have a difficult time