[John Vieira]

I have no issue with my K1 despite all of the reported issues!? I've read quite a few of your forum posts and just wondering!? Are you using an iPhone now!?

Sent from my BBB100-1 using CB Forums mobile app

No.

[qwerty4ever]

Look at me, 3 years ago. So young, so idealistic. Thinking we could turn things around.

Now BlackBerry no longer makes phones. And the KO is a disaster. And I no longer carry, nor particularly want to carry a Blackberry as a personal device.

I want to like the brand, I really do... but they make it so hard!

Times change indeed.

Yet you hangout in the CrackBerry forums.

[Chuck Finley69]

Yet you hangout in the CrackBerry forums.

LMAO...... Go figure

[John Vieira]

Yet you hangout in the CrackBerry forums.

Because I still love the brand and the devices. And I want them to do well!

Which is why I'm so passionate about calling them out on their mistakes. Because I want them to improve!

[elfabio80]

That's why engineers don't run big businesses...[/QUOTE]

Is not John Chen an engineer? Ah, maybe that's why BlackBerry is struggling to survive. Lol!!



Posted via CB10

[idssteve]

That's why engineers don't run big businesses...

Is not John Chen an engineer? Ah, maybe that's why BlackBerry is struggling to survive. Lol!!



Posted via CB10[/QUOTE]

Haha... I "resemble" that comment... lol Quite a few engineers have created and operated spectacularly successful businesses. Marketing must be a priority engineering criteria, tho. Criteria that didn't really make it into Mike's list. Lol.

That said, Storm was an unmitigated ENGINEERING failure well before it was a market failure. Job one for ANY engineer is to assure the product works as expected before client/consumer ever sees it. Storm, as prematurely released, was a barely baked rush job that should not have made it into consumer hands. Even if (when?) consumers rejected the "rocking touch" experiment, they SHOULD have had the chance to evaluate a WORKING product. Storm, as released, was NOT a working product. Engineering malpractice to advise it was ready. Business malpractice to deliver before it was ready... and THEN stick your biggest client (Verizon) with the cost of cleaning it up!

Hard to imagine who was thinking what but clearly engineering AND business heads needed to be booted, after that fiasco. Maybe Mike? Jim?? The entire Board??? Idk.

Personally, I've never seen where tiny RIM ever commanded the resources to stand a chance at staying ahead of tech giants like Apple, Google, Verizon, etc. RIM's greatest asset was their superior experience. Experience they (Mike?) chose to squander by leaving too much legacy experience out of BB10, imo. Because of a silly book Mike read? Lol.

[EndRacism]

So, here I am, sitting in marketing class.

When we get an assignment to give examples of well marketed brands, and poorly marketed brands.

Overwhelmingly, Apple is chosen as well branded, and RIM (which i'm aware has changed to Blackberry) is chosen as poorly branded.

And this is true. This is totally true. This is the consumers view of the blackberry product.

There should be a ton of money put into advertising and changing that mind.

Hopefully Chen can change things around, because the view on the street is not good. Not good at all.

Posted from the Shield Helicarrier - via Z30

Apple created a smart phone which, although limited in customizing ability. Was designed for a broad based and non-tech user! It basically worked out of the box. I loved all my BB's but by goodness they were the shxts! I cannot count the number of times I was forced to do a physical battery pull to keep the phone working. And then when Apple and Android had well functioning web browser's. BB still had the gosh awful blue checker screen while you waited for the page to finally load! So it was not branding at all, it was the desire of most smart phone user to have a phone which simply worked. This is the same battle between Microsoft desktop OS which worked so very crappy and still struggles, compared to Apple PC and Apple that simply worked better. 90% of CB forum was and still is, OMG! How do I get my phone to work! How do I do this or that? Most normal people don't want to tinker, they want to the stuff they buy to work! Imagine buying a car that you have screw with every day to be able to drive to work. BB is touted as a business phone, well, business want to be productive and don't have time to mess with a fussy phone! The best thing BB had going for it was physical keyboards and that kept the few coming back, such as myself.

[idssteve]

Depends on how you define "fussy". The "fussy" you described improved immensely by latest OS7.1 release. BBOS browser lags now because of neglect but is still mostly serviceable, in a pinch. If you consider BB's customization options to be "fussy", guilty as charged. But, personal customization can provide efficiency thru personal optimization. For enthusiasts willing to learn and devote the effort.

BB has become, after all, an enthusiast's niche. A niche they were destined to the moment tech monsters like Apple & Google stepped in. They never commanded the resources to do otherwise, imo. Just a tragic shame they didn't carve out their niche and embrace it before they wrecked their name pursuing the un-achievable. Imo.

Who knows? Could be argued that if they'd somehow transplanted droid into a 9900 five years ago... maybe they'd still enjoy at least single digit market share relevance? Lol. Nvr kno. My 9900's calendar app is too "obsolete" to provide Time Travel option. Lol.

[ALToronto]

To add to Troy's post - Mike's engineering mindset was to offer the best solution given the current constraints. So he focused on the fastest data compression, since mobile data was very expensive. Still, on-the-fly compression was much slower than the iPhone's uncompressed data, and even though customers hated their iPhone monthly bills, they hated BlackBerry hourglass more.

And while Mike was busy speeding up compression, Steve Jobs went to the carriers and made them open up the bandwidth at more affordable rates.

As an engineer myself, I can understand Mike's determination to overcome existing constraints - and admire Jobs' vision to look beyond them.

[michaelsean14]

Brookie I've always been in complete awe of the lack of advertising, marketing or brand awareness campaign approach bb takes. If you're not a bb enthusiast today you don't even know they exist. Take the Keyone...like other bb devices of the past there has been absolutely no TV spots, radio...Nothing! Amazes me

Posted via CB10

[idssteve]

Steve went to carriers as a tech giant enjoying a superb reputation for credibility. Storm fiasco did little to bolster Mike's credibility.

Steve's sales pitch might not have been all that difficult, tho. Carriers make money by selling GB, after all. Data is their product. BIS, however, is demonstrably efficient with data. No surprise Mike couldn't generate much excitement among carriers for continuing a technology designed to minimize consumption of the very product carriers make money selling... lol.

[idssteve]

Brookie I've always been in complete awe of the lack of advertising, marketing or brand awareness campaign approach bb takes. If you're not a bb enthusiast today you don't even know they exist. Take the Keyone...like other bb devices of the past there has been absolutely no TV spots, radio...Nothing! Amazes me

Posted via CB10

Yep. Typical BB info blackout. Unbelievable. Nothing new, tho. Guess they think they can save their way into a profit?? Idk. Haven't they heard? Advertising doesn't cost. It pays!

[sorinv]

I
That's why engineers don't run big businesses...

You must be joking...

Posted via CB10

[Old_Mil]

The BlackBerry name is probably one of the most toxic names in tech history. I've always wondered why there was not a concerted effort to engage a crisis management team way back when the brand started to go down. There are firms that specialize in restoring brand image through creative/intelligent advertising, public awareness etc. Companies such as BP hired (forget which one right now) after the disaster in the Gulf, for instance. That was a brilliant campaign. I think in most of those success cases, you have to quickly acknowledge the screw-up, act super fast to make things right and make a publicly announced plan on how you will avoid screw-ups in the future. If you own up to the disasters, and make things right, consumers will give you another shot. I suppose BB officials back then were just too stubborn and arrogant to admit the mistakes. But even years later there were no efforts to admit those errors (for example in an ad campaign). By then, they just ran out of money and could not advertise.

It only helps to have a crisis management team on board if you have taken the necessary steps to correct the underlying crisis.

[idssteve]

‎
Quotes by pretty darned successful Engineer AND Businessman... Charles Kettering: ‎
‎
"The difference between intelligence and education is this: intelligence will make you a good living."
‎
"An inventor is simply a fellow who doesn’t take his education too seriously." ‎
‎
"‎You can send a message around the world in one-fifth of a second, yet it may take years for it to get from the outside of a man's head to the inside." ‎
‎
‎"When I was research head of General Motors and wanted a problem solved, I’d place a table outside the meeting room with a sign: “Leave slide rules here.” If I didn’t do that, I'd find someone reaching for his slide rule. Then he’d be on his feet saying, “Boss, you can’t do it.” "
‎
"‎If I want to stop a research program I can always do it by getting a few experts to sit in on the subject, because they know right away that it was a fool thing to try in the first place."‎

‎"There exist limitless opportunities in every industry. Where there is an open mind, there will always be a frontier.‎"
‎
All quotes by Charles Kettering. (Enduring hero of my youth and adulthood. )

Wonder how things might have turned out if Mike had read "Boss Ket" instead of "The Innovator's Dilemma"... lol.

[Prem WatsApp]

Look at me, 3 years ago. So young, so idealistic. Thinking we could turn things around.

Now BlackBerry no longer makes phones. And the KO is a disaster. And I no longer carry, nor particularly want to carry a Blackberry as a personal device.

I want to like the brand, I really do... but they make it so hard!

Times change indeed.

Oh well... but we got apps now... ;-D

•   Long live the SPARK! * ... the evil N shall not priv-ail...!!!   •

[Chuck Finley69]

Where you been Prem?

[bb10adopter111]

Steve went to carriers as a tech giant enjoying a superb reputation for credibility. Storm fiasco did little to bolster Mike's credibility.

Steve's sales pitch might not have been all that difficult, tho. Carriers make money by selling GB, after all. Data is their product. BIS, however, is demonstrably efficient with data. No surprise Mike couldn't generate much excitement among carriers for continuing a technology designed to minimize consumption of the very product carriers make money selling... lol.

Carriers were not falling over each other to work with Apple. AT&T was the only taker at the time in the US.

Posted with my trusty Z10

[bb10adopter111]

[deleted response to three-year-old post!]

[idssteve]

Carriers were not falling over each other to work with Apple. AT&T was the only taker at the time in the US.

Posted with my trusty Z10

Right or wrong, I recall that my perception at the time of Storm was that iPhone was exclusive to ATT and Verizon couldn't sell iPhone because of that?? Of course even ATT likely wouldn't have taken the initial chance without Apple & Steve's enviable reputation for credibility. Something Mike may have already squandered by the time of his "you don't want 4G" lecture. Imo. Carriers are in business to sell data. Handset platforms that increase data sales volume might be generally considered good for business. Not necessarily great for users' bills but that's life. lol.

Maybe Mike thought he was looking after users' interests? Who knows? If so, it might be argued that quite a few of those same users kicked him in the teeth for his efforts. But, again, that's life. Lol.

[OTCHRussell]

Where you been Prem?

I was going to say the same thing!!!

Razr>BB 9000>Q10>Z10>Z30>Z30>
Classic>Dtek50>Dtek60

[Troy Tiscareno]

Something Mike may have already squandered by the time of his "you don't want 4G" lecture.

5 years earlier, Mike had been strongly anti-3G too, and even convinced one carrier to move to his "2.5G" solution - which didn't last long and ended up both costing more and putting that carrier behind the curve. The fact is that Mike felt that all anyone needed was 2G and BIS or BES (plus his entire business model REQUIRED that they kept that), so he was always trying to convince carriers not to move forward. He knew damn well that his business model wouldn't survive it, yet, he was so dependent on that revenue that he never came up with a business model to replace it. Instead, all efforts were focused on holding the carriers back - even when it was obvious that consumers were demanding more and more.

Mike's reputation evolved from a wise tech visionary to eventually an out-of-touch crackpot that, in Verizon's case, they were seriously considering severing all ties with.

[bb10adopter111]

In q3 of 2013, Gartner estimates that the mobile OS market share by usage for all BlackBerry OSes was 0.1%, which could be anything from 0.05% to 0.149%. That would represent a range of 6-17M devices.

Posted with my trusty Z10

[curves2000]

In q3 of 2013, Gartner estimates that the mobile OS market share by usage for all BlackBerry OSes was 0.1%, which could be anything from 0.05% to 0.149%. That would represent a range of 6-17M devices.

Posted with my trusty Z10

I believe the most recent quarters financial disclosure had BlackBerry's user base listed at 11 million.

Crazy to think that the highest level was 80+ million

Posted via CB10

[bb10adopter111]

I believe the most recent quarters financial disclosure had BlackBerry's user base listed at 11 million.

Crazy to think that the highest level was 80+ million

Posted via CB10

That's right in the middle of the Gartner range. In the US, at least, a large number of those users probably double carry another device.

Posted with my trusty Z10