[kupfernigk]

To "Sith_apprentice"

Why is it that the slightest suggestion that a world exists outside the US results in an immediate flow of defensiveness from inside its borders?

In fact, I believe that currently the UK market for BB is at least comparable to that of the US, and possibly larger, despite having one fifth of the population. Where do you launch first? In a market where you have a lot of share, or one where you don't? I doubt you've ever been in a business that produces real products, but I have, and I can tell you the answer. You launch first where you have a significant piece of media attention, because your message is less likely to get buried in the noise.

Or are you suggesting that British carriers can somehow approve phones nearly two months quicker than American ones? I doubt it.

[gniko21]

Nope. And I'll add a few words so I'll have the required 10 characters.

[sydsam]

To "Sith_apprentice"

Why is it that the slightest suggestion that a world exists outside the US results in an immediate flow of defensiveness from inside its borders?

In fact, I believe that currently the UK market for BB is at least comparable to that of the US, and possibly larger, despite having one fifth of the population. Where do you launch first? In a market where you have a lot of share, or one where you don't? I doubt you've ever been in a business that produces real products, but I have, and I can tell you the answer. You launch first where you have a significant piece of media attention, because your message is less likely to get buried in the noise.

Or are you suggesting that British carriers can somehow approve phones nearly two months quicker than American ones? I doubt it.

Exactly.

[kupfernigk]

Reading can be tricky. I said News Corp are Aussies.
And I'm sorry but if you want to bring in the War, it's more like we have to thank the Russians, for kicking Nazi ***.
All US did until the very end of the war, was sell explosives for the bombs that dropped on London. So no it's because of US that we might have been speaking German.

To be fair, the US also sold trucks to the Russians. And Britain equipped and trained the Japanese Navy before WW1, giving them a head start. And one reason the T34 tank was so successful was that it had a BMW-designed engine (which the Russians continually improved). But for the US, we might all be speaking Russian.

However, seventy year old history should be irrelevant except to people like me who are interested in history. The point is that NYC is obviously a good location to cover a US launch (given that it is really an East Coast/West Coast launch because the bit in the middle isn't that important), and that given a choice of Canada and London for the original launch, Canada obviously made sense (would our immigration officials even let Kevin in with that hair? They might think he was a Muslim...)

[cd1105]

Wattttttttttttttt evaaaaaaa!!!!!" look kevin jus..come to nyc....(do ur home work before u talk) lmao..smh!

still living in the early 90's are we? New york is indeed competing with london for the title of financial capital of the world, but is still number 2. In terms of media this is surely a joke as british agencies control near 70% of the global market. Just add wpp and aegis, then come the french with havas and publicis, and only then the yanks with omnicom and interpublic.

Do your homework before you talk.

[edwinsberry]

This is a smart move. I'm for anything that brings any attention to Blackberry in the US. Anything that helps put attention on Blackberry in the US during this key year for the roll out of the new operating system is cool with me. I even like the way Kevin highlighted the move and got everyone talking about it. Crackberry is an important outlet for information and support for Blackberry products and moving to NYC is a bold move and shows real commitment by Kevin and crew. I like it. I like it a lot.

[sydsam]

Wattttttttttttttt evaaaaaaa!!!!!" look kevin jus..come to nyc....(do ur home work before u talk) lmao..smh!

You got to love Americans.

[cd1105]

Hahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!

be proud of your heritage. But it isn't the center of media or finance.
Disney is aussie? Wow, different history books. Walt disney would be surprised.

And if it wasn't for the us, you'd be speaking german.
Oops.

[Soeasy]

To be fair, the US also sold trucks to the Russians. And Britain equipped and trained the Japanese Navy before WW1, giving them a head start. And one reason the T34 tank was so successful was that it had a BMW-designed engine (which the Russians continually improved). But for the US, we might all be speaking Russian.

+10,000,000

[bb10_fan]

Looks like battle between America and the world will never end:

America - we are the best!
World - no, you're f&*.. not
America - we're the most important market in the world
World - no, you're f&*.. not
America - we are the financial/news/you name it center of the world
World - no, you're f&*.. not
America - we are one who saved the world in WWII
World - no, you're f&*.. not (Eddie Izzard has a nice piece about this in one of his shows, don't remember which one)

Let's go back to the topic of this thread

[xandermac]

You got to love Americans.

Look, we're all allies now so the Anti American drivel isn't necessary. I was born and raised in England and I can tell you in all honestly I got the **** out of that socialist utopia as soon as I possibly could. Not because of history, because of the present state of affairs. The "Great" in GB went by the wayside a long time ago and everyone knows it.

Moving to NYC is a good move.

[cd1105]

LMAOOOO!!!how the **** did this turn frm KEVIN(THE DARK ONE) & the RIMpire crew comin to NYC ...to russians n britain...crap....? anything to help BLACKBERRY TO GET BACK ON ITS THRONE N KICK IPHONE & ANDRIOD TO THE CURB....IM FOR!!!damnnn get it together ppl" we're all for the gud of blackberry n crackberry" who cares if the russians r losers!!!

[JasW]

Brooklyn is not the rest of the world.

Hey -- my mother was born in Brooklyn. You got a problem with that?

[BlackBerry Guy]

I'm not certain it was ever stated this was a permanent move. I get the impression this is more of a short term thing, like CB HQ Toronto. If it is indeed only for the period around the US launch, it's not a bad idea having it in New York. Mobile tech announcements seem to centre around San Francisco or New York in the States anyway. The Bay Area is already heavily dominated by Google and Apple.

[crackberryjill]

Like, really, does it matter?

[machoman1337]

If it makes it easier for Crackberry to cover news on the US launch, then operating out of the US only makes sense. It allows them to reach the sites of key events very quickly rather than waste time flying or crossing the border. I'm sure that once the hype has leveled off, they'll come back to Canada.

[sydsam]

To be fair, the US also sold trucks to the Russians. And Britain equipped and trained the Japanese Navy before WW1, giving them a head start. And one reason the T34 tank was so successful was that it had a BMW-designed engine (which the Russians continually improved). But for the US, we might all be speaking Russian.

Thank you for confirming what I was saying anyway. I did say US was a supplier in the war, and they did supply everybody. T-34 was so successful because it was ridiculously cheap in production. Not because Russkies used an engine based on BMW design.
How is it relevant that Brits trained Japanese Navy, I still struggle to grasp. It was done way earlier, in order to give Japan upper hand in Russo-Japanese war. Was that a reference to cold war and how US saved us all? Don't get me started on that one...

[CrackBerry Kevin]

I love how you guys speculate on everything, including things like this. Since I've been the one who has clearly thought about this **the most** out of anyone, I'll give you my take on it:

Does it matter where we are based?

No, and kinda yes. Look, we've been CrackBerrying it up for over 6 years, without having a real HQ anywhere. CrackBerry always will run with a highly virtualized organization, in the sense that we'll have people all over the place. If anything, we want to expand this. I want us to do a better job of covering BlackBerry news AROUND THE WORLD. Getting CrackBerry onto a new website platform was a big step for us, at it lays the foundation for us to keep growing our content and targeting it at different users in different geographic areas. I want to see us have writers in Latin America, Asia, Middle East - etc. We tend to be pretty good at covering the North American and European related carrier content -- because we have people in those areas -- but we want to be better at everywhere. We aim to be global with our reach, so the location of an office does not really matter.

That said, what matters more is trying to get more of us together in one spot. The challenge with being highly virtual is that it makes it harder to coordinate things (we waste a lot of time going back and forth, instead of just getting things done) and it's also harder to do everything better. For example, when we're all spread out, we all have to have good cameras, lighting, etc. etc. in order to put together high quality posts. When we bring a few of us together, as we did in the Toronto office, it allows us to do a much better job of getting things done better. The best photographer on the team takes the photos, we push through together as a team late into the night, work on weekends. We can do videos that we just couldn't do otherwise (one person to film, another one or two to be on camera). It's hardcore awesome. In reality, we could have a few of us together in Winnipeg, Toronto, NYC, London, etc... it wouldn't matter, but if and when we get more of us together, we're able to do more.


So why NYC?

When I announced we were setting up our Toronto HQ for the launch of BB10, the reaction from our readers in the USA was pretty intense. There was lots of concern that we'd have all the excitement and fun the first month, and by the time the Z10 hit America the fun would be over. I promised to not let that happen. How do I do that? I take the CrackBerry show on the road to NYC. This launch is going to be mega important to BlackBerry, and NYC will be the heart of that launch. By us being in NYC, it will allow us to do more to hopefully drive demand and positively impact the reception of BlackBerry 10 in the USA. We do have better access to the media (I give good interviews). We can do some meetups, etc. We can do some awesome interviews. We can do things we've just never done before. We are not just going to be typing our posts from a different location. That would be pointless. We're going to go above and beyond what we've ever done. Have you guys not noticed our new CB10 app? Not noticed our new site? We're on a roll here... full steam ahead.

Also, beyond CrackBerry, over the next couple of months we're planning to do some cool cross site Mobile Nations content (remember the Round Robin? Think that on steroids). To pull that together we need a good homebase for a while, and NYC made sense for a lot of reasons. Dont' forget, in addition to being Founder and EIC of CrackBerry, I'm also Chief Media Officer of Mobile Nations.

And also remember, when I say we're moving our HQ somewhere, I am referring to our editorial coverage. When it comes to our other services, like e-commerce, etc., nothing changes. We have our e-commerce operations in Florida, in Canada (and we are expanding). Those types of things are fixed. It's writers, editors, etc. who have the flexibility to move.


Is this move permanent?

I barely ever know what I'm doing tomorrow, never mind this week, never mind forever. We do have a plan though... which is to haul **** the next couple of months right up until and through BlackBerry World. That's what I wrote in my post (sometimes I think you all don't read posts, and just scan headlines). After that I'll probably come home to Canada for the summer, etc. We'll see how NYC goes though. Honestly, with all that we have going on these days across our Mobile Nations sites, it probably would make sense for us to maintain a hub office there, whether I'm there all the time or not. We have so many events in NYC to attend, etc. Me personally... I'm Canadian... you can take the Canadian out of Canada for a while, but I'm not sure you can ever take Canada out of the Canadian (woah.. that's mind blowing).


Bottom line... the content on CrackBerry is going to be kicking a$$ the next couple months, more than ever before. Anybody who has a problem with that, is well... just crazy.

Hope that helps clarify things.

Kevin

[CrackBerry Kevin]

(PS. I love the comment above is #69)

[nextlevel88]

(PS. I love the comment above is #69)

...And, the more things change, the more they stay the same... Lol

[ddlax22]

I love how you guys speculate on everything, including things like this. Since I've been the one who has clearly thought about this **the most** out of anyone, I'll give you my take on it:

Does it matter we are based?

No, and kinda yes. Look, we've been CrackBerrying it up for over 6 years, without having a real HQ anywhere. CrackBerry always will run with a highly virtualized organization, in the sense that we'll have people all over the place. If anything, we want to expand this. I want us to do a better job of covering BlackBerry news AROUND THE WORLD. Getting CrackBerry onto a new website platform was a big step for us, at it lays the foundation for us to keep growing our content and targeting it at different users in different geographic areas. I want to see us have writers in Latin America, Asia, Middle East - etc. We tend to be pretty good at covering the North American and European related carrier content -- because we have people in those areas -- but we want to be better at everywhere. We aim to be global with our reach, so the location of an office does not really matter.

That said, what matters more is trying to get more of us together in one spot. The challenge with being highly virtual is that it makes it harder to coordinate things (we waste a lot of time going back and forth, instead of just getting things done) and it's also harder to do everything better. For example, when we're all spread out, we all have to have good cameras, lighting, etc. etc. in order to put together high quality posts. When we bring a few of us together, as we did in the Toronto office, it allows us to do a much better job of getting things done better. The best photographer on the team takes the photos, we push through together as a team late into the night, work on weekends. We can do videos that we just couldn't do otherwise (once person to film, another one or two to be on camera). It's hardcore awesome. In reality, we could have a few of us together in Winnipeg, Toronto, NYC, London, etc... it wouldn't matter, but if and when we get more of us together, we're able to do more.


So why NYC?

When I announced we were setting up our Toronto HQ for the launch of BB10, the reaction from our readers in the USA was pretty intense. There was lots of concern that we'd have all the excitement and fun the first month, and by the time the Z10 hit America the fun would be over. I promised to not let that happen. How do I do that? I take the CrackBerry show on the road to NYC. This launch is going to be mega important to BlackBerry, and NYC will be the heart of that launch. By us being in NYC, it will allow us to do more to hopefully drive demand and positively impact the reception of BlackBerry 10 in the USA. We do have better access to the media (I give good interviews). We can do some meetups, etc. We can do some awesome interviews. We can do things we've just never done before. We are not just going to be typing our posts from a different location. That would be pointless. We're going to go above and beyond what we've ever done. Have you guys not noticed our new CB10 app? Not noticed our new site? We're on a roll here... full steam ahead.

Also, beyond CrackBerry, over the next couple of months we're planning to do some cool cross site Mobile Nations content (remember the Round Robin? Think that on steroids). To pull that together we need a good homebase for a while, and NYC made sense for a lot of reasons. Dont' forget, in addition to being Founder and EIC of CrackBerry, I'm also Chief Media Officer of Mobile Nations.

And also remember, when I say we're moving our HQ somewhere, I am referring to our editorial coverage. When it comes to our other services, like e-commerce, etc., nothing changes. We have our e-commerce operations in Florida, in Canada (and we are expanding). Those types of things are fixed. It's writers, editors, etc. who have the flexibility to move.


Is this move permanent?

I barely ever know what I'm doing tomorrow, never mind this week, never mind forever. We do have a plan though... which is to haul **** the next couple of months right up until and through BlackBerry World. That's what I wrote in my post (sometimes I think you all don't read posts, and just scan headlines). After that I'll probably come home to Canada for the summer, etc. We'll see how NYC goes though. Honestly, with all that we have going on these days across our Mobile Nations sites, it probably would make sense for us to maintain a hub office there, whether I'm there all the time or not. We have so many events in NYC to attend, etc. Me personally... I'm Canadian... you can take the Canadian out of Canada for a while, but I'm not sure you can ever take Canada out of the Canadian (woah.. that's mind blowing).


Bottom line... the content on CrackBerry is going to be kicking a$$ the next couple months, more than ever before. Anybody who has a problem with that, is well... just crazy.

Hope that helps clarify things.

Kevin

I don't see why people needed to speculate this. Its awesone, its a New crackberry 10.0 and its really showing its teeth. Thanks for clearing it up to those who were confused, and I'm determined to make my way up there to see everything!
Let's Keep Rocking And Rolling this !

[cd1105]

kevin! u duh man!!!!(come to NYC..& im going to treat the RIMpire crew to the" famous juniors cheese cake") THTS RIGHT I SAID IT!!!!"WAT!...I guess by tht time VERIZON will hav their Z10 N Q10 ..for my picking! (sigh)

[Bugmapper]

Kevin,
Life is about moving forward. Crackberry would die (and Blackberry too for that matter) if you did not "keep moving". Best of luck in NYC.

[CrackBerry Kevin]

Kevin,
Life is about moving forward. Crackberry would die (and Blackberry too for that matter) if you did not "keep moving". Best of luck in NYC.

You nailed it... You're either growing of you're dying, right? Keep moving. Keep growing!

[Snowman888]

NYC is cool and hip, all I see is rent and cost of living increasing. I guess being closer to other sites like TheVerge might help for community brainstorming but that's what web meeting is for.