[Bbnivende]

See, it's a weird thing (thank you by the way, glad you enjoyed it). The name is definitely is a large barrier of entry for most people. BlackBerry has grown such a negative connotation in the general public. I definitely agree. But when it comes to the sales process is when the apps really hurt the platform. I've converted SO many people on BB10. My entire family is currently on BB10, and I managed to get most of my close friends on BB10 aswell. The platform sold itself when you put it in the hands of people and a slight budge from a sales person (or me for that matter in respect to the people I have converted). But there were some limitations, and especially retention problems. Of the 12 or so people I converted, 3 or 4 have left to Android/iOS simply because of the app situation. And the friends and family members that are still on it, hammer me constantly about apps. I become the IT support person for everyone, installing snap, getting them android apps. They complain about many of the apps not working well, or at all. They are frustrated. And it frustrates me because I feel like I let them down, AND it totally sucks being at everyone's beck and call whenever they have a problem. They will call me before searching google for simple or complex answers. Wastes a lot of my time.

So it's a really really really difficult thing to simply say that the name "BlackBerry" is the ultimate thing to blame here. Because that's not absolutely the whole truth. Retention is a big deal, and my friends that left BB10 after having it for a couple years do love and miss the HUB, but it wasn't enough to keep them on the platform. The only people who I have managed to keep on BB10 after converting them are my mom, step dad, aunt, older cousin, and siblings. All of which don't care whatsoever about apps. But retaining customers who do care about apps, that's nearly impossible to do for BlackBerry on BB10.

The company name being BlackBerry is DEFINITELY a huge huge huge huge huge huge huge barrier to entry. I couldn't agree more. But I can tell you from experience that just getting people onto BB10 is not the difficult part per-say, it's retaining them. And if they are app people and they ask about apps, even giving the Android runtime shpeal, it's not that easy to convert people. Apps are still a HUGE part of the problem for BB10's growth. If you don't care about apps, it's very difficult to see this, but I have seen from first-hand experience with a handful of people falling in-love with BB10, yet leaving it two years later after being frustrated from the app situation.

BlackBerry = PKB. That in itself is a barrier.

There is no getting away from the fact that people buy phones that meet all of their needs. A gestured based OS with a hub is not on many consumers wish list.

BlackBerry can overcome a negative brand reputation if they make phones as good as their competition. The Slider is a start but they also need a Passport / Classic with a 4/3 screen. My other thought would be to have an all touch like an iPhone where the home button was also a track pad. (Ryanpad).

Posted via CB10

[anon(9353145)]

Why would Apple and Google even bother? BB was 4 or 5 years late with an inadequate response competing against companies 100 times their size. When BB made mistakes like that they don't need any help to fail.

I'm not sure what you mean. I said BlackBerry wasn't necessarily targeted, but I can completely see Apple and Google leveraging their dominance in mobile to maintain their position in the market. Remember, we're all looking back at the past with 20/20 hindsight and things weren't so clear back in 2009. BlackBerry, Microsoft, Apple and Google are all corporations that are profit driven and all have had allegations of questionable practices levied against them at one time or another. I think it's naive to not consider that any of these companies would be capable of shady business practices.

[GadgetTravel]

I'm not sure what you mean. I said BlackBerry wasn't necessarily targeted, but I can completely see Apple and Google leveraging their dominance in mobile to maintain their position in the market. Remember, we're all looking back at the past with 20/20 hindsight and things weren't so clear back in 2009. BlackBerry, Microsoft, Apple and Google are all corporations that are profit driven and all have had allegations of questionable practices levied against them at one time or another. I think it's naive to not consider that any of these companies would be capable of shady business practices.

Except their competition are each other. If something like this were happening you would see it as apps only on iOS or only on Android and you really don''t see that.

[anon(9353145)]

Except their competition are each other. If something like this were happening you would see it as apps only on iOS or only on Android and you really don''t see that.

No that would be too obvious. Instead, you see apps launched on one platform first (usually iOS), for example. Look up the EA Plants vs Zombies 2 story as one example that leaked into the mainstream. Apple and Google are competitors but it's very easy for me to believe that they are willing to cooperate in order to stifle competition. Same for Apple and Samsung. Sad, but true unfortunately.

Again, these are private, for profit corporations we're talking about. Morals, altruism, etc have no part in their day to day operations (outside feel good commercials). And the successful ones are paranoid and on the lookout for disruptive tech. Apple and Google are all too well aware of the past - Palm, Nokia, BlackBerry, etc. Not to mention that Apple in the 90's was on the verge of bankruptcy.

Anyway, I'd be comfortable betting my life that behind closed doors there are some extremely shady contracts involved in the industry. I'd give anything to see carrier agreements with all of the companies leaked to the public and full scrutiny.

Posted via CB10

[GadgetTravel]

No that would be too obvious. Instead, you see apps launched on one platform first (usually iOS), for example. Look up the EA Plants vs Zombies 2 story as one example that leaked into the mainstream. Apple and Google are competitors but it's very easy for me to believe that they are willing to cooperate in order to stifle competition. Same for Apple and Samsung. Sad, but true unfortunately.

Again, these are private, for profit corporations we're talking about. Morals, altruism, etc have no part in their day to day operations (outside feel good commercials). And the successful ones are paranoid and on the lookout for disruptive tech. Apple and Google are all too well aware of the past - Palm, Nokia, BlackBerry, etc. Not to mention that Apple in the 90's was on the verge of bankruptcy.

Anyway, I'd be comfortable betting my life that behind closed doors there are some extremely shady contracts involved in the industry. I'd give anything to see carrier agreements with all of the companies leaked to the public and full scrutiny.

Posted via CB10

This is really fantasy stuff. BB doesn't even exist relative to these companies. It is a rounding error on their books. There is no rational reason to think they would pay that much attention to BB. What happened wasn't some grand conspiracy, it was BB being 4 years late with a competing product. Nothing else was needed for BB10 to fail.

[DrBoomBotz]

This is really fantasy stuff. BB doesn't even exist relative to these companies. It is a rounding error on their books. There is no rational reason to think they would pay that much attention to BB. What happened wasn't some grand conspiracy, it was BB being 4 years late with a competing product. Nothing else was needed for BB10 to fail.

Just pretend to agree with him and back away slowly.

[anon(9353145)]

Yeah, yeah. Lol.

Posted via CB10

[anon(9353145)]

This is really fantasy stuff. BB doesn't even exist relative to these companies. It is a rounding error on their books. There is no rational reason to think they would pay that much attention to BB. What happened wasn't some grand conspiracy, it was BB being 4 years late with a competing product. Nothing else was needed for BB10 to fail.

Did you read my reply? Lol. Where did I say any of this was targeted specifically at BlackBerry? Hilarious.

Posted via CB10

[GadgetTravel]

Did you read my reply? Lol. Where did I say any of this was targeted specifically at BlackBerry? Hilarious.

Posted via CB10

Yes, I read your reply. It was brilliant. You're no doubt correct. Not only was there a grand conspiracy taking place but it wasn't targeting any group or company which makes it impossible to prove or disprove. A cunning plan indeed.

[anon(9353145)]

Yes, I read your reply. It was brilliant. You're no doubt correct. Not only was there a grand conspiracy taking place but it wasn't targeting any group or company which makes it impossible to prove or disprove. A cunning plan indeed.

OK then, it's been a slice. Take care.

Posted via CB10

[Chuck Finley69]

Tin Foil!! On sale!! Buy now, large quantities available. But wait, there's more.. if you mention Crackberry, we'll throw in twice as much and deliver today special delivery with Blackhawk helicopters...

Posted via CB10

[ALToronto]

Alex, I found your article very interesting, especially the insane valuation of users. The WhatsApp sale, which included 900 million users for $21B, values each user at just under $25. So if the ultimate goal of acquiring these users is to sell things to them, how much will each paying customer end up costing?

The click-through rate for digital ads is about 0.2%. So each WhatsApp user who clicks on an ad costs $12,500. Of these, maybe a generous 10% will buy something. So FB just paid $125,000 for each sale? Are my numbers off, or is this really that crazy? Not to mention that most of the 900M on WhatsApp are already on FB, so it didn't get 900M new users.

How are these numbers sustainable? It reminds me of the tech bubble of the late 1990's, when a company's announcement that is had a website would send its stock through the roof. How big will the current bubble get before it explodes?

Posted via CB10 from my awesome Passport

[Jerry A]

Alex, I found your article very interesting, especially the insane valuation of users. The WhatsApp sale, which included 900 million users for $21B, values each user at just under $25. So if the ultimate goal of acquiring these users is to sell things to them, how much will each paying customer end up costing?

The click-through rate for digital ads is about 0.2%. So each WhatsApp user who clicks on an ad costs $12,500. Of these, maybe a generous 10% will buy something. So FB just paid $125,000 for each sale? Are my numbers off, or is this really that crazy? Not to mention that most of the 900M on WhatsApp are already on FB, so it didn't get 900M new users.

How are these numbers sustainable? It reminds me of the tech bubble of the late 1990's, when a company's announcement that is had a website would send its stock through the roof. How big will the current bubble get before it explodes?

Posted via CB10 from my awesome Passport

And there's the rub. No one knows for sure if it's sustainable. Many think there is another bubble on the horizon.

Regardless, you need to look at this another way. Facebook didn't purchase WhatsApp strictly to market to another audience. They bought it to get access to the types of information their platform didn't have but is considered useful for creating a more complete user picture on the Social Graph.

The more complete advertising profile is what's valuable when selling ads.

[bmantz65]

I wish they came out with the Venice two years or so ago. Combines the best of both worlds IMO. I bet they sell more of this than any of their pure BB10 models.

[tangozulu]

Apple Inc probe intensifies as Canada?s Competition Bureau seeks data from wireless carriers | Financial Post



I read that the Canadian government was investigating Apple for anti competitive products for making Canadian cell providers do certain things. I don't recall off the top of my head, but there were a few examples list in the news that made me go, "jesus, that should be illegal if it isn't already". It seemed like it was confirmed language from a contract that was leaked and that is why the investigation was public and going forward.. there was definitely evidence to show anti-competitive clauses...

My guess, is this came about when Canadian government wanted to do away with 3 year contracts, and providers said, 'but, wait, look at our contracts'.

Same old Jobs, with price fixing (books and music), using dealer plates and knowingly violating employment laws. They've proven the penalty is well worth the benefit.

Apple's lawyers are going to be way better than the governments. I'm betting this will be a pittance fine when said and done.

Monopolies never are a good think. Or in this case the attempt to be one. This won't slow the assimilation 1 bit.

Posted via CB10

[Jerry A]

Monopolies never are a good think. Or in this case the attempt to be one. This won't slow the assimilation 1 bit.

Posted via CB10

Of course if anyone actually read the article they'd see that this is still an investigation to see IF there was any anti-competitive behavior.

Way too soon to jump to any conclusions.

[Nikidroid]

EDIT: Just decided to remove the post here and instead turn it into a complete article on BerryFlow and my personal site. My initial thoughts turned out to be much more in-depth and detailed that it didn't do the article justice by just having it as a post here. Please check out the link below and sorry for the inconvenience:

Android On BlackBerry Is Good Business

So, that makes developers lazy or don't want to update or create apps in BlackBerry World. For apps I agree in Android.

Posted via CB10

[crackbrry fan]

The days for" BIG" Developers are coming to an end soon. Market saturation and limited OS option for Development will bring about the changes. Then we will see who shall be calling the shots.

Posted via CB10

[DrBoomBotz]

The days for" BIG" Developers are coming to an end soon. Market saturation and limited OS option for Development will bring about the changes. Then we will see who shall be calling the shots.

Posted via CB10

If you are saying what I think you are saying, I think you are spectacularly wrong.
Can you elaborate on your position?

[Soulstream]

If you are saying what I think you are saying, I think you are spectacularly wrong.
Can you elaborate on your position?

Well, the only big name app-dev that FULLY supports BB10 is Whatsapp. If after 2 years, that all the support BB10 can get, then BB10 is in deep s**t.

Meanwhile BB10 users are "forced" to use Snap and Cobalt's solution to have a pseudo app ecosystem. All these workarounds and patching and apk hunting are not signs of a healthy platform.

Even at my current job as an app dev, we haven't coded a native BB10 app in over a year.

[DrBoomBotz]

Now I have even less clue what bbfan was on about. Big developers have no interest in bb10. Some little developers may see an opportunity but most will leave too.

[abass]

Well, the only big name app-dev that FULLY supports BB10 is Whatsapp. If after 2 years, that all the support BB10 can get, then BB10 is in deep s**t.

Meanwhile BB10 users are "forced" to use Snap and Cobalt's solution to have a pseudo app ecosystem. All these workarounds and patching and apk hunting are not signs of a healthy platform.

Even at my current job as an app dev, we haven't coded a native BB10 app in over a year.

Totally agreed. And many will jump up and argue "well BlackBerry has the Amazon appstore". The Amazon App store is a joke and an obviously very temporary solution. If it was anything but that, BlackBerry would have ended up building a native app store for the Amazon App store because the Android version doesn't even run very well. Regardless, Amazon is having a hard enough time getting devs on board to upload their existing Android apps with NO changes to the Amazon app store. So devs want to be building for an entirely different platform? h3ll no.

Android is coming and it's coming full stream ahead in better or worse for the CrackBerry fans and loyalists. I'm willing to give it a shot because I trust BlackBerry for the same reason I joined their ecosystem so long ago. Their focus on messaging and productivity is why I love BlackBerry. And if they can improve the Android OS to do just that and giving us all the apps and physical keyboard then it's definitely a feasible solution.

Posted via CB10

[Maxxxpower]

So many postings about a question that can simply be answered with "They didn't sell enough BB10 devices" Full stop. That's it.

[DrBoomBotz]

The days for" BIG" Developers are coming to an end soon. Market saturation and limited OS option for Development will bring about the changes. Then we will see who shall be calling the shots.

Posted via CB10

So who will call the shots?

[GadgetTravel]

So who will call the shots?

Reynolds Aluminum?