[oboydjr]

After speaking with four Best Buy and two AT&T stores in the past few days, I'm developed a theory that Blackberry is in on or maybe even behind this soft AT&T launch. The Blackberry company turnaround is a massive undertaking including the BB10 platform design and launch, corporate and management restructuring, branding, product strategy, carrier relations, revamping the company revenue model, and rebuilding confidence with capital markets.

Amongst RIM biggest problems were the inability to bring products to market, consistently missing its own projections for everything, and an arrogance of management that eroded the credibility of carriers and financial markets alike. Since Mr. Heins announced the bold and painful decision to delay BB10 to Q1 2013, the company has executed a solid strategy to make incremental progress across all areas of it's business. BB10 is not just here, but an outstanding platform with tremendous upside potential. The company has been restructured and has a reasonably cohesive model business model. The stock has rebounded, and analyst and carriers around the world are taking another look at BlackBerry. The Z10 while not a "knock your socks off" design, in my opinion is smartly built for profitability and market positioning, allowing the company to continue to improve its overall financial condition for the Q10 and a later Flagship model. It appears that Mr. Heins and BlackBerry are walking a fine line of meeting their deadlines in a marginal but acceptable way, while still working very hard to meet the standard of excellence that we all desire. I think they are doing it pretty darn well.

While I hated waiting to get my Z10 here in the US, I believe the international launch was brilliant from both a financial and corporate strategy point of view. I expect to see a couple of major application launches in the next few weeks that will allow the Z10 to truly compete with Android and IOS for those who are not true Blackberry die-hards. Without Skype, Instagram and some of the other popular Apps, the US market would be people like me and others on Crackberry addicts. With those popular apps, I do expect the Z10 to be a very solid competitor. The commitment to launch the Z10 in the US in March has been met, though by only a few days. I suspect Blackberry thought they would be able to get these key apps in place by now, but need a little more time working with developers. So, the product is here, but do you really want Apple and Android users buying a phone, only to find Apps they use regularly aren't there? Probably not because this may be your last chance to get them back. So coordinate a soft launch meeting the deadline of March with those of us who are on board going in to buy the Z10; report outstanding earning and international sales data the same week; get necessary apps announced and ramp up marketing; Launch the Q10 in the second quarter and so on.

I believe Mr. Heins has it right for the future of Blackberry. I'll be picking up my Z10 from T-Mobile this week and some shares of Blackberry if I can find some extra money.

[adjdudley21]

I believe you are right, with one exception... I believe that they aren't soft launching to save face for the apps problem, but to build the backberry10 brand.. Look at the promoted tweets from blackberry, they mostly have the hashtag blackbery10 not z10... look at the comercials during the NCAA tournament, they are marketing the platform, not the phone... I believe verizon and tmobile will have better launches and in store marketing than AT&T but i also believe that if they hit hard to have a big launch people would rip an even bigger hole into blackberry because there would never be line ups the way apple gets line ups... All in all I think thorsten has a few tricks up his sleeves that will slingshot blackberry. Im not going to be naive and say into the #1 spot, but I think they have the strategy and potential to take down 1 of the top two in the next 5 years.. QNX is our ace...

[oboydjr]

Good point. It's all about rebuilding the brand which will take good products and time. I didn't mean to suggest that they would want to save face because of the app problem, but just from a marketing standpoint a smartphone buyer who isn't already inclined to lean towards Blackberry for one reason or another isn't likely to go with the Z10 if apps they regularly use aren't there. QNX is indeed the ticket! I'm looking forward to how much ground we can make up!

[dbmalloy]

I agree with the OP.... people need to give BB brass more credit than they get.....

[tjseaman]

Great Post! Thanks for the good positive read.

Posted via CB10

[adjdudley21]

Good point. It's all about rebuilding the brand which will take good products and time. I didn't mean to suggest that they would want to save face because of the app problem, but just from a marketing standpoint a smartphone buyer who isn't already inclined to lean towards Blackberry for one reason or another isn't likely to go with the Z10 if apps they regularly use aren't there. QNX is indeed the ticket! I'm looking forward to how much ground we can make up!

Personally I kind of like the lack of apps selection.... it allows new dev players to enter the game... faceflow is a product of skype not being available... there were a few playbook games that came as a product of angry birds not being there... I think its a good way to get new apps going ... I also believe blackberry is in a great position... because one of the two major players is gonna fall soon.. I believe it will be android because their biggest player Samsung is flirting with a new OS which I believe they should do. most people went IOS because that was their only choice... With Blackberry10 being so fluid and awesome, they have another option. I personally know several people who went to IOS only because they have an iPod, they use Itunes and that was their option.. not because they wanted or just loved Iphone..


I believe Apple has to reinvent something revolutionary or they will loose customers to Blackberry and Samsung... The rumored fingerprint scanning home button won't be enough to do it.. SO if the 5s is more of the same thats great news for blackberry.. Blackberry right now is like that sniper waiting miles and miles away.... Waiting for the usual suspects to make one false move.... That spells trouble for IOS and Android..... Windows and BB are waiting for that one slip up.. Just watch

[SK122387]

I think he has been great for BlackBerry. I feel like he is omnipresent now that the launch of BlackBerry10 is in high gear..and that's a good thing, especially because he is well-spoken/articulate.

He has a nice way about him, and he projects confidence with a sense of humbleness, while not being overly confident. He also manages to take jabs at the competition, while making them seem like observations (i.e. Apple's lack of innovation as of late, the FACT that iOS is 6 years old, as well as Android's embarrassing security situation).

I watched him on the Today show, on CNBC, on Piers Morgan...the guy is just very good at explaining why BlackBerry is still relevant. If anything, he's too nice, but maybe that's just me wanting BlackBerry to come out really swinging. As a side note, how cool is it that he mingles with consumers/fans at these BlackBerry events? I've seen him in pictures with a lot of fans (that's what we are, right? Fans? Fiends?), and think ..Wow..he's the CEO...he could have easily left in his limo as soon as he stepped off stage, but no, he's mixing it up with the people who love his company. What a genuine person we have at the helm.

[Thunderbuck]

When I first heard Heins was taking over as CEO, I was worried about an insider coming up the ranks. Who knew how much responsibility he shared for RIM's condition at the time? And then it became apparent that he wasn't extremely media-savvy, either; he'd say things that in context weren't bad, but as sound bites made him seem out-of-touch.

And then, one night when I couldn't sleep and happened to be online at 2 AM and suddenly realized it was time for Heins to give his keynote for DevCon Europe, so I decided to give it a listen. And I thought "this guy GETS it". He didn't try to whitewash things; he wasn't in denial about the challenges facing the company he'd just taken over, but he was enthused about the new platform and excited to share it.

The year or so since then hasn't gone completely according to plan, but I'm still amazed that they even got the Z10 out the door at all given the conditions they've had to work under. The whole company had been written off by much of the industry, and now they're actually mounting a credible comeback. THAT takes leadership.

[oboydjr]

Absolutely! He comes across very genuine and scores subtle but memorable points about the weaknesses of the competition. He has a handle view of what the company needs to do in the short term, while also focusing on the future of BlackBerry.