[danfrancisco]

You have plenty of company just here on CB. Again, it's not going to affect standalone consumers anytime soon, but corporate users are quickly being boxed out of any phones that aren't current.

Well it's a good thing the Titan ships with Android 9... and the latest backer update they sent this morning says they start shipping in December! Imagine that, I may have to resort to a malware ridden circus phone over a BB device to get my pkb fix at work! What a world we live in!

[danfrancisco]

You have plenty of company just here on CB. Again, it's not going to affect standalone consumers anytime soon, but corporate users are quickly being boxed out of any phones that aren't current.

Well it's a good thing the Titan ships with Android 9... and the latest backer update they sent this morning says they start shipping in December! Imagine that, I may have to resort to a malware ridden circus phone over a BB device to get my pkb fix at work! What a world we live in!

[Chuck Finley69]

Well it's a good thing the Titan ships with Android 9... and the latest backer update they sent this morning says they start shipping in December! Imagine that, I may have to resort to a malware ridden circus phone over a BB device to get my pkb fix at work! What a world we live in!

With double posts now on CB, I suspected you already had a prerelease device.

[Chuck Finley69]

Well it's a good thing the Titan ships with Android 9... and the latest backer update they sent this morning says they start shipping in December! Imagine that, I may have to resort to a malware ridden circus phone over a BB device to get my pkb fix at work! What a world we live in!

Double post from a prerelease Titan

[danfrancisco]

With double posts now on CB, I suspected you already had a prerelease device.

LOL! I actually posted that from desktop chrome! Malware is everywhere!!!

[Chuck Finley69]

LOL! I actually posted that from desktop chrome! Malware is everywhere!!!

I made sure to reply separately to each. It lives on forever infamously. I did it remotely from your computer...

[the_boon]

As conite said, Android One is a compliance program, where manufacturers must choose from a VERY limited set of supported hardware, and almost no software changes, and in return, Google does the work of optimizing everything for the hardware, which means the manufacturer gets an OS build that will run very well on the hardware without having to do any significant development/optimization work on their own (which is a significant cost savings). This in turn allows updates to be pushed very quickly, because there are very few customizations of anything that would require separate testing/fixing.

In practice, Android One is essentially "stock Android" with perhaps a few additional apps loaded, yes, but it isn't just the OS, but an overall hardware compliance program that enables the OS.

So maybe it would have been better if TCL paid BBL only for the PKB patents and then enrolled in Android One so that their costs would have been reduced, instead of paying BBL for BBAndroid which almost no one values or cares about.

[Vince Liew]

are there any smartphone with android one? functionality limited?

[Troy Tiscareno]

So maybe it would have been better if TCL paid BBL only for the PKB patents and then enrolled in Android One so that their costs would have been reduced, instead of paying BBL for BBAndroid which almost no one values or cares about.

TCL tried that at the beginning and again recently, BB wasn't interested in doing that at the time or since. The small amount of money that would make them wasn't worth their time.

[Troy Tiscareno]

are there any smartphone with android one? functionality limited?

There are many smartphones with Android One - just no PKB phones.

[Chuck Finley69]

TCL tried that at the beginning and again recently, BB wasn't interested in doing that at the time or since. The small amount of money that would make them wasn't worth their time.

Plus Chen knew from internal data that one good squeeze was all that’s left and the bundle generates the most one time one shot revenue. Had it succeeded? Great!!! Failed? Doesn’t matter since check was cashed. The contracts seem to ensure BB paid for it’s time and little profit added in case

[ED1993le]

Well I still play with both my Keyone and Passport, but my daily driver is the iPhone 11. It really is an amazing phone and there is so much I can do now. I have been a big supporter of Blackberry, even when they continue to let me down again and again. I saves my cash waiting for the Key 3, and I finally said enough. So I purchased an iPhone and I’m every happy with it. Takes amazing pictures btw...

[the_boon]

TCL tried that at the beginning and again recently, BB wasn't interested in doing that at the time or since. The small amount of money that would make them wasn't worth their time.

As opposed to what? Making $0.00 by NOT licensing the PKB patents?

[Chuck Finley69]

As opposed to what? Making $0.00 by NOT licensing the PKB patents?

Zero is better than losing money. There’s a company that BB has that handles IP licensing. If the deal makes sense for BB then it would get done.

[the_boon]

Zero is better than losing money. There’s a company that BB has that handles IP licensing. If the deal makes sense for BB then it would get done.

And how could they lose money by licensing the keyboard patents again?

[Chuck Finley69]

And how could they lose money by licensing the keyboard patents again?

If they didn’t have to spend any money and some company is fine paying for just the name and no technology, it would be okay. Unfortunately, there’s some expenses involved just collecting money and then making sure to account for it all.

Meanwhile, any company that pays to license probably wants to get more in return than just name.

BB exists to be profitable and the IP company gets paid from revenue split. If no deal gets done, it’s because it’s not worth everybody’s objectives.

How much would you charge? How would you structure the deal?

[the_boon]

If they didn’t have to spend any money and some company is fine paying for just the name and no technology, it would be okay. Unfortunately, there’s some expenses involved just collecting money and then making sure to account for it all.

Meanwhile, any company that pays to license probably wants to get more in return than just name.

BB exists to be profitable and the IP company gets paid from revenue split. If no deal gets done, it’s because it’s not worth everybody’s objectives.

How much would you charge? How would you structure the deal?

If those keyboard patents were already sunken costs that were gathering dust, and a company was interested in licensing them or buying them outright, you damn right I'd jump on that deal to try to recoup SOME of that sunken cost.

Not sure how complicated it could really be

[Chuck Finley69]

If those keyboard patents were already sunken costs that were gathering dust, and a company was interested in licensing them or buying them outright, you damn right I'd jump on that deal to try to recoup SOME of that sunken cost.

Not sure how complicated it could really be

So how much exactly?

[the_boon]

So how much exactly?

I don't know...

But it would cost less resources than what they were doing, actively developing BBAndroid.

Selling keyboard patents could be a very quick and passive cash grab.

Just sell the IP and let the buying company worry about implementing it on their devices.

[Chuck Finley69]

I don't know...

But it would cost less resources than what they were doing, actively developing BBAndroid.

Selling keyboard patents could be a very quick and passive cash grab.

Just sell the IP and let the buying company worry about implementing it on their devices.

That’s obviously what TCL and BB won’t agree on. Price... I’d suspect once TCL meets terms of licensing agreement, makes payment, something might happen in year or two when licensing expires

[the_boon]

That’s obviously what TCL and BB won’t agree on. Price... I’d suspect once TCL meets terms of licensing agreement, makes payment, something might happen in year or two when licensing expires

The only thing we can hope for is that TCL is STILL interested in the PKB patents but without the burden of the BBAndroid tax.

[Chuck Finley69]

The only thing we can hope for is that TCL is STILL interested in the PKB patents but without the burden of the BBAndroid tax.

TCL most likely doesn’t want to pay it’s remaining obligations and BB knows they have TCL contractually obligated.

[elfabio80]

And how could they lose money by licensing the keyboard patents again?

Probably because BB (without chance) is really small....maybe 150 or 200 people working there? It would be interesting to know how many people are still employed by BB.

[Chuck Finley69]

Probably because BB (without chance) is really small....maybe 150 or 200 people working there? It would be interesting to know how many people are still employed by BB.

BlackBerry Limited has about 4K employees according to public filings. I’m sure you mean the mobile BBAndroid and BB10 division and that’s not public disclosure. I’d suspect less than 50 though.

[conite]

Probably because BB (without chance) is really small....maybe 150 or 200 people working there? It would be interesting to know how many people are still employed by BB.

Cylance alone has over 1000 employees. That's on top of BlackBerry's 4000.

Don't forget, they still do about a billion dollars in sales. The few million in handset licencing is just noise.