[kylef5993]

I know that BlackBerry has been losing users for the past couple of quarters now so i'm just curious if you guys think BlackBerry will start adding new users soon and why.

I couldn't see this happening until a Q10 and Z10 predecessor is released or unless 10.3 turns out to be a game changer.

Posted via CB10

[notfanboy]

I couldn't see this happening until a Q10 and Z10 predecessor is released

This would require time travel? Do you mean successor?

[SunshineStateFlyer]

Maybe next year when all the rumors about BlackBerry being sold and everything are gone. Maybe people will find trust in BlackBerry again and they'll give it a shot. Especially when there will be new devices with impressive specs and a BB10 OS which has proven to be stable and working for a while.

[Jrox74]

I think that with the new pricing of the Z10 and if the new management get aggressive in getting them out of inventory & into the hands of the public you will see BB begin to add users. BBM now being cross platform is generating curiosity. I've had 6 people ask me about my Z10 in the last week and with all the new upgrades on BB10 user growth may begin to show by the end of Q4. Rocking with my Z10 & 64GB Playbook.

[walcolm]

i think the major thing holding BB back is their hardware...too old and too pricey....lots of cheap androids out there with similar specs in some respect for a fraction of the price

i was totally shocked that BB is still selling Z10s that were already written off in their financials at over $500 on their site...they should have thrown those hardware into the market for under $250!

i'm sure every tech critic out there and diehards from other platforms know the BB10 OS is a major game changer even though it is just getting out of the gate but the Quad/Octa core processors and bad a$$ GPU to swing consumer sentiments back towards Blackberry is what's missing

Blackberry must release a hardware that takes down the latest iPhone and the very best Android in benchmark tests for consumers to stop long enough to see what the OS is capable of....right now, most people are not even looking at what the OS can do. once they check out the hardware specs and there are cheaper androids with similar hardware, they go android

[BBUniq01]

When everything stabilizes with the new interim CEO and they start showing the market that they have a viable plan of action. And then invest in marketing and consumer education about the BB10. Majority of the consumer still think of BlackBerry in terms of the Legacy devices. Continuation of the OS updates is very much welcomed. They also need to shore up carrier confidence and support.

Curve 8320, Bold 9780, Bold 9900, PB 64gb, Z10

[chiphazard]

They still need to market

BlackBerry Since 2006. BB Z10,10.2 Official. Rogers Halifax, NS

[heymaggie]

Opening up BBM to Android and iOS users opened up the spigot for people to move to those platforms for free while keeping their BBM contacts intact. I'd say the customer losses will continue.

[geoffsdad]

Chen is formulating a strategy, once that begins execution, then you will slowly see subscriber base increase.

Posted via CB10(BBM#22) on my Z10 featuring BBM Channel C0002FE04

[kylef5993]

This would require time travel? Do you mean successor?

Lmao oops. It was 3am when I posted this.

Posted via CB10

[pantlesspenguin]

Chen is formulating a strategy, once that begins execution, then you will slowly see subscriber base increase.

Posted via CB10(BBM#22) on my Z10 featuring BBM Channel C0002FE04

I'm cautiously optimistic about Chen and his strategies. However a year ago we were saying the same thing about Thorsten, and look where his strategies got the company.

[Bbnivende]

When they have a cheap all touch device that runs BIS. When they have a bigger screen top end QWERTY. When they have a great new slider model. When they have made a Z30-mini. When they have a better camera and best in class battery. When the user can upload all the Android apps they need.

[BB10QNX]

I'd have to begin to tend to agree with this, and many of the other comments already posted, i.e.- marketing (a big one! Even our VZW store had no clue the Z30 was already in their store and displayed, THEN told us we know more about it than they do - wow, huge step missed there), Mr. Chen getting his strategy together, then executing it, fear of BB going away must go away.

i think the major thing holding BB back is their hardware...too old and too pricey....lots of cheap androids out there with similar specs in some respect for a fraction of the price

i was totally shocked that BB is still selling Z10s that were already written off in their financials at over $500 on their site...they should have thrown those hardware into the market for under $250!

i'm sure every tech critic out there and diehards from other platforms know the BB10 OS is a major game changer even though it is just getting out of the gate but the Quad/Octa core processors and bad a$$ GPU to swing consumer sentiments back towards Blackberry is what's missing

Blackberry must release a hardware that takes down the latest iPhone and the very best Android in benchmark tests for consumers to stop long enough to see what the OS is capable of....right now, most people are not even looking at what the OS can do. once they check out the hardware specs and there are cheaper androids with similar hardware, they go android

[pbfan]

Need competitively priced unlocked BB phones that run >90% Android applications very.well.

[amazinglygraceless]

Disregarding the "Mr Chen is formulating a strategy" talk because, well, the best laid plans...

BlackBerry needs to do several thing right to increase it's user base
1) Effective marketing. This is a lot of people's biggest gripe and it is a legitimate one.
2) Educating the public about it's products, especially the new ones.
3) Working much better with carriers and store representatives so that both are providing customers with proper and accurate information.
4) Pricing. I have no idea who is responsible for pricing their products but that person(s) is doing BlackBerry no favors.
5) Produce products that are not perceived to be sub-par to the competition. I know, WE all know the whole specs argument back and forth but the average consumer in a store sees 13MP camera vs 8MP camera, 1.2GB Dual core processor vs 1.5GB Quad core processor and guess which they think is better and therefore buy. They need a device that completely match the specs of their competition to take that issue off the table.
6) Hit their timeline targets...consistently.

They do not need to do all of these all at once but they need to do them soon. Mr Chen is formulating a strategy...Great! So were Mr Ballsillie (sp?) and Mr Lazaridis, so to was Mr. Heins. To the general public that is talk not action and it is doing nothing to bring them aboard.

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

OP that isn't going to happen anytime soon.

I look for legacy to continue to lose users faster than BB10 sells for a while. Once BlackBerry bottoms out around 20 Million users, then maybe they will be able to maintain and be a niche player. Possible even slowly grow their enterprise business.

Their days as a consumer competitor are over for a while... they blew the launch of BB10 and that has cost them too much to really try again. Carriers don't trust them, tech writers don't trust them, most consumers think they went out of business... VERY hard to come back from all of that, while just playing catch-up to iOS and Android. Enterprise is all they have left, and if they don't move fast to secure it, they will lose it to.

[notfanboy]

OP that isn't going to happen anytime soon.

I look for legacy to continue to lose users faster than BB10 sells for a while. Once BlackBerry bottoms out around 20 Million users, then maybe they will be able to maintain and be a niche player. Possible even slowly grow their enterprise business.

Agree with this. What's interesting is that there has not been a reporting period where BB10 has outsold legacy. An interesting question is at what point will BB10 outsell legacy? It won't be this quarter and it probably won't be the next one.

[TioPepe78]

OP that isn't going to happen anytime soon.

I look for legacy to continue to lose users faster than BB10 sells for a while. Once BlackBerry bottoms out around 20 Million users, then maybe they will be able to maintain and be a niche player. Possible even slowly grow their enterprise business.

Their days as a consumer competitor are over for a while... they blew the launch of BB10 and that has cost them too much to really try again. Carriers don't trust them, tech writers don't trust them, most consumers think they went out of business... VERY hard to come back from all of that, while just playing catch-up to iOS and Android. Enterprise is all they have left, and if they don't move fast to secure it, they will lose it to.

totally agree, people leaving the platform (BBOS) will keep being more than the ones coming to BB10, hope you are wrong in the number, hope the number gets stable at 40 million at least.

[kylef5993]

Agree with this. What's interesting is that there has not been a reporting period where BB10 has outsold legacy. An interesting question is at what point will BB10 outsell legacy? It won't be this quarter and it probably won't be the next one.

I wonder why that is.. I mean I prefer bb10 over legacy devices but I wonder why a lot of people don't feel the same

Posted via CB10

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

I wonder why that is.. I mean I prefer bb10 over legacy devices but I wonder why a lot of people don't feel the same

Posted via CB10

BIS - plan and simple the reason that BlackBerry became popular in some markets, while losing in others was BIS. In many developing countries people could get a cheap BlackBerry Data Plan and this made BlackBerry cheaper due to the cheaper month plans. Plus there wasn't much competition at the time so most devices were in the same price range. Now there are cheap Android devices that sell for a 1/4 of a new BlackBerry and with BB10 you need a regular Data plan like ever other smartphone... NO ADVANTAGE.

Business - right now there seem to still be a number of companies with BES that are not moving to BES10. So when a device fails or a new one is needed, the only option is a BBOS device.

BlackBerry should have made the transition from Legacy to BB10... not so drastic. Basically a BB10 device is not a BlackBerry anymore.

[Roo Zilla]

"When do you think BlackBerry will begin to add more users?"

I assume BlackBerry add new users every day. If the question is "when will BlackBerry add NET users....?" That will be the day BlackBerry leapfrogs the competition in some meaningful way. It will take a technological leap similar to the one the iPhone presented over the competition in 2007. Nothing short of that will add net users. The problem is that in developed markets now, smartphone growth is grinding to a halt. You basically have to win over current users, a tough proposition. Their only chance is in emerging markets, and Android is eating their lunch in those markets with cheap $100 phones.

[ajst222]

The user base won't really grow until BlackBerry creates a phone that consumers want. Plain and simple



Sent from my Nokia Lumia 928 using Tapatalk

[ljfong]

BIS was exactly the secret sauce of BB OS success in Indonesia back in the days. BB 10 was so far removed from BB 7 and below as far as many were concerned. Palm tried the same thing by going from PalmOS to WebOS and ultimately failed. Microsoft did the same thing with going from Windows Mobile to Windows Phone, and through its very deep pocket could keep on fighting.

BIS - plan and simple the reason that BlackBerry became popular in some markets, while losing in others was BIS. In many developing countries people could get a cheap BlackBerry Data Plan and this made BlackBerry cheaper due to the cheaper month plans. Plus there wasn't much competition at the time so most devices were in the same price range. Now there are cheap Android devices that sell for a 1/4 of a new BlackBerry and with BB10 you need a regular Data plan like ever other smartphone... NO ADVANTAGE.

Business - right now there seem to still be a number of companies with BES that are not moving to BES10. So when a device fails or a new one is needed, the only option is a BBOS device.

BlackBerry should have made the transition from Legacy to BB10... not so drastic. Basically a BB10 device is not a BlackBerry anymore.

[Rello]

I wonder why that is.. I mean I prefer bb10 over legacy devices but I wonder why a lot of people don't feel the same

Posted via CB10

I don't think it's that they prefer BBOS over BB10. In many places in the world BB10 devices are simply too expensive....not only that but many just don't know about BB10 and even if they did, I still don't think it would matter. BlackBerry devices have a perception problem. I know a few people who didn't even necessarily have a problem with the BBOS device yet still bought iPhones instead of a BB10 device.

BlackBerry will be like they are now for at least another few years. It will take a couple great devices in a row to reverse this perception the public has of them. Plus, the OS needs more wow features, especially now since BBM is on all platforms

Posted via CB10