1. markus2107's Avatar
    There are plenty of companies out there selling less devices than BB. All of 'em are smaller than BB. For example: Jolla/Sailfish or Fairphone.

    And although they sell just a pretty small amount of devices, they get some profit out of their business. So why does it seem, as if BB needs to sell millions of devices?

    Couldn't it just cut down the hardware sector to a comparable level like Jolla and make money? BB software - except for the BBOS 10 core - like the hub, keyboard, calendar, etc. could be made available for all mobile OSs, so that any new update hits the whole market... Wouldn't that be an alternative? And help BB making money?
    07-25-15 02:27 AM
  2. Ed YANG's Avatar
    Well... the 3 youve mentioned do not have million employees around the globe to pay, and lots of upper management directors or ex-o to feed their greed. It's the demand for "good returns" that slice off a big chunk of BB earnings, that prompt BB to sell more phones to yield returns.
    07-25-15 04:17 AM
  3. RH1Pearl's Avatar
    There are plenty of companies out there selling less devices than BB. All of 'em are smaller than BB. For example: Jolla/Sailfish or Fairphone.

    And although they sell just a pretty small amount of devices, they get some profit out of their business. So why does it seem, as if BB needs to sell millions of devices?

    Couldn't it just cut down the hardware sector to a comparable level like Jolla and make money? BB software - except for the BBOS 10 core - like the hub, keyboard, calendar, etc. could be made available for all mobile OSs, so that any new update hits the whole market... Wouldn't that be an alternative? And help BB making money?
    On top of large operating costs, BB is a listed company with thousands of shareholders and some key Institutional investors which it has to feed with dividends and earnings growth or potential. Measly sales year after year would encourage these shareholders to pull out.
    07-25-15 04:52 AM
  4. MarsupilamiX's Avatar
    If BlackBerry is able to get an ASP of around 3K Dollar per phone, I'd agree with the OP.
    What's the point of selling a billion smartphones if you can make the same profit with 10 million?
    Heck, even 5 Million for 2K a piece would be ok.
    07-25-15 07:39 AM
  5. RH1Pearl's Avatar
    If BlackBerry is able to get an ASP of around 3K Dollar per phone, I'd agree with the OP.
    What's the point of selling a billion smartphones if you can make the same profit with 10 million?
    Heck, even 5 Million for 2K a piece would be ok.
    A billion smartphones sold would attract major & popular App developers
    07-25-15 10:13 AM
  6. Troy Tiscareno's Avatar
    BB still has around 4,000 employees, and is a publicly traded company, meaning they traded a lot of the ownership of the company for cash about 20 years ago.

    The companies you talk about have less than 100 employees (probably in the 50-60 range) and are funded by private investors. They don't fly their CEO around the world on a private jet (or home to California from Toronto every week), and they don't have a huge infrastructure. They're mostly software people and they rely on OEMs to design and produce their phones (with perhaps a bit of input from the company). In other words, they are still start-ups, while BB is a large, established multi-national corporation.
    rthonpm likes this.
    07-25-15 10:42 AM
  7. MarsupilamiX's Avatar
    A billion smartphones sold would attract major & popular App developers
    I was answering with a closed system in mind, where only profits matter.

    Obviously you'd get apps when you sell 200 million devices a year.

    But I actually thought about luxury/ultra secure Android phones when I talked about the 2-3k price per phone and not about BB10 tbh.
    07-25-15 11:03 AM
  8. Ment's Avatar
    None of the startups you listed are profitable, they are surviving on venture capital. Even OnePlus who has sold 1.5 million phones thus far isn't profitable.

    Tho Chen has again issued another round of cost-cutting in the device division it still has a larger employee base, has larger advertising expenses, and support their devices for a longer period of time and have more models which incurs additional expenses. Chen has indicated he intends to introduce less devices per year, only one or two to further reduce costs, so the device division can be profitable at lower volumes.
    07-25-15 11:29 AM
  9. chenageddon's Avatar
    You can't justify holding on to billions of dollars worth of smartphone patents to make a few million phones per year. That would be like using my house as a headquarters for a lemondade stand at the end of my driveway because the kids down the street seem to be making a profit on theirs.
    07-25-15 12:03 PM
  10. markus2107's Avatar
    Ok, thanks for the input.
    However I thought those startups are profitable. Though, could have been mistaken...
    07-25-15 01:27 PM
  11. CTU2fan's Avatar
    I've heard of those phones, but never actually seen one. What do they sell for? The fewer you sell the more expensive they need to be, to cover R&D etc. People yammer on about how the silly Porsche devices are worthwhile money-makers for BlackBerry, but if all they sold was Porsche devices they'd have to raise the prices, and goodbye sales.

    Posted via CB10
    07-25-15 01:56 PM

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