[oilgeo10]

The Z30 is the wrong model. BlackBerry should be releasing only 3 phones, an all touch screen (Z10), a qwerty (Q10), and a slider (S10). And for a new OS platform, these different phone styles should have been released closer together.

As for the Z30, it should have been stretched into a new BB10 Tablet.

The rest of their money should have been spent delivering the major apps that people wanted. Even if that required assisting the developers or paying them with a nice $contract to develop these apps for BB10.

Since BB hasn't done this, it's probably too late.

[bennelong]

There is no reason to capitalize the "S" or "C" in spell check. Nor is it necessary, from a grammatical standpoint, to hyphenate that word. Finally, you do not need the quotation marks as spell check is a generally accepted term that is not used to convey something else.
See how incredibly annoying that is

Ok it was a cheap shot I'll admit, but..
I'd actually asked a checkout-attendant "Whaddya call it 'ere where it suggests a word for ya Luv?"

Z10 via CB 10

[LuvULongTime]

An accurate reflection of BB's dismal performance.




The z10 and q10 was their last stand.

Their last stand will be the one just before they officially close the doors. They are still a couple of year away from that IMO. The Z30 may not be a resounding success, but it will be a small building block on the road back to respectability. Z10, OS 10.0, OS 10.1, Q10, OS 10.2, Q5, Z30, OS 10.3???, Z5???, improve app catalog (Instagram, Netflix, etc)???, launch next gen Z and Q???, sales steadily improve???

If they can continue to manage their finances and sustain the company for another 2-3 years, then they will have a legit shot at hanging around in the long term.

[Sexy Sadie]

Fingers crossed for y'all

Thank you.

[Spades1234]

They have to release it. Not doing so would effectively mean defeat.

Posted via CB10

[yeezus]

They should just limit the manufacturing of the Z30, being overly optimistic is going to hurt them. Secondly they should hold off creating more devices and keep generating new updates and features for the existing 4 phones. They have the Q5 for developing countries they have a Q10 for keyboard diehards, Z10 for media, Z30 as the flagship. The phone line up is complete, with the exception of a slider (possibly)... BB10 needs to mature more, develop those die hard legacy features we want and in addition innovate GOD DAMN IT! The lumia is comparable to BB10 but they offer a 41 megapixel camera. The camera alone is selling the phone! The is nothing outstanding about BB10 other then OS.

Posted via CB10

[jtfolden]

Their last stand will be the one just before they officially close the doors. They are still a couple of year away from that IMO.

Unless a miracle happens on the hardware sales front, I think BB as a company will change drastically very soon, very sadly... and while it may last a couple of years their phone business will not.

The Z30 may not be a resounding success, but it will be a small building block on the road back to respectability. Z10, OS 10.0, OS 10.1, Q10, OS 10.2, Q5, Z30, OS 10.3???, Z5???, improve app catalog (Instagram, Netflix, etc)???, launch next gen Z and Q???, sales steadily improve???

If the Z30 sells as badly as the Z10 and Q10 then that's not a building block. It will be seen as yet another failure to turn the company's prospects around. Nothing in that list is going to help near as much as a sudden improvement in the app catalog, or at least the perception of that. Updates to the OS won't bring in NEW customers or upgraders and next gen devices aren't going to sell on their own if they can't even move the current ones - plus carriers won't keep accepting new product they can't get rid of...

If they can continue to manage their finances and sustain the company for another 2-3 years, then they will have a legit shot at hanging around in the long term.

Honestly, if they were looking to sustain then they wouldn't have put up a for sale sign.

[jtfolden]

They have to release it. Not doing so would effectively mean defeat.

What does it mean if they put it out, business as usual, and it is DOA?

[notfanboy]

They have to release it. Not doing so would effectively mean defeat.

What does it mean if they put it out, business as usual, and it is DOA?

Not releasing would mean defeat.
Releasing business as usual and it is DOA would mean a more costly defeat.

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

Their last stand will be the one just before they officially close the doors. They are still a couple of year away from that IMO. The Z30 may not be a resounding success, but it will be a small building block on the road back to respectability. Z10, OS 10.0, OS 10.1, Q10, OS 10.2, Q5, Z30, OS 10.3???, Z5???, improve app catalog (Instagram, Netflix, etc)???, launch next gen Z and Q???, sales steadily improve???

If they can continue to manage their finances and sustain the company for another 2-3 years, then they will have a legit shot at hanging around in the long term.

You do know that about 70% of BlackBerry profits come from hardware sales... so if the hardware isn't selling well, or if they have to take a loss on it, or worse have to take a write down on a portion of it, that means that they loose a big portion of that 70% of their profits. Poof, gone and at a time when expenses associated with the launch of a new platform are at their highest.

About 25% comes for service fees - BIS & BES revenue. BIS is now on the way out so those revenue will shrink to 0 over the next couple of years. BES is a BIG question mark - are business and governments going to adopt BES10, stick with their existing BES platform or will they migrate to another platform? BlackBerry has not given any positive signs (other than a two device company here and a 500 device company there), and the fact that they are discounting licensing fees "could" be seen as an indicator that they aren't doing well in this sector, at the minimum that those service fees are going to be reduced... unless you believe that they will sell more licenses to cover the reduced fees (could happen). Have yet to hear anyone say that their iPhone or Android was now attached to a BES10 server - and there are a lot of BlackBerry fans using other devices these days.

The other 5% comes from misc sources like QNX and royalties on patents. Not enough to run a company like BlackBerry for a couple of days.

While they may have 2.5 Billion left to spend... without a good indication that spending that amount will make a difference, do you really believe that the shareholders are going to give Thor the green light to spend it??

It's isn't about sustaining, it they can't compete today... why would two years be any different? Without growth, they will die... in a few months or maybe a year. But there is no way that they will last two or three years without some major changes.

[wtz11]

I would say Last Shot.

[LuvULongTime]

You do know that about 70% of BlackBerry profits come from hardware sales... so if the hardware isn't selling well, or if they have to take a loss on it, or worse have to take a write down on a portion of it, that means that they loose a big portion of that 70% of their profits. Poof, gone and at a time when expenses associated with the launch of a new platform are at their highest.

About 25% comes for service fees - BIS & BES revenue. BIS is now on the way out so those revenue will shrink to 0 over the next couple of years. BES is a BIG question mark - are business and governments going to adopt BES10, stick with their existing BES platform or will they migrate to another platform? BlackBerry has not given any positive signs (other than a two device company here and a 500 device company there), and the fact that they are discounting licensing fees "could" be seen as an indicator that they aren't doing well in this sector, at the minimum that those service fees are going to be reduced... unless you believe that they will sell more licenses to cover the reduced fees (could happen). Have yet to hear anyone say that their iPhone or Android was now attached to a BES10 server - and there are a lot of BlackBerry fans using other devices these days.

The other 5% comes from misc sources like QNX and royalties on patents. Not enough to run a company like BlackBerry for a couple of days.

While they may have 2.5 Billion left to spend... without a good indication that spending that amount will make a difference, do you really believe that the shareholders are going to give Thor the green light to spend it??

It's isn't about sustaining, it they can't compete today... why would two years be any different? Without growth, they will die... in a few months or maybe a year. But there is no way that they will last two or three years without some major changes.

As I mentioned, building blocks, as in they build positively and get where they need to be. I think we would all agree that the OS is more stable today then it was upon release. I think we would all agree that the app catalogue has improved from launch day. The Z30 isn't even out yet and everyone is writing it off. It may not break any sales records, but if it can improve upon the Z10, then that is a plus.

If the Z30 launches with a much improved OS 10.2, much improved battery life, and Instagram, then who says that it won't sell better than the Z10?

In terms of the shareholders not giving Thor the green light to spend, they may have little choice if no other viable alternatives present themselves. Trying to dig out of this mess and hit a home run until the doors close for good maybe the only shot they have.

[jc4957]

With sales of the z10 and q10 seemingly dismal and with BlackBerry having put itself up for sale, the thing I am most concerned about is that whoever buys BlackBerry will discontinue BB10 and BlackBerry phones will be no more.

BlackBerry could be bought any day and maybe there is no time for perceptions about bb10 to change. But, I have been thinking that maybe z30 could be BlackBerry's last shot. What if BlackBerry actually launched a product within a few weeks of announcing it? What if the launch was supported by a proper big budget media campaign with incredible TV Ads? What if BlackBerry didn't price Z30 in the stratosphere? What if the 10.2 Android runtime meant that big name apps were available for the z30 and that the app catalog was a selling point? What if the z30 was launched at the right time and not delayed?

If all of this came together, do you think BlackBerry could still have a shot at ensuring BB10's survival?

Posted via CB10

The q10 was their only shot. And boy did they miss

Posted via CB10

[MarsupilamiX]

If the Z30 is their last shot, it already is too late.

Posted via CB10

[MarsupilamiX]

The q10 was their only shot. And boy did they miss

Posted via CB10

I disagree with this.
The keyboard market is a shrinking one, and mostly sustained by the lower-end offerings, a la BlackBerry Curve and Nokia Asha.

Following this reasoning, the Q5 should have been more important than the Q10.
The same actually goes for the Z10, and this one even trumps the Q5.

The reason is the same as stated before: There is a far bigger market for touchscreen devices than for physical keyboard devices.

Saying this also means to aknowledge that the Z10 was extremely important to show the market, that BlackBerry can actually make compelling touchscreen offerings ,as this is what the buying public wants right now.
(The Storm wasn't a real hit)

We will take the Nokia Lumia 520 to illustrate yet another reason, why the Q10 definitely wasn't their last shot:
The 520 with WP8 sells incredibly well, because it costs 150 Euro, but performs extremely well for that price.
It also helps in forgetting some weaknesses of the ecosystem.

By not offering a low-end touchscreen smartphone for a "fair" price, BlackBerry lost a big portion of the market.
Combined with the rather outrageous price for the Z10 (applies to the Q5 as well, even though it has a keyboard), a lacklustre adoption rate of BB10 and quarterly losses, we can also conclude that BlackBerry priced their devices out of the region the market saw as acceptable.

The Q10 actually is the least of their problems.

Posted via CB10

[FFR]

I disagree with this.
The keyboard market is a shrinking one, and mostly sustained by the lower-end offerings, a la BlackBerry Curve and Nokia Asha.

Following this reasoning, the Q5 should have been more important than the Q10.
The same actually goes for the Z10, and this one even trumps the Q5.

The reason is the same as stated before: There is a far bigger market for touchscreen devices than for physical keyboard devices.

Saying this also means to aknowledge that the Z10 was extremely important to show the market, that BlackBerry can actually make compelling touchscreen offerings ,as this is what the buying public wants right now.
(The Storm wasn't a real hit)

We will take the Nokia Lumia 520 to illustrate yet another reason, why the Q10 definitely wasn't their last shot:
The 520 with WP8 sells incredibly well, because it costs 150 Euro, but performs extremely well for that price.
It also helps in forgetting some weaknesses of the ecosystem.

By not offering a low-end touchscreen smartphone for a "fair" price, BlackBerry lost a big portion of the market.
Combined with the rather outrageous price for the Z10 (applies to the Q5 as well, even though it has a keyboard), a lacklustre adoption rate of BB10 and quarterly losses, we can also conclude that BlackBerry priced their devices out of the region the market saw as acceptable.

The Q10 actually is the least of their problems.

Posted via CB10

I completely agree.
The problem was/is BB10, there was and still is no reason to buy a bb10 device over iOS and android.
No differentiation.

[MarsupilamiX]

I completely agree.
The problem was/is BB10, there was and still is no reason to buy a bb10 device over iOS and android.
No differentiation.

It definitely isn't wrong that a lack of differentiation is a problem for the BB10 platform.

I wouldn't go so far, to say that BB10 is their biggest problem though.
It boils down to a combination of things, from the wrong price, to an app store where one dev makes 30%+ of the apps you can find in BBW and their tendency to use old specs.
Of course marketing is another issue.

Especially when we compare Nokia with BlackBerry, we can see why a compelling strategy for the low and mid-end is extremely important.
It gets you marketshare and bigger named apps, because the volume of phones sold is greater.
A Lumia 520 that sells for 150$ will sell better than a Q5 for 400$...

So I kind of agree and disagree with you at the same time.

Posted via CB10

[Fnen90]

I don't think releasing another phone will increase BB sales...it will not. People are.xomplaining because they already have Z'sand Q10's (lack of apps). That's what we Need right now.

How come we still missing banking apps?? Like Wtf... oh wait the OS needs to mature hahaha. Not even a native Skype app. It is late, very.

[notfanboy]

With the company preparing for a doorcrasher sale soon, this may not even see the light of day. Why will they spend resources on manufacturing and marketing when pieces of the company will be up for sale?

[Roo Zilla]

With the company preparing for a doorcrasher sale soon, this may not even see the light of day. Why will they spend resources on manufacturing and marketing when pieces of the company will be up for sale?

A lot of phone components have to be ordered months in advance. There's a good chance that purchase orders for parts have already been issued and accepted, which would commit them to buying the parts. If that's indeed the case.... they may as well make the phones.

[lawguyman]

I doubt the z30 will ever be released now.

Hopefully someone buys BlackBerry and keeps bb10 going.

Posted via CB10

[FFR]

I doubt the z30 will ever be released now.

Hopefully someone buys BlackBerry and keeps bb10 going.

Posted via CB10

Fat chance.
Bb10 won't survive.

Just look at Symbian, palm, meego, bada, windows mobile, windows mobile 7, etc.

[avt123]

Too little too late. The Z30 doesn't stand a chance of being noticed on the shelves when the other high end devices (that will deserve the price) and mid range devices come out at the end of the year.

[mmarco]

The phones are very good, the big problem is apps...

Most of smartphones consumers want the important apps and BB fail on it.

Other problem to, is the markting and big prices...