[aha]

You are welcome!

[aha]

He is definitely aware of the rumor around the Android story and he choose to not comment and suggest everyone to read "rumor blog".

PassportSQW100-1/10.3.2.2339

[j21jam6]

Thank you.
I've been actively looking for this video for the last hour.

Posted one-handed via Passport

[Troy Tiscareno]

The lesson John Chen gives in this video is that companies who ignore or downplay the importance of applications (and, by extension, application developers) are doomed to fail, even if they are the market leaders. He gave examples of Pyramid, Sybase, and BB, all of whom focused on their own in-house tech to the detriment of third-party development, only to find developers abandon them and move to their competitors, which quickly allowed their competitors to crush them into dust.

For those asking why BB seems to be releasing an Android phone, this is the reason why. Without app developer support, BB10 simply has no chance of success, and despite what was, for BB, a huge effort back in 2012, they were never able to secure the necessary app developers. Largely, that was due to timing (being years late to the party often means you'll never be able to catch up), but also, app developers already understood BB's culture, which wasn't friendly to third-party developers, and so many simply had no motivation to support them.

Android may not save BB hardware, but it was clear to Chen from Day 1 that BB10 was a path of doom for hardware, and Android was really the only viable alternative - it's the only OS that both is licensable and has a mature ecosystem. At under a million devices per quarter, the choice was: go to Android or kill hardware entirely, and as has been pointed out, it's hard to sell a product like BES without hardware to go with it, for those who prefer to buy both from the same company.

[hoopitz]

The lesson John Chen gives in this video is that companies who ignore or downplay the importance of applications (and, by extension, application developers) are doomed to fail, even if they are the market leaders. He gave examples of Pyramid, Sybase, and BB, all of whom focused on their own in-house tech to the detriment of third-party development, only to find developers abandon them and move to their competitors, which quickly allowed their competitors to crush them into dust.

For those asking why BB seems to be releasing an Android phone, this is the reason why. Without app developer support, BB10 simply has no chance of success, and despite what was, for BB, a huge effort back in 2012, they were never able to secure the necessary app developers. Largely, that was due to timing (being years late to the party often means you'll never be able to catch up), but also, app developers already understood BB's culture, which wasn't friendly to third-party developers, and so many simply had no motivation to support them.

Android may not save BB hardware, but it was clear to Chen from Day 1 that BB10 was a path of doom for hardware, and Android was really the only viable alternative - it's the only OS that both is licensable and has a mature ecosystem. At under a million devices per quarter, the choice was: go to Android or kill hardware entirely, and as has been pointed out, it's hard to sell a product like BES without hardware to go with it, for those who prefer to buy both from the same company.

This is a good synopsis of Chen's feelings about the downfall of BlackBerry, and how he hopes to revive the company. He stresses that you can't lose focus on the customers' needs/wants.

For those of you who don't want to watch the entire interview, here are a few notable things -

- From the sounds of it, Chen is all for taking the company private, but it seems like has resistance
- He jokes (with some seriousness) about the marketing department strongly wanting to change the name of the company, but he is completely against it
- He has a timeline on when he will stop developing handsets, if they continue to not be profitable - he doesn't say what the timeline is
- He gives a few numbers - 30 million handsets in use, and QNX in 60 million vehicles
- He's all about licensing their patents - he notes that IBM has a great model
- He pretty much confirms Android - you can hear about it at 33:10 and 53:30

Really great interview overall, and I though the Q&A section was great. A few different questions than what I'm used to hearing.

Thanks, OP!

[js8229]

marketing should stop whining about the blackberry name and start doing some actual marketing.


Sent from my BlackBerry 9810 using Tapatalk

[Troy Tiscareno]

marketing should stop whining about the blackberry name and start doing some actual marketing.

I'm sure they're doing a pretty good job with the money and focus they've been given. Remember, as Chen has said himself several dozen times, their focus is on enterprise, not consumers.

As far as changing the name - they never should have changed the company name from RIM to BB, but now that they have, even though it was a terrible decision, it would be too confusing and too expensive to change it again. Heins had some serious rectal-cranial inversion on that one, so I understand Marketing wanting to change it, but BB simply isn't in a position to do so - Chen is right about that.

[aha]

I probably will hold back on buying BlackBerry 's Android phone but I do favor John Chen's decision. Like he said in the video, it's logical.

PassportSQW100-1/10.3.2.2339

[Aman Darred]

This is a good synopsis of Chen's feelings about the downfall of BlackBerry, and how he hopes to revive the company. He stresses that you can't lose focus on the customers' needs/wants.

For those of you who don't want to watch the entire interview, here are a few notable things -

- From the sounds of it, Chen is all for taking the company private, but it seems like has resistance
- He jokes (with some seriousness) about the marketing department strongly wanting to change the name of the company, but he is completely against it
- He has a timeline on when he will stop developing handsets, if they continue to not be profitable - he doesn't say what the timeline is
- He gives a few numbers - 30 million handsets in use, and QNX in 60 million vehicles
- He's all about licensing their patents - he notes that IBM has a great model
- He pretty much confirms Android - you can hear about it at 33:10 and 53:30

Really great interview overall, and I though the Q&A section was great. A few different questions than what I'm used to hearing.

Thanks, OP!

One other notable theme I picked up on is strategic partnerships. Chen is strongly for partnerships.


Posted via CB10

[world traveler and former ceo]

One other notable theme I picked up on is strategic partnerships. Chen is strongly for partnerships.


Posted via CB10

Agreed! This is a key theme with CEO Chen and I like it!!!



Posted via CB10

[donnation]

One other notable theme I picked up on is strategic partnerships. Chen is strongly for partnerships.


Posted via CB10

Of course, its not like there is any other option at this point.

[igor10000]

I probably will hold back on buying BlackBerry 's Android phone but I do favor John Chen's decision. Like he said in the video, it's logical.

PassportSQW100-1/10.3.2.2339

It is also logical that many more will refrain from buying Android BlackBerry and many more will leave BlackBerry entirely. Going Android is a blind faith jump decision into a bottomless pit.

Posted via CB10

[Smokeaire]

I've noticed that with every better "leaked" photo of Venice in G+ an ever increase of interest by Android phone users. It won't be the niche BB user that will save the device side of Blackberry.

Sent from my BlackBerry Passport.

[TgeekB]

It is also logical that many more will refrain from buying Android BlackBerry and many more will leave BlackBerry entirely. Going Android is a blind faith jump decision into a bottomless pit.

Posted via CB10

They are already in a bottomless pit. The Android move can't hurt.

Posted via CB10

[lnichols]

For those of you who don't want to watch the entire interview, here are a few notable things -

- From the sounds of it, Chen is all for taking the company private, but it seems like has resistance
- He jokes (with some seriousness) about the marketing department strongly wanting to change the name of the company, but he is completely against it
- He has a timeline on when he will stop developing handsets, if they continue to not be profitable - he doesn't say what the timeline is
- He gives a few numbers - 30 million handsets in use, and QNX in 60 million vehicles
- He's all about licensing their patents - he notes that IBM has a great model
- He pretty much confirms Android - you can hear about it at 33:10 and 53:30

He has got the share price down low enough to make going Private a real reality. I'd like to see them go private because the market has valued them worthless currently.

I'm a little worried about the Android plan and Google Play services from his comments. Sounds like their are still some major hurdles to clear and a lot of uncertainty in his speech for something two months away. If they launch an Android phone without Google Play services then they will have a sales flop, and just p1ss off a lot of the BB10 base at the same time. Let's see if Chen follows BlackBerry's PlayBook and releases something not ready or still without everything needed or "Coming Soon" or if he is willing to make the hard decision to delay. Hopefully they will get all their ducks in a row by mid November, even if this is an non formal deadline, because any later will be a disaster for missing the holiday sales season yet again.

Posted via Z30