[Speedygi]

Which other platform in history made it as a full success within the first fiscal quarter in which it was introduced, or two for that matter?

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[Bla1ze]

Especially given Thorstens first year was spent attempting to clean up after other people's mess.

[sinsin07]

Which other platform in history made it as a full success within the first fiscal quarter in which it was introduced, or two for that matter?

What is your definition of full success.

[Speedygi]

What is your definition of full success.

Whatever that does not constitute needing to consider a sale of the company lol...

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[sinsin07]

Whatever that does not constitute needing to consider a sale of the company lol...

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What company, when they first launched their mobile platform, was heavily dependent on handset sales?

[Speedygi]

Look at Blackberry's cash position. Even if they were dependent on handset sales, the current situation doesn't require a CEO to announce that they were forming a committee to consider alternatives.

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[Bbnivende]

At this point in time , consumers have the expectation that your phone should be reliable and OS mainly bug free . Maybe WP8 is in the same state but I am more confident in the other platforms . My BBOS is working just fine.

[birdman_38]

Which other platform in history made it as a full success within the first fiscal quarter in which it was introduced, or two for that matter?

Your question is irrelevant because BlackBerry's leadership is not doing everything they can to help the new offering reach its full potential

People really need to stop comparing the success of BlackBerry 10 to that of other platforms in the first couple quarters. BlackBerry's greatest competition is themselves!

[Speedygi]

Your question is irrelevant because BlackBerry's leadership is not doing everything they can to help the new offering reach its full potential

People really need to stop comparing the success of BlackBerry 10 to that of other platforms in the first couple quarters. BlackBerry's greatest competition is themselves!

I'm not making excuses for Blackberry. I'm just saying the expectations for Thorsten is to do something no one has accomplished before at some point...



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[notfanboy]

Which other platform in history made it as a full success within the first fiscal quarter in which it was introduced, or two for that matter?

Nobody in the world (except maybe Thorsten's mom) ever had those expectations that you mention.

Classic straw man.

[Dougie011]

If the smartphone market was new, it wouldn't matter if blackberry's sales were slow. When they are trying to take market share back, they need to hit the road running.

[MartyMcfly]

I disagree with the OP. Thorstein and crew raised the expectations and they under delivered (on all fronts).


Sent From My New IPad using Tapatalk

[Speedygi]

Lol, I would go on a limp and say that Windows would have been unreachable in terms of market share by now, if it was that doable.

Yes, Marty, I fully agree. Thorsten should be shown the door.

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[heymaggie]

I give BlackBerry an "A" for effort.

Unfortunately, my opinion doesn't mean much. What kind of considerations were you thinking about? A timeout from Wall Street suspending stock trading for a year or two? A special section at the carrier store for newly developed platforms? Some kind of financial aid program with guaranteed loans to fund app development?

[Troy Tiscareno]

BB *owned* the (much smaller) smartphone market in 2007 when the iPhone was released. It was BB's market to lose, but given their considerable lead and experience, they should have had little trouble coming up with a good answer for the iPhone. The problem was that the co-CEOs LAUGHED at the iPhone, called it a "toy", and never took it seriously until maybe 2010 or 2011, and only then *started* a serious effort to come up with an alternative.

That 3+ years of inaction is why BB is facing a sale or breakup of the company. While there's no doubt that BB has continued to make a long string of mistakes since then, those three years were the "iceberg" and the co-CEOs rammed it at flank speed, thinking their ship was unsinkable.

TH and his crew has made plenty of mistakes, but the ship was virtually assured to sink even if they did everything right, because it was already taking on water faster than could be handled.

But BB has no one to blame but themselves. They are playing in one of the fastest-moving, most-contested markets in the world right now, and at this level, there are simply no excuses. You either bring your A-game, or the market punishes you. BB hasn't had an A-game in 7+ years, and only a bit of that is TH's fault.

[Chicago777Guy]

So Troy seems like as per you there is a zero percent chance of any kind of success...Any constructive thoughts going forward?

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[West Coast Flavor]

They leap frogged the competition bro.. You're crazy.

[TheQuietRioter]

BlackBerry and Apple have always been my go to products for handhelds.

More BlackBerry over Apple.

I love my Z10 and I love my iPod.

Both give me the best of both worlds.

I'm Happy BlackBerry attempted their come back. It shows me they aren't going down without a fight.
Thor is highly respected by me, and I wish them all the best.


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[Troy Tiscareno]

So Troy seems like as per you there is a zero percent chance of any kind of success...Any constructive thoughts going forward?

Look, don't think I'm happy about this. I've been following this story for years, and back in 2008, I was wondering why BB's BoD didn't fire the founders and get some new leadership in there. Competition is GOOD for the market, no matter which company's gear you use, because when one company innovates, it forces others to do so as well.

But the signs are all there for anyone to see. BB is crashing right now, and people are abandoning ship. I've been through these things myself several times. I worked for what was once the 4th largest credit card company in the world, who was out of business 2 years later. And I've seen this happen to a number of tech companies as well. The market is NOT forgiving of serious mistakes, and even minor ones are very expensive. That's just how it is.

I've said elsewhere that there is nothing inherently wrong with the BB10 phones, hardware or OS, other than the OS has a steep learning curve for new users that a great many potential buyers never overcome, and thus either buy something else in the first place or return their BB10 phone.

But phones aren't just phones anymore, they are the entry point into ecosystems, and BB has never had any significant ecosystem, and software and cloud-based apps and services aren't in their DNA. That shows, because they've never had any significant cross-platform services, and had only limited relationships with media companies prior to BB10. They also only have (currently) 3 phones in their ecosystem, with no tablets or other formats (beyond the Z30) in the near future. IMO, that's just not enough in 2013. People want a phone, but they also want a tablet that works with the same apps (many of which they pay for) and media, and they also want the same services available on the desktop. BB just doesn't offer that.

BB has a number of other problems (bad brand image, lousy advertising, etc.), but you can't fix those until you have a product that customers want, and most customers want an ECOSYSTEM, not just a phone, in 2013.

So, no, I don't really see a future for BB. At this point, I don't think they'll be a phone manufacturer in 2014, though the company may continue to exist in some form or another. I just don't see how anyone HERE will still care about BB at that point, when they're no longer making consumer products. Is anyone anxious to run QNX, or install BES10 to manage Android phones? Maybe, but not very many of the folks here.

I may be the messenger bringing the bad news (to some), but I had nothing to do with causing the news to be bad. I just call it like I see it, and the overwhelming data from all fronts is very bad right now.

It's okay if folks disagree, or even if they don't like my viewpoint. It won't change my analysis of the situation, though.

As for constructive thoughts going forward? I suppose that each person is going to need to seriously evaluate their options. BB phones aren't going to stop working tomorrow or anything, but they won't last forever, and at some point, it seems clear that users are going to have to move to a different ecosystem. It wouldn't hurt for many folks here to take a fresh, unbiased look at what the other 3 platforms have to offer. Many people here clearly have stayed deep in the BB bubble and have no idea what's been going on in the world outside it, and many will be surprised at what is available.

No, it won't be BB10, and I get that that's upsetting for a lot of people. I've had tech that I really liked become obsolete, and it sucks, but you move on, and you have to realize that, emotions aside, the world moves on because the newer choices are better than the old ones overall.

For those who really like their gestures, it should be noted that there are gesture-based skins for Android. Again, it's not going to be BB10, but it might help ease your transition. At the end of the day, though, everyone has a choice to make, and they should choose what's best for them. I just recommend that they set their emotions and biases aside and give each system a fair shake before deciding.

[Bbnivende]

On the ecosystem:
I have a BB, Ipad and a Apple PC and Ipod. My phone can be a one off. This idea of needing to belong to one ecosystem is overblown ... in practice ... but maybe not in perception.

[Speedygi]

Much of the market has been spoiled by the presence of iPhones as well, and even Android needed a wholly different tactic to surpass iOS, so It's really clear Blackberry can't really go about it straight up.


Technically Blackberry is still leading Windows Phone (albeit only by a percent), so it just makes the whole idea about selling a little premature, even given the faults of Blackberry.

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[Roo Zilla]

I'm not making excuses for Blackberry. I'm just saying the expectations for Thorsten is to do something no one has accomplished before at some point...



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This is absurd. Let's see...... What Apple did the past 6+ years.... guess what? No one else has accomplished the same before at any point in time. What Google has done the past 5+ years.... guess what? No one else has accomplished the same before at any point in time. What Samsung has done the past 4+ years... guess what?

Smartphones are a relatively new market. The new crop of smartphones (post iPhone) is only 6+ years old. Everybody is new to the game. Nobody has done previously what's being done today. It's all new and a growing market, the winners are those who come up with the best ideas. Xiaomi didn't exist 3 years ago and they didn't have a product 2 years ago, but by 2014 they're going to outsell BlackBerry and the guy who started it is a billionaire. In 3 years. Nobody's done that before either. What has BBRY done the past 3 years? That basically means that BBRY management is doing a lousy job.

[Alex_Hong]

Much of the market has been spoiled by the presence of iPhones as well, and even Android needed a wholly different tactic to surpass iOS, so It's really clear Blackberry can't really go about it straight up.


Technically Blackberry is still leading Windows Phone (albeit only by a percent), so it just makes the whole idea about selling a little premature, even given the faults of Blackberry.

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Well, technically. BlackBerry is on a downwards trend, whereas Windows Phone is on an upwards trend. It shouldn't be long until eventually Windows Phone will surpass BlackBerry. I think it's not too early to consider a sale, at this point I think they need to consider all options, even the ones that BlackBerry fans do not want to see.

I'll be very interested in the amount of devices shipped next quarter.

[birdman_38]

It's all new and a growing market, the winners are those who come up with the best ideas.

I agree with what you said except for that. The ones who come out on top are the ones with the biggest advertising budgets.

[Speedygi]

This is absurd. Let's see...... What Apple did the past 6+ years.... guess what? No one else has accomplished the same before at any point in time. What Google has done the past 5+ years.... guess what? No one else has accomplished the same before at any point in time. What Samsung has done the past 4+ years... guess what?

Smartphones are a relatively new market. The new crop of smartphones (post iPhone) is only 6+ years old. Everybody is new to the game. Nobody has done previously what's being done today. It's all new and a growing market, the winners are those who come up with the best ideas. Xiaomi didn't exist 3 years ago and they didn't have a product 2 years ago, but by 2014 they're going to outsell BlackBerry and the guy who started it is a billionaire. In 3 years. Nobody's done that before either. What has BBRY done the past 3 years? That basically means that BBRY management is doing a lousy job.

Lol Everyone is going to outsell Blackberry...what are ya talking about?

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