[Jimberry Storm]

I agree, if only the could become a carrier rep. (like Best buy). Maybe save customer a few$'s by cutting out the middle man. I don't know spitballing, but they need a game changer, and I don't think it has to be soft/ hardware. What do you guys think

[Bbnivende]

How can this work with no advertising? How is it that Bell continues to list the Z10 for $649 and Telus for $449. In Canada the CRTC should force the carriers to disclose how much extra you are paying per month for your plan vs buying a phone outright. It seems simple but even on this site there seems to be the belief that phones are cheaper than they really are. Why would the carriers continue to sell BlackBerry phones if they are being under cut?


How is it that the regular Blackberry website does not link up with the Shopblackberry website ?

[bradpromac]

Try my 2 month plan:

Bring own lunch to work + make own coffee = cell phone

AmaZ30ed

[Affinity4BlkBrry]

.....this idea of selling BlackBerry phones online is pure genius on Mr. Chen's part. Selling direct does eliminate the cost of the middle man (carriers), and by doing so BB will save money. They actually will profit more from this because the ratio of how many phones they are selling now in actual stores is almost nothing, so the ratio of selling direct online is almost sure to be well above the store sales level. The risk would be low, because most online shoppers use credit cards as payment, so this would eliminate the risk of non-payment by the consumers. This would make ALL BlackBerry products available to everyone, basically 24/7. If all phone manufacturers adopted this system, it would kill the carriers because they only would be needed to provide phone service. Mr. Chen, I tip my hat to you sir! ("..you don't have to love me, just do as I say"!)

[Bbnivende]

You can get a z30 at Best Buy on contract for $29.00. Don't know how cheaper than that you can go for such a great device.

Posted via CB10

You do realize that you are paying for the device over the next two years. They could charge 0$ and it would make no difference. They will only sell you the phone for $29 if you pay X dollars per month for the plan that in essence pays for the phone.

[early2bed]

I think if all those carrier stores were really unnecessary, the carriers would have figured that out a long time ago. They all have all the phone models that people want and they already have the accounts and easy ways to contact their customers via text, email, or mail. Yet they still maintain their expensive retail stores. I wonder why?

[Rello]

It's a great idea. They shouldve BEEN doing this for people that couldn't get certain devices through their carrier of choice....but I gotta laugh of anyone thinks it will seriously help BlackBerry.

Like Bla1ze said, people are used to subsidies. People I know with the Nexus 5 didn't even get them from Google for $350 outright. Ok so let's even assume they take care of that problem and offer some kind of financing....still gotta deal with the issue of getting people actually interested in the product enough to buy it and wait days for it to arrive

Posted via CB10

[sisko2003]

hm.depends on where you live bla1ze imo. since some years it is quite common in europe to buy a device. it is cheaper then taking a offer from youre carrier where you pay a monthly fee for a new phone. plus a lot of people like prepaqid options where you can switch carriers on a monthly base.
a z10 at 220� from amazon is mostly the better deal. some years ago they gave phones with new contracts without monthly fee. but this changed.

[Bbnivende]

To make this work they would really have to advertise and offer the type of retail service that Apple does for their online sales. If you buy online from Apple you will get good service and or you can go to a convenient store. Apple does not undercut the carriers as well. In Canada they need to get the carriers to reduce their prices. I want to go into my Bell store and buy a Z10 for $299.

[Thesmartmale]

Here in the Middle East almost 1% of smartphone users buy from carriers and the rest just buy phones at full price.

Posted via CB10

[jamescpage]

I think that BlackBerry should have special terms if you buy a device from them, similar to what T-Mobile does, where you can choose to bay the device off over time. Maybe not over two years, but it may be a good thing to think about. BlackBerry would make more money per device selling direct, so why not have a a payment plan option?


Q10

[Troy Tiscareno]

.....this idea of selling BlackBerry phones online is pure genius on Mr. Chen's part. Selling direct does eliminate the cost of the middle man (carriers), and by doing so BB will save money.

Not necessarily. With direct sales, BB will now have to pay for retail/consumer-level customer support services, which are EXPENSIVE, or BB will gain a reputation for terrible (or no) customer service.

When you buy your phone from your carrier, you can walk into any of that carrier's stores and have them fix or exchange your BB if something happens to it, and that's what most US customers are used to. Many customers absolutely will not want to deal with the hassle of shipping their phone to BB themselves if it needs work, much less having to be without a phone while it is gone. And with so many BB owners being "business people", how is that going to work? "Oh, sorry, I won't be able to conduct business for the next 7-10 days while my phone is being looked at - please call back in 2 weeks." Really?

If you look around the forums just from the last week, you'll see a number of stories about BB's lack of direct customer service, with several BB owners reporting that BB refused to help them directly and sent them back to their carrier. How will that work for direct-sale customers?

Again, I think a lot of people who are suggesting that this is going to save BB simply aren't thinking it through. Something like 96% of all cell phones in the US are purchased from carriers. There are REASONS for that, and even though some of those reasons are slowly becoming less important, the key words there are SOME and SLOWLY. It's going to take a LONG time to wean US customers off of carrier service, unless every phone manufacturer follows Apple's lead and sets up an expensive chain of stores to take over the customer service aspect of the business.

[preacher2b]

It seems here in the US, the only carrier that "offers a discount" for you actually owning your phone, i.e. no subsidy rolled into the cost of service, is T-Mobile.

I like the ability to purchase direct, and I am on T-Mobile with a company discount, and pay less per month for service.

I don't know what's going on with the BB/TMO dispute, but weighing my options, I still get the best deal. Too bad the discount offered did not include the Z30, I'd grab one for my wife.

Buying direct and activating on any other network doesn't make cents! And the prepaid options do not offer LTE even though the cost is lower.

Posted via CB10

[DonMarcello]

@Bla1ze: Cell phones are not carrier subsidised in most countries outside North America(USA & Canada). Here in Barbados you pay full price for a phone plus the cost of the package you choose...and you're still locked into the contract for at least 1 year. For that reason many consumers opt for pre-paid plans so they can change phones whenever they want and avoid having to pay monthly fees for services they may not even use which come as part of the package. Eliminating the carrier factor from the equation may appear to be a bad move to consumers in NA but in most other countries it's a huge benefit.

[Playbook007]

Yes I understand that. But people complain paying up front for a device, but in the end are willing to pay more through the carriers.......foolish, but hey......ignorance is bliss right?

Posted via CB10

[Playbook007]

The problem is the carriers are the real road block. The people that work there sell what they use, not what is good for the customer. People who want a BlackBerry device have to literally confront the seller and demand for a BlackBerry device. So these people are willing to buy direct if BlackBerry goes direct and advertises direct. Hell the carriers are saying BlackBerry is dead. It's them who are trying to kill BlackBerry. Time for BlackBerry to look after itself. How many billions does Amazon do in a year. BlackBerry needs to do the same. Plus everyone then gets the updates on time. Another Carrier roadblock.

Posted via CB10

[Bbnivende]

The lack of after sales service will be an issue. I had a problem once with my 9900 and the call center in Irving Texas was terrific but they are no longer. Difficult to cut costs to the bone and still have great after sales service.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using CB Forums mobile app

[Rello]

The problem is the carriers are the real road block. The people that work there sell what they use, not what is good for the customer. People who want a BlackBerry device have to literally confront the seller and demand for a BlackBerry device. So these people are willing to buy direct if BlackBerry goes direct and advertises direct. Hell the carriers are saying BlackBerry is dead. It's them who are trying to kill BlackBerry. Time for BlackBerry to look after itself. How many billions does Amazon do in a year. BlackBerry needs to do the same. Plus everyone then gets the updates on time. Another Carrier roadblock.

Posted via CB10

Amazon doesn't sell its own phones though lol. Plus BlackBerry isn't known as a one stop shop for nearly anything u can think of.

I do think it's a good idea but here in the US, although it will give us a option, it's really not going to do anything for BB. Hope if helps in other countries though

Posted via CB10

[Orange UK]

For price sensitive people there will be a Z3 hopefully selling for under 200.

Posted via CB10

All the laid off staff at BB can get one when the foreclosure of debts come aknocking and the BB business phones as assets become appointed administration property lol. It wont matter BIS does not exist at that point as it will be sold off in bits BB. That's been the plan all along... no-ones going to buy a BIS phone on B10 when BIS may not exist... LOL shooting yourself in the balls there BB!

[Omnitech]

It's a legacy of the US carrier system.

The US carriers use two different, non-compatible standards (GSM and CDMA)...

While the points you mention are certainly factors, you completely missed all the political reasons.

The large telecom/wireless carriers are some of the most influential companies in the USA. They spend a LOT of money lobbying politicians and so on.

The simple fact is, they have become rather comfy with the lock-in that they have on the market, and are not about to give that up without a fight.

Great example of that is how it has historically been illegal to unlock a phone here without the carrier's permission. Clearly that's not a technology limitation because this is the same technology in this case being used everywhere else, and there would be no need for legal sanctions if the technology itself was the limiting factor.

When I first sold cellphones at retail, carrier service bundling was against the law here in California. That was because of the obvious fact that it obscures the true value of the product customers are buying and heavily weights the power in the transaction towards carriers and away from customers.

But California eventually relented on that, no doubt mostly due to heavy industry lobbying. But the reasoning for that restriction in California (which I believe was once more common across the country) is the same reason that this practice of service bundling and contractual lock-in is against the law in many other markets such as India.

And of course, up-front price is an interesting enticement especially in this market, since the US populace is infamous for over-extending themselves on credit. And another key reason why that sort of deal is not so popular in ie Asian countries.

[Omnitech]

You can get a z30 at Best Buy on contract for $29.00.

When was the last time you checked that? The first couple of searches I did found nothing, and in fact when I go to their smartphone section they don't even show BlackBerry as an available brand.

After noodling around a while I found some Z10s and Q10s, but no Z30. Nor any indication they have them in stores either.

[Omnitech]

It seems simple but even on this site there seems to be the belief that phones are cheaper than they really are.

The carriers and resellers have successfully exploited the gullibility of the typical customer in these areas and have distorted the perceived value of the product with these bundle/contractual lock-in plans.

As I wrote in my previous post, this practice was, at one time, illegal in various jurisdictions in the USA.

Blame the politicians for caving on that one.

How is it that the regular Blackberry website does not link up with the Shopblackberry website ?

It does in the USA. Hit the "Where to buy" link at the top of the page, select "unlocked", and it takes you right to the ShopBlackBerry page.

[Omnitech]

To make this work they would really have to advertise and offer the type of retail service that Apple does for their online sales.

My personal opinion is if they wanted to push more product using the online route, they should simply partner with large online resellers like Amazon etc, who already have all the fulfillment, payment, support and logistics aspects handled.

no-ones going to buy a BIS phone on B10 when BIS may not exist... LOL shooting yourself in the balls there BB!

LOLBISPARTISAN

[extisis]

Yes I understand that. But people complain paying up front for a device, but in the end are willing to pay more through the carriers.......foolish, but hey......ignorance is bliss right?

Posted via CB10

it's kinda like using a credit card... you have the awesome feeling of buying sleek new device and worry about paying 3 times the amount (through interest) later.

[Gearheadaddy]

Bla1ze, you my man are a thinker...and I have to agree with what you say...but just maybe we can get the carriers to give us a break on the service end if they don't have to worry about warranting the handsets? Say a 2 year contract that gives us the cost back on the front end...just thinking out loud...At least we can get the updates direct from Blackberry and sooner at that?

Maybe but even if they did, it won't really help much IMO. Selling devices at $600, $500, $300 a pop just isn't really in the consumer mindset. People are used to subsidies and while it's great for those who get it and want to do that, it's not a wide market who does that. Most people just want their devices at $199 and the thought of paying full price for a device is outrageous to them.