[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

Hardware has always just been the gateway for BlackBerry to sell network services, be it BES or in the old days BIS. If you can get the CAL and access fees without the expense of hardware that hasn't sold enough to be profitable, why not explore it?

Posted via CB10

It is amazing to think about how much BlackBerry made back in the good old days of BIS. They could sell a phone with a pretty hefty markup, and still get ten+ (varied over the years) bucks a month for the next four+ years (original owner or resell owner) for that phone.

But we aren't back in those good old days where only BlackBerry had a solution for managing mobile devices, and could charge whatever they wanted. Looking at the EMM market today, prices have fallen drastically and competition is fierce.. but almost no one is really making money in this market. BES revenues and marketshare were falling, Mobileiron hasn't gotten a handle on their profits, and Good.... was in the RED Big time. It's only the companies that have other solutions to be offered along with EMM that seem to be doing ok.

[Shlooky]

It's over guys, BB10 is dead. They have an ocean of Andoird apps for the Priv, why bother and support a dead os?
I think all future devices (if any) will be Android based.

[rthonpm]

It's only the companies that have other solutions to be offered along with EMM that seem to be doing ok.

Thus the acquisition of AtHoc, and many of the other portfolio pieces BlackBerry has made the past few years.

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

Thus the acquisition of AtHoc, and many of the other portfolio pieces BlackBerry has made the past few years.

Oh I agree their portfolio is growing... but it doesn't compare to what IBM and VMware offers beyond just EMM. You just can't buy your way into that level of software solutions.

And sadly EMM on the lower end has become a commodity.... many email hosting solutions include most of the basic management tools that small to medium sized business need. Google does EMM with their online tools, Microsoft does EMM with their online tools - both include it their online email services.

[JulesDB]

I think the biggest problem is, John Chen is a pure software guy - no vision how a device should be or where to head with one.
If they'd throw an another device on the market with the existing 1.5Ghz Dual core and this 8 mega pix cam. - that would be a total mess!

Passport runs on a 801 2,2 Ghz quad core Snapdragon and 13mpx camera but BlackBerry itself forgot about that...

Posted via CB10

[Slash82]

Thanks for your replies!
You are right with correcting me considering "no visions".
I might did not write it in the correct way - "no visions considering handset business."

Chen is doing a good job with leading the software department in various directions.
Not doubt about that.

But he is "only" into that. Which is not good for the handset business.

[Troy Tiscareno]

But he is "only" into that. Which is not good for the handset business.

The handset business hasn't been good to BB for 5 years already. Why should BB be in a business where they aren't competitive and can't make a profit? Chen is a BUSINESSMAN, not a BB10 fan, and the decision was pretty straightforward.

If you owned a restaurant that sold burgers in a town filled with burger restaurants, and couldn't compete with McDonalds in price and couldn't compete with bigger Mom & Pop places for quality ingredients (because your suppliers make you a lower priority and charge you more for your lower volumes), would you keep selling burgers at a loss just because you have a few loyal customers who like your fries, or would you dump burgers and build a menu where you can turn a profit? Any smart businessmen would do the latter.

Don't confuse Chen's abilities as a businessman with his support (or lack thereof) of the smartphone business. Chen wasn't hired to save the smartphone business - the BoD clearly had already been resigned to the fact that BB would need to transition away from smartphones and into other lines of business. Otherwise, they'd have brought in a hardware expert to be CEO.

Everything that's happened since then has been pretty predictable (and I've been saying it since before Chen was hired, but some hard-core BB10 fans were always in denial) - the slow, unannounced (but strongly hinted at) abandonment of BB10 and the constantly-reduced reliance on smartphone hardware in general, with the focus on building the software portion of the business.

The only real questions were: can BB build software fast enough (before phone revenues die completely)? and can BB deliver software with the quality and focus necessary to be competitive in the modern market. Those questions still remain to be answered. The fate of the hardware business has pretty much been known for a couple of years - perhaps not every fine detail, but the overall trend was quite clear.