[early2bed]

You're missing the point. I'm a trucking company. I have specific software I use by my dispatcher to run all the trucks out on the highway. As the dispatcher I know all their loads, all their delivery stats, etc. etc. The driver on the road has no way to see what the dispatcher sees in front of her on her screen. There is no Smart Phone App to interface with that dispatcher data and pull him into the loop earning the company millions more in productivity. Those Apps aren't out there yet and won't be for some time until someone like Blackberry opens their doors and welcomes them in with open arms.

When this app is eventually developed it will almost certainly be Android or iOS since 95% of the target users are already have these. If there really is millions to be gained in productivity then someone should spend about $100K and get an app developed. One of the advantages of an Android or an iOS app is that all a driver has to do is become credentialed, download the app and they can get to work - Uber style. This is exactly the kind of niche application that BlackBerry can not do.

[anon(9721108)]

not to mention the creator of BBM Gary Klassen who was with Blackberry since 2000!

Blackberry gets revenue from other sources like software development and for the automotive industry so the taps will still flow.

My main concern has always been if things ever get bad enough they would kill the computers in Waterloo that allow BIS and full functioning, etc but I just read this in AppyGeek.....

"it merits mentioning here that the company always responds to such reports by reiterating its committment to the Blackberry 10 platform so it looks like even if it doesnt release a new BB10 handset it plans on supporting existing ones for several years before finally deciding to pull the plug."

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

[Troy Tiscareno]

I create websites for companies, and websites always provide a simple but effective backdoor into that company. If the website is successful, many times the company will come back to me and ask me if I could create a small piece of software that would automate their business and make life a lot easier. I have always felt that this was the simple solution to all of Blackberry's problems.

All you have to do is ask yourself, "Who uses Blackberry phones?" Business owners, obviously. People that are not interested in kiddee Apps, but rather productivity. There is a huge untapped market there that would drive all the other phones straight into the ground. If Blackberry did it like I did it they would have game set and match point! They simply need a division whose sole responsibility is to program Apps for any business that wants to tell them what they need. That App can be completed for free for the company asking for it, and it should only exist on the Blackberry platform. When you look at the sizes of some companies (Walmart: 2.2 million employees, Yum Brands 523,000, McDonalds 440,000, Citigroup 251,000, etc.) one App specifically made for one "Industry" means hundreds of thousands of Blackberry phone sales in order to make life easier and more productive to them. The idea has never been to copy the other guys and make crappy little non-business generic kiddee Apps, it's been to create Apps for businesses that they can't live without. This creates enormous sales with customers so dependent on those Apps that they can never leave the Blackberry platform. Let the other guys continue to make their jogging and BP measuring Apps. That's not what we businessmen really want!!!!!

Anyone who took a look at BB's existing home-grown apps would laugh at BB in the face. Look at BB's Facebook app - it's a joke, despite there being a public API for it. Nemory by himself does a better job than BB does. Look at the Contacts app that's been broken for 2+ years.

And you think that BB should pay to make apps for industry for free? These wouldn't be developers sitting at home developing apps in their free time - they would be professional developers who are employees, with salaries, benefits, and payroll taxes. Is BB supposed to hire 1000 new developers to write all these apps? For free? How any phones could be sold? In the real world, even with a custom app for a business, that business will need to use many other apps, and often those apps aren't available on BB10, so you'd still run up against that wall.

I'm sorry, but this whole idea isn't remotely viable.

[Superfly_FR]

Some may want to remember that BlackBerry acquired a bunch of companies and merged a lot of their technologies in the "Enterprise offering". So it also makes sense they adjust the team composition. Don't know what's the proportion, but surely counts in the global number.

Edit : so I'd be curious about the final balance between job's acquisitions (companies that were bought) and those 200 leaving the company. Anyone has this info ?
Good Technologies alone should be +/- 100, isn't it ?

from last year.
Good Technology cuts staff in layoff as it prepares for IPO - Silicon Valley Business Journal

"According to its most recent IPO filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Good employed 799 at the end of September. Its biggest unit is research and development, where it employed 380, followed by 222 in sales and marketing,105 in general and administrative functions and 92 in professional services.

So a cut of between 100 and 140 employees would be a major reduction."
seems like Good has over 500 employees?

here is watchdox.
https://www.linkedin.com/company/watchdox
states between 50-200 employees

Let's say Good+Watchdox is 500+ people (don't want to nitpick or exaggerate).
Let's stick to BlackBerry's 200 layoffs figure.

So they actually "hired" (net jobs saved) 300+ people.

P.S: I'm always affected by people losing their job and in no case would I suggest it's "nothing". Thought I'd better write it down as I didn't previously.

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

Let's say Good+Watchdox is 500+ people (don't want to nitpick or exaggerate).
Let's stick to BlackBerry's 200 layoffs figure.

So they actually "hired" (net jobs saved) 300+ people.

P.S: I'm always affected by people losing their job and in no case would I suggest it's "nothing". Thought I'd better write it down as I didn't previously.

Those people already had their jobs.... have to wonder with Chen needed to streamline Good, how many of them might not make the transition either.

The real news isn't that BlackBerry let 200 people go. It's that after all these year of cutting cost, that suddenly there are 200 people that are no longer needed. It kinda puts to rest the idea that once Android was "finished" that their would be more focus back on BB10.

[randall2580]

Anyone who took a look at BB's existing home-grown apps would laugh at BB in the face. Look at BB's Facebook app - it's a joke, despite there being a public API for it. Nemory by himself does a better job than BB does. Look at the Contacts app that's been broken for 2+ years.

And you think that BB should pay to make apps for industry for free? These wouldn't be developers sitting at home developing apps in their free time - they would be professional developers who are employees, with salaries, benefits, and payroll taxes. Is BB supposed to hire 1000 new developers to write all these apps? For free? How any phones could be sold? In the real world, even with a custom app for a business, that business will need to use many other apps, and often those apps aren't available on BB10, so you'd still run up against that wall.

I'm sorry, but this whole idea isn't remotely viable.

Agreed BlackBerry doesn't have the in house talent any more, if it ever did, to do something like this. One thing Chen has been doing that makes some sense is partnerships like Nanthealth, in the same way that Apple partnered with IBM.

Its a good start and BlackBerry needs more like that.

[Superfly_FR]

Those people already had their jobs.... have to wonder with Chen needed to streamline Good, how many of them might not make the transition either.

The real news isn't that BlackBerry let 200 people go. It's that after all these year of cutting cost, that suddenly there are 200 people that are no longer needed. It kinda puts to rest the idea that once Android was "finished" that their would be more focus back on BB10.

You may want to wonder why BlackBerry successfully bought Good outright ?
A very fast research would have led to the only conclusion : no BlackBerry, no salvation. And these "already having their jobs" were in a - say - critical situation (and layoffs were running there too at a high pace).
I'm pretty sure some people at MOBL would dream of the same scenario given their current situation.

I'm not sure neither what divisions have been impacted. that's not an information I can read from a trusted source (e.g not a source that makes a fantasist X5 figures click and bait title). As Jared stated in the blog :

Also missing from the statement is what area the employees let go worked in. Earlier reports suggested the BlackBerry 10 and Devices teams were the hardest hit but BlackBerry has remained steadfast in declairing their commitment to the BlackBerry 10 operating system, most recently reiterating that commitment on the company blog.

So, I won't be extrapolating anything from this news. Anything.

[Evan_Parsons]

Probably android developers. Meaning that they're gonna drop android too. As well as more hardware designers, meaning the priv may be the last device after all. Huh.

Posted via -sigh- Priv. Guess we have to get used to Android guys....

Is this a joke? Because I laughed pretty hard.

[southlander]

Look, it's not that they saw no future in BlackBerry, many of the big devs intentionally refused to allow even BlackBerry to build apps for their services. There was a concerted effort on their part to ensure BB10 didn't succeed.

Yes and with the broad platform based apps being mostly a consumer driven market, that was inevitable. BlackBerry was not ever conceived as a consumer brand and only accidentally gained any consumer appeal. It was conceived to appeal to power player CEO types. And that will forever be its reputation at least in the US.

If you were a Netflix type of company, you wouldn't care about pushing BlackBerry any more than you would care about being affiliated with Cisco routers, or NetApp SAN appliances. You go to the consumer tech brands where the customers already "live". Apple.

Microsoft is having this exact same issue. In fact their ONLY hugely known consumer brand xBox is now losing out to the Playstation 4 which is made by a big consumer brand company, Sony. Windows Phone is failing (has failed already) because smartphones are a consumer phenomenon and Windows is not.

Apps makers have treated Windows Phone in the same manner for the same exact reasons. The brand reputation /appeal is not a good fit for the target audience.

[cbvinh]

Yes and with the broad platform based apps being mostly a consumer driven market, that was inevitable. BlackBerry was not ever conceived as a consumer brand and only accidentally gained any consumer appeal. It was conceived to appeal to power player CEO types. And that will forever be its reputation at least in the US.

If you were a Netflix type of company, you wouldn't care about pushing BlackBerry any more than you would care about being affiliated with Cisco routers, or NetApp SAN appliances. You go to the consumer tech brands where the customers already "live". Apple.

Microsoft is having this exact same issue. In fact their ONLY hugely known consumer brand xBox is now losing out to the Playstation 4 which is made by a big consumer brand company, Sony. Windows Phone is failing (has failed already) because smartphones are a consumer phenomenon and Windows is not.

Apps makers have treated Windows Phone in the same manner for the same exact reasons. The brand reputation /appeal is not a good fit for the target audience.

Microsoft had been advertising its phones, tablets and laptops as devices that you can run *Office* on. How much appeal is that for a consumer? "Yay, I can do *work* on it." At least their recent Surface commercials have been a bit more aspirational, creativity-wise, but they look like Apple commercials, which makes Microsoft's "branding" hard to see.

When BlackBerry introduced BB10, they didn't bother to point out that BB10 was something completely new. The whole "Re-designed, re-engineered, re-invented" slogan was fine, but they didn't actually say what they had done, other than put out another slab and very Bold-esque new device. They needed to actually educate the audience. Now, the new marketing campaign shows artsy people photos with an emphasis on security. Most people don't care! Target nostalgia! Show people pictures of the evolution of BlackBerry and they current model, which has everything you wanted (i.e. apps) in a BlackBerry but couldn't get before.

[southlander]

Microsoft had been advertising its phones, tablets and laptops as devices that you can run *Office* on. How much appeal is that for a consumer? "Yay, I can do *work* on it."

Exactly. They are stuck in the same quandary as BlackBerry. The user numbers and platforms are all in the consumer space. But the profits for these companies are all in the enterprise space. Yet they can't just fully cede the consumer market to Apple and Google/Android vendors, because those folks can chew their way up the chain and into the enterprise environments as well given enough time, effort, and partnerships.

[TGR1]

You're missing the point. I'm a trucking company. I have specific software I use by my dispatcher to run all the trucks out on the highway. As the dispatcher I know all their loads, all their delivery stats, etc. etc. The driver on the road has no way to see what the dispatcher sees in front of her on her screen. There is no Smart Phone App to interface with that dispatcher data and pull him into the loop earning the company millions more in productivity. Those Apps aren't out there yet and won't be for some time until someone like Blackberry opens their doors and welcomes them in with open arms.

How about this one? Android, iOS App & Mobile | Driver App | Free Download | Trucklogics

[TGR1]

When this app is eventually developed it will almost certainly be Android or iOS since 95% of the target users are already have these. If there really is millions to be gained in productivity then someone should spend about $100K and get an app developed. One of the advantages of an Android or an iOS app is that all a driver has to do is become credentialed, download the app and they can get to work - Uber style. This is exactly the kind of niche application that BlackBerry can not do.

Absolutely this has been happening for a long time now, particularly once tablets started showing up in volume. Also recall that Apple (don't know about Google) allows companies to set up and manage their own app stores, where they can offer approved app as well as custom built ones.

[GDubbin]

I feel like it is pretty safe to say that Blackberry will be moving on away from devices. If you look up any of their industrial designers that have been involved in BB10 phones they are mostly gone and it seems like the Florida office housed the Concepts group that came up with the slider for the Priv.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-allen-9aaa676
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-fein-p-e-0b60607
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bruce-ivanik-513a416
https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrian-davis-23159b1a
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ademaverne

This shouldn't be a surprise as with the acquisitions they are making have been targeting software and Chen has been reiterating that their sights are set on the internet of things. Which judging by most industry observers expectations of the market size and the potential to create efficiencies in the economy there will be money to be made in this sector and I have no issues with dropping a low margin business to focus on that. Let's just hope it all works out. Who knows, maybe one day Blackberry will be back in the consumer eye by powering various mobile end points.

[TonyP61]

The numbers are still fuzzy. Blackberry's official release says 200 but only confirms layoffs in Waterloo and Sunrise. The release says nothing about the people let go in Ottawa.

[crackberry_geek]

The numbers are still fuzzy. Blackberry's official release says 200 but only confirms layoffs in Waterloo and Sunrise. The release says nothing about the people let go in Ottawa.

As long as Johnny Chen is standing behind the curtain we can never expect anything but "fuzzy".

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

At times I've taught Chen said more than he should....

A company in the position that BlackBerry is has to be very careful not to be too honest, or it will only hurt future prospects.

[southlander]

As long as Johnny Chen is standing behind the curtain we can never expect anything but "fuzzy".

You can expect fuzzy as long as there is no truly great news to report, no matter who the CEO happens to be.

[crackberry_geek]

You can expect fuzzy as long as there is no truly great news to report, no matter who the CEO happens to be.

The problem is... no one trusts this CEO anymore.

Every time he opens his mouth or a major decision of his is announced BBRY stock gets hammered (or at least 13 out of 15 times... yes I've been keeping track).

Just look at the past few days again. Layoffs... which usually are loved by investors... and instead down significantly... way more than the overall market.

No one trusts him anymore... except for apparently a few die hard around CB.

[Doggerz]

The problem is... no one trusts this CEO anymore.

Every time he opens his mouth or a major decision of his is announced BBRY stock gets hammered (or at least 13 out of 15 times... yes I've been keeping track).

Just look at the past few days again. Layoffs... which usually are loved by investors... and instead down significantly... way more than the overall market.

No one trusts him anymore... except for apparently a few die hard around CB.

I remember doing a face palm when he was first hired and called iPhone users "wall huggers" while I was using my Z10, the worst battery life of any phone ever made.

Then Chen and his speech about how every platform should have equal apps.

Then in Sept of last year after massive firings he promised, implied that the worst was over. But he can't be trusted as we saw last week with more firings.

Then he gave that God awful interview with the Priv. How embarrassing.

Then he criticized Tim Cook and Apple for not helping the government break their own encryption. That was the point where I knew I'd never trust this guy again.

He is off the rails. He threw away any reason for anyone to trust this company or respect it. The previous CEOs never lied to this extent. And I don't consider even the PlayBook promise to be anywhere near this level of breach of trust.

Malfeasance. Crimes and Misdemeanors. John H. Chen.

Z30STA100-5 / 10.3.2.2813 / T-Mobile

[Superfly_FR]

The problem is... no one trusts this CEO anymore.

Errr ... I know at least one

Just look at the past few days again. Layoffs... which usually are loved by investors... and instead down significantly... way more than the overall market.

You can't seriously link current SP fluctuation and anything with such a low impact (200 layoffs) on global performance. Market is playing panic/speculation full throttle (China/oil), almost in any sector. Even the biggest ones in tech are feeling the shake in very unusual magnitude.

[ljfong]

I remember doing a face palm when he was first hired and called iPhone users "wall huggers" while I was using my Z10, the worst battery life of any phone ever made.

Then Chen and his speech about how every platform should have equal apps.

Then in Sept of last year after massive firings he promised, implied that the worst was over. But he can't be trusted as we saw last week with more firings.

Then he gave that God awful interview with the Priv. How embarrassing.

Then he criticized Tim Cook and Apple for not helping the government break their own encryption. That was the point where I knew I'd never trust this guy again.

He is off the rails. He threw away any reason for anyone to trust this company or respect it. The previous CEOs never lied to this extent. And I don't consider even the PlayBook promise to be anywhere near this level of breach of trust.

Malfeasance. Crimes and Misdemeanors. John H. Chen.

Z30STA100-5 / 10.3.2.2813 / T-Mobile

Chen never gave a rodent's behind about BlackBerry the company and its products, heritage, and such, as long as the shareholders are happy somewhat. He's hired to make money and hopefully sell off the company in the end at a nice profit for his task master(s) and himself. He would probably switch back to an iPhone for his personal device as soon as he stops being associated with BlackBerry lol.

[Chuck Finley69]

Chen never gave a rodent's behind about BlackBerry the company and its products, heritage, and such, as long as the shareholders are happy somewhat. He's hired to make money and hopefully sell off the company in the end at a nice profit for his task master(s) and himself. He would probably switch back to an iPhone for his personal device as soon as he stops being associated with BlackBerry lol.

AMEN!!!! Finally we're getting to a level of acceptance of the role of a CEO in a company that was technically a Zombie organization at time of that person's hiring.

[Doggerz]

I forgot the pushed update 2876 that has been on a rampage. With no apology. No update. No fix. And with malice they continue to push it on the servers.

Trust Chen? No way.

Z30STA100-5 / 10.3.2.2813 / T-Mobile

[SurfGuy9]

Sunrise was hit the hardest. It looks like Waterloo and Ottawa are the only two offices left in North America for the devices division.