[igor10000]

This week's extempore of John Legere makes me think - is the carrier support that BlackBerry has always been talking about even real?

At least looks like T-Mobile USA is not really interested in offering BlackBerry devices at all.

So how is BlackBerry going to overcome this and maintain the support?

Posted via CB10

[BBUniq01]

That is why Chen is getting paid the big bucks. Lets see what the next course of action will be. In the meantime, I am really digging all of the new updates with apps etc.

Zed 10 with 1925 leak

[Troy Tiscareno]

This week's extempore of John Legere makes me think - is the carrier support that BlackBerry has always been talking about even real?

At least looks like T-Mobile USA is not really interested in offering BlackBerry devices at all.

Carriers are interested in offering whatever phones make them the most money. How to phones make carriers money?

• Bringing in new customers.
• Renewing existing customers
• Few if any returns.
• Few if any calls/store visits for support.

BB used to do pretty well in all but the last category (BBs have always seemed to have their issues, sometimes hardware, sometimes software, but exchanges were not uncommon), and when that was the case, the carriers gave BB plenty of support.

Today, BB phones aren't bringing in the customers (very low volumes), aren't keeping the existing customers (2/3 of legacy users moving to other platforms), generated lots of returns (the reboot bug on the Z10 that took 5 months to fix), and still have their support issues that require carriers to exchange phones or provide direct support. This means BB isn't making the carriers money anymore. John Chen even admitted as much in his recent response to T-Mobile.

No retailer is going to stick with a product for very long if it isn't making them money. There is way too much competition out there that CAN make money for the carrier in today's market.

All of those wasted years between 2007 (iPhone release) and 2013 (Z10 release) was BB painting its smartphone business into a corner, because the contest stopped being phone vs. phone, and became ECOSYSTEM vs. ECOSYSTEM around 2010, and BB couldn't really even start building an ecosystem for BB10 until mid-2012. The world doesn't wait on those who are late to the party, and now BB finds itself without a seat for the big show. The phones themselves are finally reasonably competitive, but again, that's not the contest anymore, and BB's ecosystem is weak in every area, and BB lacks the resources to change that quickly, especially when competing against 3 (4?) of the biggest, wealthiest companies in the world. It's not a moving target either - every day, the other ecosystems grow and improve.

Chen is doing everything he can with the very limited hand of cards he was dealt, but I'm sure, as a software guy, he is working hard on Plan B, which is getting out of the hardware business and making BB a software-and-services business, because at least the company can survive and be profitable, even if it's a fraction of its former size.