1. cloetechris's Avatar
    I was wondering. Is it really that possible for BlackBerry to close their doors in the future?

    Personally I think it is highly unlikely. Look at BlackBerry 8+ years back. The company didn't have a huge consumer base and it seems like the company is moving back to what it initially was. The company might or might not grow into what it was in 2008. If we get to a place where the consumer base is low again (which I believe it is moving to), there is still a possibility that it would remain like this for years until they find that key part that will boost them into competition with similar companies.

    Currently Blackberry has +- 50 million users, if that drops to 10 million users, the company could still survive by only serving and building on what they could offer at the time. I believe that BlackBerry is not looking for market domination (that is just a bonus), but it creates a device or a solution that focuses on a limited number of users (even if is it 10 million).

    Please correct me if logic is incorrect.

    The company might loose a lot of market share now and it might remain like this for years, but what is the possibility of liquidation?
    Hussein Z10 and vietnamesetan like this.
    03-30-14 05:24 AM
  2. anon(1464249)'s Avatar
    Very unlikely.

    If BlackBerry assets ever do get sold, I see no reason why a small core company can't still keep running under the BlackBerry monniker.
    QNX is something that won't die out.
    BBM and eBBM is something that's being oogled at by competitors.
    Their patents are relevant and valuable to this day.

    BlackBerry might shrink and operate as a niche company but it's highly unlikely they will ever vanish completely.
    Last edited by wout000; 03-30-14 at 10:12 AM.
    03-30-14 06:25 AM
  3. CHIP72's Avatar
    I think Blackberry will continue on for many years in some way, shape, or form, either as an independent company or part of another company. It just may do so without being a smartphone or operating system manufacturer.
    JeepBB likes this.
    03-30-14 08:15 AM
  4. birdman_38's Avatar
    John Chen is likely readying BlackBerry for a sale, a process that could take a very long time.
    03-30-14 08:32 AM
  5. wincyUt's Avatar
    Anything is possible in life. Heck, Sansung & Apple will not continue to be the leaders in the mobile market forever.
    potatoguy and UnlimitedEra like this.
    03-30-14 08:47 AM
  6. code2solutions's Avatar
    Exactly. Take a look at Microsoft and Dell. The markets have changed since their dominance and they are responding to it as much as possible to be contenders. That is the nature of the world. It is under constant change.

    Posted from my Z10 via CB
    03-30-14 08:53 AM
  7. early2bed's Avatar
    10 million customers? What is that? Selling 3 million handsets per year? 750K per quarter? That doesn't even come close to being able to maintain a platform. Not when you have competitors that sell 50 million phones per quarter and use the profits to add features - and that's the smaller of the two competitor platforms. Blackberry needs to scale up or get out of the smartphone business.

    If they, indeed, do have two billion dollars worth of smartphone patents then keeping 20 million customers means $100 worth of patents for each customer. I promise you that any company in the world would sell the patents and forget the customers at that point. If I were a shareholder, I would demand it.
    JeepBB likes this.
    03-30-14 08:53 AM
  8. silversmith75's Avatar
    John Chen is likely readying BlackBerry for a sale, a process that could take a very long time.
    I don't think he is trying to sell the company. Look at how disastrous that went the last time. I think he was brought in as the" fix it man". And he is doing a good job. Hienz was good but when the plan was not working the just seemed tho throw there hands up. The had no direction Chen has given direction.

    Posted via CB10
    milo53 likes this.
    03-30-14 09:07 AM
  9. TgeekB's Avatar
    Blackberry will never be a big handset company again in my opinion. BBM, security solutions for iOS and Android, corporate handsets, maybe a cheap consumer handset, QNX. It will take a while but this could keep them alive for a while. Taking on Android and iOS will never work.

    Posted via my Nexus 10.
    03-30-14 09:29 AM
  10. crackbb10's Avatar
    BlackBerry, contrary to common believe, has never been so big as some seem to think. They sold almost as many devices in their best years as they have done in the last few. BlackBerry just happened to be the only player in a very small market at the time. BlackBerry sales have been quite constant in that ever growing market.
    03-30-14 10:33 AM
  11. TgeekB's Avatar
    BlackBerry, contrary to common believe, has never been so big as some seem to think. They sold almost as many devices in their best years as they have done in the last few. BlackBerry just happened to be the only player in a very small market at the time. BlackBerry sales have been quite constant in that ever growing market.
    Which isn't good enough anymore. That's the issue.

    Posted via my Nexus 10.
    03-30-14 11:04 AM
  12. anon(1464249)'s Avatar
    It's not.

    The issue is relevance. Are they still relevant in their current from? NO.
    Chen knows this and is scaling down to focus on enterprise and their core market.

    Just like they did when they just started.

    BlackBerry grew big but their focus has always been enterprise. We're actually seeing them return to their baseline. We're not seeing them fail, we're seeing them go smaller and more concentrated like in the early days.


    Posted via CB10
    TgeekB and cloetechris like this.
    03-30-14 11:17 AM
  13. seanwplandry's Avatar
    I can not see blackberry closing it's doors.

    That being said I could see them leaving the smartphone market and concentrating more on their business servers and BBM. Blackberry was never as big as people believe it was, just back in the day it was really the only good option out there for people.
    Blackberry still has the best security of any smartphone out there. the issue now is the fact that they have no top of the line apps and the ones they do have don't get updated as often as they should, marketing for bb10 was absolutely horrible, and while BB10 is a fantastic OS, it still has a few bugs and IMHO they waited too long to launch it. I get wanting to make sure you have a good running OS and not launching too soon but the down side to that is they took them selves off the smartphone radar and ios and android over took them.
    As a proud Canadian I want blackberry to succeed but at the rate they are going success in the smartphone market does not seen very likely.


    Posted via my awesome BlackBerry Z30
    03-30-14 11:42 AM
  14. TgeekB's Avatar
    It's not.

    The issue is relevance. Are they still relevant in their current from? NO.
    Chen knows this and is scaling down to focus on enterprise and their core market.

    Just like they did when they just started.

    BlackBerry grew big but their focus has always been enterprise. We're actually seeing them return to their baseline. We're not seeing them fail, we're seeing them go smaller and more concentrated like in the early days.


    Posted via CB10
    Well said. Concentrate on what you're good at. Forget the fantasy of taking on the consumer market.

    Posted via my Nexus 10.
    BB_Junky likes this.
    03-30-14 12:01 PM
  15. TGR1's Avatar
    10 million customers? What is that? Selling 3 million handsets per year? 750K per quarter? That doesn't even come close to being able to maintain a platform. Not when you have competitors that sell 50 million phones per quarter and use the profits to add features - and that's the smaller of the two competitor platforms. Blackberry needs to scale up or get out of the smartphone business.

    If they, indeed, do have two billion dollars worth of smartphone patents then keeping 20 million customers means $100 worth of patents for each customer. I promise you that any company in the world would sell the patents and forget the customers at that point. If I were a shareholder, I would demand it.
    Patents, like milk, have a finite shelf life too.
    03-30-14 12:05 PM
  16. cloetechris's Avatar
    Which isn't good enough anymore. That's the issue.

    Posted via my Nexus 10.
    Personally I do not think that a company's success is market dominance. I believe that BlackBerry should focus on what they are good at (BBM, Enterprise, security - you name it).

    As per the other comments and my initial thread, Blackberry started from scratch (limited consumer base, excellent products and services). From there all went well and now they are back at base. Hopefully they'll stay in business for a long while.

    I wish only the best for the company.
    Last edited by cloetechris; 03-30-14 at 02:53 PM. Reason: General
    03-30-14 02:01 PM
  17. jay64's Avatar
    I think Chen is very good at whittling down costs to boost the bottom line in the future. That will improve sale prospects in 2016 and beyond. On the other hand, constant cost cutting can undermine your efforts in countless ways and ultimately be counter productive, it's all a matter of degree and precision of the cuts. So far, he is doing well but there are only so many rabbits in that cost reduction hat. Rolling out "new" 9900's is quite telling as to how they see future sales growth and what markets they are targeting. Perhaps the other new/er models will help, but you can't buy a Z30 on AT&T and only online via Verizon. That should have been their flagship model with lots of splash at intro but they basically left it for dead. Perhaps an instance where cost cutting hurts. As to QNX, it may be the best OS out there but that doesn't mean much if statistically virtually no one is using it. It takes some getting used to versus other OS's that you just pick up and use.
    milo53 likes this.
    03-30-14 02:11 PM
  18. birdman_38's Avatar
    I don't think he is trying to sell the company. Look at how disastrous that went the last time. I think he was brought in as the" fix it man".
    Perhaps the same was said before Sybase was sold to SAP.
    03-30-14 02:57 PM
  19. crackbb10's Avatar
    Which isn't good enough anymore. That's the issue.

    Posted via my Nexus 10.
    I agree it's not what's gonna bring them back on top of the consumer market. But I believe there are enough BlackBerry users for BlackBerry to survive as a company for quite some time to come. Of course I could be proven wrong, which I would dislike very much.
    03-30-14 03:08 PM
  20. cloetechris's Avatar
    What except cost, is holding back BlackBerry to bring BIS to BlackBerry 10?

    If they increase the BIS service to let's say $15 per month, with limited internet (500mb ?), free bbm (limited voice and video) and 1 free mail service. I cannot see why this would not work.
    03-31-14 12:18 AM
  21. milo53's Avatar
    The revenue goes from 1.3 bil to 900+ mil is concerning, also when does the 1.25 loan payments begin and how much are they?

    This expense is never discussed. Curious.
    03-31-14 01:31 AM
  22. birdman_38's Avatar
    What except cost, is holding back BlackBerry to bring BIS to BlackBerry 10?
    The carriers have to pay BlackBerry for BIS. Therefore they want to move away from that model.
    jay64 likes this.
    03-31-14 09:17 AM

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