[Dirkmyer]

At first, I thought that this meant BlackBerry will still be developing their own phones for NA Enterprise, and have Foxconn develop the consumer devices.

In this respect, doesn't it mean we will still see BB10 devices in North America, just in Foxconn Hardware??! I honestly don't think they would pull BB10 from the market, that's suicide, not a turn around attempt.

And honestly, I never really bought the phones for it's hardware (Although it is quite nice).

[kojita]

Well I believe the high end market for prosumers will be what consumers want as someone else argued.

Posted via CB10

[buwee]

No they will not in Canada and U.S

Poetry in Motion

And you must be the new CEO of BB? - and like you know this how?

[Peevish]

Focusing in enterprise doesn't mean you won't be able to get BlackBerry phones. Prosumer, remember? You might not be able to go into Rogers and get a BlackBerry, but there is zero reason for them to not ship directly through shop BlackBerry.

Posted via CB10

[kupfernigk]

I've argued for nearly a year that BB needed to exit the US consumer market; obviously they should have made me CEO while they had the chance :-( and saved a lot of writedown.
The fundamental problem is that the US consumer market is owned by carriers and dominated by three huge companies - Apple, Samsung and Microsoft. The two US companies are hugely cash rich and can therefore afford to act as banks for carriers stocking their phones, extending loans at low interest. Smaller companies will struggle, whether HTC, BlackBerry or even Motorola.
There is another threat from emerging Chinese companies like Huawei and Oppo, which benefit from the investment into China.
I think Chen's logic is inescapable; exit unattainable markets, allow a Chinese (Taiwanese) company to make phones, focus on software.
Because the Q10 doesn't need BIS or BES, I'll keep it as a phone. It's very good at that. I might even buy a spare in the inevitable fire sale. But, now I've retired, that's almost certainly the last BB.

[LMG1963]

Chen has got to do what's right to build this company up. The only thing is are developers going to want to build apps for a business only clientele. That's kinda what got them where they are today isn't it. If they are concentrating on the markets over seas then why not have one high end model that would attract consumer and business. Seems to me that one company has Done this and it certainly appears to be working

Posted via CB10

[heymaggie]

Focusing on enterprise effectively kills them in the consumer market. You don't see smartphone ads all day, and carrier stores/kiosks everywhere you look because people can just buy phones they want online and have never heard of Samsung Galaxy phones. These phones need to be marketed and retailed in order to have any presence in the consumer market.

I wonder if they will run ads for smartphones that say "Blackberry - Look for it at Work"

[Admorris]

Like watching a fish squirm on dry land...only a matter of time. Almost painful to see

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

[lawguyman]

To say that BlackBerry is "Ditching" consumers in the U.S. is simplistic.

Blackberry's short terms strategy is simply to focus on areas where it has the greatest likelihood of success. That focus in the short terms in on regulated markets: banking, government, military, etc.

What Chen actually said about consumers is more nuanced:

"So one of the things that I want to make sure that we all understand is, we are in an enterprise mobility, highly secure, strategic environment. That’s what we like to serve. And this is how we’re going to organize, that we’re doing so. A lot of times, when I say something like this, people come back and say, 'Oh, therefore you [don't] rely on the consumer. You don’t care about this.' And the answer is no, that’s not true.

I like to reach the consumer and the mass audiences maybe through our partnership. This is only a realization that what do we do well at the company with our employees and our infrastructure, and how do we leverage others to do?

And I hope you will see that the basic theme of the turnaround is not so much that when I say we’re going to do X, therefore everybody concluded we’re not going to do Y. And in some cases, it might be. But I would like to focus on actually doing well on X and then have somebody else help us to do Y. And so there’s always that priority, layering. And again, I’m sure that over time we’re going to have more and more discussion and you’ll understand that."

So, ultimately, Blackberry will rely on Foxconn to reach consumers. What this means is not very clear right now but I would guess the Foxconn's incentive in entering onto this deal was to market devices in the US under its own brand. "Blackberry by Foxconn?" "Foxconn with BB10?"

[milo53]

This move is simply to minimize their losses without giving up entirely on handsets.

BB knows they're done in North America. And you can say the same thing about Europe too, they're just not saying anything.
They're basically testing the handset market in emerging markets where they will try to produce a low cost phone (because they're minimizing expenses) to a market they can try to undercut the competitors on price - or at least be competitive with them.

This is essentially a last-ditch effort in trying to find a niche in the handset market without risking too much.
They've learned/admitted that they cannot compete anywhere else... they don't have the skill or the financial resources to keep trying.

The odds are pretty good that they will fail on their last ditch effort.

So basically Blackbery has given up on handsets and will stop making them (regardless of their timid attempt in Indonesia) despite what BB10user07 wants everyone to think.

Blackberry handsets are DEAD!!

Agreed, Samsung will squish Jakarta like a bug!

[BB10user07]

Another negative spin post...

Posted via CB10

[vladi]

I do not see what is the problem here? Nobody ever said that BBRY will stop manufacturing handsets, nor did anybody said that enterprise handsets will be strictly BB7 devices. BBX is here to stay and in order to accommodate its nature phones will still be high quality for enterprise and consumer usage. What Foxconn is doing is something that BBRY should have done with BBX long time ago and it certainly doesn't mean that there will be no high end devices.

The only aftermath of this statement could be that you will not be able to buy carrier subsidized BBX phone. Not that it matters to me at all since I've never bought device from a carrier, and I have been a VoiceStream user for well over a decade

There are so many online outlets where you will be able to buy new BBRY devices even including Foxconn ones.

[lawguyman]

BB knows they're done in North America . . [/B]

Actually, if you listened to Chen, he said EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE.

Blackberry's focus will be the regulated markets in the U.S.

You can argue about whether this is a good thing or bad thing but that is the strategy.

[RyanGermann]

In the meantime, I'll use my Z until I move on. LOL. At this point, I see no reason to get (speaking for myself) a Z30 when it finally makes it over to at&t.

I used to be like you :-) that is, I swore I'd not pick up a Z30 (knowing that my Z10 that I paid full launch-day price for would have such a low resale value that reselling it was just a waste of time) but then I used it... the AMOLED screen is just super punchy, device feels so good in the hand, and the performance (not that the Z10 was unsatisfying) is spectacular, and I'm a size queen (I "owned" a Galaxy Note III for a few days, but the build quality underwhelmed me).

I wouldn't encourage anyone to ditch a Z10 for a Z30, but if you play with one for 10 minutes or more, you may not need any encouragement... but if the next device out the door is another full-screen slab, it would have to have significant under-the-hood technology improvements or additions to be of interest.

...but to say that "BlackBerry ditches..." as the OP suggests is... well, let me put it this way.

Suppose I am going to make pastries... and I decide that the pastries I am going to make are going to appeal to people who run large corporations and they will be served at company parties / board meetings etc. I can focus my recipes and ingredients on what I think these target customers will like... but would I NOT sell my pastries to people who aren't C-level executives if they wanted to buy them? Of course I would still sell to anyone who wanted to buy. These are delicious pastries that are a bit pricey and may not be to everyone's taste, but if there's an even larger customer base than my specific target market, all the better for me.

What I really hope is that BlackBerry will rely less on carriers, more on direct sales of unlocked devices, and the world will (like many of us on CrackBerry already do) just buy the device with the frequencies that support our preferred carrier, pop in a SIM card and we're off to the races, and we're not beholden to carriers to issue OS updates, either: direct from the source like Apple does iOS.

This + the Foxconn deal is an opportunity for BlackBerry to hit the big reset button on the whole shee-bang... deja vu all over again.

[breakingpoint0]

While BB will not be selling to consumers, it doesn't mean the devices won't be available. Enterprise consumers still want to try phones out in a carrier store. Then they buy multiple devices so they are generally okay with placing an order and having it delivered.

Not concentrating on consumers just means, to me anyway, that there will be no marketing budget. They will still be able to get the phone, but won't have any marketing geared at them.

[kbz1960]

In North America BlackBerry excelled in both. They don't in either anymore. Where is the consumer going to purchase the phone? They won't be able to. You won't see another new BlackBerry device developed for the enterprise only in North America for a long time, if they can even be successful and grow enterprise business in N.America.

Poetry in Motion

You buy it online and use it. There aren't many walking into stores asking for them otherwise they would carry them.

[bungaboy]

I'm sorry you're disappointed in Chen's strategy to keep the company afloat. I suggest you listen to the earnings call.

Poetry in Motion

Perhaps it is you that should revisit the earnings call! You , it seems, are cherry picking to start a **** fest.

A lot of times, when I say something like this, people come back and say, �Oh, therefore you rely on the consumer. You don�t care about this.� And the answer is no, that�s not true.

I like to reach the consumer and the mass audiences maybe through our partnership. This is only a realization that what do we do well at the company with our employees and our infrastructure, and how do we leverage others to do?

And I hope you will see that the basic theme of the turnaround is not so much that when I say we�re going to do X, therefore everybody concluded we�re not going to do Y. And in some cases, it might be. But I would like to focus on actually doing well on X and then have somebody else help us to do Y. And so there�s always that priority, layering. And again, I�m sure that over time we�re going to have more and more discussion and you�ll understand that.

[kbz1960]

Focusing on enterprise effectively kills them in the consumer market. You don't see smartphone ads all day, and carrier stores/kiosks everywhere you look because people can just buy phones they want online and have never heard of Samsung Galaxy phones. These phones need to be marketed and retailed in order to have any presence in the consumer market.

I wonder if they will run ads for smartphones that say "Blackberry - Look for it at Work"

They have been dead in the consumer market in NA for some time now.

[bungaboy]

BlackBerry is exiting the consumer retail market. Only enterprise handsets going forward. It's pretty clear.

Poetry in Motion

Wrong! Just Wrong!

"And one important thing is we�re going to start collaborating on building handsets together. They will most likely take over the hardware design. We will continue to provide software technology, our brand, our suite, and we will collaborate on distribution channels. So this is going to be very exciting.

Our first joint product, by the way, is going to probably come out March-April timeframe, probably more April than March. It�s code named, actually [unintelligible]. And it�s going to be a 3G device. I�m not going to give you more detail on that. It�s going to be very, very competitive, and we�re starting with the Indonesian markets. We have another maybe six or seven different markets that we identified, that we would like to take these devices to. It will be based on BB10, and I think this is going to be an exciting, positive collaboration.

And the device group is going to continue to build out best-of-class technology and software, as well as some very high end phones. And our designers are already working on that. And so this gave us more [pipeline] to the phones, going forward, with minimal exposure, as I said, from financial.

[fragment137]

I would request your sources OP, Considering you're coming off as just another BB-basher...

I am not rejecting your claims, more-so asking that you provide some form of credible proof of it. I don't think BBRY will pull completely out of the consumer market, I think Joe Normal will still be able to buy a BBRY device down the road (Including Z50/Q30). Foxconn can easily make devices for North American markets at a much more subsidized price than what BBRY has done for themselves.

[bobshine]

Well I always viewed the Z10, Q10 as geared toward enterprises, or else there wouldn't had BlackBerry Balance on it. The Z30 thought is more focused consumer cause of the bigger screen size.


Posted via CB10

[bungaboy]

Ermm what high end business devices? They are only doing jakarta right?

Wrong. Read the ER transcripts.

Our first joint product, by the way, is going to probably come out March-April timeframe, probably more April than March. It�s code named, actually [unintelligible]. And it�s going to be a 3G device. I�m not going to give you more detail on that. It�s going to be very, very competitive, and we�re starting with the Indonesian markets. We have another maybe six or seven different markets that we identified, that we would like to take these devices to. It will be based on BB10, and I think this is going to be an exciting, positive collaboration.

And the device group is going to continue to build out best-of-class technology and software, as well as some very high end phones. And our designers are already working on that. And so this gave us more [pipeline] to the phones, going forward, with minimal exposure, as I said, from financial.

[bungaboy]

In North America BlackBerry excelled in both. They don't in either anymore. Where is the consumer going to purchase the phone? They won't be able to. You won't see another new BlackBerry device developed for the enterprise only in North America for a long time, if they can even be successful and grow enterprise business in N.America.

Poetry in Motion

Wrong again!

. . . And the device group is going to continue to build out best-of-class technology and software, as well as some very high end phones. And our designers are already working on that. And so this gave us more [pipeline] to the phones, going forward, with minimal exposure, as I said, from financial.

[bungaboy]

No they will not in Canada and U.S

Poetry in Motion

This . . . is just wrong! You have no basis for this statement.

[thatplaybookguy]

lower the selling price point of current stock, get it sold and off the shelves in storage. Make a new device that fits well with the business crowd, then make another for the consumer. Make them both cost effective. Sell like hell, hire some good talent for marketing. do something crazy that will get people looking at you in a new light. Use an aggressive campaign and MAKE FUN OF THE COMPETITION! They always do it t BB so why not.
Oh and unlock the playbook for HomeBrew Devs, works for other companies to sell devices.