[sorinv]

Software companies that could diversify BBRY instead of putting yet more eggs into the device basket.

No software that BlackBerry didn't develop or had on its roadmap BEFORE Chen joined.
Can you please name one software product that BlackBerry developed (not acquired) under Chen that sells in hundreds of millions of dollars per quarter?

[sorinv]

Great for your specific use case.

Unfortunately, I have to account for my 7-year-old for some things like long trips or grocery shopping, so Netflix and Hulu are required - no BB10 equivalent. For me personally; no NPR app for BB10, my credit union (bank) has no app for BB10, none of my insurance companies have apps for BB10, no AutoCAD 360 for BB10, no Autodesk Sketchbook for BB10. So, I have to rely on Android apps to cover those. I also like my IMDB, Newegg, eBay, LSU Sports, and Google Earth apps.

None of those android apps I use are developed by 10 year olds, by the way. So you really don't need to make such blanket statements. Are there a lot of trash apps? Sure. You could say the same for BBW a year ago. They cleared a lot out recently, but still, they were there.

I do run about all of 10 BB10 apps, beyond the ones that come with the OS.

Also, ghostcommander is an android app - just ported to BB10. But still...

Posted via CB10

I had Netflix on my Passport but deleted it after one month. I like watching movies at the cinema.
My bank has a bb10 app, but most often I use the browser and the bank website, even on the phone. It's safer.
Once or twice a year, when I need to deposit a check, I walk to the bank machine. In fact I walk to the bank machine several times a week. It's good exercise. I also walk to the grocery store as often as I have time, for the same reason.


I also jog outside, even at -20C, and listen to and watch the scenery around me when I do. It's the best time to think. Never carry a phone or fitness monitoring device while doing so.

Yes, I know ghostcommander, Kobo, and 7 digital are android ports.
I monitor them all the time. I don't trust them.
So far, for over 3 years, nothing suspicious...

I don't need an app to go shopping. I stopped even using my bank card while shopping. I pay cash. The grocery store does not need to know what I eat and where and when I buy groceries and then send me spam by phone, email or surface mail...

I wrote that most (out of millions) not all android apps are developed by 10-year olds for 5-year olds.


By the way: a 10-year old from Finland has just hacked instagram (facebook).

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36200012

Having said all that, I have no problem with people using Android or Apple apps for everything. Everybody is welcome to their choices. I just don't understand those posting here telling people that they should not be using BB10.
Obviously, those who do are adults, have done their investigation, or else they would not be a minority. They obviously do not use bb10 out of peer pressure to follow the crowd or "market."

[early2bed]

I don't need an app to go shopping. I stopped even using my bank card while shopping. I pay cash. The grocery store does not need to know what I eat and where and when I buy groceries and then send me spam by phone, email or surface mail...

How about ditching your phone altogether and just walking over and talking to somebody personally whenever you need to?

[sorinv]

How about ditching your phone altogether and just walking over and talking to somebody personally whenever you need to?

You must be a George Bush Jnr. admirer. "You are either with us or against us."
There are things that make sense and things that don't.
Yes, sometimes it makes sense and it is more efficient to talk to people face to face.

[thurask]

How about ditching your phone altogether and just walking over and talking to somebody personally whenever you need to?

How are you sure they're not a ten year old app-writing spy?

/tinfoil

No software that BlackBerry didn't develop or had on its roadmap BEFORE Chen joined.
Can you please name one software product that BlackBerry developed (not acquired) under Chen that sells in hundreds of millions of dollars per quarter?

BES12?

Anyway, buying things like Good and WatchDox moves BlackBerry further away from the device-based roadmap to nowhere laid out by Heins & co. Look at their past couple quarters:

http://fortune.com/2015/12/18/blackb...-2016-results/

http://m.marketwired.com/press-relea...ry-2111019.htm

Be it in-house like BES or an acquisition like Good/AtHoc, software revenues go up in spite of flagging device revenues. Crucially, unlike devices, BlackBerry-owned software seems palatable to enough people. Devices for lonely paranoid neckbeards just aren't selling for some reason, hence the push to move to software.

[JeepBB]

@JeepBB, He could have stopped the hardware division months ago without making stupid decisions like launching the Priv, it was predictable that it would be a big flop, at least for me, it has nothing new or even attractive for the market, maybe in 2017 he could launch a U$2000 BB IOS and see how it fails again and again.

He needs the revenue that the Priv brings in (or was expected to bring in ). The transition to Software isn't quite there yet. Which is also why he didn't simply kill Hardware 3 years ago.

I'm not sure that the failure of the Priv was predictable. It offered the much-demanded Apps via the Google Play Store at long last and seems to have attracted ex-BB10 people.

Admittedly BB loaded the dice against themselves - high price, unfinished phone - but it was a dice throw that probably seemed worth a try. After all, BB had very little to lose by this time. The alternative was simply to close down Hardware ... and a last throw of the dice probably seemed worth the try.

[sorinv]

How are you sure they're not a ten year old app-writing spy?

/tinfoil



BES12?

Anyway, buying things like Good and WatchDox moves BlackBerry further away from the device-based roadmap to nowhere laid out by Heins & co. Look at their past couple quarters:

http://fortune.com/2015/12/18/blackb...-2016-results/

http://m.marketwired.com/press-relea...ry-2111019.htm

Be it in-house like BES or an acquisition like Good/AtHoc, software revenues go up in spite of flagging device revenues. Crucially, unlike devices, BlackBerry-owned software seems palatable to enough people. Devices for lonely paranoid neckbeards just aren't selling for some reason, hence the push to move to software.

BES12 is an upgrade to BES10 and was started before Chen.
I was asking for software products DEVELOPED by BlackBerry under Chen and not acquired by using Prem's money infused before Chen came.
You provided no example other than mentioning companies and products that were acquired.
Besides, none of these three individually sold more than 100 million dollars per quarter.
Software and SERVICES was 158million last quarter, which was the best quarter. That's for three old or acquired software products: BES12, Ad-hoc and Good.
So no, Chen has created no new software product that sells.
He has cut costs, laid off people, and acquired companies to show increase in software revenue. If he didn't, software revenue wouldn't have grown at all. But he paid for those companies more than the amount he sold so far.

[silversmith75]

Well they just rolled out BBM update for ios. They have video between ios and Android. Not BlackBerry. BlackBerry is doomed they keep doing the same bone head mistakes again and again

#luvmybb10os

[sorinv]

Well they just rolled out BBM update for ios. They have video between ios and Android. Not BlackBerry. BlackBerry is doomed they keep doing the same bone head mistakes again and again

#luvmybb10os

Yes. The first goal is always to upset the current userbase.

[thurask]

BES12 is an upgrade to BES10 and was started before Chen.
I was asking for software products DEVELOPED by BlackBerry under Chen and not acquired by using Prem's money infused before Chen came.
You provided no example other than mentioning companies and products that were acquired.

If acquisitions are out, then little if anything.

While in the real world, targeted acquisitions give BlackBerry revenue, market share and resources without much associated R&D cost.

The header on the top of their website mentions software offerings from Good, AtHoc, WatchDox, Secusmart, Movirtu, all of those acquisitions under Chen. Given the quarterly reports, the move to software facilitated by those acquisitions (in addition to using QNX for things other than consumer devices) appears to be pushing the company further towards safety, more so than anything they could do with devices.

To illustrate the effect of the acquisitions on their future plans, BlackBerry appears to be lumping BES into Good:

BES12 is now a part of the Good Secure EMM Suites, offering a trusted end-to-end approach to security, and allowing organizations to support a wide range of devices, including iOS, Android™, Samsung KNOX™, Android™ for Work, Windows�, Windows Phone�, and BlackBerry.

BES12 Multi-OS MDM - Canada

Transitioning to software is the turnaround that Chen was put in place to do, and it appears to be working out so far, especially in comparison to that dunderhead Heins.

[johnny_bravo72]

Well they just rolled out BBM update for ios. They have video between ios and Android. Not BlackBerry. BlackBerry is doomed they keep doing the same bone head mistakes again and again

#luvmybb10os

Meh. BlackBerry is alive. Only BB10 is doomed for now.

*ME173X

[donnation]

They obviously do not use bb10 out of peer pressure to follow the crowd or "market."

So I will have to go under the assumption that when Blackberry was number one in market share that that was out of peer pressure and to follow the crowd or "market."

[Jack Chin]

Chen is like a MASH surgeon who's kept the mangled patient from dying. He deserves credit for that. But it's a low standard-of-care.

Posted via CB10

[sorinv]

If acquisitions are out, then little if anything.

While in the real world, targeted acquisitions give BlackBerry revenue, market share and resources without much associated R&D cost.

The header on the top of their website mentions software offerings from Good, AtHoc, WatchDox, Secusmart, Movirtu, all of those acquisitions under Chen. Given the quarterly reports, the move to software facilitated by those acquisitions (in addition to using QNX for things other than consumer devices) appears to be pushing the company further towards safety, more so than anything they could do with devices.

To illustrate the effect of the acquisitions on their future plans, BlackBerry appears to be lumping BES into Good:



BES12 Multi-OS MDM - Canada

Transitioning to software is the turnaround that Chen was put in place to do, and it appears to be working out so far, especially in comparison to that dunderhead Heins.

Yes, but you confirm my statement: Zero products developed by Chen in software.

[sorinv]

So I will have to go under the assumption that when Blackberry was number one in market share that that was out of peer pressure and to follow the crowd or "market."

I wrote about BB10, not BBOS 7 or earlier.
BB10 was introduced in 2013, when BlackBerry was no longer a market leader.
If it is any comfort to you, I kind of despised people carrying BlackBerries in the 2000-2008 period, although I understood that they were very useful for our sales guys.
People were desperate to check their BlackBerry the moment the plane had landed. I was a high tech executive in the communication IC business in the early 2000's and yet I avoided a cellphone until 2008, when I had to be out of the country for one year and needed to stay in touch.

Even in 2008 and thereafter, I saw no compelling reason to buy the latest smartphone gadget: the iphone. I bought a BlackBerry phone out of patriotism in Silicon Valley because the differences in capability between phones was and still is largely irrelevant. Too small to matter for those like me who don't play games and watch netflix on their phones. (although you can do both on the passport).

My son had one of the first iphones. I appreciated the touchscreen and (like Mike Lazaridis) understood from day one that it would be revolutionary.
But the iphone was not a mobile laptop in 2008, therefore useless to me. Its screen was too small to conduct real work effectively and efficiently on it. To read and edit files, properly surf the web.

By the way, I read all the news and books on my passport. I have long given up on reading hard copy newspapers and books. It's more convenient when you travel and I don't feel the need for printed books and newspaper.

I am quite happy to use the latest gadget and features when it makes sense and for tasks that I am interested in.

[donnation]

I wrote about BB10, not BBOS 7 or earlier.
BB10 was introduced in 2013, when BlackBerry was no longer a market leader.
If it is any comfort to you, I kind of despised people carrying BlackBerries in the 2000-2008 period, although I understood that they were very useful for our sales guys.
People were desperate to check their BlackBerry the moment the plane had landed. I was a high tech executive in the communication IC business in the early 2000's and yet I avoided a cellphone until 2008, when I had to be out of the country for one year and needed to stay in touch.

Even in 2008 and thereafter, I saw no compelling reason to buy the latest smartphone gadget: the iphone. I bought a BlackBerry phone out of patriotism in Silicon Valley because the differences in capability between phones was and still is largely irrelevant. Too small to matter for those like me who don't play games and watch netflix on their phones. (although you can do both on the passport).

My son had one of the first iphones. I appreciated the touchscreen and (like Mike Lazaridis) understood from day one that it would be revolutionary.
But the iphone was not a mobile laptop in 2008, therefore useless to me. Its screen was too small to conduct real work effectively and efficiently on it. To read and edit files, properly surf the web.

By the way, I read all the news and books on my passport. I have long given up on reading hard copy newspapers and books. It's more convenient when you travel and I don't feel the need for printed books and newspaper.

I am quite happy to use the latest gadget and features when it makes sense and for tasks that I am interested in.

So then anything that has mass appeal is because of people following the market or wanting to fit in. I'd hate to hear what you would think of BB10 if it caught on and became the market share leader. Then you'd have to jump ship to another platform as you'd just be one of the masses whose been brainwashed.

[Powdah]

As a 65 yr old small business owner (design firm that uses a lot of sub consultants), my dream phone is a VKB Passport with high end specs (and am willing to pay for them) with BBOS10 that has a high end browser. I do use a few apps for exercise and travel (mapping, updates, etc) but most can be done very nicely through a browser. I personally think the lack of apps is over done, especially in light of using a good browser. The problem is a culture change is needed. That has to be marketed aggressively. Developers could develop for browser based apps and one app could cover many OS's. A benefit for all. I am very much a KISS principal person.

Last fall I spent a month in Germany and France - all the while in contact with my office and consultants. I could read specs, examine dwgs, and mark them up to send back for editing. Using Teamviewer, I was able to log into my server and actually draw, albeit a little slow depending on wireless speeds.

If BB wants to cater to the business crowd, they need to think in these terms. Mid range phones only make the user want to use something else. They need to make a device that is un-resistible, then market the capabilities. Show how apps are not needed. TOOOOOO many people are locked into what they think they know and will not change until shown how to change.

[anon(3983727)]

As a 65 yr old small business owner (design firm that uses a lot of sub consultants), my dream phone is a VKB Passport with high end specs (and am willing to pay for them) with BBOS10 that has a high end browser. I do use a few apps for exercise and travel (mapping, updates, etc) but most can be done very nicely through a browser. I personally think the lack of apps is over done, especially in light of using a good browser. The problem is a culture change is needed. That has to be marketed aggressively. Developers could develop for browser based apps and one app could cover many OS's. A benefit for all. I am very much a KISS principal person.

Last fall I spent a month in Germany and France - all the while in contact with my office and consultants. I could read specs, examine dwgs, and mark them up to send back for editing. Using Teamviewer, I was able to log into my server and actually draw, albeit a little slow depending on wireless speeds.

If BB wants to cater to the business crowd, they need to think in these terms. Mid range phones only make the user want to use something else. They need to make a device that is un-resistible, then market the capabilities. Show how apps are not needed. TOOOOOO many people are locked into what they think they know and will not change until shown how to change.

I agree with everything you said.. including your dream device. Passport with even better specs and updated browser would be AWESOME! The app craze for me is silly and only impeding progress as it locks you to a platform (bad for devs and consumers). I have never run into anything I cant do on my passport through a browser vs an app. Just had a debate with a co-worker about it and trendy social networking was all he could come up with.

[thurask]

So then anything that has mass appeal is because of people following the market or wanting to fit in. I'd hate to hear what you would think of BB10 if it caught on and became the market share leader. Then you'd have to jump ship to another platform as you'd just be one of the masses whose been brainwashed.

Wake up sheeple!

[Elephant_Canyon]

Wake up sheeple!

Are you insane?!?! Don't wake the Sheeple! You'll kill us all!

[ghostface147]

What a silly and useless rant. BB 10 is dead, the hardware wing is failing and there is nothing that can capture the mind of consumers........especially with zero marketing.

[Graheem]

Funny, BB Keyboard, Hub, Contacts and Calendar.... are all in the Play Store now.

And all running fine on my Droid. Granted Hub isn't as good as it was, but it has improved.

Interesting. Is your Droid rooted? As I have checked in 2 of the latest flagship Androids with MM and no BB Keyboard, Hub, Contacts and Ca lender available there.

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

Interesting. Is your Droid rooted? As I have checked in 2 of the latest flagship Androids with MM and no BB Keyboard, Hub, Contacts and Ca lender available there.

Nope... so far the Verizon Droid Turbo 2 isn't rootable. But Cobalt's tools allow the BlackBerry apps to be installed without root.

[blackburberry]

Ouch! Nobody has even bothered to leave some flowers, or a candle.

No, the board keeps saying they'll release some flowers "soon". In the meantime a decision was made to wait for the blackberry brambles to grow over. The PR spin is the bramble provides legendary blackberry security.....and flowers!

[martinjdub]

its tough to get BlackBerry's attention when you cant spell their name correctly...