[Ronindan]

Yes that's because most of their offerings were BB10 but that doesn't prove your point.

If you've the best phone out there but don't tell people about it, you get nowhere.. Its a combination of both, a good product and marketing/visibility.. We can't achieve the last part.

HTC is struggling and has recorded loss after loss of revenues. So, are their products not appealing? Hell, they perfected the hardware build when other android OEMs were slapping plastic.. So in the end, No, Its not enough to have a good appealing product. Its not more important than visibility.

Visibility can make a half baked product sell but a good product won't sell without it, no matter how fantastic it is.

BB still remain a household name in Canada (since it is a Canadian company after all) and BB did have a solid marketing drive for BB10 here (print and tv ads, multimedia and sponsorship spots).

For example:







But BB marketing effort did not result to sales, as Canadians switched to Android and IOS. In the end BB10 was not appealing to Canadians, even when it was marketed to them.

And as for HTC they lost their market because they spread themselves too thin. They tried to become Apple - but like BB they do not have the logistic/infrastructure and more importantly the resources to pull it off.

[Sairos]

BB still remain a household name in Canada (since it is a Canadian company after all) and BB did have a solid marketing drive for BB10 here (print and tv ads, multimedia and sponsorship spots).

For example:







But BB marketing effort did not result to sales, as Canadians switched to Android and IOS. In the end BB10 was not appealing to Canadians, even when it was marketed to them.

And as for HTC they lost their market because they spread themselves too thin. They tried to become Apple - but like BB they do not have the logistic/infrastructure and more importantly the resources to pull it off.

You decided to do a presentation about BlackBerry's Strong marketing in Canada? I already told you "Yes that's because most of their offerings were BB10"

People want apps, so market devices without apps all you want, people won't buy. But don't tell me that an appealing product is more important than marketing and visibility. I already explained to you that a good product + visibility is the optimal way. In BlackBerry's devices, the good product was absent because of the lack of apps.

"And as for HTC they lost their market because they spread themselves too thin." I won't go into that because its not our main discussion. It was brought into the conversation to show that you can have an appealing fantastic product yet you still end up losing. If you disagree that HTC devices are appealing and good, then its your opinion of course.

"but like BB they do not have the logistic/infrastructure and more importantly the resources to pull it off." That's one of the reasons why an appealing product is not enough.. See xD? You actually agree yourself.. Why are we talking then?

[David Tyler]

That's what she said.

Works for almost everything, doesn't it?



Passport SE: All the snooty prestige of a device with a precious metal in the name at less than half the price!

[Elephant_Canyon]

Works for almost everything, doesn't it?

That's what she said

[GadgetTravel]

I can't remember if I graduated from High School. But, if so, it was long, long before you. I did briefly learn how to use a slide rule for college chemistry.

Slide rules are so cool. Anyway, I heard this story somewhere and think I'm remembering it more or less accurately. When they built the first atomic bomb, the Trinity device, they were all trying to estimate the yield. Edward Teller estimated it would set the atmosphere on fire and destroy the planet.

This was obviously disturbing to the rest of them. So Oppenheimer asked Leo Szilard to to check Teller's numbers. When Oppenheimer asked Szilard the results the response was "as usual, Edward was off on the number of zeroes". Gotta love slide rules.

[GadgetTravel]

If hipsters start using only BlackBerry phones I may have to sell mine

I wouldn't lose much sleep worrying about that.

[Prem WatsApp]

We need better hipsters... ;-D

�   "Chenterprise. We are the future. Resistance is futile. Prepare to BBe... "   �

[khlover520]

Hey if hipsters want to make that move then more power to them because BlackBerry needs more sales! And also because I'm tired of seeing only Indonesians and Nigerians on BBM, not that I have anything against them!

Posted via CB10

[CharlieV]

What the hell is a hipster? Is he or she a bohemian? A hippy?!

Forget it. I'm old and don't care. I'm probably a hipster and don't know it.

Ride or die:  PRIVelege-acy

[twelvezero8]

No its not OP.

I welcome my stalker

[khlover520]

What the hell is a hipster? Is he or she a bohemian? A hippy?!

Forget it. I'm old and don't care. I'm probably a hipster and don't know it.

Ride or die:  PRIVelege-acy

Lol its hard to explain what a hipster is but it's pretty much anyone who's always following the trends really closely and adapt to it. So if an old phone with a dial was trending, they'd be the first ones on it lol

Posted via CB10

[CharlieV]

Lol its hard to explain what a hipster is but it's pretty much anyone who's always following the trends really closely and adapt to it. So if an old phone with a dial was trending, they'd be the first ones on it lol

Posted via CB10

That sounds exhausting. They must all be skinny.

Thanks for the explanation.

Ride or die:  PRIVelege-acy

[glwerry]

As I have written before - I was a cobol programmer in a very former life on the other coast. We used punch cards and jcl. It would have taken up a room it not an entire building to get the storage we have on these tiny, little phones.

I am an old COBOL guy as well ... still in programming / systems analysis.
On an ocean cruise in 2005 I met a fellow who had worked on ENIAC! He joined IBM and worked on the big SAGE air-defense machines in the 50s - he had been a radar specialist and had two patents that had only recently been de-classified due to national security concerns.

I was so thunderstruck that I didn't get his name!

Talking about storage: I was at a small university that had a time-sharing arrangement with a much larger university. We supported thousands of students and the university itself on Amdahl CPUs. I distinctly remember that it was a big deal in my 2nd year when the CPU was upgraded to 16 MEG of real memory and 24 MEG of virtual memory!

Now my young grandchildren routinely use iPads and phones with THOUSANDS of times the horsepower of those multi-million dollar computers, for hundreds of dollars.

Like, wow, man.

[DrBoomBotz]

Now my young grandchildren routinely use iPads and phones with THOUSANDS of times the horsepower of those multi-million dollar computers, for hundreds of dollars.

Back in the 90's I was doing an install in a data center.
From the outside it looked like a public school and it was in a residential neighbourhood.
What should have been the gym was a raised floor, liquid cooled, haylon equipped, factory loud machine room.

The only person who worked their was a very friendly(as in didn't get many visitors) technician.

He gave me the $0.10 tour.

In the first corner is a big IBM mainframe and robot arm tape turret the size of 2 garden sheds.
It had 4 megs of ram and cost 4 million dollars in the late sixties early seventies.
Going counter clockwise the next machine was half the size and half the price and twice the processing power.
Each successive machine was smaller, cheaper and more powerful than the last.
I asked him which was the most powerful machine in the room.
It was the sun workstation on his desk.

[CharlieV]

Okay. That's a good hipster story. I think. I had to test a program I wrote using a stack of punch cards. And attempted writing an AI program In DOS, printing the program on a thermal printer with 3 inch wide paper. I wish I still had that; maybe a hipster would buy it from me.

I'm just glad to know that maybe I'm using a hipster device (my Passport? My Priv? I'm not sure). Meaning, apparently, that I may be in fashion. A broken clock is right twice a day.

Ride or die:  PRIVelege-acy

[GM1971]

I have laid awake every night since I first heard this disturbing news

Posted via CB10

[CharlieV]

hhahahahah.

True story.

Shopping black Friday at about 2 am and my wife has me in line getting a stack of crackpots or something. After an hour or so I get to the front of the line and an 18 year old emo-looking girl is running the register. I pull out my Passport to get a bar code and she goes nuts! Says it is the coolest phone she's ever seen, what is it, blah blah.

Then the other shoe drops. This was about a year ago... "when I get my first phone I want to get an old, cool one like that.". Doh. It was practically new.

Ride or die:  PRIVelege-acy

[FF22]

Back in the 90's I was doing an install in a data center.
From the outside it looked like a public school and it was in a residential neighbourhood.
What should have been the gym was a raised floor, liquid cooled, haylon equipped, factory loud machine room.

The only person who worked their was a very friendly(as in didn't get many visitors) technician.

He gave me the $0.10 tour.

In the first corner is a big IBM mainframe and robot arm tape turret the size of 2 garden sheds.
It had 4 megs of ram and cost 4 million dollars in the late sixties early seventies.
Going counter clockwise the next machine was half the size and half the price and twice the processing power.
Each successive machine was smaller, cheaper and more powerful than the last.
I asked him which was the most powerful machine in the room.
It was the sun workstation on his desk.

The printer was a "chain belt" printer or some such. About the size of a dining room table but taller.

Oh, the good ol' days.

[FF22]

I am an old COBOL guy as well ... still in programming / systems analysis.
On an ocean cruise in 2005 I met a fellow who had worked on ENIAC! He joined IBM and worked on the big SAGE air-defense machines in the 50s - he had been a radar specialist and had two patents that had only recently been de-classified due to national security concerns.

I was so thunderstruck that I didn't get his name!

Talking about storage: I was at a small university that had a time-sharing arrangement with a much larger university. We supported thousands of students and the university itself on Amdahl CPUs. I distinctly remember that it was a big deal in my 2nd year when the CPU was upgraded to 16 MEG of real memory and 24 MEG of virtual memory!

Now my young grandchildren routinely use iPads and phones with THOUSANDS of times the horsepower of those multi-million dollar computers, for hundreds of dollars.

Like, wow, man.

It is amazing to think about it. Most people can't even imagine what it was like. I can't even face what I paid for a pcmcia card for my HP Palmtop!!!!

[medic22003]

Well this girl isn't a hipster but I was at a rodeo event for work and my EMTs 21 year old wife was there. Heck she might not even be that old, he's only 22. Anyway, she saw my phone and said is that one of the new BlackBerry phones? Does it have the slide out keyboard? I said yep and showed her. She was just going on about how bad she wanted one. Didn't really have time to get into it because a young man was getting his head stomped by abull before I could lol. Either way BlackBerry NEEDS to advertise hard and perhaps not leave out the younger crowd. This girl isn't an airhead but she was the cheerleader type, lives in a rural farm community, etc. Get a few of the youngsters thinking it's cool and wanting what their friends have and it might just turn around

Posted with my shiny new Priv

[medic22003]

That sounds exhausting. They must all be skinny.

Thanks for the explanation.

Ride or die:  PRIVelege-acy

Lol they are the ones you see with scraggly attempts at full beards and skinny jeans.

Posted with my shiny new Priv

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

You guys aren't helping the stereotype of what most imagine a BlackBerry user being..... old.

[glwerry]

You guys aren't helping the stereotype of what most imagine a BlackBerry user being..... old.

Well, yeah, but some of us IS old!

I think that part of the reason that I'm so vocal is taking a certain amount of satisfaction in surviving this long in an industry that has changed so radically over the years.

Mind you, it seems to get harder every year.

Then again, this spring we took my Dad out to visit the new dairy farm: here's a guy who grew up with hand milking and horses.
They didn't have a tractor until he was 16 - although his Dad (my grandfather) was the FIRST dairy farmer in Canada to have a bulk milk tank (1952). Now, the cows are milked by ROBOT - my cousin, his wife and their son run a 75 head dairy farm by themselves.

Yup, times has changed!

[CharlieV]

Well, yeah, but some of us IS old!

I think that part of the reason that I'm so vocal is taking a certain amount of satisfaction in surviving this long in an industry that has changed so radically over the years.

I'm just proud to have survived this long ... period. Hahaha. I predate cell phones and radio phones. I remember my first rotary dial car phone. Yeah. Rotary dial. It wasn't a RIM product but it should have been because it could have doubled as a weapon. A proud day when they drilled the hole in my trunk for that whip antenna.

Ride or die:  PRIVelege-acy

[JeepBB]

Back in the 90's I was doing an install in a data center.
From the outside it looked like a public school and it was in a residential neighbourhood.
What should have been the gym was a raised floor, liquid cooled, haylon equipped, factory loud machine room.

The only person who worked their was a very friendly(as in didn't get many visitors) technician.

When I was just starting out in software (early 80's), commercial mini computers such as the DEC VAX were just getting a toe-hold.

Those mini-computers were themselves the size of a small filing cabinet but were "mini" by virtue of being smaller than the previous generation. Storage was on magnetic tape, or huge (filing cabinet sized again) removable Winchester hard discs. A sadly common occurrence on those Winchesters was a head-crash... spectacular to witness and hear! Imagine a noise like a buzzsaw/chainsaw as the head buries itself in the HD platter (a metal disc about 18" across coated with brown oxide). By the time you'd crossed the room to hit the big-red button... it was too late! LOL

I had one of those platters hung on my wall for a few years - a big brown disc with a circle of shiny aluminium in the middle. It was practically modern art, and was always a conversation starter.

In the 80's, here in the UK, building air-conditioning wasn't widespread... except in the computer room (that "room" actually taking up most of the basement floor area, such was the size of all the kit). That was where I worked mostly... and I'm sure the fact that I'm now deaf in one ear, has nothing to do with the noise of all the cooling fans.

Despite the noise, the computer room got loads of visitors most Summer days because it was so cool. They left before they went deaf... which was easy to do as the UK Summer often only lasts 30-minutes.

Ah, happy days....