- Before I start the nitty gritty of this post and my rant, a little intro...
Anyone remember the original price when the Z10 was first released? In Belgium you got a brand new Z10 for the low low price of €599 ($800 USD). Currently (after 1 year) it sits at €245 ($337 USD) which in my humble opinion is the right price for this device and the Z10 should have been sold around this price from the beginning.
Keep this in mind when reading the rest of the post.
/rant
I was talking to a friend who owns a Z10 and he told me he was looking at an OPPO N1 for his next device. I had never heard of OPPO before, so I decided to google it and see why he was interested in it.
I noticed the N1 was a phablet and offered some nice features at a great price but what really caught my eye was OPPO's new and unreleased FIND 7 device.
For people unfamiliar with it have a look:
Looking good right? Right? Damn right!
Just take a look at the specs: OPPO Find 7 specs
I'll summarize some of them:
- 5.5 inches (1440x2560) 538ppi display (2K)
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 8974-AC chip
- Quad-core 2500mhz Krait 400
- 3GB RAM
- 3000 mAh battery (which charges from 0 to 75% in 30 minutes)
- Custom ColorOS
- ...
This thing sounds like a monster and it pretty much is but the real kick in the teeth here is not a superior Phone in terms of hardware, cause comparing this unreleased beast to the Z10 which is 1 year old is unfair, but the price tag.
The OPPO find 7 is priced at only €399 ($550 USD). Source => http://europe.oppostyle.com/14-find-7
I mean seriously? A 2K display, latest Snapdragon chip, Quad-core CPU, big battery, 3GB RAM and only €399?
How did they do it?
It has been mentioned before and it will be mentioned numerous times over, BlackBerry pricing is nuts. Just image what this Phone would cost if BlackBerry released it...
Companies like OPPO are given people the incentive to switch, they provide top of the line hardware at fair prices.
I love BlackBerry, I love it as a company and I love it as my phone. The biggest reason I stay with BlackBerry is the OS. The hardware itself is limping behind the market but it works for me and I don't need a quad-core CPU or 3GB of RAM as long as my Z10 runs smooth, and it does, thanks to the OS. BlackBerry affectionado's like me and I'm sure a whole bunch of other people are just staying because of the OS, but we like hardware too... I'm a techie, I love hardware, I love to push hardware to the limits and see what it can do. My Z10 is aging and I'm not interested in a Z30 cause it's ridiculously overpriced (Belgium doesn't do subsidized phones, we need to pay for it outright) for the hardware it brings compared to other offerings available.
For anyone saying that techies are rare, true, but there are only 3 groups when it comes to buying a smartphone.
1. Techies => they buy the phone they want cause they know what it can and can't do.
2. Sheep => they buy the brand they want cause it's "their" brand
3. The rest => they buy whatever the techies, sheep and the marketing departements tell them to buy because they have no idea that a Snapdragon isn't a fire hazard.
And let's face it, most people, even some techies conclude that a quad-core CPU is superior to a dual-core CPU because quad is 4 and dual is 2. They don't care about the OS being optimized or running smooth on dual-core, they care about it's more, it's better and it's cheaper (compared to BlackBerry)...
I'd just like the BlackBerry engineers to sit down for a minute, sketch a Phone that stands out in terms of hardware and have the sales team bring it to market with a fair price. This is IMHO their biggest nemesis. Getting a phone out there with a fair price and not acting like a premium brand, overpricing their handsets.
/rantLast edited by wout000; 04-05-14 at 02:17 AM.
04-05-14 01:53 AMLike 20 - 04-05-14 02:10 AMLike 0
-
I'm not flogging the OPPO, although it may seem like it, I'm just showing that a relatively unknown/small company can bring a superior device to market at a low price compared to BlackBerry. It's to show that BlackBerry pricing needs to change.
If you are familiar with any of my previous posts you'll see that I'm a BlackBerry fan and I'd very much like them to succeed so I can keep using their products.
The video and specs are included because I'm sure not a lot of people won't know what an OPPO is or why i'm using it in this post. Just for reference.04-05-14 02:16 AMLike 5 - BBs are overpriced. Everyone knows and nobody really care.
I bought my Q10 for more than 16500 CZK (about 820 dollars) in Czech republic. One of the most expensive device on market and performance compared to other Android devices, lol...
Posted via CB10Kashan Osama and keypad like this.04-05-14 02:18 AMLike 2 - In the past this has been contributed to by BlackBerry making their own devices - an expensive luxury which few others can afford (see: Apple), especially smaller players. It's also meant that they've taken on inventory risks. The move to outsourcing production to Foxconn should help significantly with keeping the costs down.
Posted via the Android CrackBerry App!04-05-14 02:22 AMLike 0 -
In the past this has been contributed to by BlackBerry making their own devices - an expensive luxury which few others can afford (see: Apple), especially smaller players. It's also meant that they've taken on inventory risks. The move to outsourcing production to Foxconn should help significantly with keeping the costs down.
Posted via the Android CrackBerry App!04-05-14 02:23 AMLike 2 -
- Answer is in dated business strategy. Before, BlackBerry could sell phones expensive cause they had something different to offer bis,bes,bbm,handy os etc. Today competition is on same level ( if not better), plus they don't have to invest in developing of the os(for instance oppo) cause Google is doing that.
So BlackBerry was is in difficult position cause they needed to generate revenue somehow keeping in mind BlackBerry World is poor comparing to competition and currently they don't have adds in os to monetise, so the only way they had is to pump the prices up.
Posted via CB1004-05-14 03:20 AMLike 4 - BlackBerry devices are overpriced. Apple devices are (more than)overpriced. Samsung devices are overpriced. Sony devices are overpriced... and so on. New companies NEED to propose aggressive pricing in order to attract costumers ;-) The market is full of phone producers and the ONLY way to gain a tiny place in there, is to throw in devices with BIG specs product at LOW price. Just my 2 cents..
Posted via CB10AcADIeN likes this.04-05-14 03:56 AMLike 1 -
Answer is in dated business strategy. Before, BlackBerry could sell phones expensive cause they had something different to offer bis,bes,bbm,handy os etc. Today competition is on same level ( if not better), plus they don't have to invest in developing of the os(for instance oppo) cause Google is doing that.
So BlackBerry was is in difficult position cause they needed to generate revenue somehow keeping in mind BlackBerry World is poor comparing to competition and currently they don't have adds in os to monetise, so the only way they had is to pump the prices up.
Posted via CB10kbz1960 and Kashan Osama like this.04-05-14 03:57 AMLike 2 - BlackBerry devices are overpriced. Apple devices are (more than)overpriced. Samsung devices are overpriced. Sony devices are overpriced... and so on. New companies NEED to propose aggressive pricing in order to attract costumers ;-) The market is full of phone producers and the ONLY way to gain a tiny place in there, is to throw in devices with BIG specs product at LOW price. Just my 2 cents..
Posted via CB10Genghis2k3 likes this.04-05-14 03:58 AMLike 1 - For some reason I wish to make a counter argument that the worth-buying low-end smartphones from BlackBerry aren't being mentioned yet, despite a proper vis-a-vis comparison, like the q5 to HTC cha cha, but I digress.
Value hunters are of a different market. What opportunities and Xiaomi are banking in isn't at the hardware level. They make very little to no profit from there.
Posted via CB on BB1004-05-14 04:25 AMLike 0 - BlackBerry devices are overpriced. Apple devices are (more than)overpriced. Samsung devices are overpriced. Sony devices are overpriced... and so on. New companies NEED to propose aggressive pricing in order to attract costumers ;-) The market is full of phone producers and the ONLY way to gain a tiny place in there, is to throw in devices with BIG specs product at LOW price. Just my 2 cents..
Posted via CB1004-05-14 04:35 AMLike 7 -
- Blackberry have always had an arrogant swagger when it comes to pricing. They didn't wake up to the fact that the glory days of being the premium, top dog were long over. Bb10 device pricing (along with the disastrous app gap) were what killed it at birth. Going in with small margins could have revived the brand and got bb10 established for the medium to long term. Another embarrassingly dumb, delusional decision.04-05-14 05:34 AMLike 2
- For some reason I wish to make a counter argument that the worth-buying low-end smartphones from BlackBerry aren't being mentioned yet, despite a proper vis-a-vis comparison, like the q5 to HTC cha cha, but I digress.
Value hunters are of a different market. What opportunities and Xiaomi are banking in isn't at the hardware level. They make very little to no profit from there.
Posted via CB on BB10
Thanks for your insights. Always a pleasure getting a valid argument.
Blackberry have always had an arrogant swagger when it comes to pricing. They didn't wake up to the fact that the glory days of being the premium, top dog were long over. Bb10 device pricing (along with the disastrous app gap) were what killed it at birth. Going in with small margins could have revived the brand and got bb10 established for the medium to long term. Another embarrassingly dumb, delusional decision.
I agree but you can't use that analogy on the BlackBerry devices running OS10. The Z10/Q10 hardware was already introduced in the market and being used by others. High priced TV's are because of new technology and being first to market. Once that passes the prices go down.kbz1960 likes this.04-05-14 05:45 AMLike 1 - Pricing is very important. BlackBerry always gets the pricing wrong. If they had priced the z10 at the price it is today I think the z10 would of been a big hit and would of been in a lot of people's hands. Their sales figures would of been very good. Now that the sale of the z10 is here in Canada is for $199, Telus, they have been sold out within a day. It's all about proper pricing strategies. They will sell if the pricing is right. Get BB10 into as many hands as you can to gain popularity again.
I think the Foxconn deal is what BlackBerry needed before the z10 came out, but that's over and done with now. Now that the z3 is coming at a decent price let's see what happens. BlackBerry can't charge the money it used to, those days are gone. They have to gain Market share again and popularity in order to start charging prices like that.
Posted by my awesome Z10anon(1464249) likes this.04-05-14 05:48 AMLike 1 -
sent from my bright red Nexus 504-05-14 06:06 AMLike 3 - 04-05-14 06:39 AMLike 0
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