[Troy Tiscareno]

Perhaps not, but had AT&T sold through all of their K1s in 11 months, even if they'd started with only 2/3 of the number they actually had, they may well have had a different attitude towards them, and perhaps they'd have not just ordered K2s for online sales, but stocked the K2 in select stores. Even if it was only at 100 corporate stores spread across the country, it would have been a small positive step forward. Instead, by encouraging AT&T to over-order up-front, they under-performed, and assured that there would never be any positive momentum.

When you aren't in a massively strong and confident position, then managing expectations is absolutely critical to long-term success.

I'm an Audio/Video Integrator. I have to make complex products work together in a simple and reliable way - and frankly, that's not always possible. Too many things today rely on online services that are constantly changing, and on businesses that occasionally fail or are bought out by bigger companies. In the old days, if people wanted to listen to music, you bought them CD players, hooked them up, and knew that they would work until the hardware failed. Today, you have to find a device that supports their preferred streaming services, make sure you can control that device externally, and make judgements on how likely you'll be able to KEEP it working when the inevitable changes come along. And not one single solution has been perfectly reliable - things just change too often.

There are hundreds of millions of smart TVs that will never have access to Disney Plus, HBO Max, or any of the other newer streaming services. 6 months ago, that was not even an issue, but today, it's a problem that has to be solved.

The point is: I can't tell my customers "everything will always work perfectly", because that's a lie, and WHEN things break or WHEN they don't have access to something they want, they'd be upset. So, I have to say "I've put a lot of thought into the components I've selected for you, based on the needs you've given me today and what I expect to happen in the future, but I can't predict the future perfectly - I can only design in some flexibility, make the best equipment choices I can make today, and do my best to solve any issues that arise in the future as your needs change or as the technology changes. And it will." By setting that expectation up-front, they're much less likely to blame me when something changes that "breaks" their system - and so they're more likely to be happy, and more likely to recommend me.

[Chuck Finley69]

I don't think an AT&T branded KEY2 would have made any difference in the final outcome of BBMo if they had only sold it online while dedicating zero store space for it, like they did for their KEYone.

It helps because you can buy the phone same as cash or even cheaper interest free over 30 months. That means businesses save money. I believe the problem was a backlog of KEYone and not fully AT&T supported due to lack of advertising or shelf availability. That wouldn’t have mattered because it wasn’t possible for BBMo/TCL paying the required entry level to begin with.

[bb10adopter111]

Obviously they needed to deliver their contracted amount. But I think you know that what we are really talking about is that they projected higher sales than actually occurred, which would have had them push AT&T to buy a higher number of K1s then they were able to sell during the normal window (1 year), which in turn meant that AT&T wasn't interested in buying phones from them any further. It was good in the short term - they sold more phones up-front - but ultimately damaged their long-term relationship with AT&T and helped their ultimate demise.

It's extremely unlikely that BlackBerry Mobile could have "pushed" AT&T to buy more than they wanted to. I'm sure they offered them volume discounts at different quantities, and AT&T bought the quantity they expected would generate the most profit based on the combination of price and quantity.

What other leverage could BlackBerry Mobile possibly have had over AT&T?

Z10 = BB10 + VKB > iOS + Android

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

It helps because you can buy the phone same as cash or even cheaper interest free over 30 months. That means businesses save money. I believe the problem was a backlog of KEYone and not fully AT&T supported due to lack of advertising or shelf availability. That wouldn’t have mattered because it wasn’t possible for BBMo/TCL paying the required entry level to begin with.

Plus most business still get a subsidized prices on some phones...

[dmlis]

The point is: I can't tell my customers "everything will always work perfectly", because that's a lie, and WHEN things break or WHEN they don't have access to something they want, they'd be upset. So, I have to say "I've put a lot of thought into the components I've selected for you, based on the needs you've given me today and what I expect to happen in the future, but I can't predict the future perfectly - I can only design in some flexibility, make the best equipment choices I can make today, and do my best to solve any issues that arise in the future as your needs change or as the technology changes. And it will." By setting that expectation up-front, they're much less likely to blame me when something changes that "breaks" their system - and so they're more likely to be happy, and more likely to recommend me.

"There is so little Fairplay in the world. If our own efforts succeed, we shall have taken the first steps towards promoting the habit of calling things by their right name and looking at them through uncoloured spectacles." (Thomas Hope Robinson, the founder of Fairplay magaizine, 1883).

Your attitude to your customers is professional and decent. Real fair play which we miss often in supplier-client relationship.

[Troy Tiscareno]

Your attitude to your customers is professional and decent. Real fair play which we miss often in supplier-client relationship.

It's a small company and 80% of my business is referrals. I don't have the advertising budgets of some of the bigger companies, so I have to be better than their often-terrible, even-more-expensive "service."

[i_plod_an_dr_void]

Perhaps not, but had AT&T sold through all of their K1s in 11 months, even if they'd started with only 2/3 of the number they actually had, they may well have had a different attitude towards them, and perhaps they'd have not just ordered K2s for online sales, but stocked the K2 in select stores. Even if it was only at 100 corporate stores spread across the country, it would have been a small positive step forward. Instead, by encouraging AT&T to over-order up-front, they under-performed, and assured that there would never be any positive momentum.

When you aren't in a massively strong and confident position, then managing expectations is absolutely critical to long-term success.

I'm an Audio/Video Integrator. I have to make complex products work together in a simple and reliable way - and frankly, that's not always possible. Too many things today rely on online services that are constantly changing, and on businesses that occasionally fail or are bought out by bigger companies. In the old days, if people wanted to listen to music, you bought them CD players, hooked them up, and knew that they would work until the hardware failed. Today, you have to find a device that supports their preferred streaming services, make sure you can control that device externally, and make judgements on how likely you'll be able to KEEP it working when the inevitable changes come along. And not one single solution has been perfectly reliable - things just change too often.

There are hundreds of millions of smart TVs that will never have access to Disney Plus, HBO Max, or any of the other newer streaming services. 6 months ago, that was not even an issue, but today, it's a problem that has to be solved.

The point is: I can't tell my customers "everything will always work perfectly", because that's a lie, and WHEN things break or WHEN they don't have access to something they want, they'd be upset. So, I have to say "I've put a lot of thought into the components I've selected for you, based on the needs you've given me today and what I expect to happen in the future, but I can't predict the future perfectly - I can only design in some flexibility, make the best equipment choices I can make today, and do my best to solve any issues that arise in the future as your needs change or as the technology changes. And it will." By setting that expectation up-front, they're much less likely to blame me when something changes that "breaks" their system - and so they're more likely to be happy, and more likely to recommend me.

HDMI 1 or 2 and slap a Roku stick, Amazon Fire Stick etc on those poor lonely early locked in Smart TV's on Weird non-updated no apps OS's by the manufacturer (lol)....hmm shouldn't they all have been running BB10 anyways to make the headache less so....just sayin'...maybe a little complicated for customers to switch between native Smart os and HDMI 1 but what the heck....maybe a customized remote would integrate them smoothely?

[Troy Tiscareno]

HDMI 1 or 2 and slap a Roku stick, Amazon Fire Stick etc on those poor lonely early locked in Smart TV's on Weird non-updated no apps OS's by the manufacturer (lol)....hmm shouldn't they all have been running BB10 anyways to make the headache less so....just sayin'...maybe a little complicated for customers to switch between native Smart os and HDMI 1 but what the heck....maybe a customized remote would integrate them smoothely?

We aren't talking about customers with stand-alone TVs - most of these customers have centrally-distributed whole-home systems, which complicates things, sometimes considerably. You can't use a BlueTooth remote to control a box 500 feet and 3 floors away, and you have to have inputs for additional pieces of equipment you're adding to such a system, which may be several hundred feet from the TV. Most of these systems have 8x8 HDMI matrix switches, for example.