[belfastdispatcher]

Let's see:

Mike took BB to 90M users

Chen took BB to .......supposedly 9M users

Which one knew his customers better?

[thurask]

Let's see:

Mike took BB to 90M users

Chen took BB to .......supposedly 9M users

Which one knew his customers better?

Obviously every single problem BlackBerry had was Chen's fault.

The Storm, PlayBook, delayed QNX acquisition, BB10 launch, app gap, walking out on the BBC, all of those were Chen.

[belfastdispatcher]

Obviously every single problem BlackBerry had was Chen's fault.

The Storm, PlayBook, delayed QNX acquisition, BB10 launch, app gap, walking out on the BBC, all of those were Chen.

He made mistakes sure, but he still took BB to 90M active users.

[MikeX74]

He made mistakes sure, but he still took BB to 90M active users.

Yeah, but his decisions and failures to execute properly lost most of those users.

[JeepBB]

He made mistakes sure, but he still took BB to 90M active users.

Yes, he did. In a world very, very different from now.

I doubt anyone here would question MikeL's engineering skills, and his foresight in believing mobile comms could be more than a pager, but that world was ended by the iPhone.

I suspect history books will date the end of BB's dominance (and relevance) at 2007. It's simply because BB phones were so dominant and relevant to solving the problem of mobile comms that its taken another decade for them to die.

MikeL, for all his ability, evidently doesn't understand the world he helped to bring about given his responses to the iPhone. He's the wrong man at the wrong time.

[bakron1]

Yes, he did. In a world very, very different from now.

I doubt anyone here would question MikeL's engineering skills, and his foresight in believing mobile comms could be more than a pager, but that world was ended by the iPhone.

I suspect history books will date the end of BB's dominance (and relevance) at 2007. It's simply because BB phones were so dominant and relevant to solving the problem of mobile comms that its taken another decade for them to die.

MikeL, for all his ability, evidently doesn't understand the world he helped to bring about given his responses to the iPhone. He's the wrong man at the wrong time.

I remember those days and having a @blackberry.net email address and carrying a Blackberry device said your where a professional. Apple and the iPhone changed all that and the sad part is the at that point in time, Blackberry had the capital and resources to change the outcome and failed to do so.

[belfastdispatcher]

Yes, he did. In a world very, very different from now.

I doubt anyone here would question MikeL's engineering skills, and his foresight in believing mobile comms could be more than a pager, but that world was ended by the iPhone.

I suspect history books will date the end of BB's dominance (and relevance) at 2007. It's simply because BB phones were so dominant and relevant to solving the problem of mobile comms that its taken another decade for them to die.

MikeL, for all his ability, evidently doesn't understand the world he helped to bring about given his responses to the iPhone. He's the wrong man at the wrong time.

BB phones were never dominant, maybe only in a tiny specialised market, I had "feature phones" that were far smarter than any BB at the time. Winmo was light years ahead of BB and it was Nokia that dominated

While BB had the 8300's out, basic camera and not even 3G I was using a WinMo with GPS with TomTim software, 3G, front and rear camera, apps etc

Contrary to popular belief, BB phones were never that "smart" they were always way behind other manufacturers.

[JeepBB]

Contrary to popular belief, BB phones were never that "smart" they were always way behind other manufacturers.

BB phones didn't need to be smart, they had push email.

As Ron says, owning a BB was aspirational, it was a sign that you'd made it. You were someone who mattered if you used a BB because it showed that you were important enough to need that instant "always available" communications, and that you were professional enough to understand that.

That was back when "Tools not Toys" actually meant something, and wasn't a much ridiculed parody.

A large part of BB's 90M of the market included the rich and successful, the movers & shakers ... Ironically the same market now dominated by Apple. Dominance is more than numbers... again, just as is now the case with Apple.

[hjc73734]

BB phones were never dominant, maybe only in a tiny specialised market, I had "feature phones" that were far smarter than any BB at the time. Winmo was light years ahead of BB and it was Nokia that dominated

While BB had the 8300's out, basic camera and not even 3G I was using a WinMo with GPS with TomTim software, 3G, front and rear camera, apps etc

Contrary to popular belief, BB phones were never that "smart" they were always way behind other manufacturers.

I had a Win Mo phone too. It had features galore, that's for sure. I used it as a GPS device when dedicated GPS devices were several hundred dollars.

Problem with WinMo was using it needed you to sharpen your fingernails into a sharp pointer. Or use a stylus. All MS did was shrink Windows and that didn't go well with normal sized fingers.

Try typing a paragraph with that keyboard on a WinMo and it's just frustrating. Blackberries were more focused and had that PKB amongst other things.

Sure Mike and Jim got 90 million users.. and then what?

[Notna Nosyel]

I am thinking, instead of Mike and Jim, it should be Beavies and Butthead.

 📱📶

[kvndoom]

He made mistakes sure, but he still took BB to 90M active users.

At a time when BlackBerry was the predominant smartphone maker in the world, sure.

I doubt there are even 90M active BlackBerry phones at this point in time.

BlackBerry Classic non-camera, Cricket Wireless

[belfastdispatcher]

Wrong thread

[belfastdispatcher]

At a time when BlackBerry was the predominant smartphone maker in the world, sure.

I doubt there are even 90M active BlackBerry phones at this point in time.

BlackBerry Classic non-camera, Cricket Wireless

Actually no, when BB had 90M subscribers they did not have the majority of the smartphone market anymore, the smartphone market became huge at that point and BB only had a small share even with 90M

At the time BB dominated they had 30M or less subscribers, the smartphone market was tiny.

[kvndoom]

Blackberry's downfall was being too late.

Cross-platform BBM was too late. It's all about Whatsapp now.

Its iphone/Android killer (Z10) was too late. It was a 2-OS party by then. Which is why every other OS since has failed, and will continue to fail for the forseeable future.

Its ipad killer (playbook) was too late, and even for it being released so late it STILL wasn't even ready for market. BB should have kept the name and made it a gaming-focused tablet. Don't call a business-focused device "Playbook."

Its original Bold replacement (Q10) was too late. Its LEGITIMATE Bold replacement (Classic) was ever more too late. Honestly, the Classic should have been a launch device along with the Z10, and the Q10 should never have existed. I don't mind if folks disagree, but there's a reason OS7 people didn't move to BB10.

Its foray into the budget market (Leap/Z3) was too late. BB10 had become a market failure by that point.

Android came too late. There should have been Android and BB10 versions of all its next-gen phones, with some physical differentiating feature (maybe color scheme). No doubt 80% of the sales would have been the Android version, but so what? Hardware would have been selling! BB should have been pushing non-bloated Android devices with more security features than the competition. They could have been Nexus before google even had Nexus.

BB had opportunities and it could have easily been as big as Apple right now, but you have to innovate and react quickly in this business and they did neither.

[Conpro]

I understand that Mike L. and Jim B. aren’t on speaking terms these days.

So, the thought of them together having some involvement with their company would also require them to overcome their personal difficulties.

Affirmative on those posters noting the fading (or faded) relevance of hardware at Blackberry.

I even suspect that they still brand phones as Blackberry phones only for patent litigation reasons.

The type/amount of damages available to them in a patent assertion, licensing or litigation, is dependent upon whether they are a manufacturer/seller of phones.

When they no longer can license their patents, or sue others for infringement of those patents, I’m afraid that there won’t be any such thing as a Blackberry phone.

I’ve used Blackberries exclusively since 2003.

So, I’m with my fellow CrackBerry posters that are saddened by the company’s fortunes and lack of prospects for future prosperity in the hardware market.

[dom7]

I'm curious, what is Mike and Jim doing right now??

Posted via the CrackBerry App for Android

[mrlahjr]

I'm curious, what is Mike and Jim doing right now??

Posted via the CrackBerry App for Android

Hopefully planing to get Chen out of office and developing a new all BB10 phone to that changes the game. Planning to scrap this android BS. Samsung wins that.

Bringing back BlackBerry to its glory days. Back on top where it belongs.

TMO  Z10,STL100-3/10.3.2.2789

[DrBoomBotz]

I'm curious, what is Mike and Jim doing right now??

Posted via the CrackBerry App for Android

I am sure they are serving their communities in some way.
I hope they are finding time to enjoy being with their families.
It would be a real bummer if they can't find a way to be friends.
I wouldn't be surprised if they were both itching to get back to work.

[donnation]

I'm curious, what is Mike and Jim doing right now??

Posted via the CrackBerry App for Android

Counting money somewhere and laughing probably. Actually that's what I hope they are doing.

[Irish Blues]

Hopefully planing to get Chen out of office and developing a new all BB10 phone to that changes the game. Planning to scrap this android BS. Samsung wins that.

Bringing back BlackBerry to its glory days. Back on top where it belongs.

And then Mike snaps out of that dream and realizes how big a hole he helped plow the company into, while Jim tries to think of some way to protect all the NHL teams in Canada from a $1.30CN = $1US exchange rate while getting someone else to be a sucker and put a team north of the border for him to control.

[Denise in Los Angeles]

Hopefully planing to get Chen out of office and developing a new all BB10 phone to that changes the game. Planning to scrap this android BS. Samsung wins that.

Bringing back BlackBerry to its glory days. Back on top where it belongs.

TMO  Z10,STL100-3/10.3.2.2789

Please wake up. BB10 failed. BlackBerry cannot go backward and somehow make it successful.

[moonhacker]

Lol!

I'm sure Mike & Jim have learned from the past. They sure wouldn't have been making any android devices. That's not what BlackBerry is supposed to be about. Chen is dismantling BB.

TMO  Z10,STL100-3/10.3.2.2789

True, but Chen was brought in to make the company money in short and weaving Android into BlackBerry is his way of doing it.
I don't see Mike and Jim doing anything better...

Posted via Passport running 10.3.2.2876

[moonhacker]

BB phones were never dominant, maybe only in a tiny specialised market, I had "feature phones" that were far smarter than any BB at the time. Winmo was light years ahead of BB and it was Nokia that dominated

While BB had the 8300's out, basic camera and not even 3G I was using a WinMo with GPS with TomTim software, 3G, front and rear camera, apps etc

Contrary to popular belief, BB phones were never that "smart" they were always way behind other manufacturers.

That may be true but I remember when I didn't want a BlackBerry and after fooling around with three different devices that I had to buy tons of apps on to do what a BlackBerry did on a regular basis without any apps is why I crossed over to BlackBerry back in 2005.

Posted via Passport running 10.3.2.2876

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

Counting money somewhere and laughing probably. Actually that's what I hope they are doing.

Hope there money is not in BBRY anymore.

[donnation]

Hope there money is not in BBRY anymore.

Lol yeah.