[Irish Blues]

With all those Z10's marked down BlackBerry should have done a deal like that,

If it did, in addition to the people who would proclaim it as "a sign of desperation from a company about to go out of business" (as noted above), you'd have others who would want Blackberry to fork over more ($100 discount, credit towards cellular plan, free ride in Chen's vehicles for a month) as some sort of "you owe me for _____ / give me everything I want for cheap/free" cry.

[Dave Bourque]

It is so dumb to group android... it's not a company !!!

Z10STL100-3/10.2.1.2141

[Omnitech]

If it did, in addition to the people who would proclaim it as "a sign of desperation from a company about to go out of business" (as noted above), you'd have others who would want Blackberry to fork over more ($100 discount, credit towards cellular plan, free ride in Chen's vehicles for a month) as some sort of "you owe me for _____ / give me everything I want for cheap/free" cry.

All while constantly griping that the company doesn't do enough advertising, doesn't have enough reps in the field, doesn't have a new model for every day of the week, yadda yadda yadda..... while conveniently ignoring the fact that all that stuff costs money, and you won't have that money if you aren't able to make a PROFIT.

Self-entitlement FTW.

[Superfly_FR]

(OP)
Yes, when you spend ~ $1Billion (Samy) in promotion each year, you sure have some competitive advantage
When you don't have it ... try otherwise.

[AnimalPak200]

(OP)
Yes, when you spend ~ $1Billion (Samy) in promotion each year, you sure have some competitive advantage
When you don't have it ... try otherwise.

And they sure know how to make use of that marketing budget:

White House has talked with Samsung about Obama-Ortiz selfie – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Samsung's reported selfie marketing stunt last week got the company into a bit of trouble with the White House.

Senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said on CBS’s "Face the Nation" that the White House counsel's office has had "conversations" with Samsung, after Boston Red Sox star David Ortiz took a picture of himself and President Barack Obama during a visit to the White House by the 2013 World Series winners.

Ortiz, who has an endorsement deal with the company, tweeted out the picture and Samsung retweeted the post to its 5.2 million followers.

Pfeffer said Obama knew nothing about Ortiz’s connection to the company.

"In general, whenever someone tries to use the president's likeness to promote a product, that's a problem," Pfeiffer said.

Ortiz said the selfie wasn’t a premeditated marketing ploy, and the company said in a statement to the Boston Globe on that it was "thrilled to see the special, historic moment David Ortiz captured with his Galaxy Note 3."

"When we heard about the visit to the White House, we worked with David and the team on how to share images with fans. We didn't know if or what he would be able to capture using his Note 3 device."

[...]

That doesn't sound 'premeditated' at all...

[collinc93]

...business ethics of some companies is.......nonexistent...

[cgk]

Some interesting nuggets in here about Samsung's success:

Samsung's 'Beat Apple' memo: 'Threat from Apple extremely real and urgent'

[anon1727506]

It is so dumb to group android... it's not a company !!!

Z10STL100-3/10.2.1.2141

It is a platform. Its like grouping Windows Computers together, even though Microsoft doesn't manufacture computers. An application built for Android works on Samsung, HTC, Motorola.....

The platform is what matters. People, business and developers want to know about the platform, the manufacture of the device and many times the devices itself don't really matter. We would much rater know that it is Android 4.0 or 4.2 than if it were HTC One or a Galaxy 4.

What is dumb is to group BBOS and BB10 devices, as these two "platforms" are totally incompatible with one another.

[anon1727506]

Some interesting nuggets in here about Samsung's success:

Samsung's 'Beat Apple' memo: 'Threat from Apple extremely real and urgent'

Apple main problem is they expect to make too much on devices.


All Apple would have to do to beat Samsung is add an SD Card Slot, a Phaplet sized screen for on model and sell devices at a "normal" for the industry markup. All things that could be done pretty quickly if Apple believed it were necessary, but they seem to be content with steady growth and HIGH profits. From my "limited" experience, price and screen size are the main reasons people go with Android devices..... but many of those people wanted an iPhone. There is no doubt that Apple has left the barn door open and Samsung know they need to take advantage of this.

[Omnitech]

And they sure know how to make use of that marketing budget:

White House has talked with Samsung about Obama-Ortiz selfie – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

That doesn't sound 'premeditated' at all...

Samsung has been caught red-handed on numerous occasions with sleazy marketing tactics.

Including "astro-turfing" (planting people pretending to be "grass roots fans" who in fact are on Samsung's payroll to appear like enthusiastic users, or to trash competitor's products), and various other scams.

The "LED TV" scam. Misleading the general public, Samsung style (& others) continues (AVS Forum)

Samsung fined for posting fake HTC reviews (Marketing Week)

Samsung Taiwan marketers allegedly created astroturf smear campaign against HTC (Ars Technica)

[Omnitech]

I have always marveled as to how Samsung, which was a so-so Android OEm (IMHO) has turned it around so quickly and effectively. I think there is something to learned there.

Yes, for example this:

Samsung has been caught red-handed on numerous occasions with sleazy marketing tactics.

Including "astro-turfing" (planting people pretending to be "grass roots fans" who in fact are on Samsung's payroll to appear like enthusiastic users, or to trash competitor's products), and various other scams.

The "LED TV" scam. Misleading the general public, Samsung style (& others) continues (AVS Forum)

Samsung fined for posting fake HTC reviews (Marketing Week)

Samsung Taiwan marketers allegedly created astroturf smear campaign against HTC (Ars Technica)

[Omnitech]

The words of the title were chosen to attract attention. I've spent enough time in the forums to know neutrally-worded titles are the death of any thread.

OK, so the point of your posting is simply to attract attention, not to have a useful discussion. As long as we're clear on that...

In any case, I was pointing out the unfairness of such promos that for whatever reason exclude BlackBerry.

It's not unfair - companies will almost always spend more time/effort/money promoting the things they think will sell more and/or make more money for them.

What is unfair is when a company has a contractual agreement to sell a vendor's product (ie T-Mobile vis-a-vis BlackBerry), but then turns around and tries to undermine their sales and poach their customers and switch them to another platform. That's sleazy and unethical, and potentially a contractual violation on the part of a business partner.

But I personally do not begrudge a company putting more effort into marketing things they think will make them more money.

Benign neglect is a fact of life for a product with the marketshare of BlackBerry these days. Once again, where I draw the line are specific efforts to undermine the product by trying to switch them to another vendor, or allowing their salespeople to spew inexcusable lies like the company is out of business.

Which is why I supported BlackBerry's decision to end their resale agreement with T-Mobile.