[garnok]

people in here are to much focusing how much Z3 will sell in dollars....the most important for BB when it launch is how much BB selling on rupiah...

in indonesia > 2 million ($180) are considered mid end phone ...to attract lot of buyers in indonesia BB need to sell it same as BB curve prices lower than $170 (1.95million rupiah)

it still reasonable price...but lot of other competitors in $200 (more than 2 million) price range and it comes with great specs example:
lenovo s920 comes with 5.3inch 720p screen, 8mp camera, quad core processor, HSDPA

and maybe in april/may moto G also arrived to indonesia..

[KDB84]

Poor OP - understandable that he would be upset if $200 was the subsidized price...know the facts I guess!

[bjschey]

It's not $200, they said it would be below $200, but didn't give a specific price yet. I personally think it's going to fall somewhere in between $150-$200.

Let's also not forget that this phone may not see North America. Its specifically targeted towards Middle East, Asian, and African countries since they tend not to drop $200+ on a smartphone.

Posted via BlackBerry Z10 Smartphone

[NaijaBerry]

Is this $200 contract free? If so, then this is quite a reasonable price, even for Indonesia. There are legacy phones here that cost around $130 - $140 so $200 isn't so out of reach, especially for a BB10 device.

While the price of the Z3 is unbelievably low compared to the price points of previous BB10 devices upon their releases (I bought my Z10 for the equivalent of EIGHT HUNDRED DOLLARS) I think that Indonesia is a lost market for BlackBerry. Ever since BBM was announced to be released on iPhone and Android, people have almost literally been sprinting as fast as they could to those massive Samsungs. Those who still do have a Blackberry use it as their secondary device.

I still remain confused at Chen's strategy. First, he announces that he will turn Blackberry's focus away from consumers, then soon after, he releases a device targeted at consumers in one specific country. But I think he knows what he's doing. Whatever floats the boat, I guess.

Yeah exactly even in Nigeria legacy devices are sold close to $200, less than that should be just dandy....

[thatplaybookguy]

from what i've read on other tech sites, a $200 BB phone is welcomed by all and they want it to show up on american shores.

[marksthespot60]

After reviewing the link you provided, when benchmarked, 650RM is a competitive price for that market, however, there were two findings which are worth mentioning-

• On the website you provided, Nokia is heavily attacking this price range from 315RM to 515RM. Given that they're moving into Android now too, I wouldn't be surprised if they start coming into play with android devices as well, in addition to the other non-Nokia android devices already well under this price. Also, the iPhone 5s starts at 700RM. Which isn't too far off from the 650RM. While 650RM is competitive, it seems like Nokia is under bidding them by a good amount (idk what the difference is when converted, but it's like probably like a $80 difference or something). Good news is that Nokia may not have a lot of traction there yet. Not sure if that's true or not. Insight, anyone?

• You have misunderstood my question. It's not, who would be so cheap to buy a $200 phone. It's, who would spend so much money for a mid-level phone, from a brand that is shamed. Clearly there are windows phones and android devices well below this price point and guess what, they all have more apps than BlackBerry. Before you have an aneurism and say it, that BlackBerrys can load Andorid apps too, it doesn't matter because the messaging isn't there. No one knows. And to my earlier comment, the phones aren't going to sell themselves no matter what they can do. I think that's pretty safe to assume. BlackBerry needs to market it, and then maybe we could start seeing some change in the brand, however, they'll first need to put it into a press release, which they haven't done yet. Not really sure why? Seems like they may wait until a next release. Good luck with sales waiting for that.

While I may be absurd, I definitely am not as absurd as to say, "no one buys sub-$200 phones". I mean, more of those have sold than BlackBerrys, we know that.

Cheers. Again, thanks for sharing the link and giving the conversion.

[NaijaBerry]

To be honest I don't think they had the US anywhere in their thoughts with this phone, heck with the way BBRY has been pretty much rejected in the US, I'd look elsewhere as well! I just feel for the few (very few) loyal BBRY fans over there......

[marksthespot60]

Also, subsidized high-end phones would around this price on contract, would they not?

Not actually sure how the carriers do their subsidies over there but if it's 650RM ($200) that's also not a too far distance from the Nokia WP/probably Android devices, + the other branded android devices, UNsubsidized. It looks like users have a lot of options. Which is good, but, of course, doesn't help BlackBerry at all considering their brand.

I still think the Z3 is a neat phone, they just might be over shooting it on price when Nokia and subsidized high-end phones are at, slight above, or below their current price point.

Posted via CB10

[Ment]

Z3 is competitive in price now with Windows/Android and there is certainly a market for ~$200 phone with decent specs. When Moto G was introduced in India earlier this month online seller FlipKart sold out of their initial 20k stock in minutes. The question remains, in the emerging markets where BB still has some presence can they move BB07 users to BB10 with Jakarta instead of to other platforms.

[distributor1]

Actually if you look at the global smartphone market research that I saw last week in a presentation by Samsung, the segment of the smartphone market that is going to grow the fastest in 2014 / 2015 is the entry level smartphone, which this is. This phone, which is only for Indonesia at this time (will not work outside of Indonesia, or so my Blackberry KAM says, not sure whether we believe them or not), is a shot against that market and competing with the other 5inch touch screen devices in that niche (e.g. Xperia C). This is an attempt to hold on to the people in what was traditionally a very strong BB market. It is not a strategy to be generalized for all the world. At this time you wont see it outside of that market.

From what I hear other regions of BB are pushing for their own "regional" devices.

I think it was a very strong tactical move by BB, right product, right pricing, right market, now if they can just get some promotion, they will cover the 4 Ps.

[chrysaurora]

Didn't read the whole thread but I think OP's assumptions are incorrect.

$200 is full retail price of the phone, not subsidized price. So, if Z3 were to launch in US/Canada, it'd probably be $0 (ZERO) with contract.

In developing markets, $200 seems to be sweet spot for many. And if you like a BlackBerry, you'll certainly go for it at that price for sure. If you are already leaning towards Android, you might consider a BlackBerry too if you hear about it from friends etc.

Sub $200 Android phones don't usually provide as smooth OS experience as more expensive Android phones. But BlackBerry 10's OS experience (smoothness, speed etc) should be smooth on sub $200 Z3 simply because it's optimized for that hardware. So, that would probably be an added +1 for Z3.

At sub $200 price range, a lot of people that are already inclined towards BB will give it a go. Z10 was originally priced so high that even BB inclined user-base in developing countries passed on it.

Finally, enterprises/companies in these developing countries that already support BES etc will happily give Z3 to their employees. Z10 was so expensive that even big companies didn't feel the need to give it out. They continued to hand BB7 devices (Curve and Bold) to their employees.

[Thunderbuck]

The impression I get is that $200 for the Z3 off-contract is not bad for this spec, especially for this size screen.

In return for that, the user gets arguably the best e-mail experience on a full-touch device, as well as a better BBM experience than they'd get on iOS or Android.

Even better, the user gets a pretty high degree of Android compatibility as well.

[TgeekB]

Sorry to sound ignorant but is this Jakarta slab or keyboard?

Posted via my Nexus 10.

[grover5]

it's a slab

[--TommesJay--]

1. It's less than $ 200 off contract, which means ON contract it'll be $0. No matter how you spin it, a high end device, even at $200 on contract, isn't an option for those people.

2. The Nokia X phones aren't 'real' Android phones, they don't support Google Play or any Google services. They work similar to BlackBerry 10 phones.

[Atmarix]

I see dead people...
I can't really say anything else because other people already took the word of my mouth.
But I'm going to let my point known. OP you're so wrong in every sense.....

From my White Z30

[badiyee]

After reviewing the link you provided, when benchmarked, 650RM is a competitive price for that market, however, there were two findings which are worth mentioning-

• On the website you provided, Nokia is heavily attacking this price range from 315RM to 515RM. Given that they're moving into Android now too, I wouldn't be surprised if they start coming into play with android devices as well, in addition to the other non-Nokia android devices already well under this price. Also, the iPhone 5s starts at 700RM. Which isn't too far off from the 650RM. While 650RM is competitive, it seems like Nokia is under bidding them by a good amount (idk what the difference is when converted, but it's like probably like a $80 difference or something). Good news is that Nokia may not have a lot of traction there yet. Not sure if that's true or not. Insight, anyone?

• You have misunderstood my question. It's not, who would be so cheap to buy a $200 phone. It's, who would spend so much money for a mid-level phone, from a brand that is shamed. Clearly there are windows phones and android devices well below this price point and guess what, they all have more apps than BlackBerry. Before you have an aneurism and say it, that BlackBerrys can load Andorid apps too, it doesn't matter because the messaging isn't there. No one knows. And to my earlier comment, the phones aren't going to sell themselves no matter what they can do. I think that's pretty safe to assume. BlackBerry needs to market it, and then maybe we could start seeing some change in the brand, however, they'll first need to put it into a press release, which they haven't done yet. Not really sure why? Seems like they may wait until a next release. Good luck with sales waiting for that.

While I may be absurd, I definitely am not as absurd as to say, "no one buys sub-$200 phones". I mean, more of those have sold than BlackBerrys, we know that.

Cheers. Again, thanks for sharing the link and giving the conversion.

Just to point out some flaws:

1. BlackBerry isn't shamed, and people don't care if they can get android apps (illegal or legal). If it can, then it'll do. Because people will still find ways to install games, apps, and everything Android related.

2. Nokia's Android offering is exactly the same as what BlackBerry does: everything android but no Google Play, no Google apps. Everything replaced with Bing, Nokia Maps, etc.

3. The phones will sell themselves alright. Sub USD100 phones with only GPRS/EDGE, quad core MTK chips with 1GB RAM do sell themselves very well. Why? Because it can run Android. Irregardless whether it is a BlackBerry, BlueBerry (its a chinese-malaysian phone vendor), Ninetology, or any obscure Chinese / Taiwanese brand, it will sell itself, as long as its cheap enough. At Sub USD600, its bloody cheap enough for BlackBerry to sell itself. Of course, the retailers are going to break the rules by saying "it can do lots of things Android can do". Why do you think low end Androids are so sought after? Its also partially because these retailers broke the rule, like how certain big companies that sell heavily skinned Android devices instructed them to do (*Cough* anything you see in Play Store, paid or not, we can get it for you here, just pay up front USD10, we'll get it fixed. So now you have an iPhone for the price of a cheap *** phone! *Cough*)

Already, there are retailers selling the cheaper STL-100-1 Z10s exactly under USD350 with the same tactics. They don't care. All they do is they just want to sell it. And since BlackBerry 10.2.1 just made it much easier to install APKs, they will do it, they (the retailers) will go for it. All that remains is to what else to bundle with. (telco plans, pre paid plans, individualized internet pre-pay plans, etc).

Talking about shamed, another company has a worse reputation, and that's MediaTek. But people don't care. All they care is "oh, so it can run Android? No problemo!" and they'll happily snap up. Else why would counterfeit branded devices running on MTK chips become such a sought after device, despite knowing that they're being ripped off?


On the price war front, bringing a full touch screen the size of z30 into sub usd200 will find itself in a very nice niche position against the newer Lenovo s800s (or was it the s900s, also with the 5.x" screens) and against the likes of Samsung Galaxy Mega, (the 6" behemoth) because you get a similar spec, with a much lower price. And the retailers are going to hound "you can play Android here too!". Not because i've got anaeurism, but somebody's just too high on his high horse to even understand the S.E.A market and suddenly pretending that he's an economic messiah and start to cry doom for all BlackBerry devices!

Perhaps, you just really don't understand S.E.A market and why the Z3 is appealing for the S.E.A market. (then again, reflected as in per your first post, and your squirreling in your post that I've quoted).

[keegh]

People need to remember that the z3 will be coming with atleast 10.2.1 if not a newer OS. Majority if not ALL(besides the newly released moto g) the low-mid tier android phones are using 2+ year old updates and will never see another update.

I believe moto g set the standard for low tier/up-to-date smartphones, something BlackBerry seems to be following with the z3.

Time will only tell if either of those get continual updates for a decent amount of time(1-2yrs).

On another note I feel that the z3 would work extremely well on verizon's pay as you go considering they still only allow 3g on it.

Posted via CB10

[Cozz4ever]

In developing markets, $200 for 5" is standard. There's even plenty of $200 6" phones. For example, the ASUS Zenphone 6. Local OEMs are especially keen on large displays-low price. In India, try the 6" Micromax Canvas XL.

As I said before, the Z3 is a reasonable, but not necessarily competitive, price-spec offering.

I didn't even know the Asus Zenphone 6 was available in Singapore

[stevepar]

Good God! Do people actually read properly anymore!! The device is OFF CONTACT NOT SUBSIDIZED!! As such it's a pretty good price, for the device. #somepeopleskids

Posted via CB10

[Troy Tiscareno]

People need to remember that the z3 will be coming with atleast 10.2.1 if not a newer OS. Majority if not ALL(besides the newly released moto g) the low-mid tier android phones are using 2+ year old updates and will never see another update.

You obviously haven't been paying attention. Even the cheapest Chinese phones have been shipping with Android 4.x since the start of 2013. No one is making Gingerbread phones anymore, and haven't for well over a year.