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Circling the drain..
http://www.x404.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=20853		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  jonbwfc [ Fri Dec 20, 2013 11:47 pm ]
Post subject:  Circling the drain..
Blackberry/RIM post huge losses

Quick summary (all figures for last full quarter) :

$4.4 billion loss
56% drop in revenue compared to same quarter last year
$2.7 billion worth of Blackberry 10 phones written off (i.e. phones accept they won't/can't sell)
75% of phone sales were of 'end of line' BB7 devices
'Stepping away' from the handset business

They're done. Seriously, just shutter the place now.
Author:  Amnesia10 [ Sat Dec 21, 2013 12:18 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Circling the drain..
What was the public impression of their OS? Could that be salvaged?
Author:  koli [ Sat Dec 21, 2013 11:49 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Circling the drain..
I will add that Foxconn will make their phone from now on.
Quote:
In a conference call with analysts, Mr. Chen said that BlackBerry would jointly develop and manufacture some phones with Foxconn in the future, including a new model already in prototype form that is aimed at the Indonesian market.


BTW, did you not post here they were sold couple of months ago?
Author:  jonbwfc [ Sat Dec 21, 2013 11:52 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Circling the drain..
Amnesia10 wrote:
What was the public impression of their OS? Could that be salvaged?

Public impression can be gauged from the fact they've got $2.7 billion worth of handsets running it that nobody wants to buy - that suggests the public don't much care for it. I had a Z10 at work for testing. It's actually a really nice piece of hardware. At least as nice as any of the current android devices I've looked at. The OS has a lot of good ideas in it, but it was (and apparently still is) buggy as hell. When I was testing the phone, it had a bug that every so often when you sent an email to someone, it would randomly pick an email from your inbox and send that instead of the one you'd just typed.

The word seems to be the only business activity they have left where they think they can make money are bespoke vertical solutions (for example police force comms or the like) and enterprise mobile device estate management. Basically saying to companies 'yes we know you don't want to buy Blackberrys any more, but why don't you upgrade your BES server and use it to manage your iPhones instead?' They're up against MS and the likes of Good Inc. for that business. You get a fair chunk of that thrown in with Exchange anyway (which the vast majority of BES customers already have) and a large chunk of their client base will in fact already have bought some other solution to do this, because up until recently BES couldn't do any of it. So basically once again they're a couple of years late to a market that already has major players in it.

If they actually think it's going to save them in the long term, they're living in cloud cuckoo land. I suspect they'll be bought out within 12 months and the name will effectively disappear.
Author:  jonbwfc [ Sat Dec 21, 2013 11:56 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Circling the drain..
koli wrote:
I will add that Foxconn will make their phone from now on.
Quote:
In a conference call with analysts, Mr. Chen said that BlackBerry would jointly develop and manufacture some phones with Foxconn in the future, including a new model already in prototype form that is aimed at the Indonesian market.

To be honest, I'm not sure selling dirt cheap handsets into developing markets is going to be enough balance a $4.4b every quarter loss on the rest of their business. But hey, if they decide to concentrate on that and I can therefore get rid of the steaming pile of crash-in-waiting that is BES, good luck to them.

koli wrote:
BTW, did you not post here they were sold couple of months ago?
[/quote]
The company has been up for sale for months and they were claiming a couple of times that a deal was pretty much done, however each time the buyer pulled out of the deal or wasn't able to raise the necessary financial backing to push the deal though. You may infer something or nothing from that, as you prefer.
Author:  koli [ Sat Dec 21, 2013 12:36 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Circling the drain..
jonbwfc wrote:
To be honest, I'm not sure selling dirt cheap handsets into developing markets is going to be enough balance a $4.4b every quarter loss on the rest of their business.

It is not enough, they are a dead man walking. They have an excellent OS but it doesn't count for sh1t if nobody knows that. Hardware isn't bad either. Their rep between cosumers is killing them and they won't turn that around. It's too late for BB, they passed the point of no return in consumer market and they will have to shrink incredibly to keep corp. client as a profitable business.
I shorted their shares while ago...
Author:  Linux_User [ Sun Dec 22, 2013 8:08 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Circling the drain..
I love Blackberry 10. However, the lack of apps. stops me adopting a Z10 as my primary handset.
Author:  veato [ Mon Dec 23, 2013 10:33 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Circling the drain..
I'm sure I saw a Z10 (their flagship handset?) SIM free for £169.
Author:  Amnesia10 [ Mon Dec 23, 2013 5:11 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Circling the drain..
Linux_User wrote:
I love Blackberry 10. However, the lack of apps. stops me adopting a Z10 as my primary handset.

I do not think that the lack of apps is relevant if those that are available are good and cover your needs. That said there may not be enough apps to cover most peoples needs.
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