I was really hoping they could turn it around -- by all accounts the new phones are pretty nice and the mobile OS market could use some more serious competitors. But they have virtually no apps and no clear path to getting apps. Combine that with BYOD policies that let employees bring their own phones instead of having one issued and their whole sales model goes out the window.
BlackBerry to cut 4,500 jobs, predicts 2nd quarter loss of $950M
11–20 of 157 posts
Re: BlackBerry to cut 4,500 jobs, predicts 2nd quarter loss of $950M
#12The timeless story of Ozymandias -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias -- (if you don't know the 1818 sonnet by Shelley, read it before downvoting. It's relevant and timeless) I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command Tell that its sc…
Certainly relevant, but, Breaking Bad fan?
Re: BlackBerry to cut 4,500 jobs, predicts 2nd quarter loss of $950M
#13It's unfortunate, as someone who just purchased a Q10 (switched from Android), I think they've finally got their act together and released something excellent. The Q10's battery life is great, the hardware keyboard is solid and travels well. The Paratek antenna gets the best reception and data connection of any device I've ever used. The BB10 software isn't great, but it's decent. (It's certainly far better than wher…
Seems to me the best thing that could happen to them would be a bankruptcy followed by either a sell-off, or a split-off, of their design division (and all associated hardware contracts.) Then you'd have the equivalent of a fresh start-up making these phones, with no debts. They'd probably do pretty well.
Re: BlackBerry to cut 4,500 jobs, predicts 2nd quarter loss of $950M
#14The timeless story of Ozymandias -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias -- (if you don't know the 1818 sonnet by Shelley, read it before downvoting. It's relevant and timeless) I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command Tell that its sc…
Certainly relevant, but, Breaking Bad fan?
No, the Breaking Bad writers are fans of Ozymandius.
Re: BlackBerry to cut 4,500 jobs, predicts 2nd quarter loss of $950M
#15It's unfortunate, as someone who just purchased a Q10 (switched from Android), I think they've finally got their act together and released something excellent. The Q10's battery life is great, the hardware keyboard is solid and travels well. The Paratek antenna gets the best reception and data connection of any device I've ever used. The BB10 software isn't great, but it's decent. (It's certainly far better than wher…
Seems to me the best thing that could happen to them would be a bankruptcy followed by either a sell-off, or a split-off, of their design division (and all associated hardware contracts.) Then you'd have the equivalent of a fresh start-up making these phones, with no debts. They'd probably do pretty well.
But will they have enough engineers on board to make a phone? The hardware game is quite expensive.
Re: BlackBerry to cut 4,500 jobs, predicts 2nd quarter loss of $950M
#16I sympathize strongly with the people who lost their job. I don't, however, sympathize with the company that made their decision to go it alone despite overwhelming evidence that there isn't room for another platform. iOS, Android, the Web. That's it. That's all there's going to be for the foreseeable future in mobile. Even Microsoft is failing at this. How much evidence does a company need to see that their strategy was doomed?
It's classic innovators dilemma. BlackBerry could think of nothing but protecting their existing business, even with failure staring them in the face. They should have been planning more for the next phase of the company (whether that be selling enterprise servers or whatever else) and made a small, cheap, play at restoring their phone business (probably by forking Android).
Re: BlackBerry to cut 4,500 jobs, predicts 2nd quarter loss of $950M
#17NO. Teary eyed. :( 3.7 million phone sales are nothing. Only if they had copied iOS the Samsung way in time.
Not sure if I agree with copying bit (I believe they should have carved a niche 2-3 years ago as THE Android keyboard phone to have), but indeed on the phones sold. 3.7M in a quarter? There were 5M iPhone 5 sales during its launch.
Re: BlackBerry to cut 4,500 jobs, predicts 2nd quarter loss of $950M
#18NO. Teary eyed. :( 3.7 million phone sales are nothing. Only if they had copied iOS the Samsung way in time.
Why? The problem isn't with the phones. The Z10 and Q10 are fantastic and BB10 is probably the best business-centric OS ever written. The problem is that the applications are just not there, and that people associate BlackBerry with reboots, battery pulls, and outdated, clunky software, even though that's not the case. It's an image problem, not a phone problem. They can't market like Apple used to. If they could, th…
I'm sure that's true but I also think there was an inflection point where people who had Blackberry's didn't have a better option right as Apple and Samsung were coming out with much more complete phones (great hardware, software, and robust app stores). A lot of these people switched over to Apple/Android and never went back. Now it is just a question of Apple or Android and Blackberry doesn't even enter the picture.
I had a Blackberry Tour that I got in 2009 and had until 2011. By the time the contract was up a key was missing and the software was archaic compared to what was on the market. From that time forward I had no interest in ever going back.
I think the same thing could be largely said about Dell. They didn't care about quality until competitors came along and ate their lunch. Now they are trying to reinvent themselves and claim back lost market share which is just a very, very difficult thing to do.
Re: BlackBerry to cut 4,500 jobs, predicts 2nd quarter loss of $950M
#19Was digging up some numbers. In 2010, BlackBerry still sold more phones than Apple. How the mighty have fallen.
What were the real problems then that led to their fall? Lack of technology innovation? badly run company and operations? lost touch with the consumer? All of the above?
Re: BlackBerry to cut 4,500 jobs, predicts 2nd quarter loss of $950M
#20The timeless story of Ozymandias -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias -- (if you don't know the 1818 sonnet by Shelley, read it before downvoting. It's relevant and timeless) I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command Tell that its sc…
Bryan Cranston of this to promote the second half of the final season of Breaking Bad. It's set to some beautiful shots of the New Mexico desert.