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BlackBerry to cut 4,500 jobs, predicts 2nd quarter loss of $950M

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Re: BlackBerry to cut 4,500 jobs, predicts 2nd quarter loss of $950M

#51

Post by w1ntermute »

martythemaniak wrote: post #35

I've been thinking about RIM lately and I think they basically had chances to turn themselves around, but took neither. The first was in '08/'09 - shortly after the iPhone. Some companies (Google, Samsung) saw where the industry was going, made the appropriate decisions and are now profiting handsomely. In hindsight, that was the right time for RIM to acquire QNX and start on BB10, which might have done very well had…

They should've moved to Android by 2011, when it was obvious that it was going to become dominant. If they'd built touchscreen phones with slide-out keyboards (like the Motorola Droid) and built an Android-based OS that also included their proprietary messaging and email solutions, I imagine they would be quite successful now.

Re: BlackBerry to cut 4,500 jobs, predicts 2nd quarter loss of $950M

#52

Post by maxsilver »

alex_c wrote: post #41
methodin wrote: post #28

If any new phone wants a decent market share they have to start with the developers - they are the ones who will carry it along until enough 2 year contracts expire to grow the user base. Blackberry simply failed on this front so it's no wonder they are struggling. They followed Microsoft's path of screwing developers which clearly was a bad move. There is always room for new devices, though. If FF or Ubuntu develop…

>They followed Microsoft's path of screwing developers which clearly was a bad move. Can you elaborate? From what I've seen RIM made a pretty significant effort to court developers to its platform - the users and revenue just weren't there, so it was not that tempting for developers no matter what RIM said or did.

I think the parent's mistaken BB7 with BB10. With the modern BlackBerry software, they made a hugely significant effort, way more than Microsoft did.

They included an entire Android 4.x runtime in their operating system, just so developers could take their existing Android apps and deploy them to BB10 with roughly 'one-click' worth of effort.

Short of re-writing every app on the face of the planet, I'm not sure how BlackBerry could have made it easier for developers to port or submit BB10 apps.

Re: BlackBerry to cut 4,500 jobs, predicts 2nd quarter loss of $950M

#53

Post by corresation »

mkr-hn wrote: post #38

Relevant Google Trends chart: https://www.google.com/trends/explore?q=google+android%2C+wi... Blackberry's slide starts around October 2011. News search is a little more flat, but that probably reflects the fact that tech journalists like to compare the rise of one thing to the fall of another. Google search reflects what people are looking for in general, so it covers people looking up information on the phone and O…

Why "Google Android" instead of just "Android" (or alternately you could, I suppose, go with "Apple iOS"), because the latter much more closely mirrors what has happened in the market. Unless personal assistant robots have taken off corresponding with Android, I don't think it's being polluted much.

Re: BlackBerry to cut 4,500 jobs, predicts 2nd quarter loss of $950M

#54

Post by jusben1369 »

Touche wrote: post #16

I 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…

"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."

- I'm confused. They were THE leading mobile platform. So they didn't decide to enter a crowded market. The market got super crowded and they didn't respond well. But I don't understand the "go it alone" unless you mean innovating too late to roll out a new OS that was touch driven vs BB keyboard.

Re: BlackBerry to cut 4,500 jobs, predicts 2nd quarter loss of $950M

#55

Post by Touche »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #47
martythemaniak wrote: post #35

I've been thinking about RIM lately and I think they basically had chances to turn themselves around, but took neither. The first was in '08/'09 - shortly after the iPhone. Some companies (Google, Samsung) saw where the industry was going, made the appropriate decisions and are now profiting handsomely. In hindsight, that was the right time for RIM to acquire QNX and start on BB10, which might have done very well had…

These are always more easily seen looking from the future into the past, than they are in the past looking to the future. Few companies, with the market share RIM had, see threats as 'near term'. Fewer still have a deep appreciation for the entirety of the technology stack and the time it takes to move things. This is especially true of young executives but can happen to anyone. RIM's technology stack matured over ma…

nit, but Ballmer did not dismiss the iPhone, he dismissed the $500 on contract iPhone. And he even said "it may sell very well". Here's the actual video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U

I know it's become fun to pretend like Ballmer dismissed the iPhone but I have a hard time watching that video and seeing anything like that.

Re: BlackBerry to cut 4,500 jobs, predicts 2nd quarter loss of $950M

#56

Post by Touche »

jusben1369 wrote: post #54
Touche wrote: post #16

I 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…

"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." - I'm confused. They were THE leading mobile platform. So they didn't decide to enter a crowded market. The market got super crowded and they didn't respond well. But I don't understand the "go it alone" unless you mean innovating too late to roll out a new…

They decided to compete on operating systems well after it was obvious that a 3rd operating system wasn't going to make it. Numerous companies had failed or were failing on that strategy already.

Re: BlackBerry to cut 4,500 jobs, predicts 2nd quarter loss of $950M

#57

Post by ChuckMcM »

Touche wrote: post #55
ChuckMcM wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are always more easily seen looking from the future into the past, than they are in the past looking to the future. Few companies, with the market share RIM had, see threats as 'near term'. Fewer still have a deep appreciation for the entirety of the technology stack and the time it takes to move things. This is especially true of young executives but can happen to anyone. RIM's technology stack matured over ma…

nit, but Ballmer did not dismiss the iPhone, he dismissed the $500 on contract iPhone. And he even said "it may sell very well". Here's the actual video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U I know it's become fun to pretend like Ballmer dismissed the iPhone but I have a hard time watching that video and seeing anything like that.

That is a fair point. Microsoft's behavior however, with regard to "supporting" the iPhone as a new way to do business, was tepid at best.

Re: BlackBerry to cut 4,500 jobs, predicts 2nd quarter loss of $950M

#58

Post by mkr-hn »

corresation wrote: post #53
mkr-hn wrote: post #38

Relevant Google Trends chart: https://www.google.com/trends/explore?q=google+android%2C+wi... Blackberry's slide starts around October 2011. News search is a little more flat, but that probably reflects the fact that tech journalists like to compare the rise of one thing to the fall of another. Google search reflects what people are looking for in general, so it covers people looking up information on the phone and O…

Why "Google Android" instead of just "Android" (or alternately you could, I suppose, go with "Apple iOS"), because the latter much more closely mirrors what has happened in the market. Unless personal assistant robots have taken off corresponding with Android, I don't think it's being polluted much.

I tried to keep it to the most general term that still associated it with a company. It seems to be smart enough to pick up on the relation between android and the other terms, but the two graphs are still wildly different. I would expect them to be similar.

I'm not sure which way to go with it. Fortunately, you're free to tinker with the inputs. This is probably a more interesting graph: https://www.google.com/trends/explore?q=droid%2C%20lumia%2C%...

Re: BlackBerry to cut 4,500 jobs, predicts 2nd quarter loss of $950M

#59

Post by ifni »

GrinningFool wrote: post #25
maxsilver wrote: post #7

It'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…

This is frustrating - I agree that they've finally gotten their act together, particularly with 10.2. The writing has been on the wall for a while - I stopped building apps for them earlier this year. I've tried Android and iPhone and don't particularly want to return to either one. The former because of too many apps that want all the permissions under the sun while the OS offers a complete lack of fine-grained cont…

Android 4.3 has that fine-grained permission control built in now, but it's hidden. It may not be 100% production ready, but it can be exposed and used by apps that launch it, such as: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.schurich.a...

Of course, the chances are that no small number of apps you might be tempted to restrict will promptly crash since they'll assume that having asked for the permission up front means they'll get whatever data they want when they ask for it.

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