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An Open Letter To Customers

app.biz.blackberry.com

61–70 of 80 posts

Re: An Open Letter To Customers

#61
post #27
post #6

I always wished BlackBerry would adopt Android operating system. It desperately needs some enterprise hardened secure version with good VPN. Also I really miss decent Android phone with Qwerty keyboard.

Android is a race to the bottom for everyone who isn't Google (controls the software side) or Samsung (fabs the key silicon).

or Microsoft (patent payments).

Re: An Open Letter To Customers

#63
post #11

"MDM vendors are undoubtedly inviting you to webinars and enticing you to switch off your BES." They're trying to tell me an actual human typed that sentence?

They are done. They STILL have no clue they aren't the center of the universe. Who knows (or cares) what this sentence means: "We’re serious about multi-platform MDM and even more serious about multi-platform EMM"

It's one thing to know and care, but another thing to pull it off. I dealt with RIM/BB not all that long ago on behalf of an M2M prospect and was thoroughly underwhelmed; the QNX team we dealt with was sharp and fully on-point, but I got the sense that RIM was holding them back. In the end, using BB would have increased our hardware BOM by an order of magnitude (literally, they suggested we buy smartphones and use them as the basis of the hardware), so it made zero sense versus a more traditional route.

It's a shame, really. QNX is a fantastic solution supported by a brilliant team, but one that's hobbled to a hardware vendor with zero vision and even less ability to execute.

Re: An Open Letter To Customers

#64
Can someone explain to me why BlackBerry gets so much negativity for trying to regain relevance, whereas there's much more positive thoughts for startups trying to pivot to do the same? It always seems like HN has a lot more love for the latter than the former.

Re: An Open Letter To Customers

#66
post #49
post #13

I skimmed thru and this caught my eye "Our EMM customer base is much larger than any of the other vendors in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Mobile Device Management – and is growing." Not having heard of this "Magic Quadrant", I find it hard to see how the average consumer could take that seriously.

The Gartner Magic Quadrants are treated very highly by senior management who often don't trust vendors or their own staff. They tend to be vacuous and of awful quality - I've started keeping historical ones so that at some point I'll be able to show how terrible Gartner are at predicting the future. But a surprising number of purchasing decisions are made on the back of these magic quadrants. Here is the link to the…

I get that this is addressed to a specific audience, and it isn't me - but I don't understand how their position there is something to mention at all. They're a "niche player" apparently, where in this context that means they have a low ability to execute and incomplete vision.

"BlackBerry is positioned in the Niche Players quadrant and should only be considered for BlackBerry management or for cross-platform if iOS is needed and BES 10 has been purchased." sure doesn't sound reassuring either.

Re: An Open Letter To Customers

#67
post #44

Blackberry 10, for me, is the best mobile operating system. Also, writing application for this OS is terribly cool (C++ and Qt !). So, I believe in BlackBerry.

I totally agree with you. I recently switched from android 4 to blackberry 10 and I couldn't be happier with it. It's an awesome OS, plus the app gap with android/ios is not really terrible (I can find almost all the apps I need in the BB world, and I have the android runtime -which works fine for me- for the others). I guess the majority of bb detractors have never played with BB10 for more than 10 minutes before. I…

My wife and I are currently trying to decide between the Q10 and the HTC One (we're both renewing contracts and upgrading from Samsung Galaxy Infuse). We're really drawn to the Q10 for the physical keyboard and BB10 looks awesome (we've watched video reviews and played around with a demo model in-store). There's also a little bit of a "Buy Canadian" thing, at least on my part.

But we're leaning more and more towards the HTC One. Our Android apps are guaranteed to work, without any complicated conversion process, missing features, or stability/performance problems. The HTC hardware seems light years ahead of the Q10 (and is actually more powerful than my work laptop). The device seems more "futureproof", especially given Blackberry's uncertain future.

What if they get out of the consumer-level hardware business six months from now (I have memories of my old Sega Dreamcast here)? What if 10.2.1 is the last consumer OS upgrade they ever release and AppWorld collapses and support for Android APKs gets worse and worse as it goes unmaintained? These are devices we're committing to for the next two years, and we can't help feel apprehensive about choosing Blackberry at this point.

Re: An Open Letter To Customers

#68
post #13

I skimmed thru and this caught my eye "Our EMM customer base is much larger than any of the other vendors in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Mobile Device Management – and is growing." Not having heard of this "Magic Quadrant", I find it hard to see how the average consumer could take that seriously.

Huh... I hear about it every month or two. It's a pretty popular report Gartner puts out.

Re: An Open Letter To Customers

#69
post #11

"MDM vendors are undoubtedly inviting you to webinars and enticing you to switch off your BES." They're trying to tell me an actual human typed that sentence?

They are done. They STILL have no clue they aren't the center of the universe. Who knows (or cares) what this sentence means: "We’re serious about multi-platform MDM and even more serious about multi-platform EMM"

Enterprises lost the BYOD war ... if you offer SMTPS, POPS and IMAPS as a way for an employee's clients to connect to your infrastructure, you've already decided to allow a connection from their personal devices. Smart enterprises have recognized this, hardened their core network and then taken advantage of the cost reductions offered by BYOD.

Re: An Open Letter To Customers

#70
post #21
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can run Android apps on BB10. But there would be no point in running Android, it would be a big step backwards security wise. Not to mention that Google don't do Android out of the goodness of their hearts. They want to make phone handsets commoditized with all the cool stuff in the software and in their "cloud". That's not a market you want to be in as a manufacturer - just ask IBM who were driven out of PCs, a…

I read that Android support in BB10 is not so great. Most of Android components are open sourced. There are versions of Android which strips out Google stuff. For example Facebook released their phone which runs on Android. There is even alternative OS (sailfish) with similar architecture, which runs Android apps just fine. The problem is that BlackBerry tries to be manufacturer. They do everything by themselves. Ins…

Facebook did not release a phone. They released a home screen/app launcher for Android. HTC did release a phone with it preloaded, which bombed (because move fast and break things works better on the web than on phones).
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