| reply to donoreo
Re: Blackberry share trading halted.EDL BB going private Blame Obama. BlackBerry’s fortunes in the U.S. took a steep drop starting around the time BlackBerry addict Barack Obama took office. Graphic: Marcus Wohlsen/Data: ComScore
The reality is that the old Blackberry OS just didn't have the legs to bring RIM into the realm of the consumer space, nor to give it the means to fulfill the needs their corporate customers said they wanted. Buying QNX and several other software companies was a smart move on their part but it came too late, or maybe not too late but management - especially Balsillie - were too busy focused on other external things (hockey for Hamilton). |
|
|
|
 elwoodbluesElwood BluesPremium
join:2006-08-30
HarperLand
kudos:1 | reply to digitalfutur
Re: Blackberry share trading halted. I disagree the market decides based on how much money they can make.
Short the stock, spread some rumors and bingo you made a profit from nothing.
The markets isn't deciding anything, people who have no business interfering in the day to day operations are deciding.
A variety of Q10 like products may have satisfied the needs of the corporate market, but some people decided they need an iphone like product, a tablet etc...cover all your basis even if you sucks at it (Kin, Surface Rt are market driven, spectacular failures).
--
No, I didn't. Honest... I ran out of gas. I... I had a flat tire. I didn't have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn't come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake....... |
|
 milnoc
join:2001-03-05
H3B
kudos:2 | reply to loosedobbs
said by loosedobbs:said by elwoodblues:Pretty funny if you think about it, you used to have to wait for the 6pm news or the afternoon paper, now it's at your fingertips.
Literally. But not coming from a BlackBerry.  |
|
 GuspazGuspazPremium,MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC
kudos:20 | reply to elwoodblues
I think it goes beyond that at this point. Windows Phone is outselling Blackberry devices now. Blackberry's marketshare of sales for 2Q2013 was 2.8%.
--
Latest version of CapSavvy systray usage checker: »CapSavvy v4.2 released! |
|
| reply to MaynardKrebs
Re: Blackberry share trading halted.EDL BB going private Interesting, Microsoft has about the same percentage now as Palm did when it was dying off back in 2009. |
|
Reviews:
 ·Cogeco Cable
| reply to LazMan
Re: Blackberry share trading halted. said by LazMan:RIM owned corporate email; and still has the best back-end in the mobile/enterprise space...
They tried to become a consumer product, and that killed them... Instead of being the best at what they did; and conceeding the multi-media/consumer market, they lost focus.
I carry a BB for work; it does email better then everything else.
I agree with everything you wrote and wished they'd moved in baby steps supporting their core supporters with the best experience possible, rather than trying to focus on everyone and failing. I'll take best email experience + qwerty keys over large touchy device any day of the week. |
|
GuspazGuspazPremium,MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC
kudos:20 | reply to donoreo
Re: Blackberry share trading halted.EDL BB going private If RIM had focused on the enterprise and ignored the iPhone, RIM would have died off much faster than they did. One of the main reasons they died was because people didn't want to carry around multiple phones, so they demanded work phones that weren't useless at everything but mail and messaging. Trying to keep the blackberry as an e-mail feature phone would, far from saving them like some here claim, have killed them off at an accelerated pace.
Would Android have fared well against the iPhone if Android devices shipped with the ability to do nothing but google search? Highly doubtful.
--
Latest version of CapSavvy systray usage checker: »CapSavvy v4.2 released! |
|
Reviews:
 ·ELECTRONICBOX
·Execulink Telecom
| reply to urbanriot
Re: Blackberry share trading halted. said by urbanriot:I agree with everything you wrote and wished they'd moved in baby steps supporting their core supporters with the best experience possible, rather than trying to focus on everyone and failing. I'll take best email experience + qwerty keys over large touchy device any day of the week.
From my understanding,the billion dollar write off was on mostly Z10's. Not sure how the economics would work, but maybe a focus on the QWERTY phones (with less/no money spent on the full touch screens) would be a good business decision. Or perhaps building as you need rather than warehousing a billion dollars worth of phones. |
|
elwoodbluesElwood BluesPremium
join:2006-08-30
HarperLand
kudos:1 | Considering the phones are made in different parts of the world, JIT inventory, won't work. |
|
Reviews:
·Cogeco Cable
| said by elwoodblues:Considering the phones are made in different parts of the world, JIT inventory, won't work.
This is where buffering warehouses come in. Item manufactured in low cost third world countries, phones reside in key low tariffed buffering warehouses in other areas of the world and are then sent to the various locations they need to go. |
|
elwoodbluesElwood BluesPremium
join:2006-08-30
HarperLand
kudos:1 | said by urbanriot:said by elwoodblues:Considering the phones are made in different parts of the world, JIT inventory, won't work.
This is where buffering warehouses come in. Item manufactured in low cost third world countries, phones reside in key low tariffed buffering warehouses in other areas of the world and are then sent to the various locations they need to go. Perhaps I misunderstand, the phones are still manufactured, so whether the phone is in a warehouse in Waterloo,or Mexico , or China, (I think they're made in Mexico ) BB still owns the inventory that's not being sold.
--
No, I didn't. Honest... I ran out of gas. I... I had a flat tire. I didn't have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn't come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake....... |
|
| Yea, and I think that has to do with over-estimating the demand, the same as what happened with the surface. Blackberry should have debut with the Z10 and the Q10 rather than banking entirely on the Z10. |
|
elwoodbluesElwood BluesPremium
join:2006-08-30
HarperLand
kudos:1 | reply to donoreo
Re: Blackberry share trading halted.EDL BB going private The Globe has published an short analysis on the whole deal. Fairfax is not being as altruistic as some people think they are.
First BB is sitting on a pile of cash and investments, $2.6b which I'm sure Fairfax will use to pay itself back for the investment
They're also sitting on a pile of patents(as I mentioned upthread) that could easily be sold , they paid $770m for the Nortel patents, and are probably worth more.
Least but not least, what is BBM worth?
»www.theglobeandmail.com/report-o···4488234/
--
No, I didn't. Honest... I ran out of gas. I... I had a flat tire. I didn't have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn't come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake....... |
|
 EUSKill cancerPremium
join:2002-09-10
canada | Am I the only one who finds patent dollar values suspect? |
|
elwoodbluesElwood BluesPremium
join:2006-08-30
HarperLand
kudos:1 | reply to donoreo
Similar questions being asked in the financial post. |
|
| reply to EUS
said by EUS:Am I the only one who finds patent dollar values suspect?
Since having a patent confers the right for you to make, use or sell your invention while excluding others, how much should they be worth? Provided the invention is worth something, that's a pretty powerful position to be in.
--
"It's all coming down!!" - Mike Holmes |
|
 StyvasGo Canucks GoPremium
join:2004-09-15
Hamilton, ON | If their products (for which they have the patents) were worth so much, wouldn't the company be doing much better with such valuable products? I realize it's not quite that simple, but it's not overly complex either. |
|
| Fair question. I work in IP but I'm not too familiar with BB's portfolio. Given the timeline for obtaining a patent (3-5 years or more) it could be that the patents are to technologies that aren't a fit with the company anymore. But they could be extremely valuable to others.
A lot of money can be made in IP licencing.
--
"It's all coming down!!" - Mike Holmes |
|
 LazManPremium
join:2003-03-26
canada | reply to elwoodblues
Interesting peice on the radio this morning...
Talking about how Fairfax/Prem Watsa's average dollar cost is in the mid teens on BB right now; and how this offer could be just a way to protect what he's already got tied up in the company, rather then letting the share price drop even further. |
|
 IanPremium
join:2002-06-18
ON
kudos:2 | reply to donoreo
I have a feeling that Fairfax already has a pretty good idea about the patent portfolio and who would be willing to pay what for it. |
|
 FFHPremium
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ
kudos:5 | said by Ian:I have a feeling that Fairfax already has a pretty good idea about the patent portfolio
You bet they do, since the CEO of Fairfax was on the Blackberry Board up until 2 months ago. |
|
 Wolfie00My dog is an elitistPremium
join:2005-03-12
kudos:5 | reply to donoreo
This is hilarious...
said by »online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142···306.html :
WATERLOO, Ontario—Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry Ltd which on Friday said it was set to post a loss of almost $1 billion for the quarter ended Aug. 31 and slash 40% of its workforce, only two months ago added a larger plane to its corporate-jet fleet.
The company purchased a 2006 Bombardier Global Express in July, according to Canadian aircraft-registry records. Although the price it paid for the jet couldn't be learned, similar planes are listed for sale for about $25 million to $29 million on a used-aircraft marketing website.
|
|
GuspazGuspazPremium,MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC
kudos:20 | reply to donoreo
By all accounts it seems to be a very nice aircraft, a derivative of the Bombardier CRJ that many of us have flown on, but with more than three times the range, enough to fly from Waterloo to Tokyo without refuelling.
That said, WTF is a company in such dire straights doing wasting money on something like that?
--
Latest version of CapSavvy systray usage checker: »CapSavvy v4.2 released! |
|
elwoodbluesElwood BluesPremium
join:2006-08-30
HarperLand
kudos:1 | They're entitled to their entitlements. |
|
GuspazGuspazPremium,MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC
kudos:20 | reply to donoreo
And it's that kind of decisionmaking which is why Blackberry as a company is apparently worth nothing beyond the value of their cash on hand and patents.
It was pointed out in the coverage of the $4.7 billion deal that it's basically not worth any more than those two things, but that they're unlikely to find anybody willing to pay more.
--
Latest version of CapSavvy systray usage checker: »CapSavvy v4.2 released! |
|
 Link LoggerPremium,MVM
join:2001-03-29
Calgary, AB
kudos:3 | reply to donoreo
Blackberry might be able to make a tidy little sum for Fairfax. How many clients do they need to make a profit and now that the company is private there is no need to slice the profit pie up into a couple million worthless pieces. In a market as big as smart phones apparently you can be a niche player and make buckets like Apple.
Blake
--
Vendor: Author of Link Logger which is a traffic analysis and firewall logging tool |
|
GuspazGuspazPremium,MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC
kudos:20 | reply to donoreo
The difference is that Apple sold more iPhones last weekend alone than Blackberry sold all of last quarter... Apple makes 53% of all profit in the smartphone market, how are they niche? They're the second biggest smartphone maker in the world after Samsung, and they're producing more phones than the next three or four companies combined.
Blackberry, on the other hand, is hemorrhaging money; they were going to post a loss even before the write down.
--
Latest version of CapSavvy systray usage checker: »CapSavvy v4.2 released! |
|
elwoodbluesElwood BluesPremium
join:2006-08-30
HarperLand
kudos:1
1 edit | reply to MaynardKrebs
The Globe has an really interesting story(expose ) on the fall of BB. In a nutshell, they were , internally, extremely dysfunctional and combative.
I'm on my phone so I can't paste any tidbits.
»m.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-···e=mobile
Edit: Corrected my phone mistakes due to Milnoc's harsh criticisms
--
No, I didn't. Honest... I ran out of gas. I... I had a flat tire. I didn't have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn't come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake....... |
|
milnoc
join:2001-03-05
H3B
kudos:2
1 edit | said by elwoodblues:I'm on my phone so I can't paste any tidbits. Or possibly spell.
"The Globe has not a really interesting story(expose )"
After reading the article this morning, I don't think that's what you meant to say. 
It's sad, really. It's as if there was a battle of egos at work, none of them capable of reading the writing on the wall after the release of the iPhone. That's the day BB pretty much met their match and should have gone the iOS/Android app route. |
|
elwoodbluesElwood BluesPremium
join:2006-08-30
HarperLand
kudos:1 | No going Droid, wouldn't have solved anything. Just another choice.
Basille was on the right track with SMS 2.0 and an exclusive deal with China. |
|
