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RIM's BB10 Campaign Requires Some Serious Work
adeelarshad82 writes "With the BlackBerry 10 launch just around the corner, there is a lot of pressure on RIM's CEO to provide a 'Steve Jobs Moment.' However, given BlackBerry's 1.1% percent market share compared to the combined 92% share between rivals Android and iOS, it's a long road back. To add to the struggle, no other first-generation smartphone leader has been able to pull off this kind of rebirth. Palm and Symbian are dead and Microsoft is struggling. But, as one mobile analyst explains, RIM has a chance to carve out its own market with tomorrow's launch of BlackBerry 10 given that they get a few things right. They need to heavily promote their devices to CEOs, heavily promote the top apps to users, and most of all, they need to be able to explain why people should give it a look."
I'll be interested to see how this plays out.
I suspect a lot of people have mostly decided RIM is a dead horse and moved on. You could offer me a BlackBerry for free, and I'm not sure I'd care. And the dirty looks I still get from the wife when her Playbook is crashing tells me she's not someone who would recommend any of their products.
If what they release is business-centric with a focus on connecting to an Exchange server, then I predict that the consumers who buy most smart phones nowadays will decide they're not offering anything of value.
It's become like the Amiga or SGI ... a couple of the die hard fans still saying how awesome it is and how we're all missing out, and a huge amount of people not interested.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Because the big feature of Blackberrys was always business features, like exchange integration and email encryption. Iphone and Android have been eating away at this market. This advice is to tie them up again. Too little too late, but it would have been sound advice 4 years ago.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
Selling it as a phone that combines the security and safety of an enterprise phone with the features an fun of a "home" phone is the right approach. But they're still going to have to prove themselves on both fronts. And the clock is definitely ticking.
I don't think it's too late for them, but it's definitely the 11th hour.
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
This smart phone is no more! It has ceased to be! It's expired and gone to meet its maker! This is a late smart phone! It's a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed it to your business unit would be pushing up the daisies! Its market processes are of interest only to historians! It's hopped the twig! It's shuffled off this mortal coil! It's run down the curtain and joined the choir invisible! This.... is an EX-SMARTPHONE!
The statement is obvious and wrong and typical CEO-think. Heck, it is what Ballmer thought he needed to do to go past the iPhone. Don't believe me, lookup the infamous video on Youtube where Ballmer declares the iPhone DOA because "it doesn't appeal to business customers because it doesn't have a keyboard". What has been lost in that is that business users no longer drive smartphone adoption. Heck, many companies now let ordinary users pick the devices they want.
Blackberry needs to take 1 or 2 billion dollars and pay people to develop or port apps to their platform, and give them away exclusively on the BB. That is the only way they can get a large library quickly enough to encourage normal users to buy their phones. Smartphones are all about software now, and not just the OS, but the ecosystem. iOS has it, Android has it, WP has it and BB10 doesn't.
I've seen it in action, and it reminded me of Android, but in many aspects it's better. Porting Android apps to BB10 is, apparently, pretty straightforward (sometimes downright effortless) and there will be 70.000 ready at launch.
So it has a fighting chance. Let's see how it plays out. Personally, I think it has slightly better odds than Windows Phone.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
One of the big features is having multiple profiles on the BB10 phones, so you can have a Home profile as well as a Business profile, each with it's own apps and data that you can switch on the fly. When you leave a company, the business profile is wiped and you can continue using the device.
Demoed one of the employee's units some time ago, it was pretty cool. Definitely geared for business users, but it's the only modern smartphone I've seen with this functionality.
I maintain that they should be focusing on mobile security and management software, and should have been for the past several years.
Even as recently as last year, RIM had a reputation for security mobile data devices. The problem was, nobody wanted those devices. So instead of spending the fortune on building a new handset/OS, they should have spent time and money developing a decent mobile management server, with associated mobile clients for android, iphone and MS kit ( with plugins for the various data sources; exchange, groupwise, ect... ).
They could have parleyed their reputation on to the entire mobile market for business handhelds, instead of floating a NEW hand held in an already contentious market.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
The first model of the BB10 labelled 'N' is a full touch. Expect the model 'L' which will run OS 10 to resemble something closer to a BB Bold with your ever desired physical keys.
Wrong way around. The Z10 L-series is the touch-only unit. The X10 N-series is the keyboard+touch.
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
If it doesn't come with a fully functional Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Angry Birds etc then it is virtually dead. Not barely working apps but fully working apps that are equal to their iOS / Android counterparts. BB already has great email support but they will need to have good Google Calendar sync, etc as well.
If the apps work ... and the right apps are there ... then it won't be as hard as most people think. Outside the geek/techno realm people care few shits about the OS. It is all about the app ecosystem. It has to have the big apps on release and it has to see new apps come out at the same time as on the other platforms.
And ... from what I've read ... there is actually a decent chance of this happening.
One of the things people don't realize is that while BB has a smaller share ... people on that platform tend to be willing to pay for apps more often (and more per app) so as long as BB can get this out the door properly (big if, no doubt) the developers may well join. Especially if their app support team is as good as I've been reading and porting is as simple as they've made it sound.
Will -I- buy one? No. I want an open platform for my own purposes. But my exec bosses? They couldn't care less about rooting/jailbreaking/shell sessions/etc. And most of them don't care about fringe apps, they just want their core apps to work excellently and their phone to be secure.
It is more productive to voice thoughtful opinions (reply) than to judge (moderate) others.
The idea of pitching from the top down was always the Microsoft approach - and it no longer works. iOS and Android have succeeded despite not having any official sanction - it was exactly the opposite approach. The rank and file bought these devices themselves, and pretty much refused to cow-tow to the company line because their personal devices already did what they needed, even in the workplace.
Blackberry's time has come and gone. The end game has already been played. They should just part out the remaining assets and give the money back to the shareholders.
#DeleteChrome
My company has a iPad app for interfacing with our software. We don't have an Android app (though as an afterthought we have started developing an "agnostic" HTML5 interface.) Why is that? It wasn't because of market studies or user feedback or anything like that. It was because our CEO got an iPad, and she really liked it. So she thought we ought to be able to use our software with an iPad.
It doesn't matter how dumb you think CEOs are on average (though i've got to say, our CEO is pretty smart in general, even if i don't agree with her on this one decision) they can have a massive influence on what direction a company takes. Whether it's deciding which platforms to develop software for or what brand of phone the company will supply or something else i'm not even thinking of, if you can convince a bunch of CEOs that your product is a great thing there's probably something they can do to help you out.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
Blackberry needs to take 1 or 2 billion dollars and pay people to develop or port apps to their platform
Why? Developers have been flocking to the platform. BB10 will have >70,000 apps at launch. RIM's new developer tools are great and have been very well received. Their developer outreach program has also been a phenomenal success.
Why on earth would they spend a billion or two to pay developers to do what they're already doing?
Required reading for internet skeptics
"Many of you have an Apple iPhone. Some of you have Google Android phones. Some of you use Microsoft's Skype service.
Apple can monitor the location of your iPhone from their control center. They can turn your phone off. They can put software on it. Apple has the keys to your iPhone.
With Google Android devices, Google has the keys to your phone. Google can change what's on your phone. With Skype, all your calls go through Microsoft, and Microsoft won't say who's listening in.
With RIM, you are in control. The server that controls your devices is in your data center, under your control. We at RIM have no control over your devices. You have the keys, and you set the keys. We have no way to get into your phone. We can't listen in, nor can we let a government listen in.
Do you want to give out the keys to your company? It's your choice.
Thank you."
I was at a developer conference and went to a BB10 presentation.
The thing that impressed me is the focus on being really good at what Blackberry always did well, just revamped for a modern age.
For instance they had a really nice way to "peek" at what was going on. And email was always just a motion away, it was still core to the system just as it has been in older blackberry devices.
Also Blackberry realized that lots of people love blackberries because of the typing. Blackberry 10 has the best virtual keyboard I have seen for typing and completion.
BB10 is also really agnostic as to how you develop software for it, as noted Android ports are simple and they have other paths as well.
Before I saw it in action I thought they were toast. Now, like you, I think it has a real chance. Like you, I like the odds for its success even more than WP8 now.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
RIM continued to sell a shitload of their pieces of crap for years and years before they really went under
They never really went under. Their user base grew every quarter until the most recent. They've reported only two quarterly losses, both very small, the most recent less than the increase we saw to their cash reserves. I'd hesitate to call their products "crap" when they still do some things that the current market leaders never managed, and does some things better than either iOS and Android.
They did basically cede North America, but they knew they had to for the time being and focused on emerging markets that players like Apple are just starting to notice. That was a pretty smart move.
It's just not in their DNA to build something user friendly,
Except for smartphones. Their UI was widely praised. The BlackBerry killed the PDA market for a reason, after all. Their old UI is still well-loved by users that care about productivity over pretty transitions. (Remember, even aging executives could use a BlackBerry -- if that's not user-friendly, I don't know what is!) The BB10 UI has been near universally praised, as has the physical design of the Z10 -- and that's just from the dev alpha's and the leaks!
sexy and fun
The 9900 is a gorgeous design that, yes, has been called 'sexy'. Even the harshest critics praised the UI on the PlayBook, which is undoubtedly fun to use.
I'd say it's in RIM's DNA to build something sexy, fun, and user friendly. I know the meme, but it doesn't seem to match reality. A bit like "Macs are better for graphics" and other similar nonsense bandied about as "common knowledge".
Required reading for internet skeptics