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BlackBerry's Survival Plan: the Internet of Things
jfruh writes BlackBerry's smartphone business is famously floundering, but the company isn't betting everything on its new retro physical-keyboard phones. It's also making moves into distributed, embedded, and asset-tracking computing for homes, cars, and businesses, which can all be lumped under the currently trendy "Internet of Things" buzzword umbrella. The company got a head start when it acquired the QNX OS in 2010, which was intended as the basis of a new smartphone OS but which already had credibility in the embedded market.
How hard is it to reposition a company?
"The Internet of Things" is so dumb. It was never called "The Internet of Computers" when computers were hooked up, and technically all these "things" have computers in them. And a network exists in the ether between devices; communication. I'm just so tired of this buzz phrase, I cringe every time I hear it. It's like "Information Superhighway", except less relate-able .
So, they're throwing everything they've got left in a buzzword which makes out-of-touch techies excited but which no one actually wants. This isn't even a gamble - It's suicide.
I can see a hundred little bots fouling up your house with this IofT nonsense. one release, no upgrade path, no thought of security built-in, sell 'em and run. I have several candidates, and there is NOT going to be any RJ45 or wifi permissions for them. period.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
BlackBerry CEO: It's not dead - it's pining for the fjords....
"Buzzword Umbrella Corporation"
Google: No results found for "Buzzword Umbrella Corporation".
Quick, someone grab it!
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the word you really want here is foundering., yeah sure, floundering like a fish on a deck, gasping for air, but it's the deck of a ship that is foundering.
They still have the best mobile management software out there. Citrix, Good, MobileIron, etc can't touch BB's offerings.
Plus they have QNX which is used in billions of devices around the world. So what if their handhelds aren't popular? Who cares? They will continue to have a niche market in handhelds.
"A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
If Blackberry jumps on the Internet Of Things bandwagon then we can finally get our wish of having the term killed, beaten to a pulp, and buried.
I have two family members that use new Blackberries. One has a model from about 14 months ago and my brother just got one about a month ago. They are both somewhat limited in terms of apps but conversely, they both have stupid amounts of battery life and they Just Work(tm). They're business phones so obviously they aren't getting stressed with Youtube/Netflix/etc. Still, it appears to be a solid product, if probably unsexy to the people always on my lawn.
One of the worst survival plans I've ever heard of.
This is up there with the Carthaginian survival plan.
Nintendo started as a card company. Nokia started as a paper company.
Blackberry could get into the hogs trading market.
Not as fancy as selling phones, but I've heard as an industry it really brings home the bacon.
Priest: "Universe from nothing, no laws of physics, sped up time"+ huge discrepancies. Creationism? No. Big Bang Theory
They have been unable to make their smartphones work in the consumer market, and they've burned a lot of bridges with their corporate customers.
So... given the track record of being unable to judge the market and put out a solid, single product the company was focused on, they expect to succeed at putting out a variety of products with which they have no experience and know nothing about the market?
Good luck. I expect Waterloo will have some good commercial real estate freed up soon.
my gut tells me that there's lots of us out there who miss our bberry keyboard ... whilst still loving the apps that android gives us. I'd pay more than what I do for my samsung for a well made, slide up, vertical keyboard and bberry battery life.
Those dorks! Don't they know that 2015 is the break out year for Magic pixie Dust? The IoT is just a fairy tale.
...just exploded.
Doing their hayday blackberry bought one of the companies who essentially invented the whole idea of internet of things, and a big player in the embedded market(QNX) so they have had a department doing that for a while, just not under the blackberry brand, but since knowing industry details is beyond most of the tech press we get snark and fluffy editorials on weather or not a mobile company can transform itself.
In essence what your seeing is that blackberry downplay it's old porfolio and tries to live off the one competent profitable company they bought doing their uptick, other companies have done so successfully before. but the thing to notice here is that the part of blackberry doing this were making internet of thing devices before anyone in the IT press even heard of the term.
Android phones allow using BBM free {Blackberry Messenger Free(only internet needed)}, but when it comes to Blackberry smartphones, you have to activate a BBM plan to chat with your friends, and the BBM plan rates are above Rs.199. In this plan you are not allowed to use internet, you can only chat with your friends using the BBM. If you want to use internet you have to activate another internet plan. Where Android phones allow using BBM in your General Internet Plan. So Why Blackberry charges extra to use BBM?
I have a Microsoft infotainment center in my Ford F-150. Such a nice truck and I have one complaint. The Microsoft software. I read up on it and it turns out that I am not alone. A lot of people complain about it.
I vowed to never buy another vehicle with Microsoft in it. And I've seen what the QNX automotive solution can do for the past few years (Go see youttube videos on CES QNX 20xx demo car). They have an insane solution for infotainment and the turn around times for the software price are supposedly very short.
Ford is switching to QNX and I can not wait to get my next Ford (or whomever has QNX in it). I literally will not buy a car without he QNX solution.
From the early days, Blackberry has had better mobile security than competitors. Even today, though their app selection is more limited, their permissions model is better.
I like my Android, but if I'm going to have something integrated into my home or vehicle, I'd go for "more security+reliable" over "pretty with apps"