BlackBerry’s new interim chief John Chen has just got a rude wake-up call: the company shipped only 1.9 million smartphones to retailers in Q3 compared to 3.7 million last quarter, and lost $4.4 billion. Most of the phones shipped were lower-priced BB7 models, and it lost a massive $2.6 billion on unsold BlackBerry 10 devices and other associated BB10 charges. Retail channel sales (of phones already shipped) during the period also showed the scale of the drop in its upmarket phones: of 4.3 million devices sold to end-users, only 1.1 million were BB10 handsets.
I feel terrible for the people working at RIM. This is the news they have to hear just days before Christmas.
I own a Q5, and I really love the device. I really like the keyboard/touchscreen combination. I enjoy this device more than my Sony Xperia which runs Android 4.2.
With the latest update (10.2.1) it can run apk files natively, and it should be quite easy to install the Amazon AppStore for Android on it. This should have been in there from the moment it was released
I owned a Z10 for a few weeks and the OS was really great. Very clean and easy to use.
Unfortunately, the device overheated and died, and there was no way to fix it. Had to go back to Windows Phone which i’m not enjoying as much.
In any case, the OS was fantastic but they were late to the game.
I remember talking to a few BB10 developers from Blackberry at GDC, they said they took a long time because they made several mistakes when choosing the technologies they worked with.
They initially made the whole phone around AIR, to later find out adobe abandoned flash for the most part, while the performance was terrible. They ended up rewriting everything in Qt for BB10 but it took them too long and ran out of time. No one cared about BlackBerry anymore.
Wait, they were willing to bet the house on a 3rd party’s platform (Adobe) without even bothering to check a roadmap or obtaining some kind of contractual guarantees of support?
If that is the case, the level of mismanagement inside Blackberry must have been (is?) phenomenal.
Edited 2013-12-27 06:36 UTC
Wow, an OS based on Adobe AIR… How great would that have been /s
I used to have a Nokia N9, and I loved the swipe interface. When BB10 came out, and I saw how that interface was, more or less, not so different from the N9, I really wanted to get one. The problem was, there wasn’t a Japanese keyboard (I work in a 99% Japanese environment), and hardly any apps were compatible.
The OS update previously mentioned, 10.2.1, which is still a beta, and can only be loaded through various leaks, added Japanese support, and the ability to install android applications. When I saw this, I bought a Q10 and a Z10 (Z10s were on sale recently for $200). They are both really, really great phones. It’s just too bad that so many people haven’t given them a try.
Edited 2013-12-24 18:01 UTC
I really considered getting one of the BB10 devices, but I wanted one with a slide out keyboard. But yeah, the OS reminds me a lot of Harmattan on the N9.
Yeah, I *had* a BB10 device, until they announced that they would not be releasing it for the playbook. That sealed it, Blackberry was dead to me.
They have a long track record of broken promises.
It does not list the recent share price surge after Blackberry and Foxconn signed an agreement whereby the latter would take care of inventory, i.o.w no more inventory write downs for Blackberry, and promised an affordable OS10 device.
That’s because share price is not quarterly revenue, and the full effect of the changes won’t be evident for at least the next quarter, probably longer. That’s if Blackberry even last that long.
Certainly.
I understand share price surges is not quarterly revenue, though, with the foxconn deal meaning the prospect of no future inventory write downs these positive news reflect an optimistic market sentiment of Blackberry returning into the black.
Just tried to add some balance here to the popular en vogue “blackberry is drowning” sentiment that the there are actually some positive news about the company and a chance for a turnaround.
Edited 2013-12-26 15:51 UTC
“I’ve never heard of such a brutal and shocking injustice that I cared so little about” Zap Brannigan
Blackberry didn’t take Apple seriously when they made the iPhone. Google had to remake their Android platform, it took them a little time but it caught up. However Blackberry never fully got it, until it was too late.
As a Canadian, I am sad to see Blackberry in such sad shape. It is really hard to imagine them pulling out of the current nosedive in time to be a big player in the smart phone space again. Windows Phone is passing them for number three and there are probably only three spots to be had. The fight for that third spot is also about to get crowded as Ubuntu, Firefox, Jolla, and a host of others jump into the arena. Nobody is likely to catch Android this decade and Apple will probably repeat it’s computer industry performance of most profitable vendor with 10-15% marketshare.
That said, I just ditched my iPhone for a Blackberry Z30. For years, I have been saying that if somebody made a phone with good sound quality, superior reception, decent battery life, and a usable keyboard I would buy it in a heartbeat. Blackberry called my bluff. I get none of those things with my iPhone.
With USB host mode, Miracast, the Paratek antenna, a SDHC/SDXC slot, the fastest mobile browser, amazing LTE speeds, advanced tethering and a great screen, the Z30 is a beast of a phone. The fact that it runs QNX as the operating system is just a nice bonus for an OS geek like myself.
The downside of course is the lack of apps but the Z30 has a full Android 4.2.2 runtime included. That means that I still get Netflix (a big deal for me on the train) and the ability to run obscure apps like the one for my bank or the one that talks to my thermostat.
You have to be a bit of a geek to load Android apps on the Z30 but it is getting easier with each release. In January, they will ship a version that loads Android APK files natively (like those found in the various Android app stores like Google Play) and has apparently even better compatibility. I say January because various builds have been “leaking” out of Blackberry and it seems like it it is almost ready.
My wife would disagree with my feature list as the camera is her most important feature and the 8MP camera on the Z30 is fine but not the best. Also, while the GPU in the Z30 is quad core, the main processor is only dual core.
I worry a little that I will be embarrassed to display the Blackberry logo but I should worry less about what other people think. The Z30 is a really great phone and Blackberry 10 over QNX is a great OS.
I also worry that Blackberry will stop providing updates but getting stuck on Android 4.2.2 compatibility would not be the end of the world. From what I can tell of their strategy, I do not expect to get orphaned. In the time I will own this phone, it seems more likely that similar Android devices will be forgotten by their vendors and that Apple will offer OS upgrades with purposely crippled or missing features on the older phones. Time will tell though.
I do not blame people for abandoning Blackberry or being cynical about the brand the prospects for the company. They really screwed up. To be honest though, owning the Z30 makes me feel like I am just a bit smarter than everybody else.