BlackBerry Board Refused to Break Up Company Despite Interest From Apple, Others

[melgross]

Then why did Apple, Microsoft and Google all offer to buy only parts of the company? Apple could have bought the entire company and then sold off the parts it has no use for and made money. They didn't so I suspect you are wrong. The parts are not worth more or someone would be acted on that already.

The entire company isn't worth much. That is easily shown by the failed bid by Fairfax for $4.7 billion. A bid, by the way, that I've always thought to be nothing more than a smokescreen. The financing was never there. Now, there's a billion in debt that Blackberry has added.

I also doubt the patents are worth anywhere near $3 billion. If they were, the Fairfax bid would have been worthwhile, and they could have received the backing they said they had, but didn't.

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Those who are saying they are dead, apparently don't remember the dark days at apple. One or two great products and they are back in the game. They just have to innovate. However, easier said than done.

A strong blackberry is good for competition/the consumer.

No way. Those who actually do know what happened at Apple know that you need someone at the helm with absolute power to decide everything. But that person also needs to know what has to be done. Jobs was brilliant, maybe even the genius some call him. The new guy, I believe Chen is his name, is certainly smart, he brought Sybase back from a rocky time, but there's no evidence he knows what to do here.

And Blackberry is out of time. Apple came back because Jobs brought out a music player that was so superior to everything else out there that even Windows users demanded one. Then with iTunes, Apple wrapped up the music business.

With the iPhone, Apple again revolutionized an industry.

They did it again with the iPad.

What are we going to see from Blackberry? Certainly nothing that will revolutionize anything. And that's what they would need. A product that's slightly better won't cut the mustard.

 

[Fwink!]

BlackBerry was a player at the point in time when IT managers didn't want Apple products in the office. Unless you were in Advertising. Then parity was reached in terms of performance and reliability (day to day for employees). Apple addressed much of the IT department's concerns regarding enterprise use; scalability, deployment, security, etc. This was the point of BlackBerry's decline.

I think the Canadian Gov is hoping BlackBerry can rally and become a cash cow/taxed entity like Apple. Not going to happen. But that's what's holding dissolution back.

Blackberry should work on developing the apps, and user experience to maintain it's base in that manner.

The way they are going, they can sit at Franklin Covey's table at the party of fail. Remember them?

 

[wizard]

This is just another example of a company that didn't take Apple seriously enough when they unveiled the iPhone back in 2007, because the powers that were at the time didn't think that they (Apple) could break in to the market. Just goes to show you, you snooze, you loose.

The company was in shock, many BB engineers didn't even think the iPhone, as demoed, was even possible given the technology of the day. When staff is that far out of touch you have already failed.

 

[fermat-au]

Why doesn't it surprise me one bit that Apple's interest in its intellectual property and patents. see Rockstar lawsuits.

 

[wizard]

So I suppose you've never heard of BB OS 10 or their almost entirely new hardware lineup?

Which has not demonstrated success.

 

[SpectatorHere]

BlackBerry was a player at the point in time when IT managers didn't want Apple products in the office. Unless you were in Advertising. Then parity was reached in terms of performance and reliability (day to day for employees). Apple addressed much of the IT department's concerns regarding enterprise use; scalability, deployment, security, etc. This was the point of BlackBerry's decline.

I think the Canadian Gov is hoping BlackBerry can rally and become a cash cow/taxed entity like Apple. Not going to happen. But that's what's holding dissolution back.

Blackberry should work on developing the apps, and user experience to maintain it's base in that manner.

The way they are going, they can sit at Franklin Covey's table at the party of fail. Remember them?

IT departments only came on board the Apple party wagon kicking and screaming. Employees demanded their iProducts get supported and most IT departments fought them tooth and nail.

Blackberry had a great form factor before people realized phones were really just Internet/gaming/entertainment portals. Heck, some people still fail to realize that (not as many here as there once were, but the "4" iPhone screen is the perfect size" crowd still don't get it either). The phone is the screen, and if you keep it small, people will flock to a product that makes a bigger screen easy to use. Blackberry stuck by their antiquated form factor and now they're not a player.

All that said, as others have noted, tech is a fast business. Blackberry still has engineers, they still have patents. Blackberry ought to focus on bringing THE next iPhone...going all in on an augmented reality headset/platform.

Some company will strike it big with AR...and soon, so far it looks like Google is best positioned, but they seem tentative slow, much like those Treo "smart"phones that showed promise, but never put together what the iPhone was able to show off. Maybe BB can bring itself back from the dead by creating the next big thing.

 

[KdParker]

BlackBerry will have it's day again soon.

#CrackBerry.

Maybe when being sold.

 

[wizard]

Where I've been, is using them. Have you? They're absolutely fantastic. BB's real problem is getting people to give them another shot; if they could achieve that, I don't doubt they could get back into the game as a major player.

Would that be Canada, someplace close to BB headquarters? I have to ask because no rational person would spend good hard earned cash on anything from RIM these days.

Sadly I had hope for Rim even downloading their SDK for the tablet they tried to introduce sometime ago. It quickly dawned on me that their tablet didn't have a chance in hell of being a success. Whomever was directing the development didn't have a clue as to what was needed in a useful tablet. As far as I can see nothing has changed, RIM suffers from a lack of leadership that can define and drive the development of successful products.

What is especially bad here is that they have had prototypes in the way of iOS devices and IOS users to draw upon. A couple of focus groups could have zeroed in on what Apple users love about their iOS devices. Part of their problem was that the infrastructure they had in place wasn't set up for the connected world.

 

[dampfnudel]

Those who are saying they are dead, apparently don't remember the dark days at apple. One or two great products and they are back in the game. They just have to innovate. However, easier said than done.

A strong blackberry is good for competition/the consumer.

One strong competitor (Google/Android) for Apple is enough.

 

[brentsg]

but the "4" iPhone screen is the perfect size" crowd still don't get it either

Don't really get that.. There's nothing I can do on a 5 that I couldn't do on a 4, and the 4 fits in my pocket better.

 

[joshwolf]

Don't really get that.. There's nothing I can do on a 5 that I couldn't do on a 4, and the 4 fits in my pocket better.

Except watch videos without any letter boxing. I think one of the driving reasons behind the move was to create a 16:9 aspect ratio.

 

[Naaaaak]

Apple: Willing to pay more for patents than actual technology. Compare the cost of their patent shenanigans (their estimated share of 'Rockstar' mostly) vs what they spend on acquiring small companies with interesting tech (the costs of which are posted in their quarterly statements, I think).

 

[SpectatorHere]

Don't really get that.. There's nothing I can do on a 5 that I couldn't do on a 4, and the 4 fits in my pocket better.

Think of your cell phone as a window through which you see and interact with the world.

Look at the size of books, sheets of paper, pictures in magazines, etc. Visual communication improves with size (also why people spend money to go to movies and invest in giant screen televisions). If you go by established, pre-digital preferences for visual media, you'll find people want something about book sized or paper sized at arms length.

You'll notice your 4" iPhone screen is far smaller. This is why the iPhone 6 will be far larger and sell in greater numbers...

Also illustrative to go back and read reactions to the original iPhone and its massive (for the time) 3.5" screen. Lots of people who didn't get it complained about how bulky it was and how they didn't need such a large screen. Lots of Blackberry owners were especially vociferous about how utilitarian their phones were. How they could do everything on their phones that you could do on an iPhone.

 

[Drunken Master]

There is a scene in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly that is apropos here. I wish there was a capture of it on YouTube - it's only about 5 seconds long.

Lee Van Cleef's character ("Angel Eyes") is being berated by a prisoner-of-war camp commandant who is dying of gangrene or something like that.

The commandant gathers up seemingly every fiber of strength he has and stands up (sort of) and says, "I pray I can manage to have enough time to amass evidence and bring to a court-martial all those who discredit and dishonor the uniform of the Union!"

Lee Van Cleef gives a derisive snort and says, "I wish you luck." He then turns and walks away.

And that could be Tim Cook and Thorsten Heins (or whoever it is now).

Are you Bill Carson?

 

[brentsg]

Except watch videos without any letter boxing. I think one of the driving reasons behind the move was to create a 16:9 aspect ratio.

That sounds like a dreadful use for a phone, but ok.

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You'll notice your 4" iPhone screen is far smaller. This is why the iPhone 6 will be far larger and sell in greater numbers...

Also illustrative to go back and read reactions to the original iPhone and its massive (for the time) 3.5" screen. Lots of people who didn't get it complained about how bulky it was and how they didn't need such a large screen. Lots of Blackberry owners were especially vociferous about how utilitarian their phones were. How they could do everything on their phones that you could do on an iPhone.

I definitely get that some people like big phones, but yeah I don't get it personally. If the Apple phones grow further I guess we'll see what happens. I definitely won't be using one.

 

[Chuck-Norris]

if blackberry adopted android, with a blackberry skin or features or whatever, could they survive?

 

[HenryDJP]

So I suppose you've never heard of BB OS 10 or their almost entirely new hardware lineup?

He didn't say that BB had nothing new out, he said nothing that was "successful" and that was spot on.

 

[69650]

Things have gone too far for them to turn it around. I don't see the point in simply burning through another $1bn cash unless they have something spectacular in the pipeline which I doubt. Somebody will step in and buy them eventually if only because the some of the parts is worth more than the whole.

 

[HenryDJP]

Those who are saying they are dead, apparently don't remember the dark days at apple. One or two great products and they are back in the game. They just have to innovate. However, easier said than done.

A strong blackberry is good for competition/the consumer.

Here's where your argument fails 100%. Apple's dark days were without Steve Jobs. They brought him back and Apple is the king today. BB has SOME money, so money isn't the issue. They don't have an innovator to show them what they need to do to be successful. So it's not just about "Innovating", they need a visionary and this day and age unless they do something entirely different that nobody else is doing or doing well, it may be time for BB to close it up.

 

[ilmman]

I used to love blackberry (bold 9000). When I tried the first bb touch screen, it was terrible especially when compared to my iPod touch. Complete turn off and made me switch to iphone. I been hesitant to give their new phones ago since apple and samgsung seems to be the one companies to be getting it right. Their phones may be good now, but they need to convince me to another level now on how it is even worth to pay for BES per month when its tons cheaper on other plans.

 

[SkyBell]

Which has not demonstrated success.

I never said that they had.

And if frogs could fly....

Sorry, maybe not too little, but certainly too late.

I'm not blaming the product itself -- the management, leadership, and execution have been atrocious.

I agree. The only statement I took issue with was the "not having a plan" part. I never said it was a good plan.

Remember WebOS and the HP Touchpad? That was an amazing OS and I still maintain it was/is miles better than iOS.

The same problem happened there (combined with a moron for a CEO) - no ecosystem = no developers = no apps = no incentive to but = no sales = no money to advertise = dead product.

If these companies had any sense they'd write off a $1bn, and use that to:

A) let developers get 100% of the sales for, say the first 18 months
B) pay high-profile developers to create exclusives
C) Get contracts in place with 3rd parties for the ecosystem (e.g record labels, film studios, etc).
D) Promote the crap out of it, world wide - without crappy marketing gimmicks like Microsoft attempted. Just simple "this is our product - did you know its got this" style ads.

I agree, for BlackBerry it's almost like deja vu a in the sense of Palms fall and demise; again, I'm not saying BlackBerry is in good standing - to the contrary, unless they get a huge lucky break these might be their final days. All I'm saying is that even though the company is in bad shape, their product is excellent.

For what it's worth; I believe webOS to be the best mobile operating system anyone has created so far. To that effect, I still use a Palm Pixi Plus as my phone to this day.

 

[69650]

One strong competitor (Google/Android) for Apple is enough.

I would disagree with that. The last thing Apple wants is a repeat of the Mac/Windows situation where Windows ended up with 90% market share which is the way Android is heading.

Far better to have Apple plus 3 or 4 competitors with similar market share so that nobody is able to dominate the market in the way Microsoft did.

 

[iSayuSay]

That sounds like a dreadful use for a phone, but ok.

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I definitely get that some people like big phones, but yeah I don't get it personally. If the Apple phones grow further I guess we'll see what happens. I definitely won't be using one.

Are you sure? If somehow Johnny Ive makes another video about how "magical" and "intricated" the next iPhone 6 with 5" screen really is. Again with sob story behind the design blah blah blah.

Would you stand still with it? Somehow I'm pretty sure you'll eat your own words by then.

 

[SkyBell]

He didn't say that BB had nothing new out, he said nothing that was "successful" and that was spot on.

For the last time, I never said anything about BlackBerry's success (or lack thereof), I only had a rebuttal for the "no plan" part of the statement.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

There's only one frontier left to cross in this game, and it's privacy.

If Blackberry spent all their time and $ developing a truly secure OpenPGP or whatever messaging, email, and voip service, they'd have something unique to sell.

If all they're going to do is make me-too iPhone clones, then they ought to save themselves the trouble and just sell off their IP now, because that market is flooded.