BlackBerry Posts Weaker-Than-Expected Results

How do you post weaker-than-expected results when expectations were set extremely low to begin with?

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company, which is pursuing a turnaround plan based on selling more software, said it expected modest revenue growth in the remaining two quarters of this fiscal year, after nine quarters of falling sales, and a return to profitability in the fourth quarter. It also confirmed widely expected plans to launch an Android smartphone later this year.

Well apparently they still had hope, which served as nothing more than a setup for disappointment. Launching an android phone is probably a step in the right direction for them at this point but yeah... they need to actually do that and have it not suck.

"weaker than expected"

If anyone actually expected them to do good, I've got a bridge to sell them.

They need to pull the plug on Blackberry. The "Crackberry" fad is over. They refused to keep up with the market and people moved on. They did pave the way for Apple, Android and other smart phones. Did very well. Now, if only the others could do as good as their enterprise management of devices.

Ur_Mom said:

Now, if only the others could do as good as their enterprise management of devices.

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Said no one who's ever been responsible for a BES server.

CreepyUncleGoogle said:

Said no one who's ever been responsible for a BES server.

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For most companies, the BES server was excessive, as they didn't use most the features.
I was glad when I was able to finally shut it down after the last person got rid of their Blackberry.

Merc1138 said:

Well apparently they still had hope, which served as nothing more than a setup for disappointment. Launching an android phone is probably a step in the right direction for them at this point but yeah... they need to actually do that and have it not suck.

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Too little, too late.

If they had done this 3 or 4 years ago (Android compatibility with Blackberry security), they might have had a chance, but people have moved on.

CreepyUncleGoogle said:

Said no one who's ever been responsible for a BES server.

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It gave us a lot of control. Now, we use Airwatch for our MDM. Wasn't easy, but it was nice.

OEM said:

"weaker than expected"

If anyone actually expected them to do good, I've got a bridge to sell them.

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I expect them to be gone from business...how can they post weaker than that expectation?

Merc1138 said:

Well apparently they still had hope, which served as nothing more than a setup for disappointment. Launching an android phone is probably a step in the right direction for them at this point but yeah... they need to actually do that and have it not suck.

Click to expand...

Right direction, but still took too long. Many (including I) have been saying they should have adopted Android and built their own shell on top of it for many many years now. If they did it quicker, they could have had the enterprise level features before AOSP had them (remote encryption/wipe, etc.).

blackberrys are sort of the thinkpads of phones. from their heyday, the market has changed and theres a lot more options, but their core products are still desirable. theyre making shit choices though.

ditch the blackberry OS. adopt the android OS and build of that. strip it down, build it up, whatever - you need android apps to be competitive and steal market share. have two modes: personal and business. personal is geared toward media consumption and the like, and business is business (extra settings, greater functionality, etc.)

double down on what sets you apart - mo-fucking keyboards. perfect it and do it consistently. through multiple properly executed products, youll build enough trust in the userbase that if you have a blackberry, theyll assume it has a great keyboard.

it doesnt need to have the highest res screen, but it needs to be closer rather than father.

battery life. everyone complains about shit battery life. this, like a quality keyboard, needs to be a staple of the company. if it makes the phone heavy, use quality chassis materials (how it feels is extremely important) so customers liken the weight to "quality construction".

so there you go you assholes. trumpet your differentiation rather than stagnating and trying to follow trends. phones are still fashion accessories, and people want something different when everyone has an iphone or galaxy edge or whatever the shit there is.

blackberry, you could even charge a premium because aint no other assholes are filling this niche. i want a kickass keyboard, kickass battery life, and an android-based OS. i aint the only one.

They did double down on keyboards as you put it, that's exactly what killed them. Berry has 3 core problems.
1) not enough people want physical keyboards when touch and voice simply does a better job now.
2) their os and more specifically their sync software is just a bloated performance hogging train wreck.
3) their touch screens suck.

The net result of this is a phone that looks dated, has an unwieldy and unwanted feature and terrible performance.