In the USA, Verizon will offer, in November, just in time for the holidays, BlackBerry’s latest cell phone offering, the all new 5″ super AMOLED,for $199 with a two year contract. We previously provided details on the new hardware, and 10.2 software:
New Z30 (right) shown next to the Samsung Galaxy S4 (left)
One cool feature of OS 10.2 is the “Adaptive Share” where the software on being requested to “share” something, learns your favorite “share” sites like BBM friends, BBM Channels, FaceBook and presents the top share selections as top suggestions with larger icons and top line placement of a users favorite sharing habits. For a recent media interview see the story below.
BlackBerry introduced the BlackBerry 10 platform in January, and in September showed off the Z30, its final smartphone for the year and one that completes the BB10 portfolio with now two touchscreen-focused options and two QWERTY hybrids, Vivek Bhardwaj, BlackBerry’s head of software, told journalists during a briefing Oct. 28. BlackBerry is hoping to stir up a bit more user interest in several ways. There’s that large, vibrant display; a battery that, in mixed-use scenarios, can last more than 24 hours, according to Bhardwaj; and new antenna technology from BlackBerry-acquired Paratak. “They have a very unique solution we’re using for the first time,” Bhardwaj explained. “Most antennas in phones are fixed, or calibrated for a few conditions. But what the Paratek solution does is re-tune on the fly, depending on the conditions. If you’re in a low-coverage area … it recalibrates the antenna so it’s optimized for that lower-coverage area.”
BlackBerry also gave the Z30 six microphones, which circle its exterior. On a conference call, “you can actually tell where people are sitting, it gives you such a strong spatial awareness,” said Bhardwaj. Called BlackBerry Natural Sound, it can better capture audio in a video at a concert, say, but also drown out ambient noise during a call to someone in a busy place.
On the software side, BlackBerry upgraded the Z30 to BB 10.2. One major change in the OS addresses a challenge so many apps are lately out to solve: sorting through too much email. In the Hub, 10.2 features a Priority Hub. The OS learns, as you use it, what’s a priority to you, though it’s easy to also designate contacts or conversations as Priority.
Also new are notifications that run at the top of the device, enabling a user to see a communication that comes in—a text, or an email, for example—while doing something like taking photos or reading in the browser. Without ever leaving the app, one can also respond.
Another little time-saver is on the locked screen. Where before a user could see, without unlocking the screen, that she had new emails and Tweets, now she can even read them, or parts of them.
They’re nice improvements, but are they enough? And why another touchscreen-focused device, when BlackBerry’s last earnings report made clear the Z10 isn’t selling? (The company sold 3.7 million smartphones during the quarter, the majority of which were running Blackberry 7, and posted a quarterly loss of $965 million.)
“It’s about the complete portfolio, and being able to offer it as a choice,” Bhardwaj said again. Maybe a customer goes into a store for the Z10 but decides he likes the Z30 better, or vice versa. “We’d rather we cannibalized by our own products.”
While he wouldn’t talk about the company’s pending sale, Bhardwaj suggested it was nothing that should keep buyers away.The average buyer, he said, just wants a great phone, he or she isn’t asking about the company’s financial standing. The idea that people are looking beyond product shelves into the details of companies is wrong, he said. “We have to break some of that distortion.”
More than 60 million monthly active users on BlackBerry devices with more than 20 million new iOS and Android users in the last week
More than 51 million daily active users who are connecting with friends or colleagues an average of one and a half hours every day.
BBM users send and receive more than 10 billion messages each day, nearly twice as many messages per user per day as compared to other mobile messaging apps
Almost half of BBM messages are read within 20 seconds of being received; indicating how truly engaged BBM customers are.
More than 60 million monthly active users
A positive article (not even considering the Channels Playcard!) on Forbes states:
“BBM Could Be Worth Billions if BlackBerry Can Copy The Line PlayBook” –Tero Kuittinen, October 25, 2013, Forbes.
It is difficult to get a handle on what the early success of BlackBerry’s messaging service on Apple’sAAPL +0.47% iOS and Google’sGOOG +0.49% Android platforms might mean. By Friday 3 PM, BBM has become the #1 app in 80 countries. It hit the 10 M user mark on iOS and Android platforms in 24 hours, yet continues performing remarkably well on its fourth day. It seems that the early wave of super loyal BlackBerry users and curious rubberneckers is segueing into sustained interest in the app. But how to value a free download app that currently offers no paid add-on features or advertising that would create cash flow? The best comparison here is probably LINE, the wildly popular text-messaging service that is now closing on the 300 M download mark.
CEO Thorsten Heins introduces the BlackBerry Z10 (Image credit: AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Nathan Denette)
Here is the tricky part: LINE, one of the most successful monetization cases in the messaging business, only launched its game service in July 2012. At that point, it had hit 45 M users. It seems possible that BBM could build a similar pool of fresh iOS/Android users in a matter of months. After launching the game service, it took just 9 months for LINE to hit 100 M game downloads. By spring of 2013, LINE’s game and sticker revenue was topping $100 M a quarter. LINE’s strategy of leveraging a free messaging app to build a wildly profitable game marketing platform took just 12 months to execute. The approach is still so novel that it’s hard to evaluate whether it can be copied by other vendors and how the revenue growth patterns might look after two or three years. But it is clear that at least in Asia, possessing a popular free messaging app is the most effective way to promote games. Right now, 19 out of Top 20 highest grossing apps in Korea belong to the KakaoTalk messaging app platform.
By Friday afternoon, BBM still clung to #2 position in the US iPhone download chart – and remained the #1 app in major markets like Turkey, Mexico, Netherlands, Spain, UK, Switzerland, Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia. It is particularly interesting that BBM is performing so well in markets where BlackBerry never broke through as a smartphone. It is a Top 10 app in countries like Hungary and Italy. It has hit Top 30 even in Sweden and Finland, the European markets that used to be the most hostile towards BlackBerry devices, never even yielding 2% market penetration for BB.
It took LINE 400 days to reach 100 M registered users. BBM currently has around 60 M users on BlackBerry devices and perhaps 15 M on iOS/Android. The BlackBerry user base is likely set to erode relatively rapidly – but the strong early iOS and Android momentum seems to indicate that hitting 100 M users across all platforms could well happen by next summer. Of course, it is far too early to make solid projections for BBM growth. But its success in several key markets in its first week has already eclipsed anything LINE has managed. For example, this past summer LINE could only crack the US iPhone download chart for a single day, peaking at #18. App download market is utterly dominated by games – messaging apps very rarely crack the Top 10 chart of any market and often tend to achieve this in a very narrow spectrum of countries.
In contrast to LINE, WeChat and Kakaotalk, the early traction of BBM is surprisingly even across Latin America, North America, Caribbean, Africa, Middle East and South East Asia. The only major markets where it is really striking out are Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China. This is to be expected – LINE dominates Japan absolutely, Kakao rules Korea and WeChat has a lock on China. But in markets like USA, UK, Brazil, South Africa and Indonesia, BBM has been able to rack up massive early download volumes even against rival services with very high established market penetration. It looks like BBM has a decent chance of vaulting clearly ahead of rivals such as Tango, Kik and Nimbuzz in coming months.
If BBM hits the middle tier between behemoths like LINE and WhatsApp who are closing in on 100-300 M active monthly users and smaller rivals like Tango and Nimbuzz, how would the service be valued? That depends entirely on whether BlackBerry can build an effective content distribution/marketing system on top of BBM. If it can copy the LINE playbook and start offering social games once it has 45 M iOS/Android users, BlackBerry could be hitting the game platform stage already next spring. BBM currently has strong traction in some of the most lucrative mobile game markets in the world, including USA , UK and Germany.
Expecting BBM to match LINE’s $100M a quarter game/sticker revenue by end of 2014 is a stretch, because BlackBerry has no prior experience in managing this type of business and Japanese consumers are more willing to pay for extras than their Western peers. But a successful BBM network across the globe is a potential marketing platform that could reach revenue of tens of millions a quarter in short order. What BlackBerry needs right now is a clear, effective strategy of rolling out LINE-like content offerings and tailoring them to each major market. If the company can manage this, BBM alone could have a substantial valuation by next summer. LINE is planning a Tokyo IPO right now and its market cap is being tentatively estimated to be in the $8-10 B bracket.
Creating a service that could reach just one quarter of LINE’s success should be in BBM’s grasp – and could be a major reversal of fortune for BlackBerry. Much is now riding on how the company handles its BBM content delivery strategy.
My intention was to express my concern over the sale, to explain why I believe it’s not a just reaction to the current circumstances at BlackBerry.I also wanted to provide clear solutions instead of simply addressing the obvious problems. Perhaps understandably the process of writing the letter and the reaction to it from readers, has lead me to believe more needs to be said.
My biggest concern has always been the muted reaction from Canadians to the potential loss of BlackBerry to a foreign bidder and the reputational loss to the Canadian Stock markets & Canada as a competitor on the 1st world stage. It’s a given, if BlackBerry was to be taken over by a foreign company or even taken private, it will not look good upon the Canadian Stock Market, and on their ability to support their listings. Canada will lose a foothold in high tech/high talent jobs and intellectual IP built by Canadians, as happened with Nortel and the Avrow Arrow:
The question becomes why? Or a deeper look asks, what’s really going on?
Previously I gave examples of how Americans support their publicly traded tech companies. How they support their technology companies through their financial markets.
I provided data on how Facebook, Twitter, Netflix and Tesla among others, trade at hundreds of times their earnings. These massive multiples are amassed in part because of how the American financial system is set up to support their technology industry & other listed stocks.
Hedge funds backed up by massive media outlets provide a megaphone to the American population, extolling the virtues of said companies while simply ignoring the potentially dangerous multiples those companies trade at. The hedge funds provide the analysis and the media provide the megaphone.
American TV networks and news media protect and build value for their companies. It is often the same ownership at the helm of the media and companies being built up, with the same vested interests; the same power makers and lobbyists that offer the venture capital.
Once you take a closer look. You see the connected nature of the system. You see how everyone stands to benefit from the consistent positive spin. It’s true that the media players bring out market bears, that give the opposite view of the market and the companies we’ve been discussing. But by carefully controlling the content and ratio of positives vs negatives, the resulting perceptions are built casting a reality; all this gets to carry on as those companies with the massive valuations, far outside their ability to earn money proceed to use those funds to buy actual value.
Canada lacks the global reach of the American Media, and often the Canadian media just tows the line on what is fed via the American news outlets.With all levels of media being controlled by a select group of lobbyists/venture capitalists/owners at the top, almost as a single entity, it can turn that perception machine into a force against a company. This negative analyst/media frenzy can destroy or devalue a company like BlackBerry to the point where it can be sold at “auction” with the same nay sayers being able to buy up the pieces at half of book value.
All we have to do is look at the American system and how it creates value in very junior companies, even if not public yet. As an example, PATH, a newly formed instant messaging service, started by an early Facebook employee, someone who knows the system, knows the venture capitalists and how the media outlets can be manipulated.
PATH recently reached 10 million users of their service, some say with illegal means:
The financial system in the USA values PATH at $1Billion; they recently received additional venture capital funding. Yet the book value of the company is nowhere near $1 billion dollars, most of the valuation is based on future earnings potential.
By contrast, BlackBerry has an instant messaging system, BlackBerry Messenger. Many would argue BBM is far more feature rich than PATH. Plus, they had 60 million users previous to BBM launching on Android and Apple over the last week, when BBM was downloaded 10 million times in the first 24 hours! It was downloaded over 20 million times before the first 3 days. As I write this, millions more people are about to get started using BBM, now that there is no “line”. Yet with the current Fairfax offer that’s on the table for BlackBerry, at one half of BlackBerry’s book value, BBM is receiving a value of $0. That’s to say that BBM has zero current value or future potential value given to it by the market and analysts.
BBM Quick Facts:
More than 60 million monthly active users.
More than 51 million daily active users who are connecting with friends or colleagues an average of one and a half hours every day.
BBM users send and receive more than 10 billion messages each day, nearly twice as many messages per user per day as compared to other mobile messaging apps.
Almost half of BBM messages are read within 20 seconds of being received; indicating how truly engaged BBM customers are with the platform.
Let’s have a look at another social media company that has yet to go public, Pinterest. Again this company is strictly funded by venture capital. They call it “venture capital” at the early stages but all venture capital is hedge funds & large bank investment arms, often the same funders that have analysts on pay rolls to “review” the market. They’re able, through their market position and ability to promote start ups, to gain early access to the companies in the US. Pinterest is valued at $3.8 billion by the US venture capital system. They have recently reached somewhere between 25 to 50 million users, depending on who you listen to, but they have yet to ever earn a dollar. They admit to not having an actual plan to make money and aren’t even worried about that, at this time.
If you take these two examples alone & compare, not BlackBerry as a whole, but only BlackBerry’s social arm, BBM, and the forthcoming Channels network, I ask how is it possible that the market gives BlackBerry’s efforts zero dollar value? BlackBerry’s BBM alone, as we speak has better than 85 million users. It’s currently growing by millions a day, with users being spread over 180 countries.
BBM Channels will be an independent arm of BlackBerry’s Social Networks, although every BBM user will have access to channels through its chat feature. Channels is still in late stage beta. As a beta tester and channel owner, I can tell you that BlackBerry is on to something big here. Channels will provide businesses, consumer brands, celebrities and everyday individuals a fantastically colorful and secure and private (if chosen to go private) way to interact. The future potential is clear & valuable. Yet, the market gives Channels + BBM zero worth in the current sale of the company at half of book value. Prem Watsa and Fairfax will get a company at “auction” with much more future earning potential than the share holders will be paid.
A positive article (not even considering the Channels Playcard!) on Forbes states:
“BBM Could Be Worth Billions if BlackBerry Can Copy The Line PlayBook” –Tero Kuittinen, October 25, 2013, Forbes.
A world where smart phones will become the entry point of the connected devices. It’s early but this new world is coming up around us, more and more so, every day. First on the agenda would be automotive infotainment and drive train diagnostics. The hands down leader in this brave new world is QNX. The software code, Real Time OS (RTOS), behind the new BackBerry 10 OS cell phones is present in over 300 million current automobiles and their future products. QNX Car2 is already gaining mainstream acknowledgment as the industry standard. QNX is not just in automotive either. Many fail safe industrial systems rely on the QNX RTOS as the only system reliable enough to stand up to their difficult tasks. Military, nuclear and aerospace are counted among them. The F35 Lightning the Abrahams tanks the International Space Station and many of the world’s nuclear power plants rely on QNX. These vastly important BlackBerry customers are not the point though. They are an example of the power and reliability of the BlackBerry, QNX RTOS. Again, very little press or value is given to this ownership by BlackBerry.
“We Aim To Be The Leading Provider of Machine to Machine Embedded Systems” -Frank Boulben- March 16, 2013
Take QNX and couple it with BlackBerry’s Network Operations Centre (NOC) and we understand that this is one of the world’s largest networks which is connected to over 650 mobile carriers worldwide. The bigger picture starts to emerge. BlackBerry holds the key to the largest private “secure” network there is and which is relied on by the likes of NATO the DOD the DND and many national governments around the world for its unmatched level of security. BlackBerry10 operating system & BES10, BlackBerry’s latest MDM or “Mobile Device Management” solution has recently been employed by all of them. Recently, BlackBerry launched their cloud based #MDM solution. That adds unmatched cloud integration. BlackBerry has also secured Android & IOS with BES10.
Everything ties together, BlackBerry is a vertically integrated secure mobile platform & business solution. From the hardware to the software, through the services, that include transfer of data via the NOC & BlackBerry’s network. They have spent the last 2 + years rebuilding the suite of offerings, rewriting the entire architecture of how everything communicates through the network. The foundation is now in place, and it is built for security first. The future is at hand. The QNX RTOS has the ability to communicate with its own kind or other systems that run QNX RTOS through their “transparently distributed processing”:
The connected world is coming and BlackBerry’s technology, whether Canadian or not will be at the forefront of this massive new market including military, industrial, medical and other segments.
Now is not the time for Canadians to be selling BlackBerry for half the value of their hard assets. Now is the time that Canadians should be investing in BlackBerry and investing in Canada’s future, to be at the forefront of a super-connected world.
The American system is the land of what they call “Activist Investors”. These men and women can be worth billions; they are the venture capitalists that offer money, the key industry leaders that sit on several boards, from bank to media. They make it their business to invest in struggling companies and inact change long before the management of a company can fall so far behind in the perception game. They fully understand how a company’s perception becomes its reality.
Activist investors step in and fight to change those perceptions. At times, just the information that an activist investor has got involved in a company is enough to enact change. Sadly, Canada appears not to have any activist investors of the magnitude, technical knowledge and/ or will needed to complete the change started at BlackBerry.
In my letter to the Government of Canada, I recommended that the government request Jim Balsillie to return to BlackBerry as the CEO to fight for the company he once owned. The company he built into a worldwide $20 billion behemoth! Here’s hoping that Jim Balsillie or some other Canadian steps up and fights for BlackBerry to remain Canadian and public. The current CEO does not appear up to the task of completing the BlackBerry transition. Thorsten Heins, top management, and the Board of Directors appear to have lost their resolve to keep BlackBerry moving. That doesn’t mean that someone else can’t!
We live in a gloabal society and there can be alternative views fostered and developed by alternative thinkers/companies. BlackBerry has invented the global communicating hardware, championed and used by so many of industries’ titans in Canada, the USA, all over the world! There can be a real alternative to Apple, Android (Google) and Microsoft. There can be intellectual creativity from different nations shared globally! The market space is large enough to foster healthy competition! Innovation cannot happen by assimilation! To all my friends, all over the world, on #TeamBlackBerry, who fight the perception campaign daily, as best they can, I encourage you to support many of us in our bid to keep BlackBerry alive as a public, and preferably Canadian, company. Anything can happen in a sale. You can do your part to help BlackBerry #KeepMoving, by supporting this movement. Repost this and re-tweet it by clicking on the “Twitter” or “Facebook” “button” below! Or, copy and paste this 140 character tweet:
Here’s hoping that you will get on board with this movement and support a titan of innovation, BlackBerry, an alternative reality, an alternative future, before it’s too late. Going private will weaken the brand and the biased/unbiased media scrutiny would remain! BlackBerry needs a serious marketing strategy, and perhaps putting BBM on iOS and Android devices is the beginning of a game-plan?!
We can do this!
BlackBerry-An Alternative Reality, An Alternative Future
Darryl McKinnon.
getdjmac@hotmail.com
@getdjmac
C0007CCC8 Channels
Check out our most recent post on the prospective partners for BlackBerry here:
Copyright 2013 (logo/sm, since 1993), all rights reserved, all content on this site! Photos may not be used without explicit permission, in writing, from PFC Systems, Inc.
BBM tops both the iOS and Google Play charts–world-wide! The number of BBM users is near 100 million with the line to download the app for Android and iOS being eliminated. BBM is also the number one downloaded app on Google Play. This is a great way to market BlackBerry OS10, by loading BBM on the competition’s devices, with the OS 10 swipes, panels, and gestures! What do you think of this social marketing? Is it too late?
BBM messaging is totally free over wi-fi or data with no long distance texting charges and no accrued text count. It is secure and private, no need to give up you tel# or privacy. Give it a try and add your international friends as a contact on your iOS and Android devices! Let’s stay together! Keep moving! Share the love! Rome, I’m talking to you! Tell your friends and family that you would like to be able to keep in touch with no extra “roaming” or long distance text messaging charges and to do so in a secure way.
With the launch of the Z30 today in Canada we decided to take it to the street for some first hand observations on the state of BlackBerry in Laval,Québec. Centre Laval was visited, a shopping center, close to a high traffic corridor with several highways nearby providing easy access. Here is what we heard and saw:
Future Shop
There are no more Z10 cell phones in inventory. Not likely to get anymore. There are three Q10 and three Q5 devices plus one Z30 on display (only inventory). No one buys the Q5 and the Q10 sells more than the Z10. There is no Z10 in inventory.
Three customers in store at “Cell Shop” department. Dalia, the sales person, states that people are afraid to buy BlackBerry cell phones since they fear the company will go the way of Nortel. Sales have dropped since the end of September.
Best Buy
In one month they sell 5 BlackBerry devices, usually the Q10, with the Samsung S4 at about 50 a month and the same for iPhone.
Not a single Q5 device was sold by this sales person since its launch in Canada. One Z10 with Rogers and one Z10 with Virgin and three Q5 cell phones with Koodo are in stock.
Ali, the sales guy says people believe BlackBerry is going to be split and sold and this is why people won’t buy the devices. Sales are worst now since the announcement of the special committee to investigate strategic options and subsequent news. A customer confirms this idea and says that he used to have a BlackBerry and won’t buy another BlackBerry in the future; the new BlackBerry doesn’t appeal to him. He’s not interested because he’s used to the iPhone now and all the apps and he is worried that BlackBerry won’t be around. He is comfortable with the iPhone. He gives the impression that he has not really tried a new OS 10 BlackBerry.
Rogers Kiosk
Carol, the sales person says she is selling her Q10, because of the lack of apps, and cites as an example Bank of Montreal. Carol loves the Q10 because of the key board and the OS10. She switched from the iPhone because of the key board. The banking apps are important. The camera needs to be improved. She says that the poor camera was the final straw for her with poor quality pictures, and not enough Mega Pixels leading to poor resolution. With a poor app ecosystem BlackBerry needs to have a high resolution camera. I did mention the digital signal processing available and the android run time for “jellybean”, but she wanted it to be there already. She does not want to have to side-load apps.
She has in inventory one Q10, two Q5 and two Z10 devices. Since the board decided to explore strategic alliances or sale of BlackBerry, sales are Samsung to BlackBerry 50 to 1 and they were 5 to 1 before the September announcement. People are asking for new LG phones now, before BlackBerry.
Telus Kiosk
Matiu says kids like the iPhone because kids want apps. There is no marketing for the Z30. He has at least four or five Z10 and Q10 devices in stock with one Z30 and 2 or 3 stocked Q5 phones. Sales are 50 to 1 Android to BlackBerry. Same iPhone to BlackBerry. People have no idea of the re-invented phone OS. BlackBerry needs to better market its products.
Fido Kiosk
Xavier says the Nexus 4 by LG is selling well. Personally he doesn’t like BlackBerry because it’s old. He doesn’t sell BlackBerry because people have problems with using the new OS, they need to be educated. He sells a lot of Bold devices with keyboard because of BIS and cheaper to use messaging. He carries the Z10, Q10 and Q5. He sells 3 to 1 Android/iPhone to BlackBerry (manly OS 7 devices with BIS).
Koodo Kiosk
Haron says the customers ask for what they want and it’s not BlackBerry. BlackBerry is overpriced and students want cheaper. Haron says that even on Fido kids pay more for the iPhone and the more expensive plans because it’s an iPhone.
Casual Observation at Presse Café
(at Centropolis)
While at this coffee shop, amid the iPhone and Samsung S4 users, I could see some older BlackBerry devices and that one older couple had a Z10 and Q10 between them.
Summary
In summary, it appears that the same problems that exist for BlackBerry in the USA, also exist at home in Canada: poor marketing and education on the new BlackBerry 10 phones, poor app ecosystem even the “grown-up” apps, like banking apps are missing, mixed messaging with regards to the future and commitment of BlackBerry to the consumer market. All of this has tarnished the once cool brand and nothing is being done to change this with an absent marketing effort and missteps in execution, market research and planning of new devices that people want. Perhaps, BlackBerry recognizes this and hence its open letter in thirty newspapers in 9 countries today.
(Written with docstogo on my Q10 like Dev C and pasted into WordPress for android run time; all photos taken with said BlackBerry device.)
As the Z30 launches in Canada, tomorrow, October 15th, BlackBerry will be going to print media to convey their message loud and clear that their uses can continue to trust and count on BlackBerry as it re-invents itself. Could this mean that the BlackBerry Board will not entertain any offers that will split up the company?
BlackBerry will be posting a letter in over 30 major news publications across 9 countries to let long-time BlackBerry users know, “You can still count on us”. They want the world to know they’ll still be there to provide best in class security, productivity, Enterprise Mobility Management, and social networking.
Here is the letter, in a press release:
BlackBerry
To our valued customers, partners and fans,
You’ve no doubt seen the headlines about BlackBerry. You’re probably wondering what they mean for you as one of the tens of millions of users who count on BlackBerry every single day.
We have one important message for you:
You can continue to count on BlackBerry.
How do we know? We have substantial cash on hand and a balance sheet that is debt free.
We are restructuring with a goal to cut our expenses by 50 percent in order to run a very efficient, customer-oriented organization.
These are no doubt challenging times for us and we don’t underestimate the situation or ignore the challenges. We are making the difficult changes necessary to strengthen BlackBerry.
One thing we will never change is our commitment to those of you who helped build BlackBerry into the most trusted tool for the world’s business professional.
And speaking of those dramatic headlines, it’s important that we set the record straight on a few things.
Best in class productivity tool.
We have completely revamped our device portfolio this year with the launch of BlackBerry 10. We have four BlackBerry 10 devices – two all touch and two hybrid (touch and QWERTY) – and all are running the third update of our new platform. If what you care about most is getting things done – taking care of your business – we have the best range of devices for you. And we continue to offer the best mobile typing experience – no ifs, ands or buts about it.
Best in class security.
Governments all over the world, global corporations and businesses that simply cannot compromise on security choose and trust BlackBerry. Security is our heritage, and the industry recognizes that BlackBerry is the most secure when it comes to the device, server and, of course, our global data network. Have no doubt that you can continue to trust us to keep your communication safe and private.
Best in class enterprise mobility management.
We changed with the market, embracing BYOD because we understand that as iOS and Android devices become common in the workplace, businesses still need to manage all of these different platforms seamlessly and securely.
This is not a trivial task. While there are a number of startup companies that make bold claims, BlackBerry has more software engineers and the most resources dedicated to developing the most innovative solutions to address this complex challenge.
And our customers know it. Over the past quarter, our BlackBerry® Enterprise Service 10 server base grew from 19,000 to more than 25,000. Corporate clients are committed to deploying and testing the latest enterprise technology from BlackBerry. We are committed to evolving with our customers. That will never change.
Best in class mobile social network.
We are bringing the most engaging mobile messaging platform to all, with our BBM launch for Android and iPhone.
There are already around six million customers pre-registered to be notified of our roll out. This number is growing every day, and speaks to the tremendous opportunity we have to expand BBM beyond BlackBerry smartphones to make it the world’s largest mobile social network.
Yes, there is a lot of competition out there and we know that BlackBerry is not for everyone. That’s OK. You have always known that BlackBerry is different, that BlackBerry can set you apart. Countless world-changing decisions have been finalized, deals closed and critical communications made via BlackBerry. And for many of you that created a bond, a connection that goes back more than a decade.
We believe in BlackBerry – our people, our technology and our ability to adapt. More importantly, we believe in you. We focus every day on what it takes to make sure that you can take care of business.
You trust your BlackBerry to deliver your most important messages, so trust us when we deliver one of our own: You can continue to count on us.
English speaking Asia includes Indonesia, with over 238 million people, the world’s fourth most populous country. The nation’s capital of Jakarta has near 11 million people inhabiting the NW coast of Java. Indonesia shares a border with Malaysia. Other English speaking countries near to Indonesia are, Singapore, the Philippines and Australia.
That 15 million of the 80 million users of BlackBerry devices to July of 2013 were in Indonesia speaks volumes on the need for BlackBerry to have produced another OS 7 device using BBM on the BlackBerry BIS NOC (free BBM’ing where data plans are expensive sells!). The company needs to keep this user base and compete with cheap Asha devices from the former Nokia and Android devices from China and elsewhere. The region is key to BlackBerry surviving, especially with the erosion of the North American markets and loss of sales. Until BlackBerry can correct things in North America, it needs to sustain growth or reach a steady-state equilibrium, in emerging markets. The regrowth of the market in North America won’t happen over night. As South East Asia or Oceania gets cheaper data networks from carriers and as BBM migrates cross platform, with richer features on BlackBerry devices, while introducing iOS and Android users to the OS 10 UI, this region will be ripe for OS 10 devices in a few years. The vision for the BlackBerry Board needs to be broad and long term, while not getting caught up in the negative hype. Those of us who have been long on BlackBerry know that this ride is not for those who get car sick! There is a future for the newest cell phone OS, and BlackBerry can reap profits from the tech it is sowing today, if it stays the course, makes corrections where needed, and executes more effectively and with better market research and marketing. I’m not sure that going private is the best course, certainly not for the share holders at the $9 per share that Fairfax is offering. The negative media and analyst pressures serve a purpose to help in this correction, if painful.
This is Andrew Bocking, head of BBM at BlackBerry. As a follow up to our first blog post on Saturday, I want to take a moment to provide you with an update on the rollout of BBM on Android and iPhone.
Last week, an unreleased, older version of the BBM for Android app was posted on numerous file sharing sites. We were aware of an issue with this unreleased version of the BBM for Android app. This older version resulted in volumes of data traffic orders of magnitude higher than normal for each active user and impacted the system in abnormal ways. The version we were planning to release on Saturday addressed these issues, however we could not block users of the unreleased version if we went ahead with the launch.
We attempted to address the problems caused by the unreleased version throughout the day on Saturday, but as active users of the unreleased app neared a million – and accelerated – it became clear that the only way to address the issue was to pause the rollout for both Android and iPhone.
The team is now focused on adjusting the system to completely block this unreleased version of the Android app when we go live with the official BBM for Android app. We are also making sure that the system is reinforced to handle this kind of scenario in the future. While this may sound like a simple task – it’s not. This will take some time and I do not anticipate launching this week.
Thank you for your patience while we take the time needed to deliver the experience you expect from BBM. We will continue to provide you with updates here on InsideBlackBerry.com and through @BBM on Twitter. We will notify everyone who has pre-registered on BBM.com when BBM is available on Android and iPhone.
Prior to launching BBM for Android, an unreleased version of the BBM for Android app was posted online. The interest and enthusiasm we have seen already – more than 1.1 million active users in the first 8 hours without even launching the official Android app – is incredible. Consequently, this unreleased version caused issues, which we have attempted to address throughout the day.
Our teams continue to work around the clock to bring BBM to Android and iPhone, but only when it’s ready and we know it will live up to your expectations of BBM. We are pausing the global roll-out of BBM for Android and iPhone. Customers who have already downloaded BBM for iPhone will be able to continue to use BBM. The unreleased Android app will be disabled, and customers who downloaded it should visit www.BBM.com to register for updates on official BBM for Android availability.
As soon as we are able, we will begin a staggered country roll-out of BBM for Android and continue the roll-out of BBM for iPhone. Please follow @BBM on Twitter for the latest updates and go to www.BBM.com to sign-up for updates about BBM for Android and iPhone. These issues have not impacted BBM service for BlackBerry.
Still no offical BBM app. The best way to authenticate, at this time, for the Android Version, on the Google Play site, is to look at the developer contact info, under “Additional information” with both:
We’re still waiting for the real Android App at 7pm EST, September, 2013, 12 hours after the supposed release time! The forums and comments on sites like Crackberry are abuzz with whose to blame. It cannot be BlackBerry to fault if the fakes got on at the same time as the planned launch. Google apparently shows no sign of the authentic app for BBM while the fake apps proliferate. BlackBerry needs to go after the fake developers perpetuating this fraud to protect its trademarks! It cannot go after Google or Google Play as it needs to work with them to get their app on the Google store! Interestingly, the BBM App is apparently available for download on iTtunes in NZ:
We’re checking to see that this is authentic–it may be a fake release as the contact the developer email goes to a “DianaSantan63@GMail.com”! How can Google Play allow this to be listed as the “official” BBM? What is BlackBerry doing about it?
You know you want your BBM! If you have an Android device get the old friend you hated to leave behind–available for free –NOW–on Google Play:
Copyright 2013 (logo/sm, since 1993), all rights reserved, all content on this site! Photos may not be used without explicit permission, in writing, from PFC Systems, Inc.
It’s time to go to your Google Play and iTunes store and download the best instant messaging app. September 21,2013 for the Android app and September 22,2013 for the iPhone app. Surely BlackBerry is using BBM as a way to market OS 10 or introduce people on Android and iOS to the BlackBerry OS 10 UI. Perhaps this might motivate consumers to look at the new BlackBerry 10 phones such as the Z10, Q10 and upcoming large screen, all touch Z30? Let us know what you think in the comments below! Take our poll below!
Check out a cool video comparing BBM on different platforms from N4BB.com and don’t forget to take our poll below:
BlackBerry is changing its game plan hoping that offering up its former application that helped make it the number 1 smartphone provider to iOS (September 22, 2013) and Android (September 21, 2013) users will help it rebound. The original offering will include chat and file share with video and BBM Channels to come soon. BBM will be available as a free download for Android users running Ice Cream Sandwhich and Jelly Bean starting at 7am on September 21st. iOS users will be able to download BBM on iOS 6 and iOS 7 starting at 12:01AM on September 22nd. Can BlackBerry leverage BBM to generate interest in its own OS 10 devices? Sound off in the comments below. Take our survey:
Press Release:
WATERLOO, ONTARIO–(Marketwired – Sept. 18, 2013) – BBM(TM) – the iconic mobile social network – will begin rolling out for Android(TM) and iPhone(R) customers around the world from September 21. Previously exclusive to BlackBerry(R) (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSX:BB) smartphones, BBM will be available as a free download in Google Play(TM) and the App Store(SM). Customers will be able to download BBM by visiting http://www.BBM.com from their smartphone browser.
BBM gives you a private social network for active, real conversations.
It’s immediate. BBM is always on so you are always connected. And because messages on BBM are typically delivered and read within seconds, it’s the closest thing to a live conversation.
You trust it. BBM always tells you that messages are delivered and read. BBM conversations come alive on a private network you can count on.
You control it. BBM allows you to choose your contacts and how you share your information. BBM uses a PIN so you don’t have to give anyone your phone number or email address.
“BBM is a very engaging messaging service that is simple to use, easy to personalize and has an immediacy that is necessary for mobile communications,” said Andrew Bocking, Executive Vice President for BBM at BlackBerry. “With more than a billion Android, iOS, and BlackBerry smartphones in the market, and no dominant mobile messaging platform, this is absolutely the right time to bring BBM to Android and iPhone customers.”
BBM for Android and iPhone features:
BBM Chat – Enjoy real, immediate conversations with friends on Android, iPhone and BlackBerry smartphones. Not only does BBM let you know that your message has been delivered and read, it also shows you that your friend is responding to the message.
More than chat – With BBM you can share files on your phone such as photos and voice notes, all in an instant.
Keep your group in the loop – Multi-person chats are a great way to invite contacts to chat together. BBM Groups lets you invite up to 30 friends to chat together, and go a step further than multi-chat by sharing photos and schedules. And, with Broadcast Message, you can send a message out to all your BBM contacts at once.
Post Updates and stay in the know – BBM lets you post a personal message, profile picture and your current status, and lets your contacts know instantly in Updates.
Your unique PIN – Every BBM user has a unique PIN that maintains your privacy, so you don’t have to give out your phone number or email address to a new or casual contact.
BBM will be available as a free download for Android smartphones running Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean (Android 4.x) beginning at 7AM EDT on September 21. BBM for iPhones running iOS 6 and iOS 7 will become available for each market on the App Store schedule of 12:01 AM local time on September 22. For more information, or to download BBM for Android or iPhone, visit http://www.BBM.com.
BBM will continue to evolve quickly. Later this year, BBM Channels will provide a forum for active, real conversations between you and the people, brands, celebrities, artists, service providers, communities and more, that matter to you. By creating a Channel, individuals and brands can engage their friends and communities in conversations sparked by their thoughts, ideas and passions. Subscribing to a Channel will let you join conversations with people who share your interests. In addition, BBM Video calling and BBM Voice calling are planned for availability for Android and iPhone in a future version.
The Android port of the British Airways app is now available of BlackBerry World. Many legacy devices run the app and so will the Z10 Q10/5 devices. Since the screen size for the Q10 and Q5 are similar, all Q10 apps will automatically run on the Q5 devices without loss of data display due to a smaller screen. From the BlackBerry World site:
Full Description
Welcome to British Airways for BlackBerry® Now you can stay one step ahead as our app guides you smoothly through each stage of your journey wherever you are. The British Airways app gives you instant access to live information about your upcoming flights, has full integration with your Executive Club details, adds your bookings into your BlackBerry calendar and you can even use your BlackBerry® as a boarding pass.
Features:
– Dynamic home page and mobile boarding passes Get useful information about your next flight including live departure time and gate numbers (from Heathrow Terminal 5). With just one click, you can access your mobile boarding pass which lets you go from security right through to the plane using just your BlackBerry® . See ba.com/apps for the full list of routes accepting the mobile boarding pass.
-My flights Review your upcoming flight bookings and add them to your BlackBerry® calendar.
You can also receive calendar alerts when check-in is open for your flight.
-Executive club Easy access to information about your Tier Points, BA Miles, and Executive Club details. Silver and Gold members also get easy access to the Wi-Fi passwords for our lounges.
-Flight information Find live arrival or departure times for any flight in the next eight days.
-Timetables Access the British Airways worldwide timetable.
You can also check in on your mobile phone, see worldwide contact numbers and the latest British Airways travel news. Everyone can use the British Airways app, but for the best experience log in to your Executive Club account. You can join the Executive Club for free on ba.com.
As cell phone screens get larger and allow for more vivid colorful displays and become more prominent as all consuming devices, the battery requirements are critical. I have posted in the past on how to prime and improve your chemical cell that runs your handheld. In the above graph, we see that my Dev Alpha A discharges to 0% charge in 13 hours, with good use, at a charge loss rate of about 8% per hour.
Recharging of the Battery; charging the Dev Alpha A with the PlayBook charger or with the charger that came with the device, proceeded at a rate of about 1.25% charged per minute. (Please, be safe and use the charger that came with the device!) This means that the battery should charge fully in 60 to 70 minutes:
Discharging images with time stamp as Battery Lover goes from green (good charge) to orange (caution, consider charging) to red (must charge!):
Here is an added bonus to help train your electrochemical cell:
Steps to Train your phone–Use Battery Lover as Battery Watch will drain the phone:
1)Let the phone discharge to near zero (10 to 15% of full charge) 2 times, then turn it off w the button on top–don’t swipe it on:
2)Connect, disconnect and reconnect the phone to the charger and make sure you see the not charging “red” symbol and the charging
“thunderbolt” symbols. Let the phone charge uninterrupted in off mode, you should see the flashing LED until it becomes a static “green”
It should take about an hour to reach full charge; but leaving it to charge beyond that time–over night is ok or for as long as you can.
3)After the initial two near zero discharges, charge the phone at near/below 30%. Test your phone, with The Battery Lover App, as needed.
4)If you find that the phone still discharges to zero in a short period; repeat the process from near zero charge, and next time let it discharge to
near/below 20 %. Test the phone again, as needed.
5)If you find that the phone still discharges to zero in a short period; repeat the process from near zero charge, and next time let it discharge to
near/below 10-15 %. Test the phone again, as needed.
6)Repeat 5 as needed with decreasing by 5% the level to discharge! Do so until your phone lasts unplugged for at least 8 hours!
Ideally, you should reach the sweet spot where you have 8 hours of use and are still between 30 to 50% charge.
At this point you most likely should charge the phone while in the “orange”. Definitely charge it in the “red” at or below 20% charged!Other Cell Phone Battery Tips:
Copyright 2013 (logo/sm, since 1993), all rights reserved, all content on this site! Photos may not be used without explicit permission, in writing, from PFC Systems, Inc.
I’d like to discuss here some basic Chemistry. A Li battery, like any battery, is based on an electrochemical cell that has an “anode” and cathode” and we know these to be of opposite charge: – and +. Such a cell produces energy “spontaneously” by taking up and losing electrons and ions on different sides or compartments of the “cell”. In one direction (unplugged from outlet, state of the phone) of this chemical “equilibrium” , the cell produces energy until all of the ions needed to produce energy are used up; this is what happens in our approach to zero charge (which, in the ideal case, is not a real zero or the battery might completely die!). At this point we absolutely need to charge the battery or plug into a wall outlet or car charger. By doing so, we are reversing the chemical reaction, in the chemical cell to produce back the ions needed for the spontaneous “battery” to return to 100 % charged. So, how do we train our chemical cell to give us more energy or battery juice/charge over the longest duration? Ok, well, I’m using by own Dev Alpha A device now to generate some data that I hope will be useful in answering that question. Check back soon to find out …back to the lab I go… 😉
Download the “PFCSystems” app on BlackBerry World:
Turn the phone off to charge fully at night, once in a while, if not every night. I found that the device icons for “unplugged” and “charging” were indicators that things were working.
Turn location services off and keep them off, unless needed in an app, but don’t leave them on even with the app running. Check and set minimum in app syncs (longer times to sync) and location services off! When you launch 4Sq and it tells you it needs location services–hit cancel! It only needs this if you want to search places near you or pin your location;turn location on for ONLY those instances.
Exit from apps not currently in use.
Turn Bluetooth off when not in use.
Turn NFC off.
Turn wifi off when not in use.
Turn wifi on as a preferred method when available.
Set the Display brightness in settings>display to ZERO and screen lock timeout to 20 seconds.
For each “account” in settings>acounts set the sync interval to 30 minutes or longer, can always hit the instant sync when want to check mail.
Do you really need every social network known in your hub feed? Limit these to the key ones.
Do you really need every email account known in your hub feed? Limit these to the key ones.
Plug the device into a wall outlet or car outlet whenever you can; try to do so when the phone is 30-50% charged. This will fully charge the battery.
On the BB10, the charging LED should flash when phone is charging; unplug and reconnect the charger until you see the “charge” thunder bolt icon, and flashing LED. Let it charge FULLY overnight in off mode.
Carry an extra charged battery for when you are on the move for a long time.
Get an app to monitor the battery level such as “Battery Watch” or “Battery Lover”:
I prefer “Battery Lover”, as it seems to have less of a drain on the battery, when running in minimized background mode, and also provides a more accurate battery temperature. It uses red to indicate a “charge” zone, yellow for “get ready to charge” and green for “good”. It also indicates when it is charging (plugged in) discharging (unplugged) and charged/full. Batteries are chemical cells, and not every battery is the same; just think without the chemistry we would not have cell phones at all or phones as thin or small as they are. The battery tech evolved (the size of cell phones decreased in going form Zn, to Ni to Li Electrochemical cells or batteries) and the Li chemistry makes the smaller/thinner phones possible. Every battery is unique so be ready to experiment with your battery. Although, I would normally recommend charging the battery at a level no less than 30%, my battery seems to really charge when I let it go to a 10% remaining charge. My phone rapidly charges (with the OEM supplied wall charger) at a rate of 1.8% battery charge per minute; so it reaches 100% charged in about 55 minutes:
After, I discharged the phone to zero and let it charge overnight in “off” mode, I was able to get 10 hours of use, following the tips above, with a battery discharge rate of about 10% per hour:
Before discharging the phone to zero charge and recharging twice, and with not following the above tips, I was lucky to get 3.5 to 4 hours of use unplugged.
“Battery Lover” offers an accurate battery temperature, and uses the colors red to indicate a “stop and charge” zone, yellow for “get ready to charge” and green for “good”. It also indicates the phone status: when it is charging (plugged in), discharging (unplugged) and charged/full. In minimized mode, it clearly and easily shows the battery level. It does not drain much of the battery charge in its use, whereas “Battery Watch” may drain the battery much more rapidly, even when minimized. The “hotter” the battery, the more “work” is being done by it!
Download the “PFCSystems” app on BlackBerry World:
PLEASE, PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK; WE DO NOT ADVOCATE SIDE-LOADING OF APPS & ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOU DOING SO OR ANY CONSEQUENCES AFFECTING YOUR DEVICE!
See Skype and all that goodness… Download the files onto your pc and maybe create a directory for all your downloaded Android Apps
3)Set you Playbook or your BB10 device into Developer mode:
Settings>Security and Privacy> Development mode : “ON”
4)Connect the PB or BB10 device to your USB port with the USB cable provided
5)Launch DDPB (“X” out the Blackberry Desktop or the Link software, as you won’t need it)–you may need to wait a minute for the device to sync with PC…
6)Enter the IP address (see my blog on accessing your device via wifi) of the PB or BB10 and the device passwd you have for it
7)up top, on the DDPB UI, select “add” to add all the android apps from the directory they were saved in
8)The apps you added will now appear in the DDPB UI with check boxes next to them; check all or only the ones you want to install onto the device
9)Click install and you are into mega app heaven…
NOTE: Restart your device after side-loading to exercise the android player demons…
PLEASE, PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK; WE DO NOT ADVOCATE SIDE-LOADING OF APPS & ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOU DOING SO OR ANY CONSEQUENCES AFFECTING YOUR DEVICE!
Copyright 2013 (logo/sm, since 1993), all rights reserved, all content on this site! Photos may not be used without explicit permission, in writing, from PFC Systems, Inc.
All abandoned: Chernobyl / Pripyat, Nara Dreamland, Anti-Zombie Fortress, Japanese Sex Museum - and many, many more! Plus: North Korea Special - 2 trips, 16 days / 14 nights! As seen on CNN...
General
pfcsystems 