BlackBerry Enterprise chief: Yes, we did leave users behind

BlackBerry's previous management left its users behind and underused a vital asset, its enterprise chief told El Reg in a wide-ranging interview. John Sims is part of the rescue team brought in a year ago, when the Canadian giant was at rock bottom – and was seemingly on the wrong end of every trend in the business. The …

[Anonymous Coward]

Entrepeneurs vs. investors

Investors just want to get as much return as possible from their previous invested money, hence they'll suggest to sold out and give up at the first sign of trouble, allowing them to take their money elsewhere.

Entrepeneurs want to build something that lasts long, changes people's lives and in the process generates money.

Sims, Chen and co. are entrepeneurs. They may fail, but at least they try. Good for them, for BB and for the market in general.

[Jim Lewis]

Double negatives yourself to death here...Not what is meant I'm sure.

'None of the people we get mentioned as being in competition with don't have a NOC infrastructure, and couldn’t build it. We probably couldn’t if we started today," he says'.

Translation. Noone else has what we have.

[Anonymous Coward]

They're still in deep trouble

Blackberry can give as much bullish talk about their assets, their expertise and their infrastructure as they like: but nobody wants their phones any more. And if you've got no useful endpoints to a network, why have the network? Put any Blackberry device next to pretty much any other phone and the gap is wide. Too little, too late.

Pretty much every individual and company is moving away from Blackberry devices to Windows phones, iPhones, Android. This is the biggest problem that Blackberry faces and I really don't see how they'll get over it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: They're still in deep trouble

"Pretty much every individual and company is moving away from Blackberry devices to Windows phones, iPhones, Android."

I recall when "every individual" moved (or at least tried) from Symbians to Windows mobile...they got sick of it after 8 years. I wonder how many of the "every individual" is considering a trial with the new BBs...

[fruitoftheloon]

@SRS Re: They're still in deep trouble

SRS,

I will be getting a Passport when the contract conks on my Note II, the missus loves her Q5.

Clearly people other than you do like their products..

J

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: @SRS They're still in deep trouble

Despite the tone of my post, I don't actually want Blackberry to fail. Even though they've made so, so many dumb decisions.

But, whilst I'm glad you're looking forward to getting your Blackberry Passport, I don't think you and those with your tastes exist in sufficient numbers to keep Blackberry going. And for the rest of us, there's nothing compelling about their current lineup at all.

How you would explain to an iPhone 6 user (without resulting to insults) why they should ditch their iPhone and get a Blackberry? You might answer, "why should I bother?" - but If Blackberry won't make stellar phones, they sure as hell need some evangelists.

[David 14]

Re: @SRS They're still in deep trouble

I think the issue here is that you are presuming the driving force behind phone choice is the CONSUMER applications... but Blackberry never really was a consumer device... it was a business device.

My experience is that it excels at this function today, as much as it has done in the past. What should be simple things to do in a business world seem exceedingly difficult for the current "mass market" consumer phones of Android-ilk and iPhone/IOS.... things like proper scheduling and calendaring with Microsoft Office... things like BlackBerry Travel that was included for "free" versus the less feature-rich WorldMate (same code base and same manufacturer, but BBTravel was simply better).

I have an Android now... a change from my old Bold 9900.... and while I like my Samsung Galaxy S5, it is still harder to type an error-free long email (after 1 year of ownership and use), and I have had to reset the Active Sync a couple of times to clear up problems... also, my data usage went through the roof even when keeping the usage type the same... the BB was designed to save resources. Heck, the less-than-24 hour charge of the phone is annoying as heck... screw features... if I have a busy day using my device in an area with mediocre cell coverage, I am lucky to make it home after work for a charge before it dies!

BB10 is not perfect... but pretending that the "Androids" and the iPhones are perfect is simply delusional.

[Sir Runcible Spoon]

Re: They're still in deep trouble

"and I really don't see how they'll get over it."

perhaps they will ditch the phones and push the infrastructure side of things, using a RIM SIM in your Android phone via a secure network.

It might work.

[PushF12]

Re: They're still in deep trouble

Blackberry/RIM opens their infrastructure to spooks when pressure is applied. Most recently to the government of India, but the leaks suggest that backend access is available to every established interest that cares to have it.

Secure telephone networks do not exist for the regular end-user, so this isn't something that Blackberry/RIM can sell to people that actually care about security.

The sales pitch about having a "global network" can be translated into analyst-speak as "Blackberry/RIM is a legacy hosted services provider unsuccessfully trying to leverage obsolete capital assets in a decentralized service market".

[legless82]

Re: They're still in deep trouble

You're right.

Speaking as somebody who's just ditched my iPhone 5S for a BlackBerry Passport, the gap is wide. The Passport is better in just about every way I can think of.

[MacNews]

Re: They're still in deep trouble

The Passport and Classic are geared to their niche: Government and enterprise.

In that conversation, it is BlackBerry that wipes the floor with the wannabes.

[asdf]

Re: They're still in deep trouble

Yep so BB needs to focus on selling to CIOs and government procurement officers because its obvious to all their butt ugly phones don't sell in the consumer market.

[Paul Crawford]

Interesting read, and nice to see someone in the mobile phone business where the #1 goal is not whoring you from advertiser to advertiser.

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean like Apple? They don't collect personal information to sell to advertisers.

Everyone has a different goal. Apple doesn't whore you out but you pay a lot for their phones. Google whores you out in exchange for cheap phones (or the option of them at least) Microsoft doesn't whore you out (too much, maybe they do a bit for Bing) but want to keep you in the Windows/Office world. Blackberry doesn't whore you out, but wants to get businesses back to paying those juicy monthly fees and having them provide Blackberries to employees.

[Jonathan 27]

Not Out of Business Yet?

BlackBerry still isn't out of business yet and they still haven't changed their "winning" strategy? These guys are a bunch of clowns.

[Levente Szileszky]

Re: Not Out of Business Yet?

Says someone who couldn't even grasp the basic story in the article. Talk about being a clearly stupid yet loudmouthed clown - ouch.

[Anonymous Coward]

Classic case of not knowing what market you're focused on or using another market as a growth platform while the competition destroys your core business.

[Levente Szileszky]

Worldwide PoPs relaying on its own secure global network...

...should be the backbone of BB's new, highly secure networking services and products (including hosted/cloud-based as well as hybrid and strictly on-premise), I said this YEARS AGO, when they were still tinkering with BB10/Z10 after launch. It was obvious from the beginning and the arrival of the post-Snowden era made it ridiculously easy to sell, I cannot imagine what is taking this long to roll out new services...

[asdf]

Wat?

Maybe the dumbass analysts were saying it but here on El Reg the consensus has generally been enterprise security has been one of the last things of value BB had. It certainly wasn't their butt ugly handsets (though a minority are diehard fans of the hardware keyboards).

[Frank N. Stein]

Hows that Blackberry Classic with the same inner hardware as the Q10? Selling better than the Q10? Who besides AT&T is selling the Classic or the Passport?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Perhaps the turnaround artistes biggest achievement is that 'BlackBerry is Dead' talk has ceased."

That's because nobody is talking about Blackberry at all. The world has moved on. To gain market share again they need to stop trying to resurrect the brand and provide something significantly innovative enough to turn heads again

[Queasy Rider]

"turnaround artistes biggest achievement"

Well, at least they aren't 'just' using the typical turn-around artiste's playbook...

1)Lay off masses of skilled workers leaving only an overworked skeleton crew to run things. Outsourcing is a cost cutting variation of layoffs.

2)Sell off huge chunks of the company, temporarily bumping up the numbers

3)Burn cash to a)Purchase other companies outside their core competency to 'diversify', or gobble up competitors or b) To buy back shares (making the remaining shares somewhat more valuable to the upper management still holding mega shares in the company. 4) Use reverse psychology and sell more shares or borrow more money to promote the latest variation of the already failed business strategy.

But hey, IBM, HP, Oracle and others are still around using such tactics, and still losing market and mind share.