BlackBerry's turnaround relies on a secret weapon: Its own network

Last year we invited you, as a thought experiment, to value BlackBerry as an oddball cluster of startups – and now it seems the company has taken our advice to heart. It forms the heart of its strategy: the once tightly coupled divisions are free to compete – even if it means taking business off each other. It also means …

[Gordon 10]

Fair play to them

I'm tempted the buy s blackberry simply to support a company that actually seems to have turned itself around and whose managenent seem like they ate genuinely trying to innovate.

Makes a nice change.

[Anonymous Coward]

Bubbles still coming out from the Blackberry ship at the bottom of the ocean....

Microsoft seem to have taken a good chunk of the business mobile market that was previously occupied by Blackberry in the UK at least.

[chris 17]

dare to sight any articles to back that up?

[Anonymous Coward]

"dare to sight any articles to back that up?"

"According to Martine, who was quoting the most recent figures from Canalys, Nokia’s UK enterprise market share stands at 18 per cent."

http://www.mobilenewscwp.co.uk/2014/06/16/windows-phone-os-to-dominate-b2b-by-mid-2015/

http://www.zdnet.com/windows-phone-overtakes-blackberry-in-the-uk-but-who-wants-to-be-number-three-7000032977/

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/aug/21/blackberry-uk-user-base-below-windows-phone

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/21/windows_phones_to_crush_android_in_business/

http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240213444/Are-businesses-turning-to-Windows-Phone-instead-of-BlackBerry

[pmelon]

A good chunk?

No they don't. MS are nowhere in any of this.

FWIW we use Xenmobile to manage a fleet of Androids. Rubbish compared to BES, but the public (users) gets what the public wants (via hamfisted, clumsy consultations).

I agree with the US DoD - Blackberry are pretty damn good at security.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: A good chunk?

"No they don't. MS are nowhere in any of this."

They currently have about 18% of the UK enterprise mobile OS market and growing. I think that's a 'good chunk'.

"I agree with the US DoD - Blackberry are pretty damn good at security."

Better than say Apple or Android certainly - but not as good as Windows Phone. A quick check of Secunia shows 55 known vulnerabilities in Blackberry OS 10 so far versus zero in Windows Phone 8.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not a great network track reord ....

Are we talking about this network:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05/03/blackberry_holiday_hic/

?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Not a great network track reord ....

"Are we talking about this network:"

Perhaps, but then again outages happen everywhere!

Here, here, here, here,

and

here, here, here, here.

The reaction to the week that Blackberry went off air back in 2011 was quite interesting. It was "Holy cow, BlackBerry is down, how can that happen?" However, even though Apple are now way bigger than BlackBerry were back in 2011, iCloud falling over seems to provoke nothing more than a shrug, maybe a "Well, what do you expect?" and a few articles on The Register. Now what does that tell us about user expectations?! Does it mean that no one is really using iCloud?

[jonathanb]

Re: Not a great network track reord ....

If Blackberry goes down, your phone becomes a dumbphone. If iCloud goes down, most features of the iPhone will still work. So yes, nobody is really using iCloud in the sense that most of the time, they don't need to.

[roger stillick]

Useable Internet isn't Everywhere, BlackBerry needs it...

Black Berry network still uses the internet for connection (i think)...Rural America still doesn't even have adequate dial-up w/o a 2Gb/month data cap.

USPS gets my data sent to others on USB sticks...entire libraries of data...very secure.

Buy my data sticks on sale at a local office supply store ... they are actually as cheap as RW-DVD's, when you factor in the time needed to burn them... Got a replacement LINUX laptop to replace my XP burner laptop...have yet to do a production DVD (all USB sticks instead) this entire year.

IMHO= BlackBerry is a gold covered Security diamond, something that bean counters and breakup experts need to leave alone...folks like me might need it someday, would be nice to have real security available... just ask POTUS-O, he uses one...RS.

[Barry Rueger]

Selling to Grown Ups

I still think that BlackBerry's one saving grace may be the decision to focus on adults and corporate customers instead of teenagers.

Note the current lack of pink phones in their line up of devices.

They're selling to the people who value service and security, and who will tend to build loyalty to the company that serves them well. What they're not doing is selling to the kids and hipsters who can be swayed by the latest shiny shiny bauble.