iT Rumors

“The last time device shipments and revenues were at current levels (way back in 2007) cost of sales and overall operating expenses were a fraction of what they are now,” Dawson writes. “Even cutting operating expenses by 50% by 2015 won’t be enough at this rate. The company has to find other sources of revenue, and it simply hasn’t shown what those are.”

Dawson thinks that new CEO Chen has no time to waste in articulating his strategy for moving BlackBerry forward and that the company’s scheduled December 20th earnings report is absolutely crucial. At that time, Chen will need to spell out exactly how he plans to either revive the company’s flagging device sales or put it out of its misery while also spelling out just how big or small the company will need to be so it can return to profitability.

“The only way BlackBerry can survive, therefore, is if it can dramatically cut costs to give it enough breathing room to allow these very small, nascent product lines to generate significant revenue,” Dawson concludes. “I believe that’s why Fairfax wanted to take it private — that’s an ugly kind of transition that you really don’t want to be doing in public.”

Via: Yahoo News

BlackBerryBB.T -1.03% is saying goodbye to three top executives Monday and will hand them $6.8 million on the way out the door.

In a release Monday morning, the battered Canadian smartphone maker said Chief Operating Officer Kristian Tear, Chief Marketing Officer Frank Boulben, and Chief Financial Officer Brian Bidulka would be leaving the company.

Mr. Bidulka, who said he will stay on as an adviser for the rest of the year, will receive the largest exit package –$3 million. That  includes two years of his salary worth $1.2 million, plus stock options and retirement savings. He joined BlackBerry in 2005.

Mr. Boulben will receive $2.3 million, and Mr. Tear will receive roughly $1.5 million based upon SEC filings and the current value of BlackBerry’s stock.

Messrs. Tear and Boulben worked at BlackBerry for just a year and a half. Both executives joined BlackBerry in May 2012. Mr. Tear joined BlackBerry from Sony Mobile Communications. Mr. Boulben joined from LightSquared, the wireless satellite company that filed for bankruptcy protection in May 2012.

BlackBerry’s board of directors voted on the executive packages during the company’s July meeting and was approved by shareholders. BlackBerry declined to comment beyond the SEC filings.

The latest shake-up in BlackBerry’s executive suite comes after the smartphone maker called off a $4.7 billion tentative deal to sell itself to Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. in early November and instead said it would continue as a public company. At the time, BlackBerry replaced CEO Thorsten Heins with John Chen, former chief executive of enterprise software company Sybase Inc.

The severance packages for all of BlackBerry’s executives were far less than what they would have received if BlackBerry had successfully executed a sale.

Via: CANADA REAL TIME

With the BlackBerry Limited BBM app coming pre-installed, users can directly engage with other BBM users without having to download the app or incurring download charges.

"BBM will soon come preinstalled on a variety of Android-based smartphones from leading OEMs across Africa, India, Indonesia, Latin America and the Middle East," BlackBerry Ltd said in a statement.

Beginning next month, Android smartphones from Be, Brightstar, Celkon, EVERCOSS, IMO, Micromax, Mito, Snexian, Spice, TECNO, TiPhone and Zen will include BBM preinstalled, it added.

BBM will continue to be available as a free download from Android app stores, including Google Play.

"It is clear that smartphone customers see BBM as a must have app for active conversations. The uptake we have seen for BBM since the launch on Android and iPhone is amazing," BlackBerry Executive Vice President (BBM) Andrew Bocking said.

BBM is already available pre-loaded on Micromax's Canvas Turbo and will now be preloaded in the entire forthcoming range of Canvas phones.

BlackBerry today also launched its BBM Channels, which will allow brands to engage with people and communities.

Source  : Financial Express

Image : Reuters

Believe it or not, it wasn't that long ago that Nokia and BlackBerry were the top two smartphone companies. Indeed, in 2006, in a preemptive move against the NTP patent troll, the Department of Justice asked that BlackBerry's services be kept going even if NTP won their case. Seven years later most of us are just wondering how long the company can stay alive.

BlackBerry hasn't given the ghost up yet. Besides finding a new CEO, BlackBerry is embracing Android apps.

In a technical blog posting, BlackBerry announced that its  "Android Runtime team [is] bringing many new improvements to the runtime, such as support for Jelly Bean 4.2.2, hardware acceleration and performance updates."

Specifically, BlackBerry 10.2.1 — the next release of the BlackBerry operating system — will include the following features:

The real news here is support for NDK and 4.2.2. Earlier, BlackBerry couldn't support either oneand this made porting modern Android apps to the platform a major headache.

If all goes well, BlackBerry will be able support most, but not all, modern Android programs. With fewer and fewer developers spending their time programming for thedeclining native Blackberry OS, BlackBerry desperately needs Android apps.In addition, developers will be able to write headless Android apps. These are apps that run in the background and don't require an open Active Frame to function. This, in turn, means that Android apps on BlackBerry will take up less memory and run faster.

At the same time, Alec Saunders, VP of developer relations, told CrackBerry that BlackBerry is not "backing away from native developers." BlackBerry users will also still need to sideload Android apps. The company told CrackBerry that "There is no planned support for Google Play on BlackBerry."

Maybe BlackBerry would have been better off if they had just embraced Android when it became clear that Android was going to be the most popular mobile operating system in the world. It's too late to cry about that now.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. While it's too late to dump BlackBerry OS for Android, maybe a dose of Android apps is what BlackBerry needs to reclaim the number three mobile operating system spot. BlackBerry may never be a giant again, but with some Android it may at least survive for another decade.

Via: ZDNet

BBM is no more just a messaging service but has become the latest fashion statement for most of the teenagers, especially after the service was extended to Android and iOS. Here is some news to cheer people up; BBM will be available on Wi-Fi-only iOS devices by this week.

Blackberry rolled out its extremely popular messaging app for Android and iOS users, in October. The Waterloo-based company wants to embrace more subscribers to its messaging service by enabling it on iOS devices like iPad and iPod versions that only support Wi-Fi.

The BBM app rolled out in October became the highest downloaded app for the month. The service was available only for the mobile holders. But the recent update will extend the service to second screens like the iPod Touch with Wi-Fi connection.

Bocking revealed an added advantage of BBM in the report. The cross platform messaging service does not to require any specific phone number to get installed on any device unlike the other instant messaging apps, an exciting feature especially meant for Wi-Fi enabled iPods users who do not use any cellular connection on the music device.

BBM on Android and iOS has nearly 20 million users, reveals a recent post on Gizbot. Blcakberry will soon introduce video calling and voice messaging for these wi-fi enabled devices in the near future. The Wi-Fi addition can be cited as a smart move on Blackberry's end to hype the excitement further and also its consumer base for BBM.

Source : hngn

The BlackBerry saga took an unexpected turn recently when the company announced it is no longer interested in a full or partial sale. Instead, BlackBerry fired Thorsten Heins, it took $1 billion from Fairfax and other investors, it will seek another $1 billion from the Canadian government as it negotiates a huge tax refund, and it will continue making smartphones as it tries to right the ship. New BlackBerry CEO John Chen has quite a difficult task ahead, and he penned a quick letter to BlackBerry fans asking them to get ready for a big BlackBerry rebound in the near future.

“As you know, this is a time of significant change at BlackBerry as we accelerate our efforts to transform our business,” Chen wrote on BlackBerry’s blog. “I know there has been a lot said about BlackBerry, but let me remind you that at BlackBerry, we are not dwelling on the past. We are looking towards the future.”

He continued, “We have begun moving the company to embrace a multi-platform, BYOD world by adopting a new mobility management platform and a new device strategy. We are also leveraging our tremendous assets, including BBM, our network and QNX. While we are proud of these accomplishments, we know there is more work to be done. I know that it’s going to take time, discipline and tough decisions to reclaim BlackBerry’s success and we are ready for that challenge.”

Chen said BlackBerry is excited about the future, and BlackBerry fans should be excited as well. The full letter can be read on BlackBerry’s blog, which is linked below in our source section.

Via: Yahoo News