Thursday, December 08, 2016

blackberry changes and the future of physical keyboards

The world has been so focused on this year's strange election that I wasn't paying attention when BlackBerry announced that it will be moving away from manufacturing smartphones and just focusing on software security.


http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/29/technology/blackberry-phones-earnings-q2.html
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia — Stepping away from its signature product, BlackBerry will no longer make its own smartphones, the device it once defined.

 Before being overtaken by iPhones from Apple, BlackBerry’s phones were so popular that they were nicknamed CrackBerry, and President Obama battled security officials to retain his BlackBerry when he took office. But the distressed Canadian company’s decision, announced on Wednesday, means the BlackBerry name will now be found only on handsets made by a group owned by phone companies in Indonesia, which has licensed the brand.


BlackBerry’s market share long ago collapsed to single digits in North America and Europe, despite the introduction of a new operating system and the company’s decision to make phones based on the Android operating system from Google.


The abandoning of the phone business that made BlackBerry a household name is a major step in a strategy begun by John S. Chen, the executive chairman and chief executive, to turn the money-losing company into a software and wireless device security business. When Mr. Chen joined BlackBerry almost three years ago, he made it clear that the fast-declining phone business was living on borrowed time.

“We have decided to discontinue all the handset hardware development,” Mr. Chen said Wednesday on a conference call for analysts. “We believe that this is the best way to drive profitability in the device business.”
and also this

 BlackBerry has the option of reselling the phones carrying its brand name and made by BB Merah Putih in Indonesia throughout the rest of the world. But Mr. Chen said the company had decided not to exercise that option. As a result, he said, sales of BlackBerry phones outside Indonesia will finish before the end of February 2017, the close of the company’s fiscal year.

This was very heart-breaking news for me because BlackBerry was the only smartphone manufacturer that made smartphones with a physical keyboard, which I find easier to use than use a touchscreen keyboard.

 As mentioned in previous blog posts

  I  hate   typing on touchscreens because they are either
  • too finger sensitive
OR
  •  requires a hard press on the screen.
My BlackBerry Q10 still works well!

 But my fear that it would get broken or stolen has a new meaning for me!
Those whose iPhone gets broken or stolen can go to a store and get a new one easily!

 Even those whose flip-phone gets broken or stolen can go to a store and get a new one easily!

 For those who like the convenience of a physical keyboard on a smartphone are out of luck soon! 

 That is .....unless some other company picks up the slack in manufacturing the smartphone with the physical keyboard as indicated in E-Commerce Times and Bloomberg News





https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-10/blackberry-s-keyboard-is-coming-back-for-one-last-dance

Under Chen, BlackBerry has gradually shifted from smartphones to software and said in September it would completely stop producing, stocking and distributing its own phones. Instead, it will license the BlackBerry brand to outside companies to put on phones they build themselves. The physical keyboard is BlackBerry’s best-known smartphone feature, with many former users still lamenting its absence as they clumsily tap out e-mails on their iPhones and sign off with words like "pardon the typos."

 http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/84085.html

Google and Apple were able to bring the smartphone to the masses with touchscreen-enabled devices, but that leaves open the door for another market segment.
"Not everyone likes touchscreens, so there is a niche market for a BlackBerry with a physical keyboard," said William Stofega, program director for mobile phones at IDC.

"There are executives and others who like the physical keyboard, and if BlackBerry can make a case that they can fill this need, then they can have a small part of the market," he told the E-Commerce Times.

More importantly, "BlackBerry can still make money serving its legacy tail, and this move appears aimed at that market," said Steve Blum, principal analyst at Tellus Venture Associates.

"Assuming they're contracting out manufacturing and they have a reasonably accurate sales forecast, there's no reason not to keep targeting their legacy market, so long as it's at least minimally profitable," he told the E-Commerce Times.

With partners doing the manufacturing, the risk could be low, added Stofega



Whoever is manufacturing that physical keyboard phone, they better do a better job marketing it!

As I mentioned in previous blog posts, BlackBerry's main reason for their business failure is the failure to market their products



 http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2013/10/adventures-on-my-new-smartphone.html


The problem is that BlackBerry doesn't have a real marketing strategy!

A marketing strategy for smartphones isn't just about its usability. 

It's about marketing it as a fashion accessory. 


That's what Apple does everytime they introduce their product. They make it an event, a place to be seen while standing in long-lines. This makes the Apple i-phones "cool" in the eyes of many!


This was from a mass-email from advice columnist John Alanis that I got on March 2012 



Here's the interesting thing you should know about the iPad:  every attempt to create a knockoff of it has been a miserable failure. 
No other company has been able to make a tablet computer that people want.
Why?  Because they think they are in the tablet business.  But no one wants a tablet computer--they're mostly useless.  However, everyone wants to be cool, and only Apple realizes they're in the coolness business.
You see,  having an iPad is considered cool. Having a Samsung Galaxy is not.  Apple is cool, everything else is uncool and they've built their whole company around that.  Not only that, but having the latest iPad is extremely cool, while having an old one
is not so cool anymore.
Apple has figured it out.  People want to be cool, and will pay for it, even if it involves forking over $700 a year for a mostly useless device (did you hear about the new HD screen on the latest iPad...cool, huh?).



Well, apparently, Samsung had gotten hold of this mass e-mail because they responded with this ad!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJafiCKliA8

That ad made the people who stood in long-line for Apple stuff look like suckers!  The slogan "The Next Big Thing is Already Here"

That ad made the SamSung Galaxy part of the "coolness business" that the mass e-mail was talking about! 



And Microsoft must've gotten a hold of the same mass-email because they responded with this ad!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE7AQY5Xk9w 

That ad mocked the i-pad as "not user friendly" AND for not having a keyboard!



Now many say that BlackBerry's marketing campaign was to just focus on the business users and to not get caught up with pop culture fads.


When Kim Kardashian and Leonardo DiCaprio were photographed using a BlackBerry, many BlackBerry fans said  "hey, this is an opportunity, they're using, might as well hire them to appear in your ads!"

 BlackBerry's CEO  responded that he was happy that they were using a BlackBerry but would prefer to use a different marketing strategy!

Are you kidding me?

 Any company losing market-share that notices a high-profile celebrity using its products should be contacting them IMMEDIATELY for an advertising campaign! 
BlackBerry wanted a business-oriented marketing campaign but didn't realize that business-people are also pop-culture oriented people who are fascinated by anything trendy, whether it's a celebrity-endorsed device, and device that was advertised by a funny commercial (ie. SamSung) , or a device whose release is seen as a major event (iPhone).

Once iPhone and SamSung made their marketing blitz and became pop-culture phenomenon, business oriented people get caught up in their craze like everyone else!

BlackBerry shoud've supplement their business oriented marketing strategy with a pop-culture oriented strategy!  A strategy that shows that their device is useful for work AND play! 


I really hope whoever gets to manufacture any future physical keyboards could come up with a great marketing strategy to make physical keyboards "retro cool", good for "work & play".

 I'll even supply some music for a soundtrack if they need music (and yes, they will need music)
(check out https://pablothemadtigerwarrior.blogspot.com/p/tracks.html for my music)

 But whatever happens, I hope that if my current BlackBerry Q10 gets broken, lost or stolen, that I will still be able to get a smartphone with a physical keyboard.
My mental health depends on it! 


==============

PS: also check out my blog post from January 2014  http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2014/01/blackberrys-response-to-competition.html
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my letter to the newspaper: Hawaii, independence and prosperity

I haven't written a letter to the local papers in a while, but  I had to say something to get people thinking that Make Hawaii Independent Again can have some economic benefits.


Last Friday, a person wrote a letter expressing that Hawaii can't survive without federal subsidies. 


So I thought it was time to get the people of Hawaii to think of the possibilities of how Hawaii can still be economically prosperous without relying on federal subsidies.


So I wrote a letter that was published in today's edition of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser


Here it is

Hawaii doesn’t need federal welfare
A letter writer dismissed the idea of Hawaii’s independence from the U.S. by saying, “Hawaii couldn’t hold out for 24 hours without the massive welfare payments it receives from the federal government” (“Hawaii depends on federal largesse,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, Dec. 2).
But we don’t need to be dependent on federal money. Federal money is taxpayer money.

Why pay taxes to the federal government when we can be independent and keep our tax revenues here?

Also, Hawaii can find alternatives to subsidies to be prosperous. For example, by becoming independent, we are no longer held hostage by the Jones Act, a federal law that makes onerous restrictions on what ships can go from one U.S. port to another.

With independence, Hawaii would no longer be constrained by the Jones Act and would have greater access to international trade.
Singapore is an independent, prosperous city-state that doesn’t rely on foreign government subsidies.

If Singapore can do it, why not us?

Pablo Wegesend


Obviously, there's more to making an independent Hawaii prosperous, but it's a letter to the editor, which means I had to compress my thoughts in so many words. But I hope it got some people to think of the possibilities.


One of my facebook friends mentioned that Singapore has an advantage due to its larger population, location near other countries, and its trade pact with Australia.

But still, any location has its pros & cons, it's what you do with it that matters most!


Now, for the comments section to that letter, as listed on
http://www.staradvertiser.com/2016/12/08/editorial/letters/does-matayoshi-deserves-support/?HSA=04262e80d789ec1e84717fa266a7d124ce348574



reamesr1 says: 
Pablo Hawaii cannot do it because there are too many useless politicians out there feeding from the Federal trough.


inlanikai says: 
Singapore is a single government city-state. No layers of government like in Hawaii. They also do not have many of the personal freedoms and protections we enjoy here. When Singapore became independent in the 1960s there was a strong leader who ruled with almost absolute authority in exchange for giving the people a better way of life than they had with law and order. I doubt the people of Hawaii would trust that that deal to today’s crop of local politicians.  

SHOPOHOLIC says:
December 8, 2016 at 7:50 am
Well put.
If Hawaii were to ever have a “benevolent dictatorship”, it would be ruined immediately by some bumbling, greedy incompetent. Just look at the state leg for examples or an Albert Hee type.

 and also this


“Singapore is an independent, prosperous city-state that doesn’t rely on foreign government subsidies.If Singapore can do it, why not us?”>>> Here’s why…Exports, particularly in electronics, chemicals and services including Singapore’s position as the regional hub for wealth management[22][23][24] provide the main source of revenue for the economySo, what I make of Singapore’s success is…you would actually have to DO/MAKE something to succeed. I know, sounds a lot like “work”.


 inlanikai says  
Singapore is also uniquely positioned geographically to support global trade.



SHOPOHOLIC says
And an educated population with societal/personal values and (mostly) Confucian values that clash starkly with American “values” of individualism, selfishness and knowing one’s rights 24/7.


Ronin006 says:
December 8, 2016 at 6:09 pm
Guam residents pay US income tax, all of which remains on Guam to support the government of Guam. Nevertheless, Guam is dependent entirely on the Federal government to pay millions of dollars annually for social welfare programs. There is no reason to believe it would be different for Hawaii if it was to become independent.




  •  Lots of great thoughts, I'm just happy to start a conversation on this issue!

Also, check out UH cultural anthropology professor Alan Howard's editorial supporting Hawaii's Independence at 

Much of the article was focused on the differing mentalities between blue states (Democrat-voting states) and red states (Republican-voting states), and then it mentioned this


Here's one quote from the article

Unlikely as it is to materialize, there has been post-election sentiment expressed in West Coast states in favor of secession based on the overwhelming desire by a great many people of blue persuasion to dissociate from the reds. 
In (blue) Hawaii, we understand these emotions, but we have a better case than most for secession, given that Hawaii was illegally annexed by the United States in the first place. I propose that we engage in serious discussions about the costs and benefits of secession, on the grounds not only of economics but also of a moral commitment to a worldview that differs so radically from red America.

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