Tag Archives: Z10

Inside look at BlackBerry reveals failed ‘SMS 2.0’ push, qualms over Z10 launch

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Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie

We're familiar with much of BlackBerry's history, but there are a few unanswered questions: why did Jim Balsillie resign his board position, for example? And why did the Z10 launch ahead of Q10, to disastrous results? Thankfully, The Globe and Mail has addressed some of these mysteries through a detailed exposé. We now know that Balsillie left the board after BlackBerry axed an "SMS 2.0" plan that would have replaced carriers' text services with BlackBerry Messenger. Thorsten Heins wanted the company to remain focused on hardware, according to the newspaper. As for the Z10? Heins reportedly prioritized the all-touch phone over the objections of board members like Mike Lazaridis, who saw the Q10's keyboard as necessary for standing out in a crowded market. There's even more to the story than these two revelations, so you'll want to visit the source link if you're wondering just how BlackBerry ended up in such dire straits.

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Source: The Globe and Mail

BlackBerry starts selling unlocked Q10 and Z10 phones through its US site

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BlackBerry now directly selling unlocked Q10 and Z10 smartphones

It has been possible to snag an unlocked BlackBerry Q10 or Z10 in the US for a while if you've been willing to search around, but you now won't have to. BlackBerry has quietly begun selling unrestricted GSM variants of the two smartphones through its US site at prices of $449 for a Z10 and $549 for a Q10. Either device remains LTE-capable, and both should play nicely with AT&T and T-Mobile. The direct sales aren't likely to attract many converts, but they should help American fans who may have a tough time finding a BlackBerry in stores.

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Via: N4BB

Source: ShopBlackBerry.com

BlackBerry loses a billion dollars in three months, blames it on failed Z10

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BlackBerry has just reported a $935 million hit in Q2 due entirely to what it's calling a "Z10 Inventory Charge" -- in other words, a loss associated with creating a stock of flagship handsets that subsequently failed to sell. Echoing Microsoft's catastrophic write-down due to unsold Surface RT inventory, this single loss was enough to wipe out much of the company's quarterly revenue of $1.6 billion. When added to a further loss due to corporate restructuring, it resulted in a final GAAP loss for BlackBerry of $965 million. It's hard to gauge exactly how many of the newer BB 10 handsets (namely the Z10 and Q10) sold during the quarter, but BlackBerry admits that "most" of the 3.7 million units that reached end users were older BlackBerry 7 devices, so the figures can't be pretty. For his part, Thorsten Heins says he's "very disappointed" with the results, but he claims the company saw growth in enterprise server (BES 10) customers and he insists there's still a future in that side of the business -- a future that could soon belong to someone else.

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Source: MarketWired

Bad news from BlackBerry: 4,500 jobs to be cut, expected Q2 net operating loss of over $950 million

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Things haven't been going well at BlackBerry for awhile, what with lackluster adoption of BB10 and the hardware running it, and rumors that massive layoffs are coming before the end of the year. Today, the company confirmed the latter rumor, announcing that it will lay off around 4,500 employees as a part of a plan to reduce its operating expenditures by half over the next year. The plan's necessitated by an expected Q2 2014 net operating loss of almost one billion (955-995 million) dollars, driven primarily by the lackluster sale of its BB10 phones -- the company will take a pre-tax charge of $930-960 million which can be attributed mostly to the failure of the Z10 to sell. BlackBerry expects revenue for Q2 to be $1.6 billion, which is roughly half of the $3.1 billion it pulled in last quarter.

Needless to say, the financial outlook for the company isn't good, and some changes are in order. In the near term, the Z10 will be priced " to make it available to a broader, entry-level audience," leaving the Z30 as BlackBerry's all-touch flagship. To try to turn things around in the long term, the company's going to refocus on its enterprise offerings and will reduce its device portfolio from six devices to four, with two high end and two entry level phones. And, don't get it twisted, the days of BlackBerry courting mainstream consumers is all but over -- its future phones will be aimed at the "enterprise and prosumers."

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Refresh Roundup: week of September 2nd, 2013

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Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!

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Mobile Miscellany: week of August 12th, 2013

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Mobile Miscellany week of August 12th, 2013

If you didn't get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we've opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This week brought leaks of a smartphone that tips the scales with a 6-inch screen, an alternate ego to the oft-leaked Sony 'Honami' and the return of unlimited data to a certain AT&T MVNO. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore all that's happening in the mobile world for this week of August 12th, 2013.

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BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 get the green light from the Department of Defense

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BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 get the green light from the Department of Defense

Some good news for the phone makers in Waterloo: the US Defense Information System Agency is OK-ing BlackBerry's first two BB10 handsets for use on Department of Defense networks, confirming that the phones have all the necessary security measures in place. With the governmental go-ahead, the DISA's building out an infrastructure to support 10,000 Q10 and Z10 handsets by fall -- a number expected to triple by year's end. More info on the approval after the break, including some understated gloating from BlackBerry.

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BlackBerry might re-try the Porsche Design thing with leaked P’9982

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BlackBerry might retry the Porsche design thing, with leaked 'P'9982'

Those canny folks at Tinhte may have revealed yet another previously unknown handset, this time from BlackBerry. A leaked image appears to show a Porsche Design version of the Z10, packing what looks like a carbon fiber shell and other touches from the design house. Tinhte says the device would also run a custom version of BlackBerry 10 and cost $2,000 or more, while N4BB claims it'll be called the P'9982 (punctuation and all). Though the pictures look convincing enough, information about the naming, OS and price is purely speculative -- you might need an entire salt shaker to swallow it whole. Check the images for yourself at the source.

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Via: N4BB

Source: Tinhte (translated)

Refresh Roundup: week of July 22nd, 2013

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Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!

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Switched On: Played out

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Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

DNP Switched On Played out

At the launch of the BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 -- the first hardware devices to run on the long-awaited BlackBerry 10 operating system -- there seemed to be a silver lining for the renamed company's struggling PlayBook tablet. Confirming speculation, CEO Thorsten Heins promised a cheering crowd that the PlayBook would receive an update to a new OS. This would open the door to signature features, a more polished user interface and a vastly expanded app library.

But something was amiss. The company had also announced that, to simplify app development, BlackBerry 10 would support two screen resolutions: the Z10's 1,280 x 768 and the Q10's 720 x 720. In contrast, the PlayBook resolution is 1,024 x 600. Late last month, the other shoe dropped as BlackBerry confirmed that the PlayBook would not receive the promised update, leaving it with an abandoned OS and marking the effective exit of BlackBerry from the tablet market.

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