We're now just past the one week mark in the cross-platform BBM rollout and things are clearly going well. They've added 20 million new monthly active users in this time, and the numbers keep rising as indicated by the fact that BBM still ranks as one of the most popular free downloads on iOS and Android across dozens of countries. I've been very active in pushing people to download...
BlackBerry has been looped in with stories in the news lately about security with people wondering if their devices are secure or subject to "spying". We've seen it numerous times in the last few months, but BlackBerry has continued to say that they are "confident in the superiority of BlackBerry's mobile security platform for customers using our integrated device and enterprise server...
Just as Verizon put their Z30 landing page live, some new info has turned up in the CrackBerry forums with even more fun. According to an internal document, the Z30 will be landing on Verizon October 31st. It appears that it will be $299 on contract which pits it around $750 off contract -- quite a hefty price tag all things considered. The doc only shows a black version as well, so don...
CrackBerry's Chris Umiastowski weighs in with his opinion on what BBM needs to do now to keep the momentum up
BlackBerry is rolling out OS 10.2 to various countries and carriers starting this week. For those of you who are low on the list and are a bit eager to get your hands on the official version, you can do just that. Forums member LopezZ10 has dropped a quick how-to for getting the official version of OS 10.2 on loaded up on your device using Sachesi. Granted some of you may still want to...
The plot thickens. Honestly, I'm about ready to start seriously 'exploring making a bid at BlackBerry' just so I can get my name into a headline in The Globe and Mail or Bloomberg or Reuters. Today the Globe and Mail reported that Apple's former CEO John Sculley is exploring a bid at BlackBerry with Canadian partners. Earlier this month, Sculley was making the media rounds and had some...
As we noted previously, iOS 7.0.3 cause bugs in BBM for iPhone but BlackBerry was already aware of it and let everyone know an update was coming. Turns out, iOS users didn't have to wait all that long as the update has now gone live on the iTunes App Store. In addition to squashing of some bugs, BlackBerry also added in a few other things as well as noted in the change log. What's New...
Making people wait in line for something is one of the most common and most effective tricks to generate buzz and take advantage of the rule of social proof. As is well-documented in Dr. Robert Cialdini’s excellent book, “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion”, social proof is a huge factor when it comes to influencing others. Waiting lists are nothing new. Even waiting lists for...
As I mentioned earlier today in my From the Editor's Desk post, our sibling site Android Central is taking a page out of the CrackBerry books and will be firing up the Android Central Live Show in San Francisco next week at the first annual Samsung Developers Conference. Going live with coverage isn't easy, and we have some solid experiencing doing it now thanks to CrackBerry Live at...
So the big day has finally come. I was just about to take to Twitter to complain about the silence from the @BBM channel, despite Frank Boulben telling Reuters the launch was coming in a matter of days. And then, as luck should have it, I saw the Inside BlackBerry blog post about today’s launch. I already have BBM up and running on my Galaxy S4 and I’m pleased to say it’s actually...
Here's an image I've been wanting to see for over three years now. We've been clamoring on CrackBerry that RIM should put BlackBerry Messenger (now pronounced as "BlackBerry should put BBM") on other mobile platforms, and if they did it would easily top the free downloads charts. If people weren't going to buy a BlackBerry phone, at least you could be at the top of the competition's app...
There's so much going on with BlackBerry lately. The company is actively seeking a buyer and first entered into a deal with Fairfax Financial a few weeks back. Since then, there have been rumors of other companies being interested, a possible breakup of the most valuable assets and even former CEO Mike Lazaridis may be getting in on the action. During it all there are plenty of forums...
Almost two weeks ago I ventured out during Toronto weekend shopping traffic to buy a Samsung Galaxy S4. My plan was to swap over to this Android phone for a while since I’d never really spend any time with the mobile OS that has more market share than any other. It has been a glaring hole in my knowledge base, and needed to be corrected. Since I’m not even two weeks into this little...
Yesterday CNBC Asia’s “Squawk Box” had an interview with former Apple CEO John Sculley. Those of you reading the tech news may have already seen an article (or a thousand) quoting Sculley in reference to BlackBerry. Here’s what he said: "The challenge is you can't sell a phone for $700 in most of the world, so there has to be some real rationalization on the device side of the...
The news of Rogers deciding to not carry the BlackBerry Z30 admittedly was a bit surprising. After all, the company has long been a supporter of BlackBerry and was among the first carriers to launch the devices back in the early days of RIM but as the news is spreading and gaining more attention, it seems a lot of folks are letting Rogers know their decision might not have been the best...
One of the biggest concerns with BlackBerry 10 is that there aren't enough apps to please the masses. The obvious names of Netflix, Instagram, Vine and other "big name" apps come to mind. Cruising the CrackBerry forums I came across this thread where there is a great discussion on the ecosystem of BlackBerry 10 and whether the app issue truly is to blame for poor consumer adoption. I'm...
Last weekend, just moments before the Globe & Mail published their factually challenged article on BlackBerry, I had the opportunity to sit down and get the real scoop from Kevin Michaluk, someone uniquely in position to give us a much better, much fairer accounting of what exactly happened with BlackBerry. You can find the audio again, below, and for the first time, here's the...
Only twelve days ago BlackBerry pre-announced weak Q2 results, followed by a weekend deal with Fairfax Financial ahead of the normally scheduled financial results conference call that was to take place this past Friday. As followers of the stock are well aware, BlackBerry canceled its conference call and published it’s results without giving analysts a chance to ask questions. As...
The Globe and Mail has posted an extensive report that takes a look deep inside BlackBerry and examines much of the direction of the company for the last few years. While all the talk lately is about the sale of BlackBerry, lackluster Z10 numbers and cross-platform BBM, the report looks at much more of what went on inside the company. Most notably it looks at some of the bigger...
This morning BlackBerry published its Q2 fiscal 2014 financial results by way of press release. They’ve made what I believe is a horrible decision to skip the usual conference call. My understanding is their SEC filing with management discussion and analysis (MD&A) will be out next week. This leaves me with less information than I’d like to base my analysis on. As usual, I’m going...
This was the exact same headline that appeared on this SFGate article on March 15th, 1997. Over the past few days I have noticed links to this article pop-up a bunch on social networks and in our CrackBerry forums. Looking at where Apple is today not only in the mobile space, but also as one of the biggest companies in the world (in terms of revenue), it's almost hard to believe a...
Long time readers of CrackBerry know I'm a big fan of analytics and have often looked to Google Trends to gain insight into the demand for things like phones and apps. For the most part, looking at Google Trends data over the years has provided a pretty good representation of actual demand over time in the mobile realm, especially when comparing multiple items in a similar category....
For obvious reasons we’ve been covering the story of BlackBerry and Fairfax quite hard this week. When the news broke on Monday I wrote up my initial thoughts in this editorial and I thought it would be worth coming back today with some additional thoughts and details. There are a lot of questions from all of you, and there is a lot of misunderstanding about how the markets work, which...