Tag: blackberry

Samsung pushing into Blackberry’s security territory

Posted on July 22, 2013 by - News

shoe phoneSamsung is managing to take over Blackberry’s mobile customers by promising them a layer of security to the standard Android.

Blackberry was always able to target business customers and government contracts because of its encrypted network system.

However it is starting to look like that is coming unstuck. Samsung is close to signing deals for its devices with the FBI and the US Navy, which have been traditional Blackberry customers.

Blackberry’s offerings have been looking somewhat out of date in comparison to the Android phones out there, however Blackberry has been able to claim that it was much more secure than anything else on the market.

That is where Samsung’s  KNOX slots into the market.  Samsung is touting it as a “comprehensive enterprise mobile solution” . KNOX addresses the mobile security needs of enterprise IT without invading the privacy of its employees.

In addition Samsung has hired executives away from BlackBerry, creating an enterprise-focused division within the company, and collaborating with third-party software firms.

Getting high profile contracts is an import step.  In the US Samsung also appears to be doing well, winning corporate customers from companies like American Airlines.

 

Blackberry UK boss heads for the door

Posted on June 13, 2013 by - Moving People, News

blackberry-z10Blackberry UK and Ireland managing director Rob Orr has quit after just ten months on the job. According to Mobile News, Orr has quit with “immediate effect” and his departure has been confirmed by the company.

Blackberry said Orr resigned his post with immediate effect and wished him well for the future. Orr took over the UK operation of the fledgling smartphone maker in August. He joined the company in June 2006 and he became vice president of Blackberry EMEA three years later.

Earlier this year Orr oversaw the launch of Blackberry 10, which at this rate might very well be the company’s last operating system. Blackberry released two smartphones based on the new platform, the Z10 and Q10, but over the last five years the mobile landscape changed drastically and Blackberry’s traditional market has slowly evaporated, as business geeks traded in their trusty QWERTY crackberries for iPhones and Galaxies.

Handset sales up, Samsung gains share

Posted on May 14, 2013 by - News, Products

nexus4-ceSmartphone wars are becoming rather predictable. Every quarter sales notch up and every quarter Samsung emerges as the big winner. The last quarter was no exception. However, growth is slowing as the market matures, although there is still plenty of room for growth in emerging markets. 

Worldwide phone sales totalled 426 million units in the first quarter, up 0.7 percent year-on-year. Smartphones saw a lot more growth, with sales totalling 2010 million units, up 42.9 percent from a year ago, according to a Gartner survey.

Sales of feature phones are down in all regions except Asia, while smartphones accounted for 49.3 percent of all phone sales worldwide, up from 34.8 percent in Q1 2012. At the same time feature phone sales contracted 21.8 percent.

“Feature phones users across the world are either finding their existing phones good enough or are waiting for smartphones prices to drop further, either way the prospect of longer replacement cycles is certainly not good news for both vendors and carriers looking to move users forward,” Gartner analyst Anshul Gupta said.

Samsung saw its market share go up from 21.1 percent to 23.6 percent. Apple also did well, growing from 7.8 to 9 percent, while Nokia’s share dropped from 19.7 to 14.8 percent. However, looking at smartphone sales, Samsung’s share was 30.8 percent, up from 27.6 percent. It was trailed by Apple at 18.2 percent, down from 22.5 percent. LG grabbed the bronze, with a 4.8 percent share. Huawei also had a good quarter, upping their share to 4.4 and 3.8 percent respectively and outperforming former heavyweights like Nokia, Sony and HTC.

Android is still the dominant mobile operating system, with a share of 74.4 percent, up from 56.9 a year earlier. Apple’s iOS share stands at 18.2 percent, down from 22.5 percent a year ago. Just so it wouldn’t look like a two-horse race, Blackberry is still in the game with a 3 percent share, down from 6.8 percent last year. Apparently BB10 did not make a huge difference. Windows Phone has a 2.9 percent share, up from 1.9 percent last year. It is growing, but at a painfully slow rate.

Blackberry hit by yearly revenue drop

Posted on March 28, 2013 by - News

ripeunripeBlackberry lost two percent of revenue in its fourth quarter of fiscal 2013, down $49 million, and a massive 36 percent drop from $4.2 billion year on year. However, it forecasts breaking even for the next quarter and a mobile analyst has told us the company should be financially viable for some time to come.

For the quarter, hardware accounted for 61 percent of the revenue, 36 percent for service and three percent for software and other revenue. It shipped six million Blackberry smartphones and roughly 370,000 Playbook tablets.

One half of the two-headed dragon that founded and used to run the company, Mike Lazaridis, will be leaving the company.

For its outlook, Blackberry said it will be increasing marketing spend for Q1 of fiscal 2014 to support Blackberry 10. This is a planned 50 percent increase in marketing, and the firm thinks it will be near breaking even, citing lower cost base, a more efficient supply chain and better hardware margins.

Jim Dawson, analyst at Ovum, told ChannelEye that every other company that’s suffered a severe drop in device revenues has struggled because cust cotting at a rapid rate is difficult. “Blackberry appears to have done a great job executing on its CORE strategy which includes reducing costs, and has managed to bring costs down significantly,” Dawson said. “As such, it was profitable this past quarter and should break even next quarter”.

“Given its good cash balance and lack of debt, it should be financially viable for quite some time at this rate, so I’m not overly concerned about the drop in revenues,” Dawson said. “I’m more concerned about the drop in subscribers, which is a longer-term indicator that it’s losing customers faster than it can win new ones”.

Europe to binge on cheap tablets

Posted on March 1, 2013 by - News, Opinions

nexus7The tablet boom is still going strong and according to Forrester Research, plenty of growth is expected over the next few years. Tablet ownership in Europe is expected to quadruple by 2017.

At the moment, an estimated 14 percent of European online consumers own a tablet, and the number should hit 55 percent by 2017. But who stands to gain from the boom?

Retailer scorns Blackberry’s “sold out” claims

Posted on February 7, 2013 by - News

blackberry-z10UK retailers have rubbished claims by the mobile phone maker formerly known as RIM that its white Blackberry has sold out.

BlackBerry boss Thorsten Heins buzzed enthusiastically that the BlackBerry Z10 white model is completely out of stock after only being launched last week.

While retailers have said that the BlackBerry Z10 has seen an exceptional first sales week it was not quite what BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins painted, when he claimed that the white version was sold out already and the black was hard to stock up again.

Mobile retailer Phones 4u has confirmed that while over 55 percent of its 680 stores sold out of the BlackBerry Z10 over the launch weekend, the lighter hued handset is, unlike Heins’ comments suggested, still available.

In fact Trusted Reviews said that if you are prepared to do the leg work you can easily find one. In the UK London-based Phones 4u outlets are the exclusive supplier for the white BlackBerry Z10.
Oxford Street has both colours and was telling worried punters that they did not have to run to pick one up as they had shedloads out the back.

Regent Street only had the white BlackBerry Z10 left.

Heins does need the Z10 to be a success, but does seem to be overestimating how well it is doing. Analysts claiming Heins is attempting to boost the hype surrounding the new device, particularly as many of them think that the phone is too little too late to save RIM, er Blackberry.

Scott Hooton, Chief Commercial Officer at Phones 4u said that while a few stores did sell out of the Blackberry Z10 on launch weekend, but the outfit replenished its stock within hours.