BlackBerry thrown in the towel, puts company up for sale

theefman

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From the headline and the site posting it you can tell its a click bait article. Nowhere in the BB statement does it say selling the company is the only option they are pursuing, as the headline would have you believe. Save your bandwidth and don't follow the link to this poorly written article.
 

gsquared

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All speculation at this point. They likely would like to take the company private but getting the cash together will be an issue. There will not be many PE firms willing to put up that kind of money for a one trick pony.
 

Laura Knotek

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I doubt if BBM would be that popular nowadays. Most Android and iOS users aren't exactly excited at the possibility of using BBM. There are many cross-platform alternatives already.
 

FearL0rd

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Microsoft needs to put some money (like the did with NOKIA) on and use BB hardware with WP and BBM. Enterprise market share will go to roof
 

fatclue_98

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I doubt if BBM would be that popular nowadays. Most Android and iOS users aren't exactly excited at the possibility of using BBM. There are many cross-platform alternatives already.

I've never used BBM or any other type of IM, but isn't SMS "instant messaging"? Is there an advantage of using something that requires a data plan as opposed to SMS which requires a voice plan only? What exactly is the allure of BBM?
 

Laura Knotek

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I've never used BBM or any other type of IM, but isn't SMS "instant messaging"? Is there an advantage of using something that requires a data plan as opposed to SMS which requires a voice plan only? What exactly is the allure of BBM?
Some people have data plans but don't have SMS plans. Also, any of these IM apps allow international messaging with no additional fees.
 

squire777

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Even if selling isn't technically the only option for BB it looks like it will be the inevitable option. They have dug themselves too far in a hole and there just isn't any buzz for any of their products anymore.

I don't know which company could possibly buy them though since the Canadian government would most likely block any purchase by a foreign company.
 

11B1P

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I've never used BBM or any other type of IM, but isn't SMS "instant messaging"? Is there an advantage of using something that requires a data plan as opposed to SMS which requires a voice plan only? What exactly is the allure of BBM?

Roughly, the messages on BBM go through the BB servers, delivering the messages "instantly", whereas the messages you send through SMS go through the network which take some amount of time to be delivered. It would be nice for WP to have this type of system.
 

fatclue_98

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Roughly, the messages on BBM go through the BB servers, delivering the messages "instantly", whereas the messages you send through SMS go through the network which take some amount of time to be delivered. It would be nice for WP to have this type of system.

I totally get Laura's explanation. But yours makes no sense. Wouldn't having to go through BlackBerry's servers be an extra step? All voice, SMS & data flows through the network first, unless you're on wifi in which case only data goes through. I'm guessing so correct me if I'm wrong.
 

Laura Knotek

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I totally get Laura's explanation. But yours makes no sense. Wouldn't having to go through BlackBerry's servers be an extra step? All voice, SMS & data flows through the network first, unless you're on wifi in which case only data goes through. I'm guessing so correct me if I'm wrong.
I agree that the extra step is bad. When BlackBerry had a server outage back in 2011, BBM didn't work at all. Email didn't work either.

The email on BB10 doesn't use BB servers, so outages would no longer affect it.

What I was originally saying was the advantage of any IM app over SMS. I don't see where BBM is any better than WhatsApp, Skype, GTalk, Yahoo Messenger, etc.
 

borasar

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All speculation at this point. They likely would like to take the company private but getting the cash together will be an issue. There will not be many PE firms willing to put up that kind of money for a one trick pony.

they are talking to Silver Lake who are currently trying to take Dell private, Fairfax already owns roughly 5% of RIM.
 

fatclue_98

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BBM is the Fastest pin messaging and is beter than WhatsApp. It can also be used over wifi.

Define fastest. Can you honestly tell me, without the aid of a stopwatch that measures nanoseconds, that you can tell which is faster? Can you tell me that the app itself is faster and not the network it's traveling on? To me, faster is the equivalent of a speed test between NetZero and any LTE carrier. Are we that desperate as a society that we can't wait an extra 2 seconds for our information?
 

RJ Priest

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I have never used BBM, so I guess that I don't really get it. Everyone I know has unlimited sms / mms, why would I want to use an app for messaging and eat away at my data plan (although an insignificant amount of data I would imagine)?

My buddy who works for RIM answers my question with "speed and reliability". However, I don't have reliability issues with text messaging, and via testing with friends, SMS appears to be pretty much instantaneous.

Now Laura's comment about international messaging is a good point, I've never thought of that.

I hate to see RIM / Blackberry fail. The BB10 OS is fantastic on paper, the technical merits can be praised, but in typical real world use, it really doesn't seem any better than the others on the market. I'd love to support Blackberry by owning a BB10 handset, but WP8 genuinely won me over fair and square. I love the UI of WP8, and I just don't like the aesthetics of BB10 hardware design. While I appreciate the functionality that BB10 UI offers, I don't like the UI design either (mainly the icons).
 

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