I've been feeling quite happy with my small stake in BlackBerry lately. I had always put a 2-3 year time frame on the recovery, despite the absurd expectations of the market analysts. I am now quite concerned, however. I bought quite low, so I am probably not in a position to lose money, but I am very concerned that the recent news will actually damage sales figures.
Predictably, the headlines have been that BlackBerry is 'up for sale'. Again, the market seems to like the idea, but is this not going to halt any potential momentum in sales now? Is the average customer not going to hesitate to buy a phone from a company they may now even more strongly suspect of going under? Could you blame them?
Many BlackBerry enthusiasts will explain the fine details, and explain that a sale of the company doesn't mean that the phones will suddenly be unavailable, or that they will no longer work, etc. This, however, is no guarantee that potential consumers will believe, or understand this. I can see this having a very negative effect on the conception of risk in the minds of potential customers, and I think it may make in store sales people even more likely to steer people away from BB10.
What do you think? As usual, BlackBerry seem to be showing a compete blind spot for customer perception, and have failed to release any statement attempting to assure customers that buying a BlackBerry is a safe thing to do. This is a shame. BlackBerry have done a lot of things really well: they have created a fantastic OS, and two brilliant new phones (I can't count the Q5 as brilliant). But from the beginning of the recovery, BlackBerry has shown an astonishing level of incompetence when it comes to marketing. They just seem to have almost no clue how to deal with the public whom they must convince to actually buy their products. Maybe you guys see it differently, but I struggle to see how this recent news will not chase more people away from buying a BlackBerry, unless BlackBerry do something to convince them that they aren't purchasing a phone thay won't even last the length of their contract.
Posted via CB10
Predictably, the headlines have been that BlackBerry is 'up for sale'. Again, the market seems to like the idea, but is this not going to halt any potential momentum in sales now? Is the average customer not going to hesitate to buy a phone from a company they may now even more strongly suspect of going under? Could you blame them?
Many BlackBerry enthusiasts will explain the fine details, and explain that a sale of the company doesn't mean that the phones will suddenly be unavailable, or that they will no longer work, etc. This, however, is no guarantee that potential consumers will believe, or understand this. I can see this having a very negative effect on the conception of risk in the minds of potential customers, and I think it may make in store sales people even more likely to steer people away from BB10.
What do you think? As usual, BlackBerry seem to be showing a compete blind spot for customer perception, and have failed to release any statement attempting to assure customers that buying a BlackBerry is a safe thing to do. This is a shame. BlackBerry have done a lot of things really well: they have created a fantastic OS, and two brilliant new phones (I can't count the Q5 as brilliant). But from the beginning of the recovery, BlackBerry has shown an astonishing level of incompetence when it comes to marketing. They just seem to have almost no clue how to deal with the public whom they must convince to actually buy their products. Maybe you guys see it differently, but I struggle to see how this recent news will not chase more people away from buying a BlackBerry, unless BlackBerry do something to convince them that they aren't purchasing a phone thay won't even last the length of their contract.
Posted via CB10