Blackberry (formerly "Research In Motion")

[CityFarmer]

Is the news relevant to Blackberry? May be I miss the key point... (not vested)

Not exactly.

Just a case and point that technologies can be deployed to track and trace to which data can be harvested.

My focus of course is the span of technology, and perhaps more importantly data security...

Maybe hollywood drama to me, but imagine where the whole city is connected and hacked to bring it down.

The IOT is practically everywhere.

Thank for the clarification. Yes, agree with your view.

It is also a good case study of Big Data, together with the LTA case. I am curious to see the effectiveness of Big Data application, rather than hype.

[orangetea]

BlackBerry on Thursday reported a quarterly loss that was smaller than analysts had expected.

After the earnings announcement, the company's shares rose in premarket trading. (Click here to get the latest quotes.)

BlackBerry posted a first-quarter loss excluding items of 11 cents per share, narrowing from a loss of 13 cents a share in the year-earlier period.
Revenue fell to $966 million from $3.07 billion a year ago.

Analysts had expected the company to report a loss of 26 cents a share on $963 million in revenue, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters.

Earlier this week, BlackBerry said it agreed on a licensing deal with Amazon.com that will let the Canadian smartphone maker offer some 240,000 Android apps from Amazon's app store on its BlackBerry 10 devices this fall.

The move is the latest by the smartphone pioneer to streamline its focus as it attempts to reinvent itself under new Chief Executive John Chen as BlackBerry phones have lost ground to Apple's iPhone and Samsung Electronics' Galaxy devices.

—By CNBC. Reuters contributed to this story.

www.cnbc.com/id/101771195

BlackBerry recent head count reduction of developer staff reflects the focus of the company on driving profitability by reviving its enterprise segment.

BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) has cut 65 jobs reflecting its approach to revive itself by focusing on the enterprise market. All 65 employees were engaged in developing mobile apps for consumers. The Canadian smartphone, in an emailed statement Tuesday, told WSJ that the layoffs aims to focus on realigning the resources to take forward the new programs, which would enhance the enterprise application development.

BlackBerry
BlackBerry Amazon deal to blame?

Number of employees dedicated towards developing apps for enterprise customers will be 100 following the latest layoffs.

Slashing the jobs followed the deal between BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) and Amazon, where the former will be able to gain access to the App store of the later for mobile devices to penetrate its mobile phones deeply in the consumer market.

Analysts feel that reducing headcount from the developer’s relation staff is relevant in context of BlackBerry’s deal with Amazon. Direction in which BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) is heading is clear. Analysts feel that the developer relations division was not fully dedicated to the enterprise application development.
Part of the bigger plan

The recent job cuts are trifling percentage of 4,500 employees, who were laid off since last September, after the company announced global headcount cut by 40% to bring down the cost and contain losses amidst narrowing market shares compared to adversaries such as Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.

A BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) spokesman said in an email that the company has made focused efforts to comply with the previously announced head count reduction activity and majority of the plan has been completed since the first announcement made in September 2013.

The statement further said, “We recognize our local employees’ hard work on behalf of our company, and the difficulty of this news.”

However, the recent layoff was largely unexpected going by the earlier statements of CEO John Chen as well as John Sims, president of Global Enterprise Services, who said that layoff process would be closed by the end of May. The authorities vowed to assist the employees in every possible way.

BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) is still counting on its smartphone segments and expects to generate profits by selling more units, but its primary focus has shifted to the traditional enterprise customers, to whom the company is aiming to sell higher margin mobile management software and security services.

http://www.valuewalk.com/2014/06/blackbe...employees/

[orangetea]

BlackBerry Sells German R&D Assets to VW
Posted by Paul Ausick

Smartphone maker BlackBerry Ltd. (NASDAQ: BBRY) sold most of its Canadian real estate — more than 3 million square feet — earlier this year for $278 million. Last Thursday the company announced that it has agreed to sell an R&D facility in Germany to Volkswagen for an undisclosed sum.

Along with the plant, VW will get 200 BlackBerry employees who will join Volkswagen Infotainment GmbH, the company VW has established to develop technologies for managing in-car information and entertainment systems.

Dumping its real estate is one thing that BlackBerry can do to help boost its cash flow and return to profitability. For its most recent quarter, BlackBerry reported revenues of less than $1 billion, down more than two-thirds from the year-ago quarter. The reported net loss, however, was only half as large as analysts expected and the company’s stock jumped 10% on the report to trade at around $9.50 a share.

BlackBerry has released photos and pre-release versions of its coming Passport phone, which is officially due in September. The early hardware has been impressive, but BlackBerry’s share of the smartphone market has fallen so far that even blockbuster phone sales will not help.

CEO John Chen appears to have clarified the company’s position on hardware — “I hope nobody thinks we don’t take seriously the handset business.” — and had already made clear his position on software — “I don’t find the practice [of giving away software] very sensible.” BlackBerry may want to make sales of its hardware, but it must sell its software and services. Not only that, it must show that software and services revenues are growing. BlackBerry’s future, if it has one, is in software.

The company’s stock has risen another $1.10 since that mid-June earnings report, closing at $10.61 on Thursday, in a 52-week range of $5.44 to $12.18. Nearly 13 million shares of BlackBerry shares trade every day.

[Caelitus]

Finally after 2 years and 7 months, I swapped my trusty Blackberry 9780 for an Android based mobile. I enjoyed a physical keyboard, push mail and BB Messenger. However, the lack of applications and the problems of running some pages on the browser 'condemned' the Blackberry handset for me. Moreover, I had to subscribe to both BB data roam and the generic data roam (to use 3rd party apps not owned by BB). Disadvantageous.

Need to import a non-camera BB if I were to continue my usage. Therefore, it is now...over.

[orangetea]

Apple-IBM alliance dents BlackBerry's stock price
Published July 16, 2014

BlackBerry Ltd's (BBRY) shares took a hit on Wednesday after International Business Machines Corp (IBM) said it planned to partner with Apple Inc (APPL) to sell iPhones and iPads loaded with applications geared to business users.

The Apple-IBM tie up, beginning this fall, is set to target the customer base that BlackBerry is attempting to woo as part of a turnaround under new Chief Executive Officer John Chen.

"It is not a crushing blow at this early stage, but ‎it is a negative for BlackBerry," said IDC analyst John Jackson. "There can be little question that it is unwelcome, if not entirely unexpected news."

BlackBerry's stock has been on a tear this year. As of Tuesday, it was up more than 50 percent as some investors have become more optimistic about the company's future.

But news of the Apple-IBM tie-up took some of the steam out of the stock on Wednesday.

Shares in BlackBerry fell 4.7 percent to $10.77 on Nasdaq and 4.3 percent to C$11.62 on the Toronto Stock Exchange after analysts said the alliance could hurt BlackBerry's turnaround plans.

IBM said late Tuesday that it planned to release more than 100 apps targeting industry-specific issues in retail, healthcare, banking, travel, transportation and telecommunications.

The companies will also offer services geared toward security and mobile device management, an area viewed as BlackBerry's strong suit and a key selling point for the company in its battle to win back market share from Apple's iPhone and a slew of devices powered by Google Inc's (GOOG) Android software.

"The partnership's software around data security and device

management pose immediate threats to mobile device management (MDM) software solutions deployed by firms such as BlackBerry and MobileIron (MOBL)," said Morningstar analyst Brian Colello in a note to clients.

"Even if Apple-IBM's security 'mousetrap' isn't as good as ones offered by BlackBerry and others, these MDM vendors will

have to overcome the extremely high hurdle of displacing IBM's mobile device software preloaded on iPhones and iPads," he said.

BlackBerry, however, down played the threat posed by the IBM-Apple alliance.

"The news that Apple is partnering with IBM to expand into the enterprise mobility market only underscores the ongoing need for secure end-to-end enterprise mobility solutions like those BlackBerry has delivered for years," said the company in a brief statement.

BlackBerry said it remained the leader in this market with the necessary software and network to secure data for enterprise clients.

[orangetea]

The BlackBerry Passport is set to be fully unveiled in September, 2014 at a launch event to be held in London. The device will feature a physical keyboard, a 4.5" 1440x1440 LCD display and a 3450mAh battery. The rumored capacitive touch keyboard will allow users to perform gestures on the actual keys — for deleting words, predictive text or scrolling the browser, for example. Inside the Passport is 3GB RAM with Adreno 330 OpenGL and quad-core Snapdragon MSM8974 processor.

http://crackberry.com/blackberry-passport

[Image: Passport_Classic_Hero.jpg?itok=x95kyuIXt]

[orangetea]

BlackBerry Ltd (BBRY) is reportedly in talks with a rival company to develop enterprise solutions to expand into the large enterprise market. The move is a follow-up to the recent alliance between tech giants, Apple Inc. (AAPL) and International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), to develop products with a corporate focus.

http://www.bidnessetc.com/

In an interview with the Financial Times today, BlackBerry CEO John Chen said: “I am working on some [partnerships], and maybe we will collaborate with others. If I focus on security and identity management then we will be a good solid partner in this enterprise world.”

BlackBerry’s security system is a strong competitor – and maybe even a leader – in the mobile software space, which it can use in a partnership to deliver superior quality products for corporations. Data security is a priority for corporations, and BlackBerry has the ability to deliver.

The Apple-IBM tie-up will focus on using Apple’s hardware technology, like the iPhone and the iPad, to cater to corporations by providing applications appropriate to their businesses. IBM is aiming to develop over 100 such applications that cater to industries ranging from healthcare to baking.

Apple and IBM’s partnership is a big threat to BlackBerry’s enterprise market share because companies would want to switch to solutions by the two tech giants. Mr. Chen acknowledges the entry of the big fish in the enterprise market but does not fear the challenge. He sees their partnership as a validation of the potential the enterprise market holds, and believes that Blackberry, bolstered by a partner, could provide better security solutions.

BlackBerry is up over 5% during trading today on the Nasdaq, after sinking that much last week on the Apple-IBM partnership.

[CityFarmer]

Secure communication is the ultimate edge of BlackBerry mobile business. The CEO is doing right, IMO...

(not vested)

BlackBerry buys German anti-eavesdropping firm
30 Jul 2014 00:28
[OTTAWA] Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry announced on Tuesday the purchase of German voice and data encryption and anti-eavesdropping firm Secusmart, whose customers include NATO and German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her government.

Financial details of the transaction, which is subject to regulatory approvals, were not disclosed.

The two companies had already partnered to offer Secusmart-equipped BlackBerry handsets to most German government ministries and to the chancellor herself following allegations last year of the United States spying on its ally.

The deal firms BlackBerry's reputation for secure mobile communications, chief executive John Chen said in a statement.
...
Source: Business Times Breaking News

[orangetea]

http://www.techinsider.net/why-apple-inc...11203.html

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) finds itself in a problem, which neither it helped in creating nor does it have a solution to. Yes, even the world’s largest company finds itself in a trouble that it can’t solve with its multi billion dollar reserves. You may ask, what exactly is the problem? Well, for starters the problem is not restricted to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), but almost every company that finds its origin in the U.S.. Ever since the news of the U.S. Government snooping on other countries became public and Edward Snowden revealed how the U.S. Government agencies are keeping a tab on everything, governments in other countries have started distancing themselves from anything related to U.S. Tech companies, preferring home grown or Canadian firms like BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) instead.

The most recent victim is Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) whose products have been banned from Chinese government purchase. As we mentioned in an article, yesterday that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s products like iPad, MacBooks and iPad Mini were missing from a procurement list finalized by the Chinese Government in July.

This news comes on the back of a recent procurement list that the Chinese Government published last week, which excluded foreign anti-virus software companies like Kaspersky Lab and Symantec Corp, which had previously sold software to Chinese agencies.

Which brings us to the topic of this article, why Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) must buy BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY). Well, first of all Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has over $160 billion in cash and near-cash reserves, according to its last quarterly reports, which is enough money to any of the largest publicly traded company on earth. BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY), with its $5 billion market cap won’t even make a dent in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s coffers, but that’s not the point of buying a company, which till a few years ago was counted as one of the main rivals.

BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) is a company, which even in its downward journey, never lost focus from its primary goal of securing conversation of its customers. Be it data, voice or messages, BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) is still the company on which you can rely on if security and privacy is your main concern. Granted that BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) has been reduced to a niche player in the smartphone universe, but that doesn’t change the fact that its devices are used by the who’s who of International politics, from U.S. President, Barack Obama, to German Chancellor, Angela Merkel.

BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) also recently acquired one of its long standing partners, Secusmart, a German company that makes chips for voice encryptions. With the Secusmart acquisition, BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) can now boast of having the most secure communication devices on the planet. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) definitely makes amazing deices when it comes to looks, devices and features, but when it comes to security and privacy, the company hasn’t made a name for itself in that department. BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY), which has been struggling with its finances and operation for ages, can do wonders with a much needed cash infusion that a large player like Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) can provide. If there ever was a time for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) to seriously think about acquiring competitors, it’s now and none of them would provide it with as much value as BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) could.

[specuvestor]

So.... I might be asking the obvious but when Apple buys Blackberry, the latter's product will not be excluded from the Chinese procurement list? Or the combined entity will be headquartered Canada?