back to article BlackBerry: We ARE cutting jobs AGAIN

Blackberry is to axe workers across its loss-making hardware division to lighten overheads, the ailing Canadian smartphone maker has confirmed. The company temporarily broke into the black during Q4 of fiscal ’15 ended February, but this short run of fortune couldn’t mask the wider malaise and yet another year of losses. CEO …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sadly...

    I wanted BlackBerry to succeed. A counterweight to an industry dominated by the US and South Korea was needed.

    But I think they need to give up on devices. In the medium price band, Lollipop is an acceptable operating system, so is Windows. BlackBerry doesn't have anything nearly as expensive as an iPhone, other than the ridiculous Porsche models, but its products are now significantly more expensive than Android counterparts and the advantages, for most of us, are small.

    I want a Hub for Android. It really is that simple.

    1. Christian Berger

      Re: Sadly...

      Well unfortunately for me as a citizen I do not care much which nation-state/corporation is behind the device, what I'd want is a counterweight to all of this.

      I'd like to have a simple smartphone without all the crap the industry wants to add. I don't want an app-store, I wand a distribution. I don't want some complex OOP-based software engineered system just to store a phone book. What I want is a system that's as simple and modular as possible. Essentially just the Unix-Idea brought to a mobile device.

      Unfortunately none of the players in the field give that to me.

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

        1. Mage Silver badge
          Coffee/keyboard

          Re: Sadly...@cb

          yes, nokia tried ... sometime up to about 2002, then they strangled Crystal, S80, etc and messed up their tablet development,. messed with internal politics, intel's mess of megoo, buying Trolltech rather than ordering a custom QT from them.

          QNX was the wrong choice too, though a lovely OS for controllers and embedded.

        2. Graham Dawson Silver badge

          Re: Sadly...@cb

          Pfft, they "tried". If they'd actually stuck with one platform instead of fundamentally changing it with every iteration and if they'd actually marketed it properly, and maybe if they'd not let the Symbian team murder it in the cradle... they tried with the N900 and N9 the same way Microsoft tried with Xenix.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Sadly...@cb

            The problem is that we can all see what went wrong with our 6/6 hindsight, but until recently Nokia was the only company to make a Linux phone with something like a common Linux Ui. Arguing that they did it wrong is like arguing that nobody has tried Christianity or Communism - if Nokia had succeeded with the N9 everybody would have relegated tales of Nokia infighting to the place of Ballmer chair stories and the Jobs RDF. But for whatever reason it tanked, and BB OS 10 hasn't made money for BB.

            Will Ubuntu do better? My crystal ball currently only shows a big flaming eye, but I have a feeling that to succeed in the business you need influence in Washington more than technical merit. Perhaps in 15 years that will be influence in Beijing, but not yet.

            1. Christian Berger

              Re: Sadly...@cb

              "Will Ubuntu do better?"

              From what I've seen, no. They kinda took out all the good parts of Ubuntu (mainly Debian) and replaced them with all the things you don't want to have in a mobile device. (like App stores and useless info-crap)

  2. Mage Silver badge

    reiterated that it sees a future

    maybe ... but they haven't much time left to grab it.

  3. erikscott

    Isn't QNX and Noise Canceling the remaining market

    I was under the impression that handsets were sort of a hobby business over there these days. Has QNX and their Noise Cancellation business overtaken handsets and/or BES yet?

  4. ReggieReader

    Blackberry's own Windows 8

    I expected to see this given Blackberry’s inadequate recent products. I’ve had a company Blackberry for more than 10 years. The older models were great with a slick and intuitive user interface. When Blackberry withdrew support for their older BES I had to get a new model based on the Blackberry 10. Horrible thing. The slick user interface has gone out the window, replaced by an inconsistent and messy mix of every gesture, press-and-hold, swipe and touch under the sun. On top of this many of the shortcuts which made the older Blackberry such a pleasure to use have gone. Blackberry have produced their “Windows 8” product and seemingly deliberately alienated their loyal past users. It needs to be fixed but they will probably run out of money and customers first.

    1. Christian Berger

      Re: Blackberry's own Windows 8

      Blackberry never quite knew what they had. If they had only offered a "terminal" mode using an open protocol so you could use the hardware with your own software running on a "terminal server", they might have had a stable market niche. Trying out out-iPhone the iPhone doesn't work unless you are Apple. Even the "I want an iPhone, but I don't want Apple"-market has been filled by thousands of Android devices.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    BlackBerry is now, hiring hundreds; and laying off, others.

    Blackberry bought many enterprises.

    BB keep moving like a athlete... and needs to stay sharp.

    BB needs to get rid of some fat ...

    & BB needs to buy better Fitness equipment !

    So, BB, can stay in competitive good shape.

    1. Z30

      4 quarters in row with benefit Great Job BlackBerry

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