back to article BlackBerry in talks to spin off Messenger division

Struggling smartphone maker BlackBerry is seriously considering spinning off its BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service into its own, subsidiary company, according to reports. The Wall Street Journal claims the new company would be called BBM Inc., and would operate with greater autonomy than the BBM division does now, citing the …

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  1. Don Jefe

    I'm afraid the only thing that will save Blackberry is if the Canadian government lets them use their time machine to go back to 2009 and get a second chance at those 'new fangled touch screens and cameras >1.5MP'. Alas, I don't expect the government to authorize the machines use for something like this.

  2. John Sanders

    Presumably no ideas are off the table...

    Except the very one that can get them some market share: MAKE A BLACKBERRY HANDSET WHICH RUNS ANDROID.

    Like Nokia, they do not get it.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Presumably no ideas are off the table...

      What's the market for an Android phone made by RIM? Why are people going to buy it over a Samsung? Because it includes BBM? That might have been a sales draw in 2009 or 2010, but not today.

      No one really makes any money selling phones aside from Samsung and Apple. RIM's management was far too late to realize the smartphone market fundamentally changed six years ago, and is too late to realize that BBM no longer has any value in 2013.

      1. John Sanders
        Linux

        Re: Presumably no ideas are off the table...

        ""No one really makes any money selling phones aside from Samsung and Apple""

        Yes keep repeating that. Because just by repetition it may become true...

        If RIM had a Blackberry form factor phone running a customized version of the blackberry Apps we all like and love I would have bought two, one for me and another for my wife.

        The problem with Blackberries no matter how you look at it is that THEY DO NOT HAVE SOFTWARE.

        Aunty May wants to play the same online game Uncle Hans is playing!!!

        RIM (and any vendor for that matter) could have implemented all of that cheaper and with less effort using Android.

  3. mhollis

    Headline should have read:

    "Blackberry to spin off only profitable segment. Death of Blackberry nigh."

    Seriously, it's a shame. Blackberry INVENTED the Smartphone (well, Palm was in there somewhere, but it's gone now...). I really want to root for them, but they're now clueless about what makes a profit now. Of course that's bad for all smartphone users. With Blackberry, Apple and Google will have to innovate more.

    1. Don Jefe

      Re: Headline should have read:

      Blackberry also created, possibly, the first corporate tech accessory that non-business people wanted. Even younger kids understood (thought?) that a Blackberry meant business and having a Blackberry meant you were a take care of business type of person.

      That transition into the mainstream also hurt RIM. Business people lost their status symbol the minute kids started getting Blackberrys as their first phone. RIM even played into this by offering colored cases and cutesy colored light up trackballs. Business types couldn't be using the same tech as their kids and Apple's high priced, well packaged image was extremely attractive.

      Catering to the mass market is extremely risky for all but the biggest and most robust companies. Woolworth, Montgomery Ward, Tesco, Sears, Target and Wal-Mart have continuously put their own suppliers out of business since the beginning of 'low, low prices'. Best to not even get into those markets unless you've got a massively diversified business (like a Samsung). If you're riding a single trick pony those markets will carve your pony into little pieces and sell it to IKEA in a heartbeat.

      1. John Sanders
        Linux

        Re: Headline should have read:

        WRONG!

        The problem is not catering to the mass market, the problem is that Blackberry OS 6/7/8?/9? were much more inferior in capabilities to the competition.

        Installing third party applications on a blackberry is an utterly painful exercise, involving having to reset your phone multiple times! And rebooting a blackberry takes like... forever.

        And do not get me started on the quality and quantity of the available 3rd party apps.

        IT IS THE 3RD PARTY APPS STUPID!!! Those are of tremendous value now to the smart-phone users!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Headline should have read:

      Indeed - it sounds like a classic death spiral picking up speed.

  4. PTZ

    BlackBerry future

    Perhaps Bain Capital with the help of Mitchell Romney can work some magic for BlackBerry. He knows how to revive a struggling business- Waterloo will look like Detroit in no time at all.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The world is filled with Sheep

    Personally I don't understand what is so very wrong with a device that has a keyboard and trackpad. Not everyone wants to use an on-screen keyboard that is far too small for their fingers to operate. Ok they will not being the leaders in "cool innovation" (which arguably they were when the original Blackberry came out), but as a survival strategy, surely it is worth looking at?

    1. James 51

      Re: The world is filled with Sheep

      One advantage of a virtual keyboard is multiple language support. Other than that, I agree.

    2. Tom 13

      Re: The world is filled with Sheep

      If the keypad and trackball worked, yeah. Frankly although I frequently find some of the onscreen keyboard layout choices odd, I find them more useable than the BB keypad ever was. Although even with more real estate available, sometimes the precision of the grid on the touchscreen leaves something to be desired and I find the phone detecting for the wrong keys.

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