Samsung buying BlackBerry rumours?
10 years ago this might have made sense. Today? It just doesn't seem likely. While I'm sure BlackBerry has some patents of worth, even the big analysts a couple years ago concede that they likely weren't as big or powerful as those wielded by their competitors. That makes a lot of sense. While BlackBerry devices may have marked the start of the smartphone revolution, much of what makes up a modern smartphone has nothing to do with things BB paved the way with.
They were last ones to adopt touch screens and an App Store. They were the last to support WiFi. They were the last to support many, many technologies that went on to become the hallmarks of a smartphone.
And, many of things that made BlackBerry's popular were not things which they innovated. Keyboards on phones, email on phones, etc... But, when BlackBerry first came on the scenes their hardware did indeed do things others not only didn't do but also didn't have the power to do. So, undoubtedly there are some low level patents in there worth something. But, that being said, I simply don't see it being enough.
The kinds of company that would desire to buy BlackBerry can't afford them and the ones that can afford them likely don't see the value. The company is on life support after years of either making the wrong decisions (Playbook and Passport) or making the right decisions too late for them to matter (I'm looking at you cross platform BBM).
BlackBerry's two options at the moment are really just sink or swim. No one is going to bail them out.
Frankly, I think BlackBerry *could* still turn things around. It just requires them to reject the notion that their OS will ever be desirable again. With Windows Phone being free for them to license and Android being the same... I think what they need to do is see about building phones on those platforms, using their iconic hardware and integrating with their security and server features. On Windows Phone that would mean some special dispensation from MS no doubt, but on Android they could, if they wanted to, bake it straight into a custom Android OS. After the Sony hacks where dedicated BlackBerry servers saved the day it would make a solid argument to have much more pervasive devices running and able to leverage those same servers.
They were last ones to adopt touch screens and an App Store. They were the last to support WiFi. They were the last to support many, many technologies that went on to become the hallmarks of a smartphone.
And, many of things that made BlackBerry's popular were not things which they innovated. Keyboards on phones, email on phones, etc... But, when BlackBerry first came on the scenes their hardware did indeed do things others not only didn't do but also didn't have the power to do. So, undoubtedly there are some low level patents in there worth something. But, that being said, I simply don't see it being enough.
The kinds of company that would desire to buy BlackBerry can't afford them and the ones that can afford them likely don't see the value. The company is on life support after years of either making the wrong decisions (Playbook and Passport) or making the right decisions too late for them to matter (I'm looking at you cross platform BBM).
BlackBerry's two options at the moment are really just sink or swim. No one is going to bail them out.
Frankly, I think BlackBerry *could* still turn things around. It just requires them to reject the notion that their OS will ever be desirable again. With Windows Phone being free for them to license and Android being the same... I think what they need to do is see about building phones on those platforms, using their iconic hardware and integrating with their security and server features. On Windows Phone that would mean some special dispensation from MS no doubt, but on Android they could, if they wanted to, bake it straight into a custom Android OS. After the Sony hacks where dedicated BlackBerry servers saved the day it would make a solid argument to have much more pervasive devices running and able to leverage those same servers.
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