research and analysis by SERAPHIM BLENTZAS dalhousie university checkout my article published on SEEKINGALPHA
SecuSuite encryption card tailor made for BlackBerry Z10, locks down corporate data. Makes BlackBerry Z10 the first smartphone to meet government specifications for classified security use.
March 5, 2013: German government buys 5000 Z10 smartphones citing the device's security features as a key reason for the purchase. Z10 has recently been approved by NATO for storing and sending sensitive data.
2020 update : international market share for smartphones
November 14, 2011 BlackBerry 7 phones awarded common criteria EAL4+ Certification meaning that the combination of security mechanisms and product design meets the highest level of accreditation. This applies directly to the BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900, BlackBerry® Torch™ 9810, BlackBerry® Torch™ 9860 and BlackBerry® Curve™ 9360.
September 2013: BlackBerry market share down to 3%. The company has unofficially been put up for sale. Analysts estimate takeover price at $15 a share. Possible bidders include the Canada Pension Plan (already a shareholder), largest shareholder Fairfax Financial (Prem Watsa), Bain Capital. Lenovo has shown interest but Canadian law may block any takeover by a foreign entity.
BlackBerry's future remains bright !! all of its problems in that problematic second quarter of 2013 came from lackluster sales of its most expensive phone the z10 - even Samsung saw sales of the Galaxy G4, its newest model plunge . I'm happy that Fairfax stepped in and is giving BlackBerry another chance to remain intact and Canadian. Samsung's G4 phone sales plummeted also due to price, their sales grew on account of the cheap phones they sold. BlackBerry now has the z30 and q5, the phones will sell.
BlackBerry Patents - the company owns 7500 patents 2500 of which relate to security. The secure messaging and digital transactions patents alone could form the cornerstone of another secure enterprise tech company. The patents ($1.5-$2.5b, includes $1b worth of patents previously acquired from Nortel Networks) + BES + consumer handset division gives it a valuation much higher than $4-5b.
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BUT U.S. share is down from over 40% to 16% in just 21 months (US revenue down 44% in the nine month period). Obviously the U.S. is not the trendsetter, something the market has yet to realize.
November 14, 2011 BlackBerry 7 phones awarded common criteria EAL4+ Certification meaning that the combination of security mechanisms and product design meets the highest level of accreditation. This applies directly to the BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900, BlackBerry® Torch™ 9810, BlackBerry® Torch™ 9860 and BlackBerry® Curve™ 9360.
Did you know? Toronto investment firm Fairfax paid more than $400 million for 14.1M RIM shares between January 25 and 26 2012 doubling its interest in the company from 11.8M shares in September to 26.85M shares.
The competition Google can't address troubleshooting issues as effectively or efficiently as say rim can because Google doesn't design the mobile devices. As a result carriers are losing as much as $2B a year from phone returns/replacements; In fact during the 4Q2011 Sprint, the #3 US carrier, reported a $1.3B loss despite selling 1.8 million iPhones and adding 1.3 million more net subscrib ers. There's also the issue of patents (dangerous to a company like Apple which has a slipping market share in Germany and France). Any patent infringement charged to Android affects all of the device manufacturers that use it including market share leaders like Samsung, HTC and LG. For carriers like Verizon and Sprint, carrying the iPhone has been bittersweet; Since Verizon added the iPhone to its repertoire in late 2010 it has seen its ebitda margin decline to 42.2% from 46.4%.
Features unique to BlackBerry Alert settings. Unlike the iPhone, BlackBerries have profile modes with settings for vibrate, ring, volume and ringtone.
During 2011 BlackBerry has lost share in some of the regions it relies on for strength such as in the case with Latin America (40%-->26% 3q2011) however the brand remains strong considering it has weathered the storm of new device makers entering the markets (Samsung, HTC, LG).
more on BlackBerry at Research in Motion & Undervalued Blackberry Far From 'Game Over'
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