Mobile Network Comparison

In case you can’t wait until next year’s Halloween, here’s a short video from Giffgaff to remind you of all the gore, guts and costumes. It may be pretty gross, and there’s not a carved pumpkin in sight but it certainly looks like a lot of fun.

And if you want to see the (even grosser) inspiration for the video, check this out from Antibang:

If you could take over a whole abandoned swimming centre, what you get up to?

Continuing on from our previous article, we take an insider’s look at the strategic decisions inside BlackBerry that have ultimately led to its downfall over the last few years. Last time, we wrote about how, soon after the iPhone came out, there was a lot of confusion in the company about how their hardware design should proceed and many advocated producing touchscreen smartphones. Meanwhile, others were obsessed with sticking to BlackBerry’s formula of phones with physical-ketybaords that had served them so well in the beginning.

A major decision BlackBerry made around this time was to acquire the Canadian company Quantum Software Systems in 2010. They wanted to use their Unix-like QNX operating system in the playbook and later in the BlackBerry 10 software. However, many now see this as a major mistake:

Claiming QNX is a “cutting edge” software company is ridiculous. They brought their own set of hubris, their own attitudes and (severely antiquated) practices. QNX infected BlackBerry at many levels

It has been said that the QNX developers lacked the technical know-how to do was required at BlackBerry. Ex-employees at the company even claim that because of this acquisition, the product elegant team was infested with sub-par talent and incompetent engineers.

By 2013, it was soon clear that the QNX experiment and BlackBerry 10 as a project had been a major disappointment if not an outright failure.

In the previous years, within the company, co-CEO Jim Balsillie had been arguing for significant change in direction to try and rescue BlackBerry from the ever-nearer precipice they were approaching. His master plan was to capitalise on the popularity of their proprietary messaging system, BBM. Massively popular with teenagers and people in developing countries, BBM was used by millions of users every day and was completely controlled by BlackBerry.

His plan, was to morph BlackBerry into a services provider and for them to dominate a different vertical in the mobile ecosystem. If they could persuade mobile networks to use BBM as the new de facto standard for instant messaging, BlackBerry would have a role to play on every smart phone in the world. He envisaged that eventually, BBM could potentially replace SMS text messages.

If somehow BlackBerry could get their messaging service onto all sorts of non-BlackBerry smart phones, they would have access to an enormous source of new revenue from fees charged for each message sent. It was Balsillie’s big idea.

However, it wasn’t to be. Soon rival messaging services such as Kik Messenger and WhatsApp were cornering the market. In January 2012, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie resigned as the joint CEOs of BlackBerry and Thorsten Heins took over. Not long after, Heins and Lazaridis agreed to kill Balsillie’s dream for BBM.

Now BlackBerry are releasing a version of BBM for android and iOS smart phones but the damage has probably already been done. Most industry analysts think it’s too little too late.

Just a few days ago BlackBerry published an open letter in The Times. It’s also reproduced on their website and the message is clear. BlackBerry are desperate and they need to persuade consumers that they are still a meaningful force and a viable option. They want to say loud and clear “You can continue to count on BlackBerry”.

The letter itself if worth a read. It’s a defiant call and a strong attempt to show why BlackBerry is still relevant. Only time will tell whether this is the end of BlackBerry or merely a new beginning.

What’s your take? Should BlackBerry have tried to roll-out BBM to other platforms much sooner? Were they wrong to embrace touchscreens over concentrating on devices with physical keyboards? And was using QNX as the basis for the BlackBerry 10 operating system a major mistake? Let us know below.

The rumour mill is churning away at a frenetic pace today as rumours abound that Chinese company Lenovo are to take over big-name smart phone manufacturer HTC. Industry insiders and national newspapers in both Korea and China have been reporting that talks about the sale have been ongoing for weeks now and are nearing final stages before a deal can be agreed and completed.

HTC is a Taiwanese organisation headquartered in New Taipei City and has been a familiar name in the mobile phone market for several years now. The company is a founding member of the Android-supporting Open Handset Alliance and they were the manufacturer who produced the first ever Android mobile phone back in October 2008.

However, over the last couple of years, HTC have been having a bit of a struggle. They’ve been squeezed out of the high-end smartphone market by competitors Apple and Samsung and it’s believed that their market share has crashed from a peak of around 25% a couple of years ago to less than 10% today. In the first quarter of 2013, HTC’s profit dropped by over 100% in dire news for the company’s financial state.

Because of this, it makes sense that they might be looking for buyer despite not openly courting anyone in particular. It is thought that the struggling company’s fortunes could be turned around by the cash investments that a high-profile sale would bring.

Lenovo’s headquarters are in Beijing and they have annual revenues of almost $30 billion as well as a global workforce of around 30,000 employees. Lenovo would be the perfect choice as their fortunes are on the up and up and they have significant revenues from all branches of their electronics business.

Lenovo are best-known for their ThinkPad brand of laptops but the Chinese company is not yet well-known in Europe for its mobile phones. However, in China they are a massive brand in the world of mobile phones. In fact they have been challenging Samsung as the dominant smartphone manufacturer and and have been investing huge amounts of marketing dollars with this aim in mind. Between 2011 and 2012, they have almost tripled their market share and they are easily the second largest seller of mobile phones by volume in mainland China.

Despite this, they have yet to have much attention in the European and American markets for the mobile phone business. However, we’ve had our eye on them for some time and have already reviewed two of their handsets that are still only available in the Chinese markets.

In general, Lenovo’s Android phones seem to offer incredible value for money compared to what’s available in the UK. We feel it is only a matter of time before they expand their business to our shores and we are pretty excited to see how they will shake up the British market.

Lenovo are also no strangers to acquiring struggling brands. In the past they bought the ThinkPad range of notebooks from IBM and by all accounts have done really well with it. HTC may also be a way of getting their foot in the door for an entrance to the European smartphone market.

It would be pretty big news for Lenovo to completely buy out HTC but we’re not holding our breath yet. Even if they aren’t in talks for a complete sale, it doesn’t seem unlikely that some sort of deal or partnership might be on the cards for the future.

HTC have so far denied all rumours that they might be sold, but is still early days yet and that doesn’t mean it should be ruled out at all. Any arrangement between the two companies looks from all angles to be mutually beneficial. And HTC might only be denying the rumours now to maintain a high price.

Secretly, we’ve got our money on some sort of deal being struck between the two Asian companies within the next six months. If it does happen, we are really excited to see what the new venture will bring. And when Lenovo finally do start selling their smart phones in the UK we will, of course, be the first to bring you the latest news and reviews of what will surely be very popular Android handsets.

What you make of this rumour? Is there any substance to it at all? Or do you think nothing will come of it? Do you prefer HTC or Lenovo mobile phones? And how long you think it will be before Lenovo are selling Android smartphones over here in the UK?