BlackBerry’s serious troubles began last June, when the company announced $84 million operating loss despite increased shipments and revenue. The very next quarter the company reported $965 million loss, 97% of which is due to the terrible BlackBerry Z10 sales.
BlackBerry has been looking for partners
to invest into the company since its financial troubles became clear.
The company’s board has even pushed for a quick sale before the end of
the year. At the end of September BlackBerry’s fate seemed sealed when a
deal with a consortium led by Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd for $4.7 billion was announced.
It seems the acquisition deal with Fairfax have been abandoned –
Fairfax couldn’t secure the cash because the banks didn’t believe
BlackBerry can be saved. Instead Fairfax and other investors will make a
$1 billion investment in BlackBerry and push the company into the
direction they want. How are they going to do that? With a CEO of their
choice, of course!
As part of the new deal BlackBerry’s CEO Thorsten Heins will be
stepping down and John S. Chen will take his place until the company is
back on its feet. Chen has previous experience with saving troubled
companies, which is why the investors want him explicitly. If everything
goes as planned, he will also become the Chairman of BlackBerry’s board
thus becoming the most powerful man in the company.
BlackBerry shares
dropped 18% in pre-market trading, but now that the market is open they
are down by about 10%. It seems not everyone is happy with this
investment.
So, BlackBerry is alive and there is a chance it may have a bright
future ahead after all. I guess only time will tell if the company’s new
direction will be successful or not.
LG Nexus 5
With the launch of the new LG Nexus 5, Google has once again released a top-tier smartphone at a price that is decidedly mid-range. Just like the Nexus 4 from last year, the Nexus 5′s retail price in the US is almost half of other flagship smartphones out there and will be the first Android smartphone to run on Google’s latest Android 4.4 Kit Kat. Being a Nexus 4 user myself, it’s easy to be tempted to upgrade to Google’s latest and greatest flagship.
But just how much of an upgrade would it be? And, how does it compare to other flagship Android smartphones in the market? Heck, how does it compare to other flagship smartphones running on Windows Phone 8 and iOS? I set out to find out, and the following data has been tabulated after the break.
First, the easy comparison. The Nexus 5
improves on last year’s Nexus 4 in just about every department. With
almost every Android flagship offering a Full HD screen, it’s no
surprise that the Nexus 5 would also pack a similar screen in. What’s
interesting is the addition of Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) into
the Nexus 5. Nexus devices have been notorious for its underwhelming
camera performance, and I sure hope that the new Nexus 5 would be a
significant improvement in that department.
Next, it was only fair to compare the Nexus 5 to its contemporaries: the Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One, Sony Xperia Z1, LG G2, the Motorola Moto X, and for comparison’s sake, the Nokia Lumia 1020 and the Apple iPhone 5.
In terms of specs, the LG Nexus 5 is well and truly a flagship device
compared to the other Android flagships in the market today. Naturally,
the specs speak half the story when it comes to Windows Phone 8 and iOS
7, but I figured it’d be interesting to include them in the table anyway
for easy reference.
Looking through the table, the LG Nexus 5
would be a pretty significant upgrade, and a compelling alternative if
you’re looking for a flagship Android smartphone with a pure Android
experience. Of course, the only question here is, when will it make its
way here to Malaysia and how much will it cost?
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