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BlackBerry Limited’s marketing strategy for the Z10 was ambiguous. For example, the Super Bowl ad did not convey a clear message or a value proposition. Many BlackBerry Limited insiders agreed that Mike Lazaridis was right, BlackBerry core customer base liked the product mostly for its keyboard and would not be as receptive to a touchscreen product like the BlackBerry Z10. Another possible explanation for the Z10’s poor market performance was the fact many users found the new BlackBerry 10 system developed by QNX very different than what they were used to. In short, Blackberry Limited had once again managed to alienate their user base but offering them products they did not want. Another mistake BlackBerry Limited had committed was that it failed to support its external application developers to help transition their apps to the new operating system environment. This led to a sharp decrease in an already limited supply of BlackBerry apps. Finally, many analysts agree that Z10 could have been a solid success if it was launched a few years earlier, not in 2013. They also agreed that RIM did the right thing by acquiring QNX and leveraging its competencies to design the BlackBerry 10 operating system, but that RIM was too slow in doing so. BlackBerry Limited announced in August 2013 in an official statement that they were open to being acquired. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board told BlackBerry executives that they were open to inject cash into the company if it became private. In September 2013, BlackBerry Limited announced that they were laying-off 4,500 employees. A few days later, a consortium led by Fairfax Financial Holdings, owned by former BlackBerry board member Prem Wasta, entered discussions to acquire BlackBerry for $9 per share. The acquisition deal was replaced by a $1 billion cash injection by Fairfax on the condition that BlackBerry’s CEO Thorsten Heins be replaced by Silicon Valley veteran John Chen. Mike Lazaridis also resigned from his position as vice-chairman. John Chen, an engineer by training, had served as the CEO of Sybase, a software company. He had a reputation for being “a turnaround artist”. Many were hoping that he could be BlackBerry’s savior. Highly methodological, John Chen knew exactly what was wrong with BlackBerry and had a precise vision and strategy in mind to save the company. Chen knew that the company had a culture problem, “overpromising and underdelivering” was in BlackBerry’s DNA. The new CEO’s first move was to write an open letter. He addressed the accountability and deadlines problems at the company. He announced that they will not be seeking any buyout or cash injections. BlackBerry was a divided company with two competing schools of thought. The conflict was concerning if the company should focus on the consumer market or its corporate clients John Chen was a strong believer that for BlackBerry to stay afloat, it needed to strengthen its ties with the corporate clients and shift focus from the B2C market to the B2B market. His opinion was backed by a very telling number: 80% of BlackBerry’s revenues were from corporate clients. The problem is that when Chen inherited the BlackBerry throne, the company had become so focused on defeating Android and Apple on the consumer market that it almost forgot that it had a very significant corporate client base to service. BlackBerry needed to provide its business clients with more tailored applications that would actually bring value to the companies. Chen’s vision was to transition from “a mobile technology company” to “a mobile solution company”. He knew that BlackBerry was only differentiated in the B2B market and could leverage its existing relationships with the big corporations to sell them more and more solutions. But he also believed that the consumer segment should not be completely abandoned, at least not for now. The BlackBerry CEO formulated a new sales strategy for the company’s corporate clients. A direct salesforce would focus on specific customers that would need BlackBerry’s products and services: government agencies and regulated industries like banking, insurance, and healthcare. Chen’s strategy concerning consumer smartphones was based on two steps. First, the next smartphones would run on the new operating system developed by QNX but would have more “vintage” features that die-hard BlackBerry customers did not find in the BlackBerry 10. The second step was the signing of a deal with Taiwanese giant Foxconn to outsource the design and manufacturing of the smartphones but also manage inventory, thus mitigating the financial risk. John Chen was confident. He had a short-term strategy for the consumer business and a long-term one for the corporate business. The BlackBerry Z3 was the first Blackberry produced after the Foxconn deal. Market research had shown that BlackBerry had a very strong position in the Indonesian market with a very large customer base. BlackBerry’s top management was told that any product would sell there. So it was decided to only roll-out the Z3 model only in Indonesia in May 2014. The device had the word “Jakarta” (the capital of Indonesia) engraved on the back panel. The Z3’s main problem was its price, it was simply too expensive for the Indonesian market.