When introduced in 2003, the BlackBerry smartphone was an immediate hit. In recent years, however, the Blackberry brand has flagged, as its products have failed to capture the attention of consumers. Research in Motion (RIM), the maker of BlackBerry, has lost innovative initiative in recent years and seems to have fallen behind its fellow telecommunications competition. RIM is losing market share among business people, the gold standard of its success over the years. According to a Good Technology Report, 94% of Fortune 500 companies are either using or testing out iPhones for their operations, abandoning the previously held business staple that the BlackBerry once was.
The iPhone's introduction in 2007 marked one of the largest shifts in the history of the phone industry, according to many technology experts. Consumers seem to prefer the iPhone's use of multi-touch technology and the large app ecosystem. RIM has failed to catch up with the land-breaking iPhone technology, and their sales have taken a hit as a result. Their overall market share dropped to just 13.4% in Q1 of 2012, according to comScore Inc.’s report.
Blackberry's failure is due in part to RIM's difficult CEO situation. Up until recently, RIM has had co-CEOs: Jim Balsillie and founder Mike Lazaridis. Significant disagreements allegedly broke out between the co-CEOs about how to lead the company, contributing to Blackberry's now infamous decline in both market share and technological prowess. One writer, Jesse Hicks, perhaps puts it best, saying that the company is all research but no motion.
RIM claims to be working on great advancements, but time and again the company has missed opportunities to come back and make a difference in the consumer market. The CEO trouble also continued when RIM hired Thorsten Heins in 2011. Although the board of directors took away shareholders' concerns over the leadership of co-CEOs, hiring Heins was probably not the answer. Shortly after coming to the company, Heins stated in an interview that he believes that RIM is doing great and that all he needs to do is keep the company focused on the way they've been doing things. This status quo approach has not righted the ship.
RIM product lines are also confusing, titling their phones with a bunch of numbers and offering multiple models that are essentially the same. Such a large selection is confusing for mainstream consumers, who have opted for the simple Apple approach—one phone—which has worked out quite well. Blackberry is confused about who their target audience is.
They have a mixed approach and aren't sure if they want to cater to basic consumers or business workers, and their phones reveal this lack of target market clarity. The basics of email, BlackBerry Messenger, and a comfortable keyboard are no longer sufficient for a tech-savvy consumer base. Users want a large app selection, like iOS's 650,000 available apps on the App Store. The tiny BlackBerry App World of nearly 10,000 apps pales in comparison.
It would be easy to say that the Blackberry is dead—but perhaps a turnaround is near. RIM has recently revealed some fresh features. At this year's BlackBerry World developer conference, RIM introduced BlackBerry 10, the new operating system for their devices, which brings intelligent typing prediction, a more polished user interface, and some well-received camera features. Perhaps RIM can make Blackberry a market leader once again?
Author Bio : This article was written by Karl Stockton for the team at First to know.
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