RIM is pinning its hopes on the new Blackberry 10 OS phones scheduled to release later this year and development of software that will help them restore their faltering position in the market which has led to their stock plunging by 80 percent in the last two years. The company is struggling to even compete with Apple and Google’s Android in the mobile market with a string of sub-par devices.
Irrespective of its current status, experts see Blackberry as a vital part of the smartphone market, serving as the best alternative to clones of the iPhone that are flooding the market. The company is going through a struggling phase, with competition at its peak. To add to their woes, the co-CEOs quit and they are fast losing their customers. Its recent woes have also pushed the company into downgrading its inventory, leading to a loss of $125 million. The company hasn’t faced such losses since 2005. The prototype phones of Blackberry 10 given out to developers are being reviewed as mindless clones of smartphones by Apple and Samsung. The company hasn’t hit the bull’s eye with their ad campaigns either.
However, the combination of great hardware and software at the enterprise level gives RIM hope. Analysts point out that RIM has managed to solve issues of security and reliability which the other companies haven’t succeeded at. The company can boast of unique assets and a loyal consumer base (at least in some segments and areas of the world). There still exist a large number of people who consider Blackberry to be a strong brand and RIM needs to quickly devise of a way to utilize this to their advantage.
Though RIM may step in as a widely picked alternative in the smartphone market, leading companies like Apple, Google and Microsoft are working efficiently on trying to innovate, focusing entirely on their customers. RIM, on the other hand, has become redundant while trying to focus on business needs over consumer needs. While the company can be credited for providing excellent security and encryption (as all Blackberry data is sent through an internal data center), this very provision caused the entire network to come to a screeching halt for three entire days last year due to a failure in the core services, causing an outpouring of anger towards the company.
If it helps, RIM wins at providing the best physical keypads in the smartphone market. Blackberry phones have a decently good battery life too, but customers want more than just that. They are looking for touch screens and great applications, something RIM has failed at. However, the company is trying to improve their position and all may not be lost yet.
May 17, 2012 at 9:26 am
I’m confused, the title seems to suggest something that the article never even begins to discuss… If you say BB is just a clone of the iPhone and that their strategy is redundant, then where’s this so-called “thing to offer”?
I’m all for RIM, but this article doesn’t really live up to it’s title.
May 18, 2012 at 8:26 am
I think what he is trying to say is something I have been saying all along. RIM serves a market that I am part of; the business market. It is the only phone out there that will sync with MS Outlook (all of it !) without have to go to a MS Exchange or some other internet intermediary. I have a Bold and love it. I would like a larger screen, and the internet is a bit slow, but that is not what I use the phone for. It is a business tool for communication and organization. It is better than any other phone out there for that. And the battery last for days if your in a digital zone. All other phones are toys for entertainment. Blackberry is for business. That is what they need to play up. I hate the thought of having to go to a different OS and have to get MS exchange and all kinds of aps and lose the battery life. I need RIM to hang in there. Palm bailed on me. There is no other phone like it.