The Blackberry was once the most popular smartphone in the market but the mere mention of its name sends shudders around the room. What went wrong with one of the most successful devices and who is to blame for such a mishap? Research In Motion is taking its own time to introspect and avoid lawsuits at the same time but it appears not to have learnt from some of its gravest errors. Analysts believe that there were five key areas that RIM messed up in which led to the decline of the Blackberry. The company’s stock value has taken a nosedive and Blackberry numbers are down to 8.1% of the market now. RIM is taking drastic measures to steady itself, such as laying off employees and closing retail stores. The final nail in the coffin is that Blackberry 10 devices are going to be further delayed according to the company and in all probability the company will be broken up or sold all out in no more than two years.
One of the main reasons why the Blackberry device failed was because of trouble between the top management personnel and their clash of views. While one CEO believed the device is to be sold on a large scale and pushed forward the creation of specific services such as BBM Music which failed to take off miserably, another was intent on focusing on corporations. In reality, the Blackberry was a very good business device but when it tried to compete with others, it failed. Moreover, RIM remained based in Canada, which rendered deals with the company impossible from across the border where several high profile executives of large companies considered buying a stake in it as an entry into the mobile phone market.
RIM made two huge mistakes; not managing its products and people efficiently. When a company of its size develops a product that doesn’t sell, it is immediately discontinued but RIM increased inputs into the Blackberry Playbook and had to pay a toll of nearly $500mln due to unsold devices. The other mistake was hiring Thorsten Heins as CEO who made the grave mistake of making public statements claiming that there was nothing wrong with RIM. In all likelihood, this just cost the company some lawsuits from investors. The biggest mistake however would be that RIM ignored the application developers to a large extent who are now reluctant to spend time for a device that might not even be released. If nothing, a good app storehouse would have helped it.
July 24, 2012 at 6:57 am
I own a blackberry actually I own a RIM 9300 and an iphone. Although it is clear that iphone is superior for many practical reasons the blackberry is so easy to use keyboard is just great I can record almost 6h of conference i can add a mini card up to 16GB my BB is my mp3 the sound kills calling texting which I do a lot are a breeze its so compact and light for those reasons and more I ll keep my BB many more years coming.