Blackberry: The most successful-unsuccessful company
Script:
Summary:
In many ways, BlackBerry was the producer of the world’s first widely-adopted premium smartphone brand. At its peak, Blackberry owned over 50% of the US and 20% of the global smartphone market, sold over 50 million devices a year. Today, BlackBerry has 0% share of the smartphone market and has a stock price that has hovered in the high single digits for most of the past few years. How did BlackBerry fall from such soaring heights?
Blackberry is history's most successful-unsuccessful company!
Trying to make sense of what I just said?
Here is what happened.
Blackberry created its first phone with a very specific goal in mind - to capture the interest of business professionals.
It introduced push emails and came with the internet which made it super convenient to replace traditional phones and even laptops for some use cases.
And in no time, Blackberry was a viral tren.
But, the dawn followed soon.
In 2007, Apple launched its first iPhone with features such as a touch screen, web browser, and emailing options.
This however, didn’t bother the management at Blackberry as they had three supportive arguments-
First, telecoms wouldn’t be able to provide such high-speed internet for Apple to function optimally.
Second, people celebrated Blackberry’s qwerty keypad, and the switch to a touch screen isn’t going to be that easy.
Finally, third, iPhone wasn’t specifically catering to the corporate world.
Wrong on all three accounts.
Android phones also caught up, with the additional attraction of being budget-friendly.
And suddenly, Blackberry wasn’t relevant anymore.
You’d assume this is a tragic story, but it’s not!
It had no debt and nested over 5 billion dollars in cash when things started to go down.
Thus, making it successful even when it was terribly unsuccessful.
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In many ways, BlackBerry was the producer of the world’s first widely-adopted premium smartphone brand. At its peak, Blackberry owned over 50% of the US and 20% of the global smartphone market, sold over 50 million devices a year. Today, BlackBerry has 0% share of the smartphone market and has a stock price that has hovered in the high single digits for most of the past few years. How did BlackBerry fall from such soaring heights?
Premise:
In 2000, the company introduced its first mobile phone product in the BlackBerry 957, which came with functionality for push email and internet. Over the ensuing decade, the BlackBerry became the device of choice in corporate America due to its enterprise-level security and business functionality. Even after the competitive entry of the iPhone in 2007 and Google’s Android OS in 2008, BlackBerry was certainly not destined for failure. In fact, BlackBerry continued to dominate the smartphone market through 2010, when it still held over 40% of domestic and nearly 20% of global market share.
In 2000, the company introduced its first mobile phone product in the BlackBerry 957, which came with functionality for push email and internet. Over the ensuing decade, the BlackBerry became the device of choice in corporate America due to its enterprise-level security and business functionality. Even after the competitive entry of the iPhone in 2007 and Google’s Android OS in 2008, BlackBerry was certainly not destined for failure. In fact, BlackBerry continued to dominate the smartphone market through 2010, when it still held over 40% of domestic and nearly 20% of global market share.
Reasons For Unprecedented Growth
In 2002, BlackBerry manufactured another two devices which were RIM 850 and 857. At that time, some services like emails, internet faxing, etc. could only be used if you owned a desktop. However, the launch of these devices made it possible for the users to use them on mobile.
In 2002, BlackBerry manufactured another two devices which were RIM 850 and 857. At that time, some services like emails, internet faxing, etc. could only be used if you owned a desktop. However, the launch of these devices made it possible for the users to use them on mobile.
BlackBerry was the first Company to introduce push email service on their phones.
The Company was at its peak in the year 2013 when there were about 85 million BlackBerry users across the Globe. Even though some might argue, Blackberry was the first to dive into the smartphone market and had access to almost 50% of the US smartphone market.
Ultimately, however, it was a combination of slow market reactions, focusing on the wrong end market, misunderstanding the smartphone’s value proposition, and poor execution that sealed BlackBerry’s fate.
Slow market reaction to competition. BlackBerry’s leadership initially dismissed Apple’s touchscreen iPhone, insisting that users preferred their physical keyboard. When the iPhone sold well, BlackBerry hastily released a touchscreen device (BlackBerry Storm), which often didn’t work properly and was met with horrendous reviews. Subsequent devices reintroduced the keyboard in a combo touchscreen-keyboard setup (e.g., BlackBerry Bold), which momentarily stemmed the tide, but would eventually prove misguided as the market continued moving toward larger screen real-estate.
Poor execution. Even when it did try to adapt, BlackBerry couldn’t execute properly. The launch of the touchscreen Storm in 2008 was a colossal failure. The 2010 release of the Playbook tablet was largely derided for a lack of native email, calendar, and contacts applications. Even its more recent incarnations, like the BlackBerry Priv in 2015, suffered from ineffective product launches, poor functionality, and incoherent value propositions.
Additional sources referred:
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/062315/blackberry-story-constant-success-failure.asp
https://www.makeuseof.com/the-reasons-blackberry-failed-spectacularlyand-why-they-might-rise-again/
https://www.toptal.com/finance/management-consultants/what-happened-to-blackberry
https://www.businessinsider.in/retail/news/how-blackberry-went-from-controlling-the-smartphone-market-to-a-phone-of-the-past/articleshow/72171551.cms
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/062315/blackberry-story-constant-success-failure.asp
https://www.makeuseof.com/the-reasons-blackberry-failed-spectacularlyand-why-they-might-rise-again/
https://www.toptal.com/finance/management-consultants/what-happened-to-blackberry
https://www.businessinsider.in/retail/news/how-blackberry-went-from-controlling-the-smartphone-market-to-a-phone-of-the-past/articleshow/72171551.cms
