Report by Amrita Pasari

THE RISE AND FALL OF

BLACKBERRY

Blackberry Ltd.
BlackBerry Limited (rebranded from Research In Motion), is a mobile phone
manufacturer. Mike Lazaridis and Doug Fregin founded the company in Waterloo,
Ontario, in 1984 and produced their first gadget, an email-capable pager, in 1999.
BlackBerrys swiftly became highly desirable gadgets of technology after the launch of
its first smartphone in 2002, initially amongst corporate individuals and then among
the general population. In the early 2010s, however, they struggled to stay up with the
very competitive smartphone business. Blackberry made an announcement in the year
2016, that it would be outsourcing all hardware manufacture to third parties, focusing
primarily on software design.
The RIM Inter@ctive Pager 900, released in 1996, was the forerunner to the BlackBerry
smartphone. The two-way pager included a QWERTY keypad and could send and
receive faxes and emails. The new device was named interestingly. Marketing
executives thought the keyboard looked like strawberry seeds, so they looked up fruit
and vegetable names. They chose BlackBerry because it suited the device's black
shell.
In 1997, RIM went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange, raising above C$105 million
from the first IPO. In January 1999, just two years after going public, RIM launched its
latest BlackBerry email service in North America, resulting in an 80 per cent rise in

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sales to US$85 million. The revenue the following year was $221 million. The
company's almost overnight success extended when it surfaced on the NASDAQ in
1999, raising a further $250 million.

Release of the First Blackberry Smartphone

BlackBerry's spectacular climb in the technology sector began soon after its launch.
This was primarily due to co-CEO Jim Balsillie's zealous travelling roadshow activities,
which included giving away the device for free at industry conferences and marketing
it to the investment bankers of Wall Street.

The terrorist organisation Al-Qaeda launched an attack on the United States on

September 11, 2001, which confirmed RIM's reputation as a reliable
telecommunications provider. Its network remained operational when all the other
wireless networks failed.

The BlackBerry 5810, RIM's first smartphone capable of making phone calls, was
launched in 2002. RIM had more than a million subscribers within two years of
launching its smartphone service and had grown to 9 million by 2007.

The Zenith of Blackberry

BlackBerry introduced a flurry of phones starting in 2000, each improving on the
previous one by bringing new functionality, enhanced specifications, and superior
technology. The company's presence surged, fuelled primarily by enterprises aiming
to increase employee productivity. By the end of the mid-2000s, BlackBerry was not
only the world's largest phone brand but also one of the fastest-growing businesses.

BlackBerry was voted the world's fastest-growing company in 2009. Apple Inc. was
ranked 39th, while Google was positioned 68th within the same period.

The differentiating factor about BlackBerry phones back then was that they all had the
same software and functionalities. They all had BBM, the handset's most notable
feature among youngsters, and they all used the same email and messaging
programmes. This was the feature that distinguished BlackBerry phones from other
phones.

This was something which one would not find anywhere else. A BlackBerry was
required to communicate with one's pals via BBM. A BlackBerry was needed if
one couldn't afford an iPhone yet wanted web access and emailing. From 2000 to
2009, if one was fortunate enough to have a workplace that provided a free phone, it
was almost certainly a BlackBerry.

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Given the foregoing, it is of little surprise that BlackBerry became the leading mobile
phone brand in the first turn of the twenty-first century. It appealed to both commercial
and consumer audiences, was adored by leaders and youths alike, and, unlike the
iPhone, was not unreasonably expensive to obtain - even for students.

Navigating through the stumbling block of Fierce Competition

BlackBerry's first touchscreen handset, the BlackBerry Storm, was released to
confront the emergence of Android and iPhone. It was critically criticised, and sales
were shaky at best. The handset's touchscreen had severe difficulties complicating
things further, resulting in Verizon needing to replace over one million phones,
resulting in a $500 million loss.

The BlackBerry Storm 2 was released as a follow-up. However, it disappointed critics

and users. And with that, BlackBerry's Storm smartphone range came to an abrupt
end. But BlackBerry's advent into touchscreen phones was far from over. BlackBerry
released phones driven by its BBX technology from 2012-to 2014, albeit its main quest
back to devices with QWERTY keyboards, while some of its launches also included
touchscreens.

Apple's brand and the concept of the touchscreen handset were becoming the key
driver in the mobile arena at this point. Samsung, LG, HTC and Sony were among the
consumer electronics companies that took advantage of Google's Android platform
to provide diverse options to Apple's iPhone and RIM's BlackBerry phones. RIM may
have reached a tipping point.

The Final Knock for Blackberry

The tide began to turn, favouring Apple and Google's approach to phone design. There
was surging demand for touchscreen phones, and people were ready to pay a
premium to acquire the same. Apple was catering to this demand in the premium
segment and Android in the economy segment

BlackBerry was no longer a popular option. The brand had grown stale. BlackBerry
phones were seen as antiquated relics from an era bygone. In 2012, BlackBerry
continued to be the undisputed leader in the smartphone market. The definition of a
phone had changed, and BlackBerry, despite its role in developing the contemporary
smartphone, no longer looked to have a place in the mainstream market.

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RIM's decision to rebrand itself under a

more recognised brand name implied that
the business was seeking a new beginning.
RIM also unveiled its long-awaited
BlackBerry 10 and the Z10 and Q10 devices
simultaneously with the rebranding. Even
though the new operating system and the
Z10 touchscreen handset were rated as
significant upgrades over previous
products, BlackBerry nevertheless faced
competition from Apple and Google.
Android had 52.5 per cent of the mobile
market at the time, while Apple had 34.3 per
cent.

Blackberry 10 | CrackBerry

BlackBerry failed to recoup its market share even with the name and devices. Heins
was replaced as CEO by Silicon Valley veteran John Chen in November 2013, after less
than two years in the position.

Knowing about Apple and Google's ambitions, Blackberry could have utilised its vast
means to build its customer-centric environment, complete with third-party games
and apps. There could have been a different story for Blackberry to tell, had it done
this instead of disregarding the growing danger of robust application stores and
touchscreen phones. Unfortunately, having failed to do this, BlackBerry was compelled
to incorporate Android before it entirely vanished into irrelevance, in what could be the
final affront.

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