Running Head: Why did BlackBerry fail?

Assignment-1

Parikshit Agarwal

BBA Section-A

O.P Jindal Global University

Why did Blackberry fail?

BlackBerry Limited, a Canadian company manufactured and designed a brand line of

smartphones and tablets by the name BlackBerry. The company was founded in 1984 as a
business called Research in Motion (RIM) and the first device was launched by the company in
1999. In that generation, a smartphone with a physical keyboard was godlike. Blackberry
launched the ‘push e-mail’ service which allowed the users to receive the message instantly
curbing the need to constantly check for new e-mails. Stock market and corporate users were
fond of this technology. Also, the need to constantly tap at the numeric keyboard to type a single
alphabet was replaced completely. At one point in time, Blackberry dominated nearly 50% of the
market share.

The company improved its BlackBerry Enterprise Server and launched the BlackBerry
OS which led to their devices being well received by the customers. The period from 2001-2007
saw a drastically increasing curve in Blackberry’s share price. In mid-2007, BlackBerry’s share
price to an all-time high of $236 per share, their earning exploded by 84% a year. But with
Apple’s touchscreen iPhone launch in 2007, came a big blow to BlackBerry.
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Factors that contributed to their downfall can be summarized as follows:

1. BlackBerry didn’t innovate fast enough:

When Apple launched their first touchscreen phone, the iPhone, Blackberry ignored it
deeming it to be a mobile phone targeted for the younger customers with playful features.
However, they were deceiving themselves and the iPhone was a huge hit; BlackBerry’s demise
was just starting. Not just the younger customers but business leaders too were attracted by the
iPhone, yet BlackBerry managed to hold on to its reputation of a professional business e-mail
device. The company to curb its downfall launched the Storm, BlackBerry’s touchscreen device,
in 2008, but even though the initial sales were high, the device’s performance raised multiple
questions about the company’s future prospects.
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2. Poor technological advancements in the products:

Blackberry never used the latest or the powerful processors in their products. The
BlackBerry 10 OS (or BB10 OS) was incredibly inefficient in performance and had limited
capabilities. The Classic launched in 2014, couldn’t run a simple android game like Temple Run
on it. With low RAM and Geekbench score, the product was a total failure. BlackBerry adopted
a single line industry market model in which the profits from success of one product were used
in the Research and Development of the next. With their flagship devices going down, their
R&D suffered. Blackberry chose not to remove their physical keyboard. Their built quality has
been discouraging ever since their Storm model came up.
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3. BlackBerry is stuck in the Past:

Smartphones are called so because of their versatility and adaptation to the new apps and
features in the market. However, the blackberry OS in restricted their OS to app developers in a
bid for ‘privacy’ and ‘privilege’. From games to productive apps, there are multiple ventures
available for iOS and Android but with BlackBerry, only a small portion of the apps are
available. Their devices have always been low performing, still running their basic OS which had
minor updates over the years.

4. They couldn’t increase Consumer Sales:

BlackBerry’s technological advancements couldn’t keep up with the dynamic consumer needs.
BlackBerry introduced the BlackBerry Playbook Tablet which was based on their QNX
platform, formed on the basis of BlackBerry Tablet OS. High price, low features and low
performance took down the product.
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Comparing BlackBerry’s products to Apple, Samsung and HTC, their devices weren’t ‘cool’ in
the generation. In a revolutionary era of YouTube and Facebook they were a just a tool to
instantly access your e-mails, but in 2008, e-mails weren’t cool. Moreover, the devices looked
ugly as compared to iPhones (available in multiple colors).

In conclusion, Blackberry ignored the billions of customers it could have gained over the years
through R&D, adaption to changing dynamics, adopting a different industrial approach and
technological advancements, but lost in the race by focusing on the existing millions of the
customers. Their downfall is an example of negligence and a series of wrong decision making.
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References

1.Savov, V, BlackBerry's success led to its failure,

https://www.theverge.com/2016/9/30/13119924/blackberry-failure-success

2. Seth, S, Investopedia, BlackBerry: A Story of Constant Success & Failure,

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/062315/blackberry-story-constant-success-
failure.asp

3. https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/stocks/bb/historical

4. Appolonia, A, How BlackBerry went from controlling the smartphone market to a phone of
the past, https://www.businessinsider.in/retail/news/how-blackberry-went-from-controlling-the-
smartphone-market-to-a-phone-of-the-past/articleshow/72171551.cms

5. Gustin, S, The Fatal Mistake That Doomed BlackBerry,

https://business.time.com/2013/09/24/the-fatal-mistake-that-doomed-blackberry/