Blackberry, which only till a few years ago, was a symbol of corporate and political exclusivity is in tatters today. If laying off 40% of its workforce and reporting losses amounting to $ 1 billion is anything to go by, they have effectively lost the smartphone war. From holding 51% of North American smartphone market just over four years ago, to stuttering to a stop today, Blackberry makes an interesting case study of how to completely mess up your business in rapidly changing times.
Refusing to switch over the making of smartphones into pocket-sizecomputers that industry rivals, particularly Apple and Samsung pioneered was one of the management blunders. Although its e-mail services, bbm and key-pad remained its amazing brand ambassadors, yet a new growing brand of tech-savvy consumers started preferring full screen touchphones that severely undermined its business. Moreover with the plethora of chat services like Whatsapp , WeChat etc coming up, the popularity of BBM messenger took a jolt. Another big factor undermining its business has been the incompetency of its Operating System, which remained largely outdated compared to Android and iOS during the past few years when android market exploded. When Blackberry came to senses and introduced a new line of Blackberry 10 smartphones with an entirely new set of operating system, it was deemed a technological failure and failed to cause any ripple in the global handset market. This has catapulted industry experts into concluding that the days of Blackberry as a handset manufacturer is virtually finished. Moreover, with BBM being released on Android and iOS, Blackberry loses its exclusivity over this popular and secure chat service. With Blackberry agreeing to being bought by Fairfax Financial, should a more attractive deal not offered by other parties by November, it will be interesting to watch out what future awaits this brand.
