This Post is a Reflection on the Rise and Downfall of Blackberry based on Public Information taken from Wikipedia Article and Most Informative Youtube Videos Detailing the Story of Blackberry, their Rise & Fall, to give you all important Information in One Place. Also Included is the CNBC Story of their Current Business Pivot.
The Story of Blackberry Based on Public Facts
BlackBerry is a former brand of smartphones, tablets, and services originally developed by the Canadian company BlackBerry Limited (formerly known as Research In Motion, or RIM) in January 1999. Beginning in 2016, BlackBerry Limited licensed third-party companies to design, manufacture, and market smartphones under the BlackBerry brand. The original licensors were BB Merah Putih for the Indonesian market, Optiemus Infracom for the South Asian market, and BlackBerry Mobile (a trade name of TCL Technology) for all other markets.
Learn What happened to BlackBerry in this Video by Business Insider
Loss of BlackBerry Subscribers
BlackBerry was one of the most prominent smartphone brands in the world, specialising in secure communications and mobile productivity, and well known for the keyboards on most of its devices. At its peak in September 2013, there were 85 million BlackBerry subscribers worldwide. However, BlackBerry lost its dominant position in the market due to the success of the Android and iOS platforms; its numbers had fallen to 23 million in March 2016 and slipped even further to 11 million in May 2017 and has continued to reduce ever since then.
Research in Motion (RIM) & Inter@active Pager 900
Research in Motion (RIM), founded in Waterloo, Ontario, first developed the Inter@ctive Pager 900, announced on September 18, 1996. The Inter@ctive Pager 900 was a clamshell-type device that allowed two-way paging. After the success of the 900, the Inter@ctive Pager 800 was created for IBM, which bought US$10 million worth of them on February 4, 1998.
The next device to be released was the Inter@ctive Pager 950, on August 26, 1998. The very first device to carry the BlackBerry name was the BlackBerry 850, an email pager, released January 19, 1999. Although identical in appearance to the 950, the 850 was the first device to integrate email and the name Inter@ctive Pager was no longer used to brand the device.
Learn about The Downfall of Blackberry in this Video by Cold Fusion
The first BlackBerry Device, 850
The first BlackBerry device, the 850, was introduced in 1999 as a two-way pager in Munich, Germany. BlackBerry was a solution devised by RIM for delivering e-mail over several different wireless networks.The name BlackBerry was coined by the marketing company Lexicon Branding. The name was chosen out of about 40 potential names, because of the resemblance of the keyboard’s buttons to that of the drupelets that compose the blackberry fruit, and the instant pronunciation which reflected the speed of this push email system.The original BlackBerry devices, the RIM 850 and 857, used the DataTAC network.
Release of Convergent Smartphone Blackberry in 2002
In 2002, the more commonly known convergent smartphone BlackBerry was released, which supports push email, mobile telephone, text messaging, Internet faxing, Web browsing and other wireless information services. BlackBerry gained market share in the mobile industry by concentrating on email. BlackBerry began to offer email service on non-BlackBerry devices, such as the Palm Treo, through the proprietary BlackBerry Connect software. The original BlackBerry device had a monochrome display while newer models installed colour displays.
Learn about The Decline of Blackberry in this Video By Company Man
The Fall of Blackberry
On August 12, 2013, BlackBerry announced the intention to sell the company due to their increasingly unfavourable financial position and competition in the mobile industry. Largely due to lower than expected sales on the Z10, BlackBerry announced on September 20, 2013, that 4,500 full- and part-time positions (an estimated 40% of its operating staff) had been terminated and its product line had been reduced from six to four models.
On November 13, 2013, Chen released an open message: “We are committed to reclaiming our success.” In early July 2014, the TechCrunch online publication published an article titled “BlackBerry Is One Of The Hottest Stocks Of 2014, Seriously”, following a 50 percent rise in the company’s stock, an increase that was greater than peer companies such as Apple and Google; however, an analysis of BlackBerry’s financial results showed that neither revenue or profit margin were improved, but, instead, costs were markedly reduced.
As of 2019, BB Merah Putih’s website has been repurposed, with BlackBerry Limited stating that only technical support will be offered for the Indonesian devices built by the company.Additionally, the operational status of Optiemus is unknown as of September 2020, as there have not been any updates posted regarding BlackBerry products in India since 2018.
Learn about BlackBerry’s Business Pivot in this CNBC Story
For years, BlackBerry was the most popular smartphone brand in the U.S. After failing to adjust to the rapidly-changing industry and falling to competitors like Apple and Google, the company pivoted to an entirely new direction. Now, it’s focused solely on software and cybersecurity — trying to leave the iconic cellphones in the past. CNBC visited BlackBerry’s Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Center and interviewed CEO John Chen to see what the company is up to now.
CNBC
