Is The BlackBerry Finally Dead

One of the fundamental precepts of great businesses is to narrow your market focus and expand your yield. Great companies are maniacally focused on who their customers are – and who they aren’t. Jim Collins made that clear in his seminal book Good to Great.

BlackBerry, at one time, was an absolute killer device.  Never actually  had one and so can't say I actually loved it, but knew many, many people who did and professed to love it and swear by it.   Ever since the iPhone came out, and the smart phone category exploded, BlackBerry has been struggling with finding its place. The Storm was a disaster (on all counts), and they continue to lose market share.  Does anybody even buy BlackBerry anymore??  are there any available?? Oh sorry i forgot! all the South Americans and everyone else who lives by using the free service called BBM, Thats the only reason BlackBerry still lives today, because the rest of the world needs the free BBM service.

To fight that, they keep “innovating” and coming out with new products. A recent view of their website highlights seven different models to chose from. So I ask, what is a BlackBerry?
In contrast, Apple offers one model (two if you consider the fact that they are still selling the 3GS), and no one need ask the question, “What is an iPhone?”
Watching BlackBerry’s approach reminds me of the 1991 movie, Other People’s Money. In it, Danny DeVito played the memorable character Larry the Liquidator. In trying to takeover a dying company, he said:

We’re dead alright. We’re just not broke. And you know the surest way to go broke? Keep getting an increasing share of a shrinking market. Down the tubes. Slow but sure.

Think about this for a moment. Who loves – I mean really loves – their BlackBerry?

Heavy duty email users – that’s who.  But then are they really getting a superior e-mail format??  the iPhone has made huge head roads into this field and i don't think they are doing a bad job.  I see a large migration from BlackBerry to iPhone's in the corporate world today.

Email was the entire basis of BlackBerry’s success to begin with. They invented technology and a device that solved a critical problem for people.
Now, what’s their newest device? The BlackBerry Style. Huh?! What?! If someone is buying a phone for “style;” guess what – they’re buying an iPhone.
People who buy BlackBerrys buy them for function. BlackBerry BBM or they just cannot get the hang of the touch screen and have to have a keyboard, Right!

What Should BlackBerry Do?
To ensure its future, BlackBerry needs to stop playing other people’s games. They need to focus on their core market – heavy duty email users.
Is that a smaller market than the size of their current business today? Yup. But guess what, BlackBerry isn’t as big as it thinks it is.
BlackBerry needs to answer the same question that small and mid-market companies are faced with every day:

Do I keep fighting for volume and size which will result in less profit and greater vulnerability, or do I accept the market for what it is and focus on what we do best and become relevant?

Now let me be fair and say this!  The BlackBerry has always been a great phone, really great quality, good communication device as far as making calls, superior email device, but sadly that was it and thats not all people were looking for.  I wish you the very best BlackBerry.

What's your next Smart Phone??