Long time ago when phones were evolved, there was a great company named Research in Motion (later known as Blackberry) arrived in the consumer market. It was equipped with its tiny mouse on the phone and soon it became a favorite of enterprise users due to its email messaging, web browsing and proprietary Blackberry messenger. It was not only considered expensive but a status symbol for all its users. There was pride in user's eye when they held their phone out and say without saying "Hey! Look I got a Blackberry" and others used to get the picture of this guy as some hotshot in the company.
Then there comes the time of Smartphone and touch screen technology brought by Apple. In 2007, Apple announced its revolutionary iPhone and it was an immediate hit. Imagination turned into reality through this new technology. Consumers don’t need to use physical keypads on the phone anymore. U.S. consumer accepted and loved it with great pride, even though it was a costly affair. Soon after web search giant Google, came up with new operating system, Android and first version of android touch phone in 2008. Though it was not as great as iphone but being an open source operating system it created a new ecosystem and allowed the mobile manufacturing companies to build the touch screen phones like iphone.
Now, after 6 years of Apple and Google innovation we see several great phones with specs of a computer in tiny handheld mobile device. Market is flooded with smart phones and because of apple innovation and Google initiatives, now more than 1.1 billion people are carrying the world around in their Smartphone. But what happened to Research in motion (RIM), why was it left behind in its own game? How did Apple’s iPhone really become Blackberry killer?
In my opinion, it was not the Apple iphone but Blackberry itself which dropped the ax on its feet. Was it too blinded by its own pride and success that it forgot to see this coming and when it did realize? Or it forgot to innovate, the core competencies it came with? Google, fairly a new company was one which recognized this new technological innovation and its prospect in future and jumped right away in this new adventure. But I still wonder.. what were Blackberry's management doing? Why did they pick it up so late that it almost becomes a stranger among its own users? Why did they love their physical keypad so much that they believed that consumers would not ditch their loyalty? But consumers have evolved with the technological advancement and don’t want to be left behind. Even in the developing market like China and India, people started using Smartphone and blackberry was no longer a status symbol. Thanks to Google and its open operating system which made possible for everyone to own a smartphone. When Blackberry recognized this mistake and came with its new revamped software and touch phones Blackberry Z10, it was already long forgotten by the market, as people were so busy searching for next Android and iOS phones.
In recent trail of bad news, Blackberry seems to be dying but I hope that they would not give up and will come up with new innovations, which will not only bring them back in the market but also bring back the investor’s confidence. At the end, competition brings innovation and affordability and it is always good for customers.
