Blackberry Maker RIM Problems: Analysis and Recommendations

RIM has a wide range of customers and established in many developed countries which can gain its brand image among its competitors. As RIM is responsible for innovation of high technology products, there is an effective R&D in RIM to make RIM stay competitive in smartphones industry. A strong relationship between RIM and its service providers showed one of RIM’s core capabilities.

- There are plenty of hardware component manufacturers for cellphones but BlackBerry’s operating system is complicated therefore it limits the number of software developers that will work with them.

It is important to pay attention to those manufacturers that are working with android (Not only concentrate marketing activities in apple or RIM), because the potential growth of the Google’s brand could be an opportunity to grow in smart phones sales, increasing the market share.

There are many competing brands of smart phones and Samsung has reported a decline of profits in 2014. Information from GSM arena shows than Samsung released 54 new phone models in 2014 , compared with 24 by HTC , 11 Motorola and 2 by Apple, leading to increased production costs and lack focus on a specific customer segments thereby losing some of its competitive advantage (GSM Arena , 2015).The lack of popularity of its own OS (Tizen ) and dependence on Google’s Android platform makes it vulnerable on google to develop an “ecosystem”. There are component integration issues as well as loss revenue from potential App sales (Strategic Mangement insight , 2015). Negative publicity from litigation due to patents are likely to continue as technology patents are vague and Samsung with is large portfolio is likely to infringe on some of the patents (Tibken, 2014).

Joseph Palenchar (2013) noted that “the old days saw BlackBerry’s market share in global smartphone shipments peak in 2009 at 20% and fall to 5% in 2012, marking the company’s lowest level since 2003.” (para. 3) “Increase the chances that BlackBerry can regain some of its lost market share during the make-or-break year of 2013” (para. 9) Revenue is declining because the market is becoming smaller. With Apple, Samsung’s products are growing deeply in customers’ impression, BlackBerry is standing in the behind position compare with those two brands. BlackBerry is not enough strong to attract those Apple and Samsung’s customers to choose its products even they produce the new products.

BlackBerry’s Market Share has been reduced to less than 1%. In an industry dominated by two major companies, BlackBerry is highly unlikely to gain a larger percentage of the market,

In this report, I prove that Apple’s iPhone has dominated all other smartphones in the years leading up to 2016. It is the epitome of what a globally recognized product can accomplish when considering how quickly it globalized and the image it provides for those who buy an iPhone. Owning one of these phones is not only a statement, it holds power and value that other smartphones simply cannot top. The company owns the stage when compared to other smartphones, and it’s journey to become the world’s second-largest mobile phone manufacturer is truly incredible. In fact, not only does it lead in technology and phone production, it’s become the largest publicly traded TNC in the world. Everything from its assets to its brand loyalty prove why it has expanded across the globe, and will continue to for many years to come. Apple Inc. has globally expanded by outsourcing nearly every level of its production and became one of the most successful and revolutionary TNC’s in the world, mainly due to the release of the infamous iPhone in 2007.

Apple and Samsung are the major competitors in the smartphone field. We would, like to discuss why they’re leading and conclude which one is better. In the electronic industry these two companies fight are considered as the highest massive ever. They mainly clash for brand image and brand reputation but any consequences regarding this fight, the impact should be faced by both these companies in terms of brand reputation loss and also the loss of huge amount of money over the litigations We would like to discuss the following,

Research in Motion, (RIM), is “a global leader in wireless innovation, (which) revolutionized the mobile industry with the introduction of the BlackBerry solution in 1999” [ (Research In Motion, 2011) ]. While RIM has no publically available mission statement [ (missionstudy, 2009) ], we can deduct the following:

In 2011, Apple increased their market share from 15.6% to 19% while RIM fell from 16% to 10.4% (Global Mobile Statistics, 2012). There are several different prospering smart phone brands that are negatively impacting RIM’s financial success. Not only are there a large number of competitors, but they are also well known companies such as Sony, Samsung, Google, and Apple to name a few. These are dominant companies in the electronics sector and all of which have large fixed costs so they must operate at economies of scale and produce near capacity. In turn, they have to sell all these products so that competition becomes more aggressive (Clegg pg.62). These companies all have the competitive advantage of offering their consumers another product lines whereas BlackBerry only offers phones and the new PlayBook which hasn’t been overly successful.

RIM was a latecomer to the phone application and touch screen technologies, which are currently the most desired options available on the market. BlackBerry App World went live on April 1, 2009 whereas the Apple App Store opened July 10, 2008 and the Android Market now titled Google Play debuted October 22, 2008. It seems that apps were somewhat of an afterthought to RIM and developmentally, they began the race after Apple and Android were miles ahead. BlackBerry is not known to be a “fun” phone, which can limit its consumer market to business-minded individuals and an older age bracket, possibly alienating the vital teen-early

2008-09, RIM‟s market share kept on escalating with it acquiring a good deal of market while also expanding its product portfolio to cater to the need of people at the same time.

Apple could make future strides in the smartphone industry, if it can figure out a way to steal away some market share from BlackyBerry users. Many business users prefer the BlackBerry to all other smartphones in the industry.

Blackberry is a brand that was created by Research in Motion’s (RIM) Founder Mike Lazaridis in 1996, providing wireless web enabled devices across multiple networks. RIM is a Canadian based company founded in 1984 that formally worked

▪ BlackBerry product first launched in 1999 ▪ Wide range of Wireless Service Providers (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and all major global providers) ▪ 41 Million units sold in 2009 ▪ 80+ Million units currently in use globally