Course Project : Blackberry 's Strategy

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.

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.

Making hundreds of millions of dollars, RIM is blowing other competitors out of the water with huge demands for their products. Skipping almost a decade to 2007, when RIM’s subscriber base jumps to 8 million and revenues double to over $3 billion. That same year, RIM becomes Canada’s most valuable company, surpassing Royal Bank of Canada’s market worth on the TSX. BlackBerry’s innovation is what started the company and continues to improve it. Canadian inventions like the first telephone, Java programming language and the famous Canadarm required great innovation, like BlackBerry, to make them prominent and to stand out from the rest of the world. In conclusion, BlackBerry’s bold features and breakthroughs in telecommunications have shaped our mobile experiences we have

BlackBerry, previously known as Research in Motion (RIM), is a global company in the telecommunications industry. Founded in 1984, the company saw huge success in the early age of the smart phones. The company offers various cell-phone related devices as well as enterprise services, including security. Although BlackBerry’s cell phone success has dwindled in current years, its new CEO, John Chen, has made steps to improve profits and change the company’s focus to enterprise software suites and security.

Primarily, RIM is well known for developing Blackberry, a cellular smart phone that was established in 1984. Blackberry is one of the very few cellular device companies that introduced and supplied people

In 1997, RIM went public with a listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange and raised $115 million from investors (Hempel, 2009). The following year, it made RIM made history again when it introduced the first Blackberry: The RIM 386. The first of its kind, it was a PDA organizer and had the ability to synchronize with corporate emails. This was beginning of their rule in the corporate world. Their products became synonymous with business electronics (“Research In Motion,” 2003). The following year after that, the company introduced its first BlackBerry brand e-mail device, a bulky rectangle with a narrow screen that ran off one AA battery (Hempel, 2009).

Hardware features: BlackBerry has a few good hardware features like durability and excellent battery life. Superior

Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, co-CEOs of Research in Motion (RIM) has been accosted with an inevitable crisis situation. In an article from Charles Arthur (2013) of The Guardian newspaper has stated that, “three days RIM engineers worked around the clock to fix the widespread technical outages from their server networks.” When a predicament situation arises management has to squash the circumstances that manifested from the problem. However, BlackBerry® executives were only providing a lack of concise statements to the public, causing frustration over the exacerbated circumstances, many consumers have become increasingly anticipated of the newly launch of the Apple iPhone 4. The CEOs have conferred the challenging situation of how RIM should

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.

BlackBerry is not just a phone, it is the power to do more and be more. The brand is the best available platform for mobilizing the business providing not just wireless email but business solutions to integrate mobile workers and important communications, information, business applications and back-end systems. In today‟s past faced life BlackBerry is the perfect tool to keep people connected to friends, family work as well as pursue their interests, all at the same time. BlackBerry products and services have been a significant contributor to the productivity enhancements ultimately reflected by the increase in profitability.

Founded in March 7, 1984, BlackBerry Limited is a global leader in the mobile communications industry. The company has its headquarters in Waterloo, Ontario, with global divisions in North America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Latin America, Caribbean and Asia Pacific. Initially, the company was known as Research in Motion Limited (RIM) until it changed its name to BlackBerry Limited.

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 tried to handle its current keyboard cell phones as well as the Storm. In performing this, the end result didn’t attract the traditional Blackberry customers or to those hoping to change to a touchscreen phone. This lead to dysfunction and frustration. Always pick a unique strategy and embrace it; and plan on making the customer want it no matter how good or bad the product truly is.

▪ 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