With the launch of the new blackberry smartphone the “Passport” it is clear that Blackberry is trying to regain large market shares. Blackberry enjoyed a good reputation in the market and it had large market shares at one point of time. But due to increased competition there was a fall in demand and people stopped buying blackberry products. Market shares dropped considerably and blackberry is trying to recover from the fall in market shares ever since.
My fellow classmate, Richard Wong, believes that Blackberry should resolve the faults that the previous phones had rather than focusing on designing new features and coming up with new models. I am afraid I do not agree with him. Blackberry had to come up with a new model and features in order to compete with other rival firms. The key features of the phone is the wide screen (4.5 inch square screen), keyboard and its focus towards security.
The new blackberry passport has a narrow market segment and it targets business men and women in general. Blackberry is only focusing on 30% of smartphone users. I believe that Blackberry Passport is not competing with Apple or Samsung as it targets a different market segment. The blackberry passport can help Blackberry in bouncing back and regaining its reputation in the market!
References-
Web. 9 Nov. 2014. <http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/24/blackberry-launches-passport-smartphone>.
“BlackBerry’s John Chen on New Passport: Big Screen, Lower Cost than IPhone.” The Globe and Mail. Web. 9 Nov. 2014. <http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/top-business-stories/blackberrys-chen-on-new-passport-big-screen-lower-cost-than-iphone/article20718050/>.
“Richard Wong’s Blog.” Richard Wongs Blog. Web. 9 Nov. 2014. <https://blogs.ubc.ca/richardwoong/2014/10/05/45/>.