About a month ago, Leo Huang wrote about BlackBerry’s lawsuit against the CEO of Kik for using information gained from working at BlackBerry. At the end of the lawsuit, opportunities arose for both companies to cooperate, allowing BlackBerry to expand its target market.
Looking at BlackBerry’s performance in the past month, Kik did not help the company much. BlackBerry is still suffering from unsuccessful product differentiation and poor management. In its latest quarter BlackBerry lost $965 million, mostly because of a write-down of unsold phones.
Releasing the BBM app for iPhone and Android was a puzzling move. Most consumers buy the BlackBerry exclusively for secure messing. The loss of exclusivity means that BlackBerry lost its major differentiation advantage. The BBM app doesn’t seem to be a source of revenue either and thus, this seems like a illogical move for BlackBerry. It is possible the BlackBerry has an ulterior motive behind the BBM app, but at the moment, the app is not very helpful.
BlackBerry definitely has a grim outlook for the future.I believe the company should change their strategy and consider adapting to the Windows or Android system and satisfying a niche market, similar to what Nokia had done in the past.