James Tugman's COMM 101 Blog

Original Link: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/passport-to-success-blackberry-pins-revival-hopes-on-new-device/article20779911/

When reading this article, I kept thinking to myself, how attached we are to our phones, and not in the sense that we’re looking at them 24/7. It made me realize that products like cars, houses and phones are essentially extensions of ourselves, which makes changing from them very difficult. Changing from an iphone to an android device for example, is hard enough as it is for certain people. Imagine the difficulty that Blackberry purists  face when their dead company rises from their grave to sell a pity phone (Blackberry Passport”).

When Blackberry lost much of its market share, many consumers were forced to jump ship and ride on the lifeboats of iphones and androids. This is largely still the case, but with Blackberry resurfacing with the new Blackberry Passport, it’s tough to say what’s next. Initially, i stand by my previous argument that trying to sell a dying brand to a market based around brand loyalty isn’t the brightest idea. However, the exec’s behind Blackberry clearly have done research and must have a game plan they think is successful.

I’m also curious to see the research done by behind John Chen’s choice to focus on the Canadian market. What makes the Canadian market more accepting of a new Blackberry product then a market like the U.S (apart from RIM being a Canadian company)?

Finally, what I’m really interested in seeing is how this announcement is going to affect the Blackberry Ltd. share price in the coming days, weeks and even months.