BlackBerry will soon collapse like Nortel.
Yesterday I read a business post by Guang Yow Low concerning BlackBerry. As the once-dominant smartphone maker continues to struggle to survive, it is hoping that the new BlackBerry 10 operating system will attract more customers and stop the financial hemorrhaging. Despite the positive feedback about the new OS, Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS continue to dominate the smartphone sector. Is there really nothing BlackBerry can do to reverse its recent bad fortunes? Can the company even survive? I believe that there are actually some strategies that BlackBerry can consider to fix their main problems. Perhaps the company could consider some of the ideas proposed in an InformationWeek article entitled “BlackBerry’s 11th Hour: How It Can Survive.” BlackBerry can first focus its advertising on its points of differentiation, especially the excellent keyboard and TimeShift camera, which are unique and unavailable on Apple or Android devices. Also, BlackBerry shouldn’t aspire to become another iPhone or Android, but turn instead to customization and design — such as offering a palette of case colors and the ability to hide apps on the home screen – in order to garner attention in a market influenced by looks over function. Moreover, Android and Apple are both succeeding with a suite of applications geared more toward entertainment, not productivity, which has always been BlackBerry’s forte. A swift move to target third-party developers to create productivity apps, such as DropBox and Evernote for example, might help reverse the tide for this once-smartest of smartphone makers that has been looking kind of dumb in recent times.
Reference: Low, Guang Yow. “Will BlackBerry Rise Again.” Guang Yow Lows Blog. N.p., 7 Oct. 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. <https://blogs.ubc.ca/guangyowlow/>.