Bye Bye BlackBerry

The steady decline in BlackBerry Ltd. has been evident for quite some time. The company that used to be on the top of the smartphone industry has been left behind by the innovative and focused companies such as Apple and Samsung.

They recently announced the harsh decision of laying off 4,500 employees, and writing off more than $900-million (U.S.) worth of unsold phones in an attempt to save the business. BlackBerry claims the losses were due to the unenthusiastic sales and bitter returns of the BlackBerry Z10 (which looks oddly familiar to the iphone 5), introduced in January.

The unemployment of more than 40% of local workers will definitely impact the community of Waterloo, Ont. as BlackBerry has exhausted all their options in saving the business.

The only thread of hope they are clinging onto is the BlackBerry Enterprise Server 10 sold to corporate users. Through the cost-cutting and the failed smartphone launch, Blackberry needs to either refocus their entire company to their only popular service (BlackBerry Enterprise Server 10) or simply let the business go.

The stacking failures of the new phone launch, attempt in selling BBM and change in smartphone appearance to resemble Apple has made their situation clear. There is no point in clawing onto the industry when failure is inevitable. BlackBerry has had a great run through their height in popularity in 2008-09 but it’s time to let go.

The end has come, BlackBerry.