Before the existence of the iPhone, BlackBerry were one of the leading cellphone manufacturers on the market. It had dominant control in the mature market, targeting company staffs with its sophisticated design and advanced messaging system. However, with the release of the first iPhone, Apple Inc. has taken everything away from BlackBerry. Recently, BlackBerry is laying off another 300 employees, which adds up to more than 7000 jobs being cut since 2011. It has been hopelessly trying to cut cost and hoping to stay in the mobile phone competition. The workforce reduction is not going to stop anytime soon as BlackBerry has announced that further reduction will “impact approximately 4500 workers globally over the next three quarters.”
Instead of laying off employees, BlackBerry should better utilize its staffs and come up with better products for the competition. The problem cannot be solved just through cost-cutting. I believe BlackBerry had targeted a great part of the market but many people were forced to purchase other devices due to BlackBerry’s lack of innovation.
Ligaya, Armina. “BlackBerry Ltd laying off 300 Waterloo-based employees this week.”Financial Post Business BlackBerry Ltd laying off 300 Waterloobased employees thisweek Comments. 08 Oct. 2013 <http://business.financialpost.com/2013/10/07/blackberry-ltd-laying-off-300-waterloo-based-employees-this-week/?__lsa=5eda-42a0>.