I partly agree with Yukang’s opinion that BlackBerry should establish a point of difference to have a share in the smartphone market occupied by Apple and Samsung.  According to what we have learnt in class, a strong, favorable, and  unique point of difference that distinguish a brand from others in the same frame of reference are fundamental to successful brand positioning.

However, only having a point of difference is not enough. BlackBerry still has to ask itself, “Are the points of difference compelling?”  I disagree with Yukang’s idea that BlackBerry should take cellphones with key-board as its point of difference. According to my research, touch screen, instead of keyboard, is what  customers of smartphones favor. Developing smartphones with keyboard is not a wise decision.

From my point of view, BlackBerry should distinguish its brand by developing smartphones that have fast data transmission and have longer stand-by time, for slow and costly data transmission as well as the short stand-by time are what iPhones and Samsung smartphones lack .

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Resources: https://blogs.ubc.ca/yukangzhang1/2013/10/05/blackberrys-great-loss/

Pictures: http://gdgt.com/blackberry/curve/9300/

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-245345/stock-photo-data-transmission-graphic-in-blue.html