With the announce of the release of the brand new “ BlackBerry Passport,” the company is affirmative that this product will bring BlackBerry up in the market.

BBRY NASDAQ Chart (2010-Present) 

With competitors like IOS and Android phones, BlackBerry has been demolished falling from nearly $80 a share to nearly $9. With the company struggling to revive for the last three years, this could be their big break.

Looking at Porter’s Generic Strategies, Blackberry is clearly adopting a strategy that is in the middle of the Cost Leadership and Differentiation Strategy. The BlackBerry Passport is priced at $599, which is below the Apple iPhone or most flagship Android devices. The company has implemented differentiation strategies to set its phone apart. The new phone features a physical keyboard, a 1 to 1 ratio screen and better battery life than most phones, combined with increased security features. The company is going back to its roots on this one by designing a phone fit for individuals who want a simple business phone that simply works well for its target market.

References

BABAD, M. (2014, September 22). BlackBerry’s John Chen on new Passport: Big screen, lower cost than iPhone. Retrieved October 6, 2014.

BlackBerry Passport Review. (n.d.). Retrieved October 6, 2014, from http://crackberry.com/blackberry-passport-review

Sen, A. (2014, October 5). BlackBerry Passport: One for the corporate set. Retrieved October 6, 2014.

Nintendo is the first company to first have success in the handheld and home console video game market. Since then, the company has only gone downhill and has been crushed by its competition.

In 1979, Nintendo launched “Game and Watch.” It was a simple and elegant idea that turned out to be extremely successful. Following this, the company put out many successful products including “Game Boy,” “Game Boy Color.” Every product was bursting with innovation and profit figures kept on rising.

2006, Holiday Season- Wii was released. This was the turning point of the company. A company that had spent several decades defining itself and established itself as the number one leader in handheld and home console gaming had gone into a different direction. There was a physical component to the design of the Wii where you had to play games standing up and actually do physical work.

The product was innovative and it had a utopia phase where millions of Wii consoles were first sold. This utopia didn’t last. Gamers that had grew up with Nintendo products discovered that this product wasn’t anything they had seen before. The games lacked depth, the graphics and technical specs were inferior to competition. As explained in “Ries and Trout,” Nintendo should have diversified and established another brand.  Gamers simply stopped playing and found other consoles from other companies that made consoles that Nintendo used to make and as a result the reputation of Nintendo has a whole went down the drain.

References 

Cramblet, G. (2014, May 15). Why Is The Wii U A Failure? Retrieved October 6, 2014.

Crossley, R. (2014, August 27). Miyamoto explains Nintendo’s renewed passion for the core – CVG US. Retrieved October 6, 2014.