Blackberry – What Happened?

Blackberry is being sold for $4.7 billion; a huge disappointment for the company that used to be worth over $80 billion.  Everyone has the same question: what happened?  The answer isn’t simple.  There were many things that contributed to Blackberry’s decline.  One was the failure of the Blackberry Storm, the supposed to be answer to Apple’s iPhone.  The Storm, “ran on a single processor and was slow and buggy”, compared to the iPhone whose, “device used two processors” (Silcoff, Mcnish & Ladurantaye, 2013).   The Storm was such a letdown that Verizon actually used the budget they had set-aside for the Storm to market Androids instead.  Another reason was Blackberry’s out of date app system.  It was harder for developers to write code for apps (which consumers loved) on Blackberry’s, so developers made them for iPhones and Androids instead.  Even today Blackberry’s still don’t have Instagram!   Finally, when Blackberry launched their two newest products, they had an outside company engineer them.  The few people who still used Blackberry’s deemed, “the new system too different from the classic Blackberry experience” (Silcoff, Mcnish & Ladurantaye, 2013).  The Z10, Blackberry’s last chance of survival, also didn’t have a physical keyboard which was the one thing Blackberry had going for them.  All of a sudden, Blackberry’s decline isn’t a huge surprise…

Article: Silcoff, S., Mcnish, J., & Ladurantaye, S. (2013, September 27). Inside the fall of blackberry: How the smartphone inventor failed to adapt add to .. Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/the-inside-story-of-why-blackberry-is-failing/article14563602/?page=8

Photo: (2010, June 17). APPLE THROWING THE BLACKBERRY INTO GARBAGE !! [Print Photo]. Retrieved from http://www.desura.com/members/f-tomcat-14/images/apple-throwing-the-blackberry-into-garbage

Rupert Murdoch’s Greatest Moments in Ethics and Integrity

          Rupert Murdoch, the founder and CEO of News Corporation made me laugh when I read the comments he made about his corporation’s business ethics.  Murdoch said, “There can be no doubt about our commitment to ethics and integrity”; however, according to an article, Murdoch actually did many unethical things, including tapping phone calls and paying off government officials (Aaron, 2011).  After analyzing the article, there is no doubt in my mind that Murdoch did in fact do these things, and I believe that he did them in attempts to make more money.  In today’s world, the majority of people involved in business share that same goal of always striving to make more money.  Sometimes in order to do this, people (like Murdoch) act unethically.  Personally, I don’t think business should primarily be about trying to make money.  I recently read a book called The Ecology of Commerce and from this book I learned that business should instead mainly focus on trying to improve society.  I believe that being ethical in business isn’t only about following rules and regulations.  Being ethical in business means making decisions in attempts to improve our world, while thinking of money as just an added bonus.

Article: Aaron, C. (2011, August 11). Rupert murdoch’s greatest moments in ethics and integrity. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-aaron/rupert-murdochs-greatest_b_924654.html

Photo: (2011, February 13). [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://www.independentaustralia.net/Wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/murdoch-150×150.jpg