In response to Antoine Masse’s blog post about RIM, I also agree that they need stop trying to muscle their way into the smartphone market to butt heads with Apple.
Just watching RIM, once a major Canadian company on the forefront of technology, reduced to this:
Is a bit sad, even if you’re not a BlackBerry advocate (which I’m not).
BlackBerry needs to realize that at this point, there is no point in competing for market share in the same markets as the iPhone.
There isn’t much questioning that specs-wise Apple’s closest competitor is Android. They have similar app markets and interfaces, while BlackBerry is stuck in their own world.
A lot of people are seeing this as a negative, but like Antoine said, it could be used as a positive. The iPhone app’s could easily be too much of a distraction in the business setting, and BlackBerries have had their niche there.
What RIM needs to do is to stop targeting the young adult market who wants their phones to do everything (GPS, games, connectivity, creative outlet, etc.) and get back to marketing what they’re known for.
They seem to have figured this out, as the new BlackBerry Bold campaign aims to target people who want “tools, not toys”.
Another thing that BlackBerry should get on, is the fact that the U.S. President himself is a huge ‘crackberry’ advocate.
The President has stirred up a lot of buzz with this move with security concerns, but many people are seeing him as the “cool, hip and with it President” that knows technology.
BlackBerry should use this to target slightly older users who don’t necessarily want all the bells and whistles of an iPhone, but want to stay up to date with their work.
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