When Blackberry failed to obtain an acquisition deal with Fairfax, it seems that the company was done for. Zoe Lin’s blog Blackberry Empire Crumbles delivers a possibility that may allow Blackberry to recuperate from it’s current demise – going private. However, it seems that the company cannot solve its current issues just from going private alone – something more needs to be done.

The market for mobile devices is currently saturated with Apple and Samsung having a majority of the market share. Thus, it would be difficult for Blackberry to release new devices due to the large barriers of entry. Instead, Blackberry should focus on its other revenue streams such as its app BBM (Blackberry messenger). Recently made available for Apple and Android users, there are over 80 million users of BBM around the world and it is believed that the app would generate $300 million dollars a year in revenue in the next term, similar to that of Twitter. If Blackberry were to make BBM its main focus, it could potentially generate more profit and reduce the risks and costs of launching devices that fail to gain an exceptional market standing such as the Q10 which was released earlier this year but ended up to be a disappointment among consumers. In order to allow BBM to grow, Blackberry must advertise this app on social media such as Twitter and Facebook in order for build customer awareness. Likewise, they could monetize the app further by potentially implementing advertisements within the application or additional features that customers have to pay a small fee for (such as charging a fee for certain emoticons) in order to achieve profit maximization.

BBM may as well be Blackberry’s last hope, and if the company were able to utilize it to its full potential, then it may be able to get back on its feet again.

Figure 1: BlackBerry’s Falling Share Price

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