Response to “BlackBerry co-founder was vehemently opposed to touchscreen BlackBerry 10 smartphones”

BlackBerry has always been known for its physical keyboard feature on its phones. With the increasing trend and users of touch screen phones, is it a good idea for BlackBerry to abandon its unique feature and follow the crowd? Is it helpful or harmful for the company to develop touch screen phones and compete with other strong competitors who have been publishing touch screen phones for years? Touch screen phones demand has grown to 90% and it has been reported that Iphone occupies 25% of the market share. In this article, the BlackBerry co-founder insistently disagrees on abandoning the physical keyboard because he believes there are certain customers who desire the original BlackBerry for its physical keyboard.

The views on his decision are oppositely extreme: his supporters agree with him on reserving the original feature and praise his drive for market differentiation; his opposers disagree for his lack of a new vision and inability to adapt with the current trend. I believe he is right for wanting to reserve the original feature, but I also believe he should have adapted slightly to stay in the market strong. This situation reminds me of Ritz’s chips. Ritz has been known for its crackers, but wanting to expand its market share it decided to start selling chips, too. It was not easy since it was a new territory Ritz had to conquer, but it focused on knowing what the customers desire and prefer, and its new chips product became a success. BlackBerry could have done the same to dominate both the key board and touch screen markets and bring its business to another level of success.

Original article link: http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2013/09/28/blackberry-co-founder-was-vehemently-opposed-to-touchscreen-blackberry-10-smartphones/