In Prithvi Khanna’s blog The Fall of Blackberry, the fall of Blackberry, one of the previous biggest company in the smartphone market, was clearly analyzed with statistics.

As a background information, before the trend of the screen touch hit the smartphone market, Blackberry had a huge market share, for example 20.1% in the quarter one in 2009. However according to the statistic, there is only 0.1% market share for Blackberry in the quarter two in 2016.

I agree with the reasons the author offered within the blog, which mainly contains 2 reasons of the brand’s failure. Firstly, Blackberry underestimated its competitors such as Apple and Samsung at that time. Based on the brand’s success at that time, the CEO and managers didn’t forecast the future of the smartphone industry, as well as they ignored the developments of other potential competitors. Secondly, Blackberry lacked of innovation. As Apple and Samsung equip themselves with their own app stores, Blackberry didn’t update its system, as well as it doesn’t keep up with the trend of screen touch smartphones, therefore Blackberry faced a market failure.

However, the connection between the Blackberry and the concepts covered in class could be strengthened. The mention of the business and strategy is a great idea. In my opinion, the author could improve the blog by coming up with advices to Blackberry.

For example, in order to solve the problem in association with the innovation, Blackberry could divide its Customer Segments into two parts, for those businessmen who have the requirement to deal with emails and schedules, Blackberry could offer them with the traditional phones with buttons, for those who are addicted to new technologies, Blackberry could produce new screen touch smartphones to meet the satisfactions. Also, the author could connect the situation that Blackberry is focusing on software to the concept Value Proposition.  Based on the fact that the net loss of Blackberry is $372 million in 2016 (Fried), Blackberry no longer has the ability to compete with other smartphone companies. According to the decision of switch to software producing only, the Blackberry actually changes its Value Proposition to offer the market with qualified software and reduce the costs of the company in order to save the brand.

Word count: 378

References:

Blackberry will stop designing its own phones and focus on software

Global smartphone OS market share held by RIM (BlackBerry) from 2007 to 2016, by quarter

It is widely known that Apple has a very short time period between different generation of devices. This feature has always been treated as one of the company’s business strategy, which is the technical innovation. However, when facing this phenomena in an opposite way, according to Vittotio Chiu’s blog The Ethics of Apple’s Business Model, the company is actually tricking the customers.

According to the opinions displayed in this blog, I personally agree with the writer. By applying changes that are not mandatory on the devices, Apple gained lots of profits from the “planned obsolescence”. The writer takes the new product Iphone 7 as an example, the abatement of traditional 3.55mm headphone jack is biggest change, direct influence is that customers who keep up with the Apple technical trend have to buy a totally new Iphone, as well as they have to use Iphone 7’s new headphones. The change of the headphone setting is not mandatory at all, however it does push lots of Apple supporters to buy a new device, The most important is that the change makes the switching cost from Apple to other electronic brands even higher, as the headphone setting of Iphone and other brands of phones are totally different now.

At the very last of the blog, “compromises” are mentioned by the writer. In my own opinion, more analyzations of the compromises could be added to the blog in order to make the work better. However, the writer’s mentioning about one of Apple’s Value Proposition is very valuable. Apple has claims of “Environmental Advancements”, however there exist both short time periods between Apple generations and the recycles barely been applied. These actions declare that Apple does not follow its environmental value proposition well. Also, the Customer Segments of Apple could be added. By offering creative, good-quality electronic products, Apple mainly focuses on the customers with high requirements, who are always interested in creative technology and who have high consumption levels.

Combing the Value Proposition the writer mentioned and the Customer Segments above, I personally think that the “future compromises” of Apple is to focus on developing new technologies for devices and to offer customers with better user experiences, what is the most important, the unethical using of “planned obsolescence” should be reduced or even abandoned.

Woed count: 380

Learning About A Representative Chinese Cuisine in Vancouver

Vancouver, as one of the most famous cities in the world with huge Chinese population, is placed as the fifth in the Mercer 2016 Quality of Living rankings. A factor that contributes a lot to the fantastic living quality is the well-developed catering industry, and Chinese cuisine helps the Vancouver catering industry become more diverse.

Based on the fact that majority of Chinese cuisine restaurants have good developments in Vancouver, it would be a nice opportunity to study about the method that these restaurants choose to run the successful businesses.

Pick one of the Chinese restaurants as an instance, Kirin Restaurant, a finest Chinese cuisine brand that has chain restaurants in downtown Vancouver, Richmond, etc.

The most attractive business tactic that Kirin use is Differentiation. As everybody already know, it is quiet common to find a Chinese cuisine in Vancouver, as well as for Kirin, the brand has hundreds of competitors that also offer customers with delicious Chinese cuisine. However, according to the mission statement, Kirin differentiates itself by “showcasing the finest Chinese Cuisine in Vancouver and served in a warm, authentic and elegant atmosphere”.

There are two main ways of Kirin’s Differentiation strategy:

Firstly, Kirin originally sets a higher level of value proposition. In order to gain reputation and win more profits, Kirin hires main chef who has Head Chef Status and leads the “New Era” Cantonese cuisine trend, as well as Kirin also uses best raw materials to make the cuisines. The action of picking experienced chefs and using finest materials helps Kirin to achieve a better food quality, also Kirin could offer customers with a better taste experience.

Secondly, Kirin is always trying to establish a closer customer relationship. Kirin has splendid decorations and accept not only daily reservations but also banquets and wedding. These activities make the distance between the brand and customers closer. As well as Kirin not only has membership, but also offers customers with festival gifts such as mooncakes and new year cakes, it is also an attractive way to appeal to more customers and keep a friendly relationship with customers.

In conclusion, Kirin makes itself a successful and competitive business case in the Chinese cuisine catering industry in Vancouver by using the strategy of Differentiation.

Words Counted: 383

Websites used:

http://www.kirinrestaurants.com/index.php5 (Kirin Restaurant)

https://www.imercer.com/content/mobility/quality-of-living-city-rankings.html – list (Mercer)