Grey Skies for Blackberry 
The high flying giant faces downfall as it fails to innovate
By Yugaant Ahuja, October 2nd, 2016
Isn’t it astonishing that once a leading technological company valued at $83 billion in 2008 has been reduced to a meager $2.6 billion in 2016? Yes, this rapid turnaround has happened because Blackberry could not adapt itself with the changing times. They failed to identify the opportunities and threats that awaited the mobile market and continued to live in a bubble.
There are many reasons which have led to their failure in the market. The rise of IPhone, Google Android and touchscreen phones only aggravated the situation for Blackberry. They were still keen on producing QWERTY keypads and operating on blackberry messenger which provided relatively limited applications. Their entire focus of generating revenue only from the administrative sector such as IT due to excellent security back up prevented them to concentrate on customer relationships. While Google and Apple still continue to upgrade their devices and operating systems, Blackberry persisted with its obsolete playbook and blackberry 10. Even Priv, the latest blackberry phone which runs on Android did not bring glory to the company because of its hackneyed design and an unoriginal slit keyboard.
The once leading mobile company could have avoided the situation had they been in sync with their competitors who constantly developed new products in line with the changing market. They should have been more willing to accept alterations in their handsets. It is understood that that the company’s unique selling point was the QWERTY keypad but this does not limit them to launch touch screen mobile phones as well. They kept the launch on hold and as a result could not exploit the market due to emergence of Apple and Google Android. They could have stood way ahead of others and dominated had they launched touchscreen mobiles earlier.
Another major step to be taken was to introduce different features which mattered more to a larger audience. Blackberry provided high security on official emails which wasn’t any good to majority of consumers. They should have added new applications such as maps and a game center that would have strengthened their customer relationships and base.
Blackberry should have advertised rigorously the Priv mobile handset it launched in October 2015.This was indispensable as it was the company’s comeback in the market which was flooded with popular phones like IPhones and Samsung Galaxys. They should have offered schemes and discounts on the product even with low profits as a comeback move. Blackberry on the other hand did not leverage the market and fell to rock bottom and near extinction. They are themselves responsible for their diminishing performance.
CITATIONS
Gustin, Sam. “The Fatal Mistake That Doomed BlackBerry | TIME.com.” Time. Time, n.d. Web. 30 Sept. 2016. <http://business.time.com/2013/09/24/the-fatal-mistake-that-doomed-blackberry/>.
Arthur, Charles. “Why BlackBerry Failed | Charles Arthur.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 05 Nov. 2013. Web. 30 Sept. 2016. <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/05/why-blackberry-failed>.
N.p., n.d. Web. <https://librewiki.net/wiki/%ED%8C%8C%EC%9D%BC:Blackberry_Logo_without_wordmark.svg>.