As recently as 2009, Fortune magazine was naming BlackBerry as among the world’s fastest growing companies. However, BlackBerry, previously called Research in Motion Limited (RIM), has not recorded impressive performances in the market. The company is in the technology industry, specifically the production of wireless handheld devices, including other services intended to serve consumers in that sector. The first device produced by BlackBerry was an email pager, released in the market in 1999. Four years later, the company produced a Smartphone BlackBerry, which gained considerable popularity in the market because it supported a wide range of features including push email, text messaging, Internet faxing, Web browsing, and mobile telephone, among other information services. BlackBerry’s push email feature enabled it to gain a considerable market share in the industry as it had focused on making communication easier and convenient (Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson, 2012).
Why the Blackberry Market Went Down Recently
BlackBerry went down because it failed to keep up with other mobile phone companies such as Google and Apple. BlackBerry failed to develop or adapt its vision and strategy to suit the changing needs of the consumer in the market. First, after recording impressive performance in the market, particularly the corporate market, BlackBerry did not foresee that consumers, as opposed to business customers, would play a critical role in pushing the Smartphone revolution. Secondly, the emergence of the “app economy” blindsided BlackBerry as there was massive adoption of devised utilizing iPhone and Android software. Third, the company failed to anticipate that Smartphones would change significantly so that consumers could rely on them for both communication entertainment and entertainment purposes (Gustin, 2013). BlackBerry failed to respond to the changing needs of the consumer as it continued producing mobile devices with full keyboards while many consumers showing preference for touchscreens, which facilitated easier navigation and better viewing of videos. Moreover, BlackBerry was quite in releasing a touchscreen device, which was also seen as inferior to the iPhone. While BlackBerry thought of its devices as creative and e-mail-enabled, Google and Apple were busy working on powerful mobile computers and strived to ensure that Web browsing and sending e-mail as consumer-friendly as possible.
Strategies That Blackberry Might Use To Improve Its Sales
Blackberry could employ a number of strategies to boost its sales and ensure both viability and profitability in the mobile market industry. One strategy that could help the company to increase its sales is the creation of more awareness among the youth as the company had previously targeted the corporate customers. The youth market is quite large and could help boost the company’s sales significantly. Secondly, Blackberry should launch an aggressive campaign strategy the position Blackberry as the Smartphone of choice among the young professionals and the youth as this constitutes a large market and this strategy would also help the company to reclaim its market share in the industry. Blackberry may use various internet marketing options to increase its online presence alongside conventional marketing and promotional methods (Hill & Jones, 2012). Thirdly, the company should focus on other areas/capabilities other than dwelling on emailing capabilities, which other mobile companies have managed to offer as well. This move is likely to improve its appeal as customers are likely to purchase the product if it offers more and highly innovative features. Blackberry should also focus on producing high-tech, but affordable devices for consumers at the low end market, which is also a large market that desperately craves for highly innovative, but affordable devices. To achieve this objective, the company may adopt some of its existing phones to low end markets, which would help to fight its competitors who have also produced highly innovative products to meet the needs of this market. Increasing sales also requires that the Blackberry adopts the use of newer technologies that support touchscreen applications because consumers now seem to prefer touchscreens devices as opposed to those that use keypads. More significantly, Blackberry should modify the look of its product to make it more appealing to consumers. This may also require the company to launch its products in a wide range of colors and designs to offer consumers more choice.
Issues That Blackberry is Currently Facing in the Market
Blackberry is currently facing a number of issues that are inhibiting the company from making a turnaround. First, the company’s share prices have fallen significantly, which severely affects its performance in the market as it taints the company’s image and that of its products. Secondly, the company is struggling to maintain a profitable level of operation as its sales have been reducing significantly since 2011(Gustin, 2013). The company does not also have the capacity to invest significantly in research and development activities compared to its competitors because its revenue has reduced considerably in the past few years. In 2013, the company had plans to be purchased by a group that is led by Fairfax Financial, a Canadian holding company. Poor performance forced the two CEOs of the company, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, to step down.
Significant Factors That Led to This Situation
Blackberry got into this situation because it failed to adopt its vision and strategy to the changing needs of the consumer. Consequently, Apple and Google, who were busy working on highly innovative technologies, outperformed Blackberry because they offered consumers what they wanted. These two companies have recorded impressive financial performances in the recent years and have managed to surpass Blackberry’s performance as well as take up a significant proportion of its market share. The company also got into this situation because it neglected the ordinary consumer while focusing a significant amount of attention to corporate consumers (Gustin, 2013).
References
Gustin, S. “The fatal mistake that doomed BlackBerry”. Time. http://business.time.com. 2013, Sept. 24. Web. 2015.May.15
Hill, C., & Jones, G. (2012). Strategic management: An integrated approach. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning. Print.
Hitt, M., Ireland, R. D., & Hoskisson, R. (2012). Strategic management cases: Competitiveness and globalization. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning. Print.
Atheer AlMeer
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