Failure of Blackberry

Memo 2

To: Dr. Tim Jones

Jinpeng Li (201143377)        

Date 13-06-2015

        BlackBerry was one of the major smart phone producers until 2009. As the line chart illustrated, the market share of BlackBerry had reached to 20% in 2009 when its fortunes significantly and rapidly turned (Mallinson, 2014, Sept. 24). BlackBerry is still struggling to survive following its precipitous market share decline. The reason for losing BlackBerry's sales can be attributed to aspects of strategy, environment and capabilities.

        BlackBerry had a failure of application strategy. The BlackBerry z10, which is released in 2013, is a nice smart phone that comes with all general functions people expect, including a solid virtual keyboard, software and camera. However, there is nothing special compares with other smart phones. Researchers found that BlackBerry users who switch to other brands caused by limited and undeveloped applications (Susanti, 2015, Mar. 27). Features for most applications are standard for limited memory. Furthermore, the browser system is not perfect as people expected (Susanti, 2015, Mar. 27). According to CEO BuzznCo, Sumardy, the reason why Loyalty of BlackBerry pretty low is consumers have negative experiences when using BlackBerry (Susanti, 2015, Mar. 27).

        Since the strategy and environment interact with each other in Diamond-E framework, BlackBerry has lost its competitive advantage of application. With more demands on high-quality applications at launch to excite consumers, a competition in different platforms is becoming intensive. Apple's App Store and Android's Store have reigned over application market. Apple is dominating force in smart phones. Although its best efforts to marginalize the iPhone and the influence that is having on its business, BlackBerry has failed. All of BlackBerry smart phones running the operating system have nothing on iPhone.  

        In addition to poor operating system and applications, managers in BlackBerry are lack of market knowledge. Building strong marketing that appeals to all of prospective customers is one of the most significant factors when establishing a trusted brand. However, BlackBerry failed to do that. The company did not put much emphasis on market targeting. When BlackBerry realized that it should meet customers' needs, it was too late. In November, 2008, BlackBerry released its first touchscreen cellphone. And changed its focus to Asia and Latin America, where the smartphone market was saturated. A year later, BlackBerry's stock price had declined (Vara, 2013, Aug 12).