Blackberry's fall

[AndChiefs]

I thought this was an interesting piece about Research in Motion (RIM/maker of Blackberries) and how it went from the top of the cell phone world to its current predicament. The article itself is quite long and probably won't be everyone's cup of tea but I recommend reading it if you're at all interested in business.

Mods: Feel free to move to the Media Center if you wish but I figured it was interesting enough to put out here where more than five people might actually see it.

Short excerpt:

“The problem wasn’t that we stopped listening to customers,” said one former RIM insider. “We believed we knew better what customers needed long term than they did. Consumers would say, ‘I want a faster browser.’ We might say, ‘You might think you want a faster browser, but you don’t want to pay overage on your bill.’ ‘Well, I want a super big very responsive touchscreen.’ ‘Well, you might think you want that, but you don’t want your phone to die at 2 p.m.’ “We would say, ‘We know better, and they’ll eventually figure it out.’ ”

Read the story here.

[Garcia Bronco]

They're Canadian....what did you expect?

[Tombstone RJ]

Originally Posted by AndChiefs

I thought this was an interesting piece about Research in Motion (RIM/maker of Blackberries) and how it went from the top of the cell phone world to its current predicament. The article itself is quite long and probably won't be everyone's cup of tea but I recommend reading it if you're at all interested in business.

Mods: Feel free to move to the Media Center if you wish but I figured it was interesting enough to put out here where more than five people might actually see it.

Short excerpt:



Read the story here.

meh, I don't need to read that to know why crackberry failed. It's called the iphone. I'm completely guessing here but I bet if you chart the fall of the crackberry you will see a direct correlation with the rise of the iphone. That, and the fact that other HUGE companies like Samsung are cranking out great platforms like the Galaxy and you have a recipe for extinction.

[MahiMike]

iPhone is next. Galaxy and others are already better. Just will take some time to convince folks.

[kepp]

Originally Posted by BCD

Arrogant jackasses.

Originally Posted by Graystoke

Self-inflicted suicide

This and this. They were PERFECTLY positioned. They just didn't listen and apparently no one there had any vision.

[Gonzo]

I still have a BB somewhere. I loved the damn thing. I could type on that awesome keyboard quicker than I could on my PC. But I must admit, I just got the new iPhone and I'm loving it more.

[Chazno]

I develop a browser app that was to support all platforms. RIM's browsers have rivaled IE for biggest pile for several years. So much happier now that we no longer supporting them.

[AndChiefs]

Originally Posted by Tombstone RJ

meh, I don't need to read that to know why crackberry failed. It's called the iphone. I'm completely guessing here but I bet if you chart the fall of the crackberry you will see a direct correlation with the rise of the iphone. That, and the fact that other HUGE companies like Samsung are cranking out great platforms like the Galaxy and you have a recipe for extinction.

Partially true of course. But blackberry did have a fairly significant window in which to respond. The iPhone was relegated to the AT&T network for several years. If blackberry had put out a viable alternative in that time period they could've survived. Blackberry had a built in advantage of people already using their products as a work phone. Familiarity is hard to overcome.

They squandered it.

[Sannyasi]

RIM's executives took the wrong lesson from the apocryphal Henry Ford quote, "If I had asked my customers what they wanted they would have said a faster horse." It doesn't mean that you should dismiss all customer feedback, just that customers are bad at coming up with innovations. RIM decided to give up on innovating and just push old technology.

[Chazno]

Yeah, Blackberry was entrenched as THE phone for business. This was even after the iPhone came out as there were questions of its security , at least initially.

[Mosbonian]

I agree with the person earlier who said it was their own arrogance that did them in.....they reminded me of the techie character from SNL that had the obnoxious attitude toward people who asked questions.

I had a Blackberry in 2005-2007 and it was great then. When I was at a larger company from 2007 to 2011 they just went downhill like an Olympic skier. When you would call to ask them about phone issues they were slow to respond and their first response was always "have you rebooted your phone"

[Tombstone RJ]

Originally Posted by AndChiefs

Partially true of course. But blackberry did have a fairly significant window in which to respond. The iPhone was relegated to the AT&T network for several years. If blackberry had put out a viable alternative in that time period they could've survived. Blackberry had a built in advantage of people already using their products as a work phone. Familiarity is hard to overcome.

They squandered it.

fair enough!

[bevischief]

Originally Posted by Graystoke

Self-inflicted suicide

This.