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Blackberry, one time leader in the smartphone market, with a seat front and centre in every business person’s pocket was slayed in the mid to late 2000’s by Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy series. The smartphone company, in 2013, was looking dead in the water.
How did this happen? The company, in 1984, was founded as Research in Motion. Specialising in mobile telecommunications, the company worked to develop systems for other companies, and in the early 90s, at the height of pager saturation, built some niche paging devices to crank up their electronics development projects.
In 1998, the company’s first foray into the advanced mobile market started out with a device boasting a six line display, two way paging system and with limited email capabilities, the very first Blackberry. It was released to strong reviews, starting the company out on their advanced mobile technology journey. Blackberry was the name on everyone’s lips.
The next year, Research in Motion listed on NASDAQ and raised another $250 million to pump into their new computing devices. In return, they released the Blackberry 850, a phone with email capabilities, wireless networks, and, more importantly, a QWERTY keyboard.
The device was a resounding success. It was heralded as the perfect solution for the travelling business person, and those with a long commute. People were now able to access their emails on the go, ready for doing work at any time.
A lawsuit in the mid 2000s brought about by NTP threatened to bring down the Blackberry brand due to issues over their patents, but, after fines were paid, a judge ruled that to not topple Blackberry was in the public interest, due to heavy customer reliance on their systems.
Then, in 2007, came the release of the iPhone and Android systems. At first, it seemed that nothing could topple the juggernaut of Blackberry. However with these new devices came new operating systems and designs. The sleek look of iOS combined with the ease of use of the iPhone seduced many a customer, and the new designs showed that you could have a fully functional mobile device without the necessity of a physical keyboard.
Once Blackberry realised their popularity was waning, they tried a bit of an about turn. In 2008 the Blackberry Storm was released. Without a physical keyboard but including haptic feedback, it was well reviewed, but suffered from poor sales. The operating system seemed sluggish compared to the new competitors.
The late 2000s and early 2010s proved fruitless for Blackberry also. Nokia was tanking, and in the end changed their Symbian operating system to Microsoft to ensure their systems’ longevity. Blackberry continued on, still seemingly stuck in the mud with an outdated operating system.
In 2013, it looked like curtains for the company. Sales were dismal and market confidence in the company was at an all-time low. A company structure revamp, as well as numerous layoffs plagued the company. In attempts to unveil a new outlook, the latest operating system is launched – the Blackberry X10. To match, Research in Motion renames itself to Blackberry, to help solidify the company.
Even though Blackberry look destined to bite the dust, they haven’t given up just yet. Profits these days are promising, due to massive cost cutting measures employed by senior management, and the devices are still the most secure on the market, due to strong encryption, making them instantly appealing to a wide range of businesses.
We’re interested to see just how far they manage to go, and whether we’ve yet to see a new burst of creativity from the company. Blackberry: To be continued… Click here to view our Blackberry accessories
