The Dark Fruit-Rise and The Fall of BlackBerry
Reports and leaks of new BlackBerry phones are surfacing, which, according to the company will save its sinking ship. After the failure of its 2014 flagship, the Passport, BlackBerry decided to release its first Android phone, the Priv. Though a great phone in terms of design and practicality, it failed to impress critics and customers alike. Some felt that the phone was overpriced, retailing at 55000 INR or 650$. What were the reasons for BlackBerry’s success and its recent dip in market share? We are here to answer these questions.
History
Before making mobile phones, BlackBerry used to make pagers. The first BlackBerry device, the 850, was introduced in 1999 as a two-way pager. In 2003, a BlackBerry mobile was released, which supported push email, mobile telephone, text messaging, Web browsing and other wireless information services. Many considered it as the first smartphone.Blackberry introduced SureType keypad in their phones for the ease of typing.Suretype was a QWERTY based character input method that combined traditional telephone keypad with QWERTY based keyboard.
Emergence as a Market Leader
BlackBerry took a world by storm when it launched a phone that could practically work as a computer and could also fit in a person’s hand. BlackBerry brought the QWERTY design of a keyboard in a Smartphone. It also became the first company to bring Email service to a mobile phone. Another reason for the success of Blackberry was the introduction of Trackpad and Trackball in their mobile phones. These new introductions were well received by BlackBerry users. They offered the practicality, and were also easy to use. However the main reason for success of BlackBerry was its software, which had the best native support for corporate Emails.It also allowed complete synchronization with email, calendar etc.
Dropping of Market Share
BlackBerry stock prices peaked to all time high of $236 around mid-2007. After Apple launched its first iPhone in 2007 BlackBerry began to loose its customers. iPhone was a prominent touchscreen phone which was an instant hit. iPhone also attracted buisness leaders and executives which were BlackBerry’s core customers. When Android was launched it became clear that BlackBerry now had a lot of competition. When newer versions of Android were released they began to offer even more features which were not available in BlackBerry OS.
Comeback Attempts
BlackBerry Playbook was released in 2011 as an attempt to recapture the market share, which the company had lost to Apple, Samsung and other Smartphone manufactures. The device was overpriced and failed to create an impression on consumers. The company released many new phones like the Z10, Q10 etc.These devices too failed to capture market share for Blackberry. In 2015 Blackberry released its first Android device ,The Priv, which too failed to create an impression due to its high price.
Future of the company
BlackBerry was once considered as a status symbol .Since the launch of iPhone and Android BlackBerry has lost its marketshare .The comeback attempts didn’t work due to the devices being overpriced. The only way the company can make a comeback is if they offer a great product at a right price point.
