Results 1 to 7 of 7

Thread: Inside the fall of BlackBerry: How the smartphone inventor failed to adapt

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Posts
    962
    Rep Power
    14

    Default Inside the fall of BlackBerry: How the smartphone inventor failed to adapt

    This a long read but a good read. It details how and why RIM/BB failed at their own game

    This investigative report reveals that:

    • Shortly after the release of the first iPhone, Verizon asked BlackBerry to create a touchscreen “iPhone killer.” But the result was a flop, so Verizon turned to Motorola and Google instead.


    • In 2012, one-time co-CEO Jim Balsillie quit the board and cut all ties to BlackBerry in protest after his plan to shift focus to instant-messaging software, which had been opposed by founder Mike Lazaridis, was killed by current CEO Thorsten Heins.


    Late last year, Research In Motion Ltd. chief executive officer Thorsten Heins sat down with the board of directors at the company’s Waterloo, Ont., headquarters to review plans for the launch of a new phone designed to turn around the company’s fortunes.

    His weapon was the BlackBerry Z10, a slim device with the kind of glass touchscreen that had made Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. the dominant names in the global smartphone market.

    But one of RIM’s directors was frustrated by what he saw, and spoke out, according to one person who was in the room. There is a cultural problem at RIM, he told the group, and the Z10 was a glaring manifestation of it.

    The speaker was none other than Michael Lazaridis, the genius behind the BlackBerry, the company’s co-founder and its former co-CEO. Minutes earlier, he said, he had spoken with Mr. Heins’s newest executive recruits, chief marketing officer Frank Boulben and chief operating officer Kristian Tear.

    Mr. Boulben and Mr. Tear had dismissively told Mr. Lazaridis that the market for keyboard-equipped mobile phones – RIM’s signature offering – was dead.

    In the board meeting, Mr. Lazaridis pointed to a BlackBerry with a keyboard. “I get this,” he said. “It’s clearly differentiated.” Then he pointed to a touchscreen phone. “I don’t get this.”

    To turn away from a product that had always done well with corporate customers, and focus on selling yet another all-touch smartphone in a market crowded with them, was a huge mistake, Mr. Lazaridis warned his fellow directors. Some of them agreed.

    Source
    1.8 Ghz Pentium 4 (OC'd.) / Intel P4 (478) Motherboard / 800MHz DDR / 256 Mb DDR RAM / 40GB Seagate / RIVA TNT2 Pro 32MB / 24X12X24 Sony CDRW+ / 18" View Sonic CRT / Windows ME Yes it will play Doom... i plan on trying Crysis 3 one of these days.

  2. #2
    jomo Guest

    Default

    Some of this IS interesting! (Haven't read it all yet, on my tiny bb screen, I'd probably collapse

    This part is interesting

    "RIM soon earned a chance to show up its new rival. RIM’s
    early smartphones had been a hit for Verizon Wireless, one of
    the biggest U.S. wireless players. Frozen out of the iPhone –
    Apple had signed an exclusive deal with AT&T – Verizon
    executives approached RIM in June, 2007, and asked if it
    could develop “an iPhone killer.” The product would need to
    have a touchscreen with no physical keyboard. Verizon would
    back the U.S. launch with a massive marketing campaign.
    RIM executives jumped at the chance. At one management
    meeting, Mr. Balsillie called it RIM’s most important strategic
    opportunity since the launch of its two-way e-mail pager.
    The product was the BlackBerry Storm. It was the most
    complex and ambitious project the company had ever done,
    but “the technology was cobbled together quickly and wasn’t
    quite ready,” said one former senior company insider who was
    involved in the project.
    The product was months late, hitting the market just before
    U.S. Thanksgiving in 2008. Many customers hated it. The
    touchscreen, RIM’s first, was awkward to manipulate. The
    product ran on a single processor and was slow and buggy. Mr.
    Balsillie put on a brave face, declaring the launch to be “an
    overwhelming success,” but sales lagged the iPhone and
    customer returns were high.
    "


    I really, really wished bb could have made it back

    Who knows we might end up seeing a bb running android one day!

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Posts
    962
    Rep Power
    14

    Default

    i think the company should go private and stop pandering to the whims of their shareholders. it is because of trying to please a multitude of shareholders and investors why it started to "chase rainbows". once the company goes private it will be better at focusing on what it does best.

    @jomo... did you ever see the "back to school" tv commercial BB had, in which they were trying to appeal to teenagers? BB marketing their phones as being "trendy" and "cool" - it was a big let down.
    1.8 Ghz Pentium 4 (OC'd.) / Intel P4 (478) Motherboard / 800MHz DDR / 256 Mb DDR RAM / 40GB Seagate / RIVA TNT2 Pro 32MB / 24X12X24 Sony CDRW+ / 18" View Sonic CRT / Windows ME Yes it will play Doom... i plan on trying Crysis 3 one of these days.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    1,649
    Rep Power
    19

    Default

    any word on the BBM for android?
    Ryzen 7 3700x * RTX 2060 * 16gb DDR4 * MSI Mortar B550 Mboard
    https://www.healthtipsja.com My Wifes Website check it out.
    https://www.wehfia.com
    https://www.minimalis.bitrix24.site

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Posts
    186
    Rep Power
    0

    Default

    beepers were once the hottest thing in mobile communication. now it is a thing of the past.
    The companies that stick around for the long haul have research and development teams that drive innovation, and adapt to change.
    The tide is changing and blackberry has failed to adapt

    its a shame that the failing company has research in its name
    Last edited by presto; Oct 5, 2013 at 10:17 PM.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Posts
    962
    Rep Power
    14

    Default



    it should be noted that the company changed its name for Research In Motion to Blackberry, just about in the same time things started to go down hill.
    1.8 Ghz Pentium 4 (OC'd.) / Intel P4 (478) Motherboard / 800MHz DDR / 256 Mb DDR RAM / 40GB Seagate / RIVA TNT2 Pro 32MB / 24X12X24 Sony CDRW+ / 18" View Sonic CRT / Windows ME Yes it will play Doom... i plan on trying Crysis 3 one of these days.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Posts
    7,481
    Rep Power
    0

    Default

    Months before their boardroom showdown, Mr. Heins and Mr. Lazaridis found themselves in another strategic standoff in which they were pitted against Jim Balsillie, Mr. Lazaridis’s long-time business partner and co-CEO.

    Inside RIM, the brash Mr. Balsillie had championed a bold strategy to re-establish the company’s place at the forefront of mobile communications. The plan was to push wireless carriers to adopt RIM’s popular BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) instant messaging service as a replacement for their short text messaging system (SMS) applications – no matter what kind of phone their customers used.

    It was a novel plan. If RIM could get BBM onto hundreds of millions of non-BlackBerry phones, and charge fees for it, the company would have an enormous new source of profit, Mr. Balsillie believed. “It was a really big idea,” said an employee who was involved in the project.

    But the plan ran into stiff opposition at senior levels. Not long after Mr. Heins took over as RIM’s CEO in January, 2012, he killed it, with Mr. Lazaridis’s support.

    That was it for Mr. Balsillie. Weeks later, he resigned from the board and cut his ties to the company.
    @ jomo i really wanted BB to make a come back.. always hated the things but seriously wanted competition in the mobile market place... in terms of innovation and price
    getz mine the fast way, ski-mask way...
    christopher wallace r.i.p.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •