Blackberry. Is it still Cool?

I recall a few short years ago when RIM – Research in Motion were riding on a wave of popularity. The company was expanding with the  brand gracing the palms of CEO’s, MPs, Hollywood A-listers such as Kim Kardashian, Lady Gaga and Paris Hilton. The most powerful man on Earth, newly elected Barack Obama, President of the United States talked-up the BlackBerry values and services.

Fast -forward two years and we screech to a halt. The BlackBerry and the RIM brand has plummeted. The shiny star of BlackBerry has become dimmed and tarnished. This year RIM suffered product delays, the largest layoffs in its history, reduced confidence in the company, a decline in market share and the disastrous lauch of the Blackberry PlayBook. The company image and stock price has taken a direct hit.

While Apple’s silky smooth iPhone and iPad and the slick, high spec touch-screen devices running Google’s Android fill the void, there appears to be no room on the track for RIM to overtake today’s brightest, newest and innovative devices.

RIM’s security and efficiency in the corporate word remain unsurpassed but its newest venture to appeal to the hip and young are losing ground as teenagers and young adults lose interest in BB ping-ping service. When the likes of Whatsapp exists to allow you to cross-message across most smartphone operating system such as Nokia symbian, android, iOS and s40 Nokia devices with rumour of a windows phone version – why tie yourself in to a device specific IM. With Apple’s iMessage arriving soon RIM can expect further losses as customers move to take up the new service available on the iPhone, iPad and perhaps in the future on the MacBook themselves.

RIM’s new marketing strategies has been to push forward for non-enterprise customers but although it appears to be working in some markets it has hurt the BlackBerry band in the process.

Can BlackBerry get its groove back?

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This entry was posted on Saturday, September 24th, 2011 at 15:24 and is filed under BlackBerry, BlackBerry, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.