In the early 2000s, BlackBerry occupied the same position in the market in which Apple is at present. It was a globally popular household name and occupied most of the market. Remember when people used to flaunt their BB pin, to start a conversation.
Then, where did BB went wrong? What were the factors that forced them to discontinue their direct production? Why BlackBerry, which once occupied 20% of global market share, currently has 0% market share? Read the article to find out all the answers to these questions. Towards the end of the blog, we also discussed the actual meaning behind the logo of BlackBerry.
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Before going to the actual reasons why BlackBerry vanished from the market, it is important to catch the parts of its journey that lead to the peak, (of course starting from its origin).
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BlackBerry was originally named “RIM”: BlackBerry Limited, which was formerly known as Research in Motion(RIM), was founded by Mike Lazaridis, Douglas Fregin in 1984 in Waterloo, Ontario, and is currently headquartered in Ontario, Canada. Mike and Douglas, both were engineering student when the company was formed. Later in 1988, RIM became the first company to develop wireless data technology in North America.
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The very first product under the name “BlackBerry” was not a cellular device: On January 19, 1999, they released the very first product under the name BlackBerry i.e., an email pager which the company named “BlackBerry 850”.
The company launched its first range of smartphones in 2002 which supported push email, mobile telephone, text messaging, internet faxing, web browsing and other wireless information services.
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RIM changed to BlackBerry: The name BlackBerry was adopted in the year 1999 and was given by Lexicon Branding, an America based marketing firm. The name was suggested because of the resemblance of the keyboard buttons to that of the blackberry fruit.
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The launch of Z and Q series: They launched their Z and Q series smartphones which had touch screen features in them and sold nearly 6.8 million units. Later in 2013, due to unfavourable sales of its smartphones and bad financing position, BlackBerry announced the intention to sell the company.
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Present scenario of the company: As of 2019, the company has changed its method of doing business. It licenses out its hardware to partners such as Optiemus Infracom and TCL. All the products are designed, manufactured, and marketed by these partners. The company focuses only on making software and security updates for these devices.
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Achievements that made BlackBerry ‘The Brand’
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- They launched their first keyboard device “RIM 900” in 1996.
- In 2003, the company launched its first coloured screen BlackBerry cellphone.
- BlackBerry celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2004 and announced that it had crossed the magical number of one million subscriber mark. By the end of the year, they crossed two million subscriber mark.
- They crossed the four million subscriber mark in 2005.
- The company was named as the most valuable brand in 2007 with a market capitalization of $67 billion.
- The company announced its shipment of 100 millionth smartphones in 2010.
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5 Factors which lead to the downfall of the Company:
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BlackBerry underestimated the new upcoming competition: In the time when Apple and Android were evolving, BlackBerry instead of conquering new technologies protected what it already had. The company locked down its BBM (messaging application of BlackBerry) for its own platform whereas cross-platform application like Watsapp did an unexpected business of $19 billion at the same time.
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Their platform did not support all the applications: The BlackBerry’s operating system also contributed to the disappearance of the brand from the market. In the time when there were a number of applications available in the android and apple platform, BlackBerry had very limited options. Even popular applications like Facebook and Twitter were difficult to install and had half a screen to display content.
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Orthodox designs of smartphones: The company did very little modifications in their designs and models and at the same time, Apple launched its lightweight, full touch smartphone. BlackBerry phones were heavy, chunky and looked horrible in front of other smartphones.
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The decision to continue using the QWERTY keyboard: The company decided to stick to the QWERTY keyboard at a time when other companies were launching full touchscreen display phones. This decision of their’s backfired and people moved on to other brands as this was modern times and smartphones were used for more than just emailing and chatting.
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The emergence of other chatting applications: The emergence and launch of other chatting applications like Watsapp, messenger, Kik affected the company in a negative way. BBM helped them to capture a large portion of the market due to easy and fast method of chatting. But they kept it exclusively for their own platform and refused to sell it. As a result, customers moved to other messaging applications and as a result, to another smartphone.
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Ever wondered what does the BlackBerry logo resembled?
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In 1984 the company was launched under the name “RIM” or “Research In Motion” and continued to use it until January 30, 2013.
The first phone under the name BlackBerry was launched in 1999. The name BlackBerry was given by an American marketing company, Lexicon Branding. BlackBerry was written in uppercase in red and black colour and an envelope was placed above it. It showcased companies focus on email and messaging. The company used this logo in their smartphones until 2004 and then adopted the current logo.
The company started to use the BlackBerry logo after January 30, 2013. The same logo was used in smartphones since 2004. The name was suggested because of the resemblance of the keyboard buttons to that of the blackberry fruit.
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Related Blogs: Logo of Samsung, Nokia Logo and its History
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