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Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Can Blackberry survive??


In June 2012, when Blackberry delayed the launch of its Blackberry 10 OS, I had a thought in mind that it is too late.
Blackberry has always prided itself as a end to end solution provider, a maker of not only software and hardware products but also device security and management services that have helped enterprises to keep their data secure.
There was a time when Blackberry was class apart. It was always seen as a corporate centered company and it had a large customer base. Its messenger service called BBM was so popular that it was almost impossible to crack down its code for others who dreamt of creating a messenger service like BBM.
But as we all know, everybody has a dream run for a certain period of life, for blackberry its golden days are now over. The company which had once the potential of locking horns with giants like Apple, Samsung and Google is now crying even for its survival.
The company declared in August that it is available for sale.
The company has also planned to cut down 4500 jobs across the globe i.e. 40% of its workforce and has posted nearly 1 billion $ loss in recent quarter.
On september 23, fairfax financial made an offer to purchase blackberry for 4.7 billion $ or 9$ per share in cash. Fairfax already has a 10% stake in the company.
The question is: Can Blackberry survive?..Well, I doubt it.
In today's fast changing world, one has to keep itself updated to stay in competition but blackberry never learnt a lesson. It always advertised itself as a company that is focused on corporate employees. Companies like Samsung and google are the best examples of keeping themselves updated with time. They have brought so much innovation in their products through the years that it has now become impossible for a company like blackberry to even think of surpassing them. Blackberry woke up but it was already late. BB10 OS came at a time when market was already flooded with Android and iOS powered devices and people just cant leave them. So , when BB10 came in market, despite its awesomeness, it did not manage to win hearts.Also, its BBM application is now no longer an alien thing, applications like whatsapp have filled the gap for android iOS users who used to feel jealous of people using BBM. Company is posting  more and more loss after every quarter. None of their strategies are working. Recently, they thought of introducing their popular BBM service to iOS and Android but on the day of release, it leaked online creating a fuss and blackberry had to postpone its launch. The question here is: A company which focuses so much on security is now seeing such a low day that its major release gets leaked?? Clearly the passion for work is missing in employees .

It is sometimes the nature of pioneers to think that the advantages that helped them achieve their leading positions will always be there. Companies that build successful business models using one set of assumptions tend to ignore upstarts and trends that run counter those assumptions, and thus wind up writing their own obituaries.
Yet that is the nature of the capitalist world--the "creative destruction" that economist Joseph Schumpeter hailed. It breathes life into new business, new models and new ideas. The downside is that is also destroys old ones, which is what we're seeing with BlackBerry today.

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