blackberry

The slow deterioration of BlackBerry

By Elliot Chan, Opinions Editor

Formerly published in the Other Press. Nov. 2013

Flashback to three, maybe five years ago, when BlackBerry was supplying the dominant product in the smartphone market. Then BlackBerry phones disappeared. One moment we were hearing the trademark clicking of fingers to keypad, and the next there was silence. Consumers lost interest, and stock value plummeted. New executives were brought in, but nothing could save the former titan of mobile devices from irrelevancy.

Technology, like evolution, has always been about survival of the fittest. Whoever adapts to the changing environment first will gain dominance. BlackBerry, however, was unable to foresee that touch screen was the next phase in smartphone technology. BlackBerry founder and former CEO of Research in Motion, Mike Lazaridis, underestimated the market and overestimated consumers’ loyalty to his product. After the initial release of the iPhone, BlackBerry executives held a board meeting where Lazaridis denied change. He pointed at a touch screen example and said, “I don’t get this.” People like the keypad, he thought—and if it isn’t broken…

Like the story about the tortoise and the hare, there is just no way for the hare to catch up now after waking up—not from a nap, but from a productivity-coma. But what choice does the company have now that it has pretty much given away its most valued asset, BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) and appointed a new interim CEO, John Chen?

I believe there are three possibilities for Chen and BlackBerry in the next five years. One is for them to peter out. They’ll continue down the path they are going, trying to keep up with Apple and Android. Even if their products are of greater quality, their diminished reputation will leave consumers wary about purchasing—there might be a few loyal CrackBerry-heads, but appealing only to them would either leave the company in ruins or forced into a merger or acquisition.

The second possibility is for BlackBerry to transition away from creating devices and focus on being an iMessaging company. This scenario might seem like a huge step backwards, but I believe it’s the most reasonable. Since product experts already consider every BlackBerry smartphone to be obsolete, there is no reason to waste precious time and money developing them for the waste bin. By focussing on perhaps their best innovation, BBM, they can gain some leverage and loyalty back. As it stands, BBM currently has 80-million active users.

The third possibility brings me back to BBM and the idea of thinking ahead of the curve and anticipating trends. BlackBerry failed to do that with touch screens, but they were able to foresee the future of instant messaging—well, at least they did many years ago. The original concept was risky. They made BBM exclusive to BlackBerry devices, which forced consumers to own a BlackBerry if they wanted to use the free and efficient messaging service. That tactic won’t work now, but there are many more innovations out there in the sea of wireless technology. In this scenario, it really does become an arms race, because Apple, Android, and a bunch of other little fish are racing for the same best new idea.

Will iOS and Android users respond to the BlackBerry Messenger applaunching for iPhones and Androids this summer? Mike Lazaridis, founder and former vice chairman of BlackBerry believes they will.

“BBM is by far the most compelling wireless experience and wireless social-networking environment,” Lazaridis said at the Bloomberg Canada Economic Summit in Toronto last week. After stepping down as executive and co-chairman of BlackBerry in 2012 and leaving the board in March, Lazardis feels his successors are taking the company in the right direction.

“What he’s [BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins] doing now is really speaking to the confidence he has in the platform, the products,” said Lazardis. “Not only is BlackBerry back in a big way with BB10, he has also shown that he can expand that vision to other platforms.”

Sixty million BlackBerry customers are currently using the free BBM service and rely on it daily. While some consider the transition inevitable, others consider the risk of BlackBerry losing control of their most valuable services. Profit has still yet to be determined, but with new BBM channels with chat rooms focused on specific topics and themes, many advertisers may seek the company for sponsoring opportunities.

It has been awhile since BlackBerry has fallen from the smartphone pedestal. If it wasn’t for companies and government agencies’ reliance on the existing BBM service, survival may not have been possible. Now as BlackBerry dust itself off and return for glory, will costumers support their comeback? BBM has a daunting mountain to climb to regain relevance, competing with other instant messaging applications such as WhatsApp, iMessenger, Facebook Messenger, Google+ and many more cross-platform messengers.

Since WhatsApp has over 200 million active users and iMessanger with over 140 million, BlackBerry will have to do more than simply avoid extinction to get noticed. But still, Lazardis believes that the unique BBM experience will win over the public. BBM has many positive attributes and their loyal costumers can tell iPhone and Android users all about BBM Group and the messenger’s immediacy, with almost half of all messages read within 20 seconds of being sent.

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BBM’s move to other platforms may be their return to the top of the smartphone rankings or it may be their initiative for their own demise. By making BBM available for all platforms, current BlackBerry users may just take this convenient opportunity to transition as well.