BlackBerry Will Wait for Problems
After being outrun by the popularity of both Android and the iPhone, Canada-based smartphone maker Research in Motion found itself in trouble even before the most recent disruptions led to a Twitter torrent of outrage among Blackberry users last week.
Today the company admits it let down over 70 million users within a wave of outages throughout the globe, which destroyed Blackberry’s reputation. What remains unclear is whether the company finds itself able to win back the trust of consumers. The announcement of the company co-founder didn’t really inspire confidence, since he simply seemed contrite and did as much as voiced a humble apology. However, considering that the customers have already been leaving the company in favour of more versatile rivals from Apple and Android, the company faced a lot of work to do.
The reports say that the outage didn’t only anger existing users, but also made it harder for the company to attract new users to its products. One should keep in mind that media coverage included articles like “Did you survive the Black(Berry) plague?”, which were poking fun at all the Blackberry users. The same was done by multiple YouTube videos – for example, one of them offered at least 10 uses for a dead Blackberry, including a butter spreader, door stop or drink coaster.
Of course, for the company it was no joking matter, and millions of people relying on its devices for different activities would agree to the company. People still remember a company which in the pre-iPhone years was encouraging the use of the nickname CrackBerry to show how addictive its original mobile email service became to lots of users.
Later, after its success three years ago, the company’s stock has dropped over 80%, and the confidence of investors is still troubled by numerous profit warnings, less than expected sales and an obvious failure of management to develop a strategy helping the company successfully compete in a market taken by Apple and Google devices.
For example, in the latest quarter the company shipped only 10.6 million smart phones, which is around 2 million less than was planned. At the same time, the company’s PlayBook tablet is also being sold far less than planned. If you compare these figures to those of Samsung, you will see that the latter shipped 19 million smartphones for the same time period, while Apple sold over 20 million iPhones.
Today the company admits it let down over 70 million users within a wave of outages throughout the globe, which destroyed Blackberry’s reputation. What remains unclear is whether the company finds itself able to win back the trust of consumers. The announcement of the company co-founder didn’t really inspire confidence, since he simply seemed contrite and did as much as voiced a humble apology. However, considering that the customers have already been leaving the company in favour of more versatile rivals from Apple and Android, the company faced a lot of work to do.
The reports say that the outage didn’t only anger existing users, but also made it harder for the company to attract new users to its products. One should keep in mind that media coverage included articles like “Did you survive the Black(Berry) plague?”, which were poking fun at all the Blackberry users. The same was done by multiple YouTube videos – for example, one of them offered at least 10 uses for a dead Blackberry, including a butter spreader, door stop or drink coaster.
Of course, for the company it was no joking matter, and millions of people relying on its devices for different activities would agree to the company. People still remember a company which in the pre-iPhone years was encouraging the use of the nickname CrackBerry to show how addictive its original mobile email service became to lots of users.
Later, after its success three years ago, the company’s stock has dropped over 80%, and the confidence of investors is still troubled by numerous profit warnings, less than expected sales and an obvious failure of management to develop a strategy helping the company successfully compete in a market taken by Apple and Google devices.
For example, in the latest quarter the company shipped only 10.6 million smart phones, which is around 2 million less than was planned. At the same time, the company’s PlayBook tablet is also being sold far less than planned. If you compare these figures to those of Samsung, you will see that the latter shipped 19 million smartphones for the same time period, while Apple sold over 20 million iPhones.
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