When it comes to business communications RIM/Blackberry is one most well known makers of smartphones that are utilized all over the globe. Well, that is what I might have said back in 2008. In the last four years, we have seen Blackberry go from one of the leaders in Smartphone communications to almost the Atari of Smartphones. RIM last quarter reported a $518 million quarterly loss, so things are not looking good.
If you look at the RIM range of devices going back to the late 90’s, one thing that stands out is the company led the drive to bring email communication to mobile devices with easy to use QWERTY keyboards.
So what happened? Well, the easiest way to explain it is two things: touch screen phones & social networking. Simply put, Blackberry devices were no longer relevant.
The introduction of touch screen devices like the iPhones and Android smartphones have dominated the market place with innovations that Blackberry simply couldn’t keep up with, or commit to. RIM continued to pump out the same phones they had been making for years with minor improvements. They simply couldn’t face that there was a trend to touch screen devices. RIM in recent years has come back with some touch screen devices like the Storm & Torch, but it was a case of too late.
Email communication has always been important, and still is for most people in business, but there is no denying that social networking has become a huge part of the phone experience, and email has become less important in regard to mobile devices. Blackberry devices do have all the social network capability of any phone on the market, the fundament reason to get a Blackberry was no longer needed.
Blackberry was the best phone for email, especially when travelling out of the country, and it will most likely be remembered for that. Blackberry 10 is due to come out at some point this year, and I hope that it works for investors in the company, but I really think it is too late.