The Tragic Decline of BlackBerry - Essay Example

BlackBerry has made its mark with its line of smartphones with the form and style that it offers. There is almost an exclusivity that accompanies owning a BlackBerry that it has become an iconic piece of technology. The sleek design that the company is known to produce is something distinctly BlackBerry. There are particular elements to it that makes it a cut above the rest like. The QWERTY format of their phones made it the most user-friendly in its field in terms of demanded mobile phone activities such as email, web browsing, text messaging and others.

This coupled with the modern design that it consistently infuses with the minor details that separates it from the rest. But the unsparing competition in its arena has made BlackBerry almost desperate in its attempts to take part of the viability of the market against other specialized and well-established counterparts. In its quest to take a cut and compete with other giants such as Apple, Sony Ericsson, Google and Microsoft, its maker Research in Motion is constantly in its feet testing the market and looking for a solid niche that goes beyond its comfortable smartphone sphere.

It has endeavoured into other business ventures that have fallen quite short of the expectations and overall appeal. The release of the BlackBerry Playbook that claimed to topple down Apple’s Ipad was an epic failure the users and techies dismissed the product as being a major let down. Harry McCracken in his article “BlackBerry: Vision Needed” deemed it as being tremendously disappointing and this could be attributed to what Ben Bajarin in “The Tragic Decline of BlackBerry” refers to as lost customer interest.

These two articles recognize the problems that BlackBerry is facing. There must be a deeper look into contemplating first what products will identify with BlackBerry instead of merely releasing new ones for the sake of market share. McCracken unwittingly said that it is a good move for the company not to announce any new product at DevCon in San Francisco in contrast to what it did it 2010 that built the hype for Playbook. Instead, it is focusing on the new operating system called BBX. Bajarin is on the same page by saying that RIM’s attempt to partake of all the glamor fails to impress the actual customers who make use of the product.

These types of exposure are all but the personality of Steve Jobs and the characteristic of Apple. BlackBerry need not get in on the mix and instead stick to what it does best. Another similar observation between the articles is the notion that BlackBerry has lost sight on the ideals of the company and its identity that first appealed to consumers. “I tried to piece together the things that Lazaridis and his colleagues and guests showed at the keynote to get a sense of what RIM cares about… It was all pretty jumbled.

All I could tell was that RIM is afraid to commit to being anything in particular. It wants to do everything. Which isn’t working” (McCracken, par.7-8). Bajarin goes into the same detail and concludes, “I firmly believe that the turning point was when RIM began chasing mainstream consumers” (par.5). Losing track of its goals and how it could best be able to achieve it without cutting corners was its downfall. But where “The Tragic Decline of BlackBerry” attributes its failure to innovate as the main reason why it is in the position it is in, “BlackBerry: Vision Needed” points out that there may just be tricks up RIM’s sleeves that could easily turn things around with just one explosive product.

There are plenty of talented and innovative developers and members of the company that anything’s possible at this point. Where Bajarin is sceptical that BlackBerry will be able to make drastic overhaul, McCracken sees it’s too early to call it game over. The latter view is quite plausible. It is apparent that BlackBerry lost track by the necessity to survive and lost what made the company unique but there are ways to recover and the people behind the scenes must work extra hard surmount the quicksand it has put itself in.

Bibliography Bajarin, Ben. “The Tragic Decline of BlackBerry.” TIME.com. 8 June 2011. Web. 30 Nov. 2011. McCracken, Harry. “BlackBerry: Vision Needed.” TIME.com. 20 Oct. 2011. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.