Consumer Behavior of RIM BlackBerry - Term Paper Example

SWOT ANALYSIS of RIM BlackBerry Without a doubt, the decline of market share of RIM BlackBerry is extremely alarming. This trend can be explained bya lot of factors, including the influences on its decline that are within and beyond a company’s control. This part reviews and examines analytically these internal and external factors through the use of SWOT Analysis. SWOT Analysis or an examination of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that a project or business venture faces is really one effective strategic tool for a marketing plan that can find a competitive advantage for any organization (Hagos and Pal, 2010).1 STRENGTHS Brand image – Definitely, BlackBerry has its very own strong brand image in the mobile phone market. Especially, having a BlackBerry is perfect for professional and business – minded people. As suggested by Morisy in 2008, its features catering for business world are its strength as BlackBerry is a phone highly recommended by IT professionals.2 Product Features – BlackBerry has an easy – to – use QWERTY keyboard. Apart from that, BlackBerry has coverage in lots of countries, hence used around the globe. One of its strongest features is its strong email capabilities3 which keeps one connected and does well in providing an email mobile environment. In addition to that, its mobile email provider is fast. Undeniably, BlackBerry has a strong business class features (Barker, 2011).4 On the one hand, this mobile phone has showed its usefulness in being connected in social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter as well. Hence, BlackBerry gives an edge on its utmost functionality. Hardware and User Interface Design – Its OS is exclusive to RIM gadgets. This indicates a stable, reliable and consistent feature of BlackBerry (Barker, 2011).5 BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) – What was lacking in iPhone and other android phones is its exclusivity for having an exclusive messaging service for BlackBerry users (Arthur, 2012).6 WEAKNESSES Absence of Innovation – BlackBerry is not an innovative phone which causes consumers to abandon it for iPhone and other android phones. According to Hansberry (2009), this is for the reason that the BlackBerry IT department is not that much interested to media, web browsing and other applications that the others can perform better.7 BlackBerry is more often than not behind the new technological innovations of phones. Limited Applications – Unlike iPhone and other android phones, BlackBerry does not have much selection of applications. It does not have the trendy applications like Instagram of which gives artsy snapshots in social networking sites and games in iPhone, and much more applications provided by the android market.8 Lacks Style and Aesthetics – In contrast to other phones, BlackBerry is not stylish and aesthetically appealing enough to a wide array of consumers because of its no more than sleek professional look. Cost of Ownership – Since known as a high – end product, BlackBerry is quite expensive as compared to other phones. Though now, it has offered selected affordable BlackBerry phones, its price does not still reflect the applications that are provided in other phones of its same price. Small Screen Features – Given that BlackBerry is known for its QWERTY keyboard, only its TORCH touchscreen models are providing large screen features. Nonetheless, its screen is not that big when compared to other phones available in the market like Samsung Galaxy S series. OPPORTUNITIES Applications Market – Indeed, the value of email is understood mostly by people but individuals are reluctant to pay this price for email feature alone. This means, offering more applications can be the biggest opportunity for Blackberry. According to Gardner (2008), for the reason that the BlackBerry Partners Fund is used in helping to make downloadable applications from independent companies, this is its main opportunity that must be explored quickly.9 Though Apples iPhone dominates this market, it is a must for BlackBerry to hastily adopt this model for creating the applications that would surely serve as entertainment and provide enjoyment among its users. Having an updated and innovative applications market will surely position BlackBerry to retain its current market through upgraded web capabilities. Apart from that, this will give an edge of penetrating the market who seeks more innovative features from a phone through overall multimedia capabilities. This will surely satisfy the growing consumers. Provide More Affordable BlackBerry Models Though Control the Manufacture to a Few Models– Though it is the case that BlackBerry has recently offered new BlackBerry Curves, the 9320 and 9220 models, to the market, its price is relatively expensive with other android phones of the same price when both features are put into comparison. But the thing is, BlackBerry is reaching out to the market who wants to afford a BlackBerry phone. Such move of manufacturing affordable BlackBerry models is advantageous for the brand but should put control on creating new models. Release of 2 new affordable BlackBerry models is acceptable but producing more is extremely damaging to the equity of the brand. This is because the premium image of BlackBerry will be deteriorated. Hence, reaching out the market through offering new affordable but limited models of BlackBerry will gain more market share which maintains as well the premium image of BlackBerry. THREATS Increased Competition from Smartphone Category of Mobile Market – Indeed, the competition has greatly intensified and been tougher more than ever before. The wide – ranging suppliers of smartphone challenges the position of BlackBerry every single day. This is a big threatening reality for BlackBerry especially that its total competition is able to innovate fast while offering more affordable smartphones with features that are comparable or even better with BlackBerry. References: Arthur, Charles (2012, 20 March). RIM’s core strengths are weaknesses now. The Guardian. Retrieved from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/mar/30/rim-consumer-markets-blackberry Barker, Adrian (2011). BlackBerry OS: Strengths and weaknesses. R-Tools Technology. Retrieved from: http://blackberry-strengths-weaknesses.articles.r-tt.com/ Gardner, W.D. (2008). $5.5 million BlackBerry fund invests in future mobile harvest. The Information Week. Retrieved from: http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal_tech/blackberry/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=211800070 Hagos, T.M. and Pal, G. (2010). The means of analysis and evaluation of corporate performances. Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica 12(1): 438 – 449. Hansberry, E. (2009). Blackberry Leads Enterprise Market Share Numbers. The Information Week. Retrieved from: http://www.informationweek.com/news/mobility/business/229206390 Morisy, M. (2008). As iPhone passes BlackBerry market share, RIM prepares to counterpunch. TechTarget. Retrieved July 23, 2009, from: http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid40_gci1338352,00.html Read More