BlackBerry: Company Profile, Products, And Strategy

Overview of BlackBerry

Question:

Discuss about the Smartphone and Tablets Development.

Blackberry is a multinational company based in Canada that specializes in the internet of things and enterprise software. Formerly the group was identified as Research in Motion (RIM). The Company was well known to the public for smartphone and tablets development branded as Blackberry. Under the management of chief executive officer John S Chen, the company transitioned to production of enterprise software and services (En.wikipedia.org, 2017). The product under enterprise software is used by business owners globally. Some of its software’s include, blackberry UEM, QNX real-time operating systems and AtHoc crisis communication platform. When John S Chen took over the company, he had a different strategy for the company which included concentrating on software technology and contract out manufacturing to Foxconn. Currently, the business model strategy involves coming up with authorizing partnership with device producer such a TCL Communication and amalgamating Blackberry software collection. Over the years the company had a different achievement that comprises of: It was the first developer to come up with wireless technology.it was the first company outside Scandinavia to develop Mobitex wireless products connectivity. The company introduced its first Mobitex protocol converter.

In September 2011, the company suffered a massive outage, affecting many of its consumers. The sluggish growth pressed the company to adopt a strategy that laid off 2000 of its employees in 2011.The outage happened during that time that Apple was preparing to for its iPhone 4S launch, this triggered qualms of mass defection from the policy. By October 2011, the RIM uncovered, prospect blackberry smartphone new platform that would be based on similar QNX as a play book (Editorial, 2017). The platform was renamed blackberry after the RIM had been accused of brand breach regarding name BBX. Blackberry has placed more emphasis on its complete strategic refurbishment. First, the company is targeting the niche market as opposed to its previous focus on mass customer market. The company has presented long track record in the high competency of its security systems and skills. The company is shifting its focus to targeting enterprise and enterprise facility as opposed to safeguarding its spot in a competitive and saturated smartphone market. With regards to this market perspective, Blackberry services and products are valued and well differentiated from competitor’s brands.

When blackberry released blackberry enterprise service 12, it was enough evidence of the strategic shift taken by the company (Guides.library.ubc.ca, 2017). The product is software that allows mobility management to manage the mobile devices securely. Strategic direction promises the company good return for the various reasons. First, the original success of blackberry was built on its relevance and security within a business context. Secondly, with security becoming a major issue of concern recently, with the growth of data connectivity, it becomes harder to ignore security measure to curb cyber-attacks. However, the market being very competitive, blackberry requires to identify trends, adapt quickly and innovate ways it can meet the consumer demand, for it to maintain a competitive advantage,

Products under Enterprise Software

Blackberry operates in an industry that covers a broader number of sectors that is technology industry. Technology industry relates to the company that provides communication services to the consumers. Computer service and enterprise resource planning, computer hardware and software, internet and telecommunication have impacted ion people lives either on the positive or the negative (Anon, 2017).These industries are the backbone of the technology industry.

Blackberry operates in communication tools industry. The industry caters to consumers demand in services and electronic apparatuses to enhance communication. The products range from the mobile handset to telephone network infrastructure .these products may operate through wired connections or in wireless connection to the public communication network. Blackberry holds a market share of 5% (Moorman).

The company has highly secure phone that is its main strength. This has enabled the company to be on the competitive edge. The company has a mobile phone that offers highly encrypted secured network that has provided a secure plat for communication without fear of cyber-attacks. Secondly, the company strength has been its focus on the small consumer segment (Jurevicius, 2017). Contrasting its competitors the company has placed its emphasis on the narrow consumer segment. This approach is to ensure that the demands of the customer are met.

The company has reduced marketing strategies of its products. Before the lunch of Apple product iPhone 4S, Blackberry had its brand in the market performing well with a more significant market share. However, the company was overtaken by its competitors due to its reluctance in the marketing of its name. Secondly, playbook tablet launch was not well received in the market, and it only had a smaller market share which made the company go through loss. This decreased blackberry chances to compete with its competitors Apple or Samsung who received the more significant income and profit growth due to tablet increase sales and demand (Jurevicius, 2017).

The blackberry can seize the opportunity for growth in mobile advertising. With the increase in cloud-based service demand; The Company can benefit from the growing demand for expansion of its services that are cloud-based.

The company has a lot of risks to keep a close watch. First, the rapid change in technology is posing a significant threat to the technology world. The company is inconsistent production of the new product that will keep up with the competition. This becomes a significant challenge when the company wants to introduce a new product that is innovative and successful. Second threat is the saturation of the smartphone market in the developed countries. This has led to slow growth. Due to this factor, the blackberry has not been able to expand its market share in Canada and USA.Lastly.is the increased competition on contracts offered by the government. Government goes through a process of contract renewal after few years; Blackberry has to compete with its competitors Samsung and Apple for government contract renewal (Jurevicius, 2017).

Strategic Shift to Niche Markets

A detailed description of cost and benefit of blackberry device is discussed as follow. To begin with a price: The cost of deploying a blackberry enterprise server is costly. Ranging from 75% to 59% of value is because of the data expense and voice expenses. Corporate liability policies drive this cost for smartphones. While some organization allows their staff to ask for a refund from the organization if they incur these charges, others only pay a certain percentage. An organization enjoys a lot of benefits on blackberry deployment in the organization. These benefits have been classified into: blackberry devices, allows employees to be more efficient and effective in their work production.as an organization evolve through the deployment of blackberry initiative across a range of employees, and chose an implementation that is more integrative, additional efficiency is obtained in some processes of the workflow.

Based on an article in the linked professional network blackberry failure can be traced to its adoption of the wrong business model to be measured. The company core business was not what the market share assumed. Blackberry has lost its market share to its competitors due to some reasons. First, the company management had a lot of ignorance and pride. Pride is a hindrance to the growth of any business. Ignorance of consumers changing needs and complains will quickly shift their attention to competitors. Secondly, blackberry was reluctant on innovation. In the technology industry, innovation should not stop. These provide a loophole that was filled by its competitors Apple and Samsung through continuous innovation. Thirdly the company lacked proper marketing strategy for its products. It is an advertisement that consumers are made aware of the company products. Lastly, the company was overconfident about its outcome. Overconfidence is a threat to any business since it can bring defeat from its competitor who is continually working their win.

References

Anon, (2017). [online] Available at: https://www.asianentrepreneur.org/blackberry-or-badberry/ [Accessed 15 Nov. 2017].

Anon, (2017). [online] Available at: RIM (Blackberry) Provides 9 Lessons in best turnaround strategies https://www.bizcoachinfo.com/archives/9072 [Accessed 15 Nov. 2017].

Anon, (2017). [online] Available at: RIM changes name to BlackBerry as BB10 launches - Toronto - CBC News https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2013/01/29/business-rim-blackberry.html [Accessed 15 Nov. 2017].

Editorial, R. (2017). ${Instrument_CompanyName} ${Instrument_Ric} Company Profile | Reuters.com. [online] U.S. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/companyProfile/BB.TO [Accessed 15 Nov. 2017].

En.wikipedia.org. (2017). BlackBerry Limited. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry_Limited [Accessed 15 Nov. 2017].

Forbes.com. (2017). Forbes Welcome. [online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/robclarfeld/2017/10/18/dont-let-cyber-thugs-keep-you-from-digitizing-key-documents/#903f0644d155 [Accessed 15 Nov. 2017].

Guides.library.ubc.ca. (2017). Research Guides: Company Profiles A-C: BlackBerry. [online] Available at: https://guides.library.ubc.ca/companies-A-C/companies-a-c/blackberry [Accessed 15 Nov. 2017].

Jurevicius, O. (2017). BlackBerry SWOT analysis 2013. [online] Strategic Management Insight. Available at: https://www.strategicmanagementinsight.com/swot-analyses/blackberry-swot-analysis.html [Accessed 15 Nov. 2017].

Moorman, James. "BlackBerry: Current Environment." Standards & Poors. N.p., 18 Oct 2012. eb. <https://www.netadvantage.standardandpoors.com.proxresearchport.umd.edu/NASApp/NetAdvantage/cp/companyIndustrySurvey.do?task=showIndustrySurveyByTicker>.