BlackBerry: No chances of survival.

For BlackBerry, this might be the end.

Keeping up with the bigger brands 

seems almost impossible.

BlackBerry Talking to Google and Samsung About Potential Sale 

When you think of a smartphone, your mind thinks about the Apple iPhone, the Windows phone, and an Android phone. Your mind never thinks about BlackBerry. Today the term "BlackBerry" is only referenced in the textbook as the first company to make email go mobile and as the introduction to smart cellular devices. From there on out, every business professional had a BlackBerry. That is, until the Apple iPhone and Android came around. 

Now the company has been remodeling their mission statement and their products in hope of competing with the top brands. As of late,

BlackBerry is discussing a possible "buy-out," in hopes of selling to Samsung, Google, Cisco Systems, Intel and LG. The response from those companies was not promising. A spokesperson from LG actually denied knowing about the offer. The company recently fired 4,500, about 35% of its workforce, employees and had lost over $1 billion in its second quarter.

CEO of the company, Thorsten Heins, stated, "The rate of innovation is so high in our industry that if you don’t innovate at that speed you can be replaced pretty quickly." Suggesting the BlackBerry will never be able to keep up. What does this mean to the future of the company?

Right now, the only thing going to BlackBerry is its "revolutionizing" appeal, secure messaging system, and its patent collection. The company used to be worth about $100 billion in 2007, now it is nowhere near that amount.

Will BlackBerry be another Palm? Palm came out almost at the same time as the Apple iPhone did. The company was worth over $9 billion when it started up in 2001, then fell behind innovation. Leaving the company worth less than $1.2 billion of which HP ended up buying the company for in 2012.

Iain Gilliot, president of market-strategy consultancy IGR, believes that, when comparing BlackBerry to Palm, "BlackBerry as we know it today is done. But BlackBerry as we used to know it — something's going to live in that form. The thing with BlackBerry is they have two sides to this business. They have 18 million customers using their software — Palm never had that."

What are your thoughts? Is BlackBerry done for good? Or do you think with more innovation of their product, increased research on their target markets needs and wants, or possible technological improvements they could be successful?

                                                                                           Chloe Smith


For more information:
"BlackBerry Talking to Google and Samsung About Potential Sale: Report" http://on.mash.to/1aWE8K5
"BlackBerry Lays Off 4,500 Employees, Loses Nearly $1B In Q2"  http://bit.ly/19yqPCl 
"7 Reasons Why BlackBerry Sucks and You Shouldn't Buy One" http://bit.ly/JVMQwH
"Is BlackBerry done?" http://on.mash.to/18lPu8S