Blackberry up for Sale- Told ya!

Well, I don’t want to sound like a show-off, but I said this was coming, at least a year ago. Here’s why-

1. The market and customers have moved on
With enterprises taking to BYOD initiatives and allowing people to get their own devices (the iOSes and the Androids) to work, companies and people are fine with whatever platforms get the work done. Security on mobile isn’t the scare it used to be, at least not enough to command the BB premium in price.

2. Dominant design, no more
Agreed a keyboard makes typing long messages easy, but who wants to type when you can dictate (I’m talking about Siri and its ilk here). Same goes with the look, feel, build et al. Dear BB, you are not leading on the design front anymore. Sorry.

3. Apps and Social Networking
Cross platform and cross-device integration- the ability to access all your information from all your devices like desktop, laptop, tablet, mobile etc.- is the future on which billion dollar businesses are being built (read Cloud tech). And you launch a new platform in which apps doesn’t gel with existing platforms (ever used social networking on BB??).
You want people to pay you premium for your devices while you try to figure out integration methods and fixes; BB, you gotta be kidding me…

4. You were in a sensory hibernation
How long ago in history did Amazon find mediocre success with Kindle Fire HD?? Oh wait, that was just last year…
Kindle Fire tried to do on a small scale what BB has been trying for years now- new platform, custom apps, app store, locked in content market- all of it. Now, when markets shoo away someone so closely resembling you, you should not be blind and deaf if you don’t want to look dumb.

5.  Incomplete device portfolio
Whatever happened to a tablet form factor from BB!
Tablets are today what smartphones were yesterday. Specifically in enterprise markets. (BB, that was supposedly your target market, wasn’t it?) Don’t show me the Playbooks- they are so obsolete in configuration that they are not good enough now even for ‘Play’ nor for ‘books’. I for one, was waiting for a BB tab. Disappointed.

6. Let’s face it. It’s too late
With a better bundle of features at a lower price and with a fun new interface (read multi-touch), a whole breed of devices have cropped up and people have happily jumped ship while BB was busy plugging the leaks in its hold. Move on!


Disclaimer: The views mentioned here are entirely personal and do not represent any organization or institution I am associated with. After all, it's sad to see a giant fall...

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