4 ms·
RIMM made some major mistakes but was too arrogant as the market leader to take the competition seriously. 1) They Osborne'd their product line by prematurely
by brisance 15y ago
RIMM made some major mistakes but was too arrogant as the market leader to take the competition seriously.
1) They Osborne'd their product line by prematurely showing off new products that weren't ready.
2) They tried to meet the iPad head-on in the consumer market by calling their device a Playbook but their strength is in enterprise. Thus the marketing message came out confused and having a pompous "Amateur hour is over" campaign sealed their own fate.
3) Repeated, worldwide BBM network failures that went on for extended periods of time, alienating its most loyal customers when RIMM needed them the most. This was their core competency and they neglected it. Having alternatives on competing phones like iMessage, WhatsApp etc didn't help.
- redwood 15y agoTalking about terrible marketing: they're running an aggressive television campaign in India right now showing a bunch of singing business men in suits chiming "We are the blackberry boys...." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LducWACdt88 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LducWACdt88 This is one of the most obnoxious, male-centric ads I've ever seen and would never float in the west. Sure it's India... but it's sad that a western company thinks it's cool to run something that doesn't fly back home in S. Asia.
- peterhunt 15y agoOh please. I often see female centric ads on western tv and I dont get offended.
- drieddust 15y agoI am not sure about sexist angle but this clearly shows that blackberry have gone berserk. They are trying to change their business centric image by alienating last remaining business users without having a foothold in consumer market. In hindi there is an old saying "Vinash Kale Viprit Budhi" which roughly translates to rational brain stops working when end is near. :)
- nilsbunger 15y agoI think their biggest issue isn't any of those things. It's that they don't have modern phone SW and an app ecosystem. If they had adopted Android for the app ecosystem and the modern OS, then made a semi-secure version, they could've survived all those gaffes above.