CASE STUDY Keyboard lovers bemoan their own as BlackBerry in trouble BlackBerry could soon be leaving the phone business, which is worrying its loyal users who have refused to give up its devices.After teaching the world to type on tiny buttons, BlackBerry could soon be leaving the business of making phones - leaving fewer options for a vocal minority still committed to phones with its once popular physical keyboard.

1. CASE STUDY
ANALYSIS
GUIDE
Prof. Dr. R. GOPAL
ASSIGNMENT
CASE STUDY
TITLE
KEYBOARD LOVERS
BEMOAN THEIR OWN
AS BLACKBERRY IN
TROUBLE
SUBMITTED BY:
SURAJ KOKANE [41]
SHRIDHAR
MASURKAR [49]
KARTIK MEHTA [50]

2. CASE STUDY
Keyboard lovers bemoan their own as BlackBerry in trouble
BlackBerry could soon be leaving the phone business, which is worrying its loyal users
who have refused to give up its devices
What is a BlackBerry user to do?
After teaching the world to type on tiny buttons, BlackBerry could soon be leaving the business of
making phones - leaving fewer options for a vocal minority still committed to phones with its once
popular physical keyboard.
"It's not good, not good at all," said Gord Rosko, the president of GR Communications, a consulting
firm in Edmonton, Alberta.
Rosko said he had used BlackBerrys for about nine years. "What I call my fat Polish fingers have a
hard time with touch-screen keyboards. So, I'm going to keep using this thing until I can't anymore."
The possibility that BlackBerry would exit the handset business was only reinforced on Friday, when
the company announced disastrous financial results, including a quarterly loss of nearly $1 billion.
BlackBerry had warned last week that the results would be bad, heightening expectations that it
would put less focus on handsets.
In the last few years, most smartphone users have switched to touch-screen models, like the iPhone,
with virtual keyboards that appear on a glass screen.
That has left few good alternatives for people like Rosko, especially beyond BlackBerry.
Charles Golvin, an analyst at Forrester who tracks the handset market, said most phones with
buttons were inexpensive models aimed at teenagers. Most use slide-out keyboards, but those add
extra weight and heft. He offered simple advice for people sticking to a physical keyboard.
"The way you now interact with phones is through touch screens. Get over it," he said. "Maybe the
message isn't just get over it; it’s give touch screens a chance."
Still, the chances that some company will try to pick up BlackBerry's single-digit market share are
good. Ted Schadler, Forrester's vice president and principal analyst, said he expected some
companies to experiment with keyboards. "Then there's a big question mark of whether people will
go for them," he said.
The experiments may actually come from the companies that overtook BlackBerry in smartphones.
Samsung Electronics, whose Android-based phones are a leader in smartphone sales, has already
offered phones with physical keyboards. But more important, it is aggressively going after

3. professionals, who were the first adopters of the BlackBerry and who appear to disproportionately
remain its final users. This year it introduced Knox, a set of security features for Android aimed at
government and corporate users.
Motorola Mobility, as it rebuilds itself under Google's ownership, might also re-entre the keyboard
phone market, too. Before the Google takeover, some of its most popular Android phones included
a slide-out keyboard.
Golvin said he was sceptical about any company trying to build a high-end smartphone with a
physical keyboard. BlackBerry's method of combining a screen and keyboard significantly reduces
screen size, he said. The smaller screen often requires developers to tweak their apps to work on the
different size, making some reluctant to make apps that work on the phones.
But more important, Golvin said, is that the overwhelming majority of smartphone users have
spoken and found that the downsides of on-screen keyboards - namely, more typos - are
outweighed by a variety of other advantages.
While there remains a chance that BlackBerry will continue to churn out handsets, the company's
results on Friday underscored how big of a challenge that would be. Because the handset business
requires a large sales volume to be profitable and to sustain development, many analysts expect
BlackBerry to focus its remaining resources on software and services for corporations.
That strategy could change if the company is sold. The company's largest shareholder has made a
tentative and conditional offer to buy the 90 percent of BlackBerry's stock it does not own. But many
analysts expect BlackBerry to soon leave the business of making phones regardless of the owner.
The loss reported on Friday mainly reflected a $934 million write-down of a growing inventory of
unwanted BlackBerry Z10 phones, the devices that the company had hoped would restore its
fortunes, as well as $72 million in charges related largely to layoffs.
The $1.6 billion in revenue during the three-month period that ended August 31 was well below the
$3 billion analysts had expected and reflected a 49 percent drop from the first quarter

4. Strategic Management Dr. Gopal Case Study Analysis
Q.1 Is Joint Venture or Buyout the only solution for
Blackberry? Suggest a turnaround strategy to keep the
company afloat.
Solution:
Joint Venture or Buyout can be one of the solution for BlackBerry.
The Turn Around Strategy to keep the company afloat is as follows:
 Re-launching the product with different name
 Understand consumer preference and work on it
 Convey the unique selling points and make use of it to create brand
awareness
 Use offers and market it
 Reposition the brand
 Understand the demand and make production accordingly
Q.2 As Samsung Electronics is the leading brand in
Smart Phone Category, What Strategy should it adopt to
benefit from Blackberry’s fail?
Solution:
Samsung to adopt the following strategy:
 Samsung should try to add in additional features compared to
Blackberry’s product. These product of Samsung should be available at a
reasonable cost (inspite of addition of features) in order to attract
customers that are in favour of Blackberry.
 Do a competitor analysis (with Blackberry) in order to analyse the
mistakes done by Blackberry and learn from it.
Alkesh Dinesh Mody Institute SYMMS 2014-2015

5. Strategic Management Dr. Gopal Case Study Analysis
 Also develop the product as per the new technology requirement or as
per the changing customer requirement.
Q.3 Blackberry products are used by governments and
large financial institutions around the world for secure
communications. How can Blackberry benefit from it?
Solution:
Since Blackberry is used by government and large financial institutions, it can
benefit in following ways:
 Since there are large number of employees working in government and
financial institutions, Blackberry can attract large number of customers
 Generally in Government and Large Financial institutions, once a make
of a product is been approved, the mostly all employees are advised to
use that particular make
 For that Blackberry only needs to only provide discounted rate and try to
make the decision making units happy
More Points including the detailed solutions vis-à-vis thorough discussion of the
strategies will be included in the presentation.
Alkesh Dinesh Mody Institute SYMMS 2014-2015