RIM, founded in 1984 and headquartered in Waterloo, is a major player in the wireless solutions market, known for its BlackBerry brand launched in 1999. The company aims to innovate and enhance consumer appeal while facing intense competition, particularly from Nokia, Apple, and other tech giants. Business objectives include increasing market share and brand loyalty, while adapting to shifting consumer trends towards smartphones and social networking.

1. By: Severn Bailey, Peter Hewitt, Hazel
Pallie, Emily Jeffery, Peter Greenfield

2. Pearl 3G TourCurve
Bold 9700
Storm 2
Torch

3. “RIM is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of
innovative wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile
communications market. Through the development of
integrated hardware, software and services that support
multiple wireless network standards, RIM provides platforms
and solutions for seamless access to time-sensitive
information, including email, phone, short messaging service,
Internet and intranet-based applications.”
Fast Facts:
-Founded in 1984
-Headquarters in Waterloo
-Offices in North America, Asia-Pacific
and Europe
-Launched the Blackberry in1999
-Led By Co-CEO Jim Balsillie and
President and CO-CEO Mike Lazaridis

4. Business Objectives:
Continue to launch innovative new products and services to
address existing and new market segments;
Continue to focus on delivering strong financial performance for our
shareholders
Marketing Objectives:
-To increase brand loyalty by offering a user friendly product
-To Produce a product focused on the consumer market with more
style and better looks, which can suite the life style of consumers
-To change the stereotyped image on enterprise by offering new
products range
-And to increase the market share of blackberry by 10% in the
consumer market in the next years

5. -As of 2009 Canada had 6 Independent wireless
service providers totaling 24 million subscribers
-Forecasted to generate ~$39 billion in economic revenue
-154 million text messages sent per day in Canada
Total GDP Contribution
-Consumer trends moving towards smartphones
-Smartphone sales account for 25% of the
N.A. mobile phone market, smartphones
Are expected to become the majority by the end
of 2011 (Nielson)
-Morgan Stanley Research estimates sales of
smartphones will exceed those of PCs in 2012.

6. -Change in recent years from Business class to Business-Consumer
-Target Audience Males and Females 18-40
-Various models from prices to looks
-Hold large North American share, focusing on International shares
-Focusing on large shift towards social networking and applications
-New competition entering markets, with large financial backing
stealing market share
-Revamped models every 6 months-1 year due to technological
advancements
-With large shift in trends towards buying smartphones sometimes
resources among competitors become scarce
2002
Blackberry
Dec 2006
Google
Jan 2007
Apple
2007
Nokia
April 2009
Samsung
June 2009
Palm
Oct 2009
Motorola
Oct 2010
Microsoft
True Smartphone entrance of the years
-Political factors may effect profitability if financial
Deficits lead to higher taxes

9. -Smartphones have been accepted as the norm
-Lifestyles and integrated part of day to day life
-Loyal consumer base “crackberry addicts”
-Middle-Upper class consumers with disposable income
-Still large share of company enterprises
-Shifts in technology are now allowing smartphones to become
Laptop replacements

10. -Internationally largest competitor is Nokia with roughly 40%
of market share
-Within Canada: Apple, HTC, Samsung, LG, Motorolla, Sony & Palm
-Competitors have large financial backing from other products

11. Product Strengths:
-long time evolutionary experience with “push technology”
email, BBM and document handling
-full, easy to use qwerty key-pad
-over-the-air upgrades never have to see a cable other than the
one that charges the power
-administration workers no longer need to physically handle
devices
-advanced server networks allow users to download documents
from shared servers
-ability to store emails on an SD card
-enhanced telephony integration which makes blackberry’s
communication network run smoother
-excels in providing secure access to corporate network
enterprise support, including BlackBerry Enterprise Server

12. Company Strengths:
-Strive for Research and Development which leads to innovation
-Strong upper Management
-Reputation Management
-Strong finances which lead to technology advancement
-Company culture leads to lower turnover
rate
-Over 450 wireless carrier relationships
worldwide
-RIMs very strategic acquisition was its
purchase of QNX last april which is a supplier
of robust embedded systems software
-Loyal “Crackberry” addicts

13. Internet Browsing By Operating system
-Rim’s reliance on its suppliers for functional components
-Risks associated with expanding foreign operations
-Restrictions on import and use of rims products
-Government regulations of wireless spectrum and radio frequencies
-Sluggish mobile browser
-Lack of app development tools
-Channels of distribution are limited to operators
-Increases costs and time associated with smaller operations
-Rims arrangements with carriers are not friendly charging them high fe

14. -Increase market share in the highly concentrated European and
Asian markets
-Target the preteen and teenage market (12-18 years old) and
retain them as lifelong users
-Create family-oriented plans, promoting the Blackberry Messenger
“conference” function; the positive network externality or having
an entire family on the Blackberry network
-Create models that would appeal to a younger set:
· Bright colours
· Improve pc interface to make more user-friendly
· Improve music playing function
· Improve camera capabilities that allow for image editing
-New cellular providers entering Canada will make data more affordable
-Promotion of application development

16. -As competition grows within the market so does employment
Competition making good engineers hard to find
-With rapid market growth and large profit this makes the market
Very tempting for large indirect competitors to quickly become
Direct competitors
-Rim has no other financial backing besides its smartphones
-Source code loss, &
software piracy