Assignment

1. The Rise and Fall of BlackBerry
Name ID
MD.Maidul Islam 92009005
Farah Ashika Noor 92009007
Jannatul Nayem Rakiba 91907022

2. Introduction.
• Research in Motion (RIM), a company that was founded by Michael Lazaridis in 1984, rolled out a
handheld email messaging device known as BlackBerry in 1999. Eight years after its inception, RIM
brought Jim Balsillie on board as a co-CEO to help run the business.
• The acceptance of this product within the corporate market did not take long. Some of the large
companies that fully embraced and ordered the device by the thousands for their workers included
Merrill Lynch and Intel Corp. In just one year, RIM saw its market capitalization rise to over $18.6
billion. The company was selling the device exclusively to employees of corporations during the first
few years after the launch at $349 per device along with a monthly subscription fee of $40. This price,
combined with the subscription fee, was the company’s main source of revenue.

3.  At the beginning of the 21st century, there were several other mobile technology solutions such as
pagers, digital cameras, laptops, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and MP3 media players, but none
matched BlackBerry. While Palm, a manufacturer of PDAs and mobile phones, concentrated on the
consumer market, RIM was purely used within corporate markets.
 RIM’s BlackBerry was wirelessly connected to a network at all times; it had a built-in software
program that moved incoming emails from the corporate server to the handheld device for the user
to access. The device saved a great amount of time for staff because they no longer had to stop
other activities and sit down at their desktops to read and respond to important emails.
 In 2005, the company launched an instant messaging framework, BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), a
fast messaging system that was incorporated into BlackBerry’s system. The messaging system’s
privacy and encryption made it popular with both the public and with government officials because
the messages did not go through the usual government servers.

4. The Start of Failure
 Didn’t add any new features so some of their clients went to the extent of utilizing third-party
software integrations to add new features to their devices.
 BlackBerry’s global network coverage was weak outside major towns and cities.
 Competition was steadily growing with other major players entering the mobile industry, such as
HP, Siemens, Samsung, Apple, Microsoft, and Motorola. Some of the features that these companies
added on their devices were cameras, media players, and video games.
 Microsoft proceeded to add free email software programs to providers.
 The launch of the iPhone by Apple in 2007 was a significant contributor to the fall of BlackBerry.
The iPhone came with a touchscreen user interface and therefore eliminated the need for a tactile
keyboard.

5. Environmental Analysis of Internal Factor
• Leadership Failure:
Internal factor that played a critical role
in BlackBerry's earlier success was the
leadership team. According to Himsel
and Inkpen, RIM executives jointly
agreed that their main aim was to
develop technology that would satisfy
the needs of the consumers. But the two
co-CEO of RIM (James Laurence Balsillie
and Mihal "Mike" Lazaridis) were not
careful about the evolution of iPhone
and Android based handsets. They were
underrating the competitors.
• Research and Development Failure:
Microsoft created a version of Windows
OS to be installed in handsets. Apple
could not be ignored since rumors spread
that it was working on a mobile phone,
dubbed the iPhone by some analysts.
Therefore, BlackBerry's reaction to the
market indicators to change was so slow,
making it lag as rivals continue to thrive.
Before losing the market very
dramatically after the launching of
iPhone; they were producing similar type
of handset. They were in one kind of
inertia in design prototyping.

6. • Closed Platform:
The Research in Motion’s (RIM) top
management was reluctant to add other
features to the device; this partly
contributed to its fall. In early 2007, some
BlackBerry clients went to the extent of
utilizing third-party software integrations to
add new features to their devices. RIM
should have taken note of this issue of
third-party software integration and should
have provided a solution for it. Again, the
company failed to go after the retail
consumer market, which by then had heard
of the wonders of this handheld device,
BlackBerry.
• Slow Response:
The launch of the iPhone by Apple in 2007
was a significant contributor to the fall of
BlackBerry. The iPhone came with a
touchscreen user interface and therefore
eliminated the need for a tactile keyboard.
iPhone users could surf the Internet, play
music, access email, and take photos,
among other extra features. But blackberry
take longer time to response to the new
market requirement. They had taken
around 6 years to release the equivalent
product with QWERTY keyboard.

7. Environmental Analysis of External Factor
• Intensity of Rivalry is high.
• Threat of new entrance is high.
• Bargaining power of buyers is low.
• Bargaining power of suppliers is high.
• Threat of Substitute is low.

8. how Blackberry could have remained viable
Understanding the unmet requirement of the customer
One of the major reasons of BlackBerry fall was failure to understand the requirement of the market. In order to
overcome, the need to do better market research.
Enhance the Security Campaign
The major feature of the BlackBerry was secured communication, which helped them to get cooperate clients as well as
large scale customer base like US Army. They need to do marketing based on this.
Development of Open System
Initially the BlackBerry OS was facing trouble to get application in Smartphone era, and later on BlackBerry started
producing handset with Android. Now it is the time to make the system more open so that they can get better apps for
their handset.
Alliance with Developers
Develop strategic alliances with software development companies to increase number of available applications.
Selecting different market
BlackBerry need to select one specific market segment to penetrate. As they have Expertise on security and secure
communication, they may focus on the market of government and law enforcement agencies offering secure mobile
communication over public network.