Blackberry: A Story about Arrogance & Consumer Power

Blackberry was once referred to as the 'King of Smartphones', controlling over 50% of the Smartphone market in the US and 20% Globally. To put things into perspective, the 3-Trillion Dollar Apple enjoys a global market share of 24.7%. In 2016, however, Blackberry stopped manufacturing its phones. So, what went wrong? It all started in 1996 when 'RIM' created a two-way pager. Two-Way Pagers are basically responding devices with a built in QWERTY keyboard and 'RIM' or Research in Motion was basically the company that led to the starting of Blackberry.

Eventually, RIM kept on adding several features to this Two-Way Pager. Fast-forward to 2002 and the company came up with something similar to the smartphones we know of. This was blackberry.

'RIM' kept on adding several new features to its device and ultimately turned it into a status symbol.

The feature of 'Blackberry Messaging' made these phones extremely valuable for several business individuals who could now work and connect with their co-workers even outside of their office. Blackberry was at the very top and everything was going perfectly for the company until this particular individual decided to show up: 👇

The new iPhone showed consumers something that they had never seen before. A fully touch screen device that got rid of the unnecessary keyboard! The downfall of Blackberry started when it didn't perceive the iPhone as a threat and instead went on with their activities as usual. The company experienced its first blow when its newly launched touch screen device was clamped down upon by the critics and customers due to its sluggish performance.

Things were still running 'FINE' for blackberry until Apple finally decided to throw the knockout punch at it with the launch of iPhone 4, after which apple's sales surpassed those of blackberry's.

Ultimately, blackberry fell off. The company held a *massive* market share of 0% in 2016!

This was the story of blackberry and it teaches us 3 major things about the world of business:

• Customer is the king and all producers must adapt to the market trend

• The customer waits for no business. If they find a better product elsewhere, they will shift

• Consumer Taste and Preference is an important concept that isn't only limited to economic books

---