The IT Nerd

I got a number of questions about BlackBerry in the last 24 hours that I’d like to take some time to answer now:

Hello IT Nerd. Where did BlackBerry go wrong? 

Simple. When the iPhone came out in 2007, RIM at the time dismissed it as a toy. The logic being that nobody wanted a phone that didn’t have a real keyboard and wasn’t primarily focused on e-mail. They were wrong and when they figured it out, it was already too late for them. They’ve been on the back foot ever since.

Good day. You seem convinced that BlackBerry will be sold. What about being taken private? 

That is a possibility and they could do that as that would give them time and space to execute a turnaround. But in the world of “shareholder value” a sale in whole or more likely in pieces is how I see things going. Their network as well as the BB10 operating system are worth a lot to the right buyer. Plus the technology to securely send messages from place to place has value too. Their handset business I’m sad to say has no value. Thus they’ll get picked apart for the most valuable pieces and the rest will be left to rot so to speak.

You’re Canadian. So being a Canadian, shouldn’t you support BlackBerry rather than write its obituary?   

I like to support Canadian companies. Frequent readers of my blog will see that I’ve sung the praises of up and coming Canadian companies for a while now. But that doesn’t mean that I should buy a BlackBerry or wave their flag out of sheer nationalism. That would be somewhat misguided.

Isn’t the smartphone market a bit of the “flavour of the month?” Shouldn’t BlackBerry avoid playing that game? 

No. Apple and Google have figured out that consumers and now businesses like the “flavour of the month” and have stayed on the leading edge of that by giving consumers and businesses what they want. BlackBerry couldn’t or wouldn’t play that game. I say that it’s the latter. That’s why BlackBerry is 4th in a market they largely invented. That’s one thing that needs to change if they are to survive. People have to think that they’re for lack of a better description “cool” again.

Why aren’t BB10 based phones selling? 

I think that smartphones based on the BlackBerry 10 OS are well executed pieces of hardware and software. But what stops them from selling is that they’re perceived as being good but not better than Android and Apple smartphones. Just like the “flavour of the month” question, that’s something that needs to change to give them a shot at surviving.

Please keep the questions coming. I love answering them.

This entry was posted on August 13, 2013 at 7:32 am and is filed under Commentary with tags BlackBerry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.