The Outsourcing Of Blackberry 's Public Image

RIM has a wide range of customers and established in many developed countries which can gain its brand image among its competitors. As RIM is responsible for innovation of high technology products, there is an effective R&D in RIM to make RIM stay competitive in smartphones industry. A strong relationship between RIM and its service providers showed one of RIM’s core capabilities.

- There are plenty of hardware component manufacturers for cellphones but BlackBerry’s operating system is complicated therefore it limits the number of software developers that will work with them.

According to the article “BlackBerry Posts Loss as Phones Go Unsold”, BlackBerry performs a poor performance. Business has a quarterly loss in 2013 for $965 million. The revenue had drop 45% that down to $1.57 billion from $2.86 billion compares with a year earlier. BlackBerry lost $248 million, or 47 cents a share, and analysts forecast 49 cents a share loss for the quarter ended August 31. The net loss is $235 million which excluding inventory charge and restructuring charges in the latest quarter. The cash position also down to $2.6 billion from $3.1 billion at quarter-end. Smartphone maker report a hefty operating loss of nearly $1 billion charge on inventory of unsold phones.

Lastly, in regards to disruptive innovation, we produced a product that was too sophisticated too fast. People weren’t ready for the BlackBerry when it first came out causing it to be too complicated for many consumers in the market. Yes, we

Primarily, RIM is well known for developing Blackberry, a cellular smart phone that was established in 1984. Blackberry is one of the very few cellular device companies that introduced and supplied people

In 1997, RIM went public with a listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange and raised $115 million from investors (Hempel, 2009). The following year, it made RIM made history again when it introduced the first Blackberry: The RIM 386. The first of its kind, it was a PDA organizer and had the ability to synchronize with corporate emails. This was beginning of their rule in the corporate world. Their products became synonymous with business electronics (“Research In Motion,” 2003). The following year after that, the company introduced its first BlackBerry brand e-mail device, a bulky rectangle with a narrow screen that ran off one AA battery (Hempel, 2009).

Patents: After many years of research and development, particularly in the mobile communications market, BlackBerry has a strong patent portfolio. The estimated value of BlackBerry’s patents ranges from $2 billion to $5 billion.4

The purpose of the report is how good BlackBerry run in the radio and television broadcasting and wireless communications equipment manufacturing industry in Canada in terms of revenues, market share, and the corporation’s Strength and weakness. Also, the report will analyze the BlackBerry’s three corresponding competitors’ market share in the hope of predicting the firm’s future performance.

Research In Motion (RIM) is a Canadian multinational telecommunications company that designs, manufactures and sells cellular phones and other communication devices. RIM’s success started in August 1998 when they launched the inter@active pager 950. In 2003 RIM became one of the most recognized brand names with the introduction of their most popular device the BlackBerry. In June 2011, RIM announced that

Mike Lazaridis, RIM’s CO-Chief Executive Officer, was a passionate advocate for the power of basis science to improve and transform the world. With his engineering degree, Lazaridis is responsible for product strategy, research and development, product development and manufacturing. Jim Balsillie with more charismatic and outgoing personality brought his wealth of business knowledge to RIM. With such strong leading executive team, RIM had achieved a great employee growth by department from Fiscal 1999 to 2001. (exhibit 3) Moreover, RIM has a well-developed corporate culture that celebrates achievement, creativity, and risk taking. Employees at RIM were well compensated and motivated by various benefits, at the meanwhile, RIM is also famous for its corporate giving to the communities.

The device commonly regarded as the first to realise widespread success in the smartphone market was the Blackberry. However the handset, referred to as the ‘crackberry’ (Middleton, 2007) after the feeling of addiction many users felt towards it, was quickly joined in the market by companies such as Apple and Samsung. The intriguing market seems to be constantly evolving and is still an emerging market subject to multiple market forces. Many economic theories can be applied to this market including Monopolistic Competition, Platform Competition along with Network Effects and Tipping Points. The market has seen the evolution of smartphones from a keyboard based device with closed operating systems into thin, touch

RIM has had a rash of bad press due to failures in its email system as well as its product and management strategy. RIM has suffered two major disruptions of service in 2009 and 2011 that have tarnished the touted reliability standard that has been a standard marketing tool for BlackBerry devices. In 2011 alone, RIM stock dropped more than 50% due to a series of product errors and profit warnings. (Sharp & Prodhan, 2011)

Shakespeare said – „What‟s in a name?‟ Everything..!! BlackBerry – an exotic looking fruit with wine like taste. How did that fruit become associated with terms like business, emails, internet on go? How did BlackBerry – which has become a sort of cult, have its fruity name from? One would think that probably the CEO, Mike Lazaridis or somebody influential from RIM was partial to the seedy fruit. Which “surprise” “surprise” isn‟t True. It‟s got a more logical origin to it. In 2001, RIM

Apple could make future strides in the smartphone industry, if it can figure out a way to steal away some market share from BlackyBerry users. Many business users prefer the BlackBerry to all other smartphones in the industry.

▪ BlackBerry product first launched in 1999 ▪ Wide range of Wireless Service Providers (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and all major global providers) ▪ 41 Million units sold in 2009 ▪ 80+ Million units currently in use globally