Is Blackberry In Trouble?
The mere question has millions of people worldwide recoiling in shock, but yet the question is becoming more and more of a statement.
Most people have fingered its delicate keys as they played the iconic “Brick Breaker” game, or marveled at its innovative technologies. Blackberry was certainly a pioneer. But sometimes the pioneer is the first to go.
Blackberry’s Troubles
RIM, the company behind the Blackberry, is trapped in a muddled mess of power failure, weak network signals, and plunging sales. The situation is indeed grim, and RIM officials don’t hold back on their despair for now and the future. The facts do paint a bleak picture. Since its “Golden Age” from its debut in 1999 to 2008, Blackberry’s stock has plunged 95 percent and continues to free-fall about 5 percent day by day. The company has lost nearly a third of its workforce with the cutting of 5000 jobs.
Tough Competition
In 1999, during its spectacular debut, to own a Blackberry was to be “cool” -- a hallmark of powerful executives and savvy technophiles. The Blackberry, while reporting sales in the millions and raking in hundreds of billions, was sitting at the top of the world. Its innovative technologies endeared it to the world, and an impressive dictionary was built up around the revered phone. “Blirting”, “BlackBerry thumb”, and “drunk-Berrying” became part of the vocabulary.
But more and more recently, Blackberry has found that its closest competitors, once miles away, have now surged ahead in the smartphone market. Namely, the iPhone and Android Series. These two giants have dominated the phone sales, and they are constantly pushing the boundaries of the new. With countless apps available, impressive voice recognition technology, touch screen, and so much more, iPhone and Android are sprinting ahead.
BlackBerry “Push” Tech
Did you know that the blackbery was the first to introduce “push” technology that embedded in all major smartphones today? In fact, it seems second nature to us today.
Basically, what it does is that it “pushes”, or redirects new emails, calendar updates, documents, and other data straight to the user over the Internet and the cellphone network. First, the software senses that a new message has arrived or the data has changed. Then it compresses, packages, and redirects the data to the handheld unit, while shaping the data for display on the phone. The Blackberry handheld itself listens for new information and notifies the user with flashing lights, vibration, or sound when that arrives.
In a nutshell, to access email on your phone before, one had to go to the Internet. The Blackberry made it an “app” on your phone. Can the storied giant rise up again, or will it be finished once and for all?
Cmon BlackBerry, your phones are dying. I have a new Bold and I am afraid I am moving to Galaxy S3. I will move back to BlackBerry when BB try to actually make a good phone which everyone wants. Yes QWERTY is very good for typing and yes BB is best for calling and text but seriously. MAKE BETTER PHONES ABD JOIN ANDROID! ITS SIMPLE.
I like Iphones more the BlackBerries are older, so everyone goes for the newer. I like Iphones more because they're SO much more easy to use! And of coure more apps.
haha iphone is the best
blackberry is CRAPPY it does not have good hd or hq i highly recommend iphone android or samsung
I prefer the iPhone but I love Brick breaker!
With the competition from other companies blackberry has a very small chance of getting back on the path. Great article Arjun
when i was younger, i heard a lot about Blackberry phones. now, very rarely do i hear anything about it, but I see lots of iPhones. Blackberry will probably die
In 1999 Blackberry was at the top world. now is it still at the top of the world.
i prefer the iphone cause blackberry never changed its monotonous design and converted to the better
Blackberry was a very big hit but it never really updated it's technology to touchscreens. I think that's where they went wrong. The consumers of cellphones were expecting more. Then the iPhone and Android came out with touchscreen phones and Blackberry had to target another set of buyers.
Well, actually, Blackberry does have a touchscreen phone. My dad has one of them. They have touchscreen plus buttons for typing. But I think by the time they made the touchscreen, iPhone and Android already took over.
That's what I meant. The iPhone and Android have (I think) better tehnology resources. I like Blackberrys keyboard though.
yes probably!
Too bad
am just testing the comments feature as my son's comment did not appear...but I will add that I have switched from BB to Android SMartphone and this made my on the go working life much more efficient
They so rubish they should be called CrackBerry lol.
IPHONE RULES!!!!!
Hmm.. i prefer the iPhone too
umm. no i don't like them i don't wish ria
mean either
Me neither.
It is weird how some new thing can be cool for so long and then is quickly replaced with something even cooler. Great job on your article, Arjun! :)
I wish BlackBerry survives the market