BlackBerry:

In 1984, Douglas Fregin and Mike Lazaridis, recently graduated from their respective universities, started a computer science and technology consulting company called Research In Motion (RIM). For many years they did not make a huge impact nor did they see much success until they formulated an idea that would set the bar for all smartphones, as we know them today. They came up with the idea to develop an “easy, secure, and effective device that allowed works to send and receive e-mails while away from the office. They called it BlackBerry.”(Silcoff, 2013)

The intuitive design and systems put in place by BlackBerry would make theirs the most coveted and prominent mobile device in circulation being used by all from executives to Hollywood celebrities. The brand and devices put out by BlackBerry where virtually untouchable for many years until Android and Apple came in and changed the game.(Silcoff, 2013)

Today, the once powerhouse tech company is blowing through all of its recourses and trying to compensate for its horrible sale margins. Recently, their stocks dropped lower than they have been in over 15 years ($6), and BlackBerry is doing everything it can to stay in business. Just within the last five years BlackBerry has lost around 75 billion dollars in market value, and last September the company reported a 965 million dollar second quarter loss. The massive loss in that particular quarter was because they pushed a phone they thought would be successful, the BlackBerry Z10, and they manufactured far to many units that ended up just sitting in warehouses. They are currently laying off forty percent of their workforce in a desperate bid to keep their company afloat. They have recently put out phones that go back to what made them so popular to begin with, but at this point they are not producing or selling enough to come even close to bringing the corporation back into the black or breaking even on their quarterly cash flow balance.(Gillette, 2014)

Fewer consumers are buying their phones, so they are producing fewer units, carrying far less inventory, downsizing their operation and moving into different areas of technology. Recent numbers of the Z10 popularity show that they failed in trying to compete in the same arena as Android and Apple, but the numbers for the devices that made them unique to begin with are anemic as well, so the only option is to start branching out or radically improving to get back to what made them great to begin with.

Sources and Annotations:

This article was written about the new advancements and other ventures by BlackBerry that are not the actually mobile units. This website really gets into the specifics of a software called BBM that has the potential to span all types of devices and could bring huge profit to the company once again.

Cheng, Roger. “BlackBerry’s next BBM update: It’s all about the money – CNET.” CNET. N.p., 25 Mar. 2014. Web. 21 Apr.                                                                     2014 <http://www.cnet.com/news/blackberrys-bbm-update-its-all-about-the-money/>.

This article gives a brief history of BlackBerry, and it gives a fairly detailed current status on the company. This is followed by several pages of executives and workers in or recently in BlackBerry answering questions about its downfall.

Gillette, Felix, Diane Brady, and Caroline Winter. “The Rise and Fall of BlackBerry: An Oral History.” Bloomberg Business Week. Bloomberg, 5 Dec. 2013. Web.               21 Apr. 2014. <http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-12-05/the-rise-and-fall-of-blackberry-an-oral-history>.

This website is an extremely detailed account of what happened with blackberry. It is nearly exhaustive from history, timeline, testimonials, numbers and current status.

Silcoff, Sean . “How BlackBerry blew it: The inside story.” The Globe and Mail. N.p., 27 Sept. 2013. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.                                                                        <http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/the-inside-story-of-why-blackberry-is-failing/article14563602/?page=all>.