What I've read about Blackberry it seems like they entered the phone war when it was at level 1 and then tried to reinvent themselves when it had reached level 10. Guys like Mike Lazaridis talk as if they didn't realise that shift had happened. That the smartphone game had become so intensely competitive that their problem went far beyond picking the wrong strategies; they simply didn't have the ability to execute at the level required by the upgraded game.<p>This seems like a common mistake made by people who win early and win big, they don't necessarily have a proper perspective on the components of their success that were luck or timing.
I'm surprised that the author of the article left out QNX. QNX is already the OS of choice for the medical industry and is doing well in other "niche" markets like automotive. QNX in Action: Audi FPK Driver Information Display: <a href="http://youtu.be/Wlm6lD23d0g" rel="nofollow">http://youtu.be/Wlm6lD23d0g</a><p>They're still playing off the good idea the had for buying QNX 4 years ago now.
<i>“That might be exactly the right transition for BlackBerry to make,” says Dulaney. “The problem is, you just can’t make that transition in the eyes of Wall Street.”</i><p>In that case, Wall Street is the problem.
Buying QNX was the true brilliant move on Blackberry's part, it is a very strong platform IMO. Their downfall has been a failure to think laterally on how to leverage it outside of what their core market was. They are now being forced to do that and I think it will work very well for them if it hasn't come too late. I very much want to see them succeed.
Having an investment from a company like Blackberry may on the surface look just the same as any other investment. But in fact things are dramatically different. You may very well end up having your stock sold to the highest bidder at some future liquidation auction (there is a definitive chance of Blackberry ending like that) and then suddenly you find yourself with a new partner that you didn't choose. One that may even be in competition with you.<p>Another resource that Blackberry owns (QnX) is at risk of having the same happen to it, fortunately for the QnX users there are a very large number of companies that depend on the QnX for their real time needs including various governments so likely QnX will survive a meltdown.
The hyperbole of this line demeans the whole article, 'one of this century’s biggest corporate disasters '
14 years into the 21st Century? Come on.
The biggest <i>Canadian</i> corporate disaster this century swamps this hiccough from BlackBerry. Nortel was worth almost $400B in 2000 and is now worth $4M, essentially losing $400B of shareholder value this century.<p>This bodes ill for the rest of the article ...
Blackberry just doesn't have traction outside of the US, since most of the rest of the world deeply distrust the architecture of the Blackberry system (i.e. all data sent back to US-based servers). I think this is the one thing they must fix - the perception by the world that Blackberry is just a front for the CIA. Laugh all you want: I've heard this expressed in more than one location here in Europe, enough so that even if its a falsehood, its a solid one that isn't going anywhere. RIM(/Blackberry) haven't done very much to assuage this fear, alas .. and more to the point, seem resistant to doing so, which make the suspicions even more warranted.