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By: Lauren Rubarts, Vincent Naidoo, Naima Zeggui, Camron Laham

HISTORY: THE RISE


1984: Research in Motion (RIM) founded by Mike Lazardis and
Douglas Fregin.
1992: Jim Balsillie joins, Co-CEO with Lazardis
1999: RIM begins selling first BlackBerry device (the 850).
2002-2006: Features added to device, 4 million subscribers, RIM

added to Nasdaq 100.

HISTORY: THE RISE


2007: RIM has marketing
capitalization over $67 billion.

2008: RIM stock hits high of


$149.90 per share

HISTORY: THE DOWNFALL


2007-2008: Apples new
iPhone skyrockets in sales,
causing BlackBerry sales to
suffer tremendously.
Stock market crash in 2008
causes shares to go below $50.

2009: Blackberry enters into


App marketplace, but too late.

HISTORY: THE DOWNFALL


2012: Lazaridis & Balsillie step down as Co-CEOs, replaced by
Thorsten Heins.
Huge layoffs and software delays
Stock now at $6.10 low
2013: BlackBerry 10 with Z10, & Q10 are unveiled. Sales not as great as
expected.

Company states its open to Strategic alternatives including a sale.


Fairfax Financial Holdings offered to buy company in deal worth $4.7
billion.

WHY BLACKBERRY?
Blackberry has long been linked to business because of its
security features & dependability for access to office on the go. It was
preferred by bankers and politicians like Hilary Clinton and Barak
Obama, thus until 2007 BlackBerry was dominating the market place
as the best way to doing business because of its proprietary systems.

SWOT ANALYSIS
Strength:
1.

Email Messaging

One of its strong points is the Push email which allowed customers to
receive and send emails instantly with no rivalry that can equal the quality of
the push email feature. Even more Blackberry gives users the ability to link 10
email accounts to the device, business and personal. All of these can be done

off line and with no specific applications. They also can have access to other
BlackBerry users through Blackberry messenger for instant messaging.

POINTS OF STRENGTH OF THE


B L AC K B E R RY
2. Security Options
Because of the amount and sensitivity of the data having a strong security

system is of utmost importance whether the phone is used by banker,


lawyers or government officials. Apart form password lock of the device,
users can encrypt all of the data. In other words, they can covert all their
data into codes that cannot be understood by unauthorized users and they

can also increase their Bluetooth security or erase all data stored or sent
from their device.

POINTS OF STRENGTH OF
THE BLACKBERRY
3. Blackberry Enterprise Server
The Blackberry Enterprise or BES is the software that Blackberry
uses for its operating system. The most important benefit of this
software is that it allows companies to merge their corporate
information database and each employees Blackberry PIN ID. It

makes the employer control the information sent, received and shared
by employees with security features in addition to storing all data.

WEAKNESS
RIM company is bearing huge losses because of less and less people are buying the Blackberry even with the
new improvements. So most researchers points to key issues that RIM get back to market again.
These problems are:
1.

BOYD or bring your own device, is the new trending employer policy that allows employees access to
company`s specific information and applications. With this being added, employees are less likely to buy
Blackberry devices for business and personal use combined.

2.

The newer versions do not attract the ordinary consumer

3.

Its new version, Blackberry Passport is bulky and makes it hard to use with one hand. In addition its
Amazon app is short on some apps compared to the marketplace for other devices.

4.

Old design.

COMPETITION
Apple has dominated the market of the smart phone with the launch of its
revolutionary iPhone and its IOS system in 2007. The iPhone was a killer to the
business friendly blackberry because of its simplicity, including a consumer friendly
operating system and user interface, a faster and efficient way of networking in
addition to a multiple messaging. To compete with the RIM in the business market,
Apple updated its iPhone version with stronger security. Like the Blackberry, the
iPhone supports email encryption, password locks, timeouts and device erase.

Today, the iPhone has 52.3% of smart phone market share in the US.

OPPORTUNITIES
Social Media Marketing
Networks like LinkedIn would be suitable to market Blackberry
Devices for the everyday business professional.

Television Advertising
There are very few Blackberry advertisements now that the iPhone
and Android have taken over the market share for smart phones.

Look into expanding products


Possibly enter the market for tablet devices to compete with the iPad
or Galaxy Tab.

APPLE VS BLACKBERRY
Apple Market Value

Blackberry Market Value

BLACKBERRY MARKET
SHARE

BLACKBERRY VS IPHONE,
ANDROID, AND WINDOWS

MARKET VALUE
As of today, the Blackberry device is close to dying as its market
value shows.

MARKET CHALLENGES
Competition
iPhones and Galaxy by Samsung have been the top phones in the
market for many years. This plays a significant reason on why the
Blackberry is currently unpopular by the regular cell phone audience.
Blackberry has also stuck with their roots by being a business phone
with less aesthetics than the newer phones that are introduced to the
market in the current technology period.
There is also a challenge in possibly modifying the Blackberry phone
to where it can be easily comparable to the Galaxy 5S or iPhone 6
Plus because these phones have many features and modifications
already needed from smartphones.

MARKET CHALLENGES
Lack of Advertising
The demand for Blackberry devices could be increased
by a small amount if there were more advertisements
for the company on television and social media.
Many phone consumers may have forgot about the
Blackberry brand due to less advertisements in
comparison to Samsung and Apple.

MARKET CHALLENGES
Sufficient Support from Carriers
Blackberry devices have not been the popular choice for the
consumer-driven phone market in the past couple years, with
that being said, carriers are less likely to support the
Blackberry brand due to its lack of innovation with its mobile
devices and decline in the phone market as a whole.
Buy-in price for Blackberry devices would be $200, where
iPhones and Galaxy phones are at the same price as well.

ADJUSTMENTS TO
BLACKBERRY
More social Media Marketing (Facebook, Instagram.)
Hard to compete with other smartphone companies, so maintain the marketing

strategy on professional/business purposes.


Enhance Blackberry Software and create
more apps for professional use.
Recommend putting Blackberry in

business type movies, to enhance the target


of their market

REFERENCE
http://economicsfiles.pomona.edu/jlikens/SeniorSeminars/harknessconsulting2008/pdfs/
Research_in_Motion.pdf
http://www.econ.ucla.edu/sboard/teaching/tech/Blackberries.pdf

http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~jdd/blog.cgi/2013/10/05
https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/18484/Cromar,%20Scott%20%20U.
S.%20Smartphone%20Market%20Report.pdf ?sequence=2
http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2013/01/28/analyst-why-blackberry-10-wontsave-rim/
BlackBerry timeline: A look back at the tech companys history (2013, September 24). In
Global News. Retrieved November 26, 2014.

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