Black Days for BlackBerry
In the news we hear about companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, and Sony competing for their share of the smartphone market. Since their emergence, smartphones have transformed the field of communication technology and historic design and business battles are being waged. The Apple iPhone, the Windows Phone, and the Samsung Galaxy have all been in the spotlight when it comes to consumer retail sales. But what about Research in Motion (RIM), where have they been? Unfamiliar to most, RIM is the owner and operator of the BlackBerry brand. Although not as visible on the public stage, BlackBerry has retained its reputation as the most prolific provider of smartphones to the corporate world as well as government agencies. Their commitment to efficiency, practicality, and security has kept them as the first choice with their targeted audience. However, recent developments have rocked the foundations of BlackBerry’s base, and their might not be much RIM can do to stop it.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency is the latest government agency to say goodbye to BlackBerry. The agency decided to switch to the iPhone after a software development team was able to design for them specific apps that reduces the amount of paperwork they would have to complete by hand, as well as provides more accurate on-the-spot GPS and map applications. One dropped contract would not be an issue for such a large corporation like RIM, but when the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, NOAA, Yahoo, and Halliburton all drop the BlackBerry system in a matter of months, that hurts any company’s business flow. Industry experts such as Ed Snyder have said that RIM is “going to see this happen more and more.” Why? How could such a giant with hundreds of government and corporate contracts be falling to the wayside? Well, it’s a combination of things.
Primarily, it’s an information cascade that has been set in motion against the use of BlackBerry and RIM. It started when business professionals began to see the practical benefits of iPhone, and not just its aesthetic value. The benefits of thousands of apps, a touch interface, and expandability is becoming more and more valuable to a changing business culture. As an analyst described BlackBerry, “They still have excellent security…but if your handsets are a brick that no one wants to use it’s going to drag down your business.” With major Fortune 500 companies making the switch, there are probably benefits of the iPhone that BlackBerry simply cannot keep up with. As web reviewer Anthony West put it, “When Yahoo of all companies make an explicit play to ditch Blackberries, you can rest assure that others will follow.” Large and small businesses alike will look to the leadership of the high profile CEOs like Marissa Mayer, and make decisions based on a changing corporate culture, not simply on their independent evaluations.
This cascade shows no signs of slowing down either. Federal contractor Booz Allen Hamilton also announced that it will transition away from BlackBerry in favor of other options. This has deleterious effects for RIM, as Hamilton has strong ties to and advises many Department of Defense departments such as the Air Force, Navy, Army, and Homeland Security.
However, although an information cascade can begin after simply a few iterations of the same observation, they can also be stopped by the addition of a new piece of information. BlackBerry might be able to reverse this trend after the release of their new product, the BlackBerry 10. The new system will attempt to add many of the features that have made the other smartphones on the market so wildly successful. It will add special BlackBerry apps, as well as a new interface. With this, RIM hopes to reverse the spiraling trend that their brand is facing, and put BlackBerry back in the pockets of business and agencies everywhere.
Links:
http://money.cnn.com/2012/10/22/technology/mobile/rim-blackberry-washington/index.html
http://news.yahoo.com/federal-agency-switch-iphone-drop-blackberry-115945174–sector.html
~SS1029