Canadian RIM, the maker of Blackberry, was the first to have mobile e-mail that met the needs of the business community. From its initial introduction in 2002, it was the industry standard for reliable mobile e-mail. However, this first-mover advantage was only maintained until the iPhone came along in 2007.
iPhone offered not only reliable e-mailing, but also a whole range of other features and services, which were constantly being innovated. The combination with an app store in particular proved to be a very strong move. The iPhone ultimately offered more functionally than the Blackberry. The competitive advantage that Blackberry had, because it was the first in a certain product category, was not maintained by sufficient innovation.
In addition, Blackberry is stuck with the dull corporate image versus lithuania phone number list the cool lifestyle image of the iPhone. The brand equity of Blackberry is eroding, also the heavy corporate users, the hard core of Blackberry is seduced by the iPhone. (It is said that Obama now also has several Apple products in the White House.) Of course, the market share in the core market USA is decreasing. And that is not compensated by the increase in the other parts of the world.
Layoffs at RIM will therefore not be long in coming.
New strategy for Blackberry
The Blackberry brand is now working on a repositioning strategy. They are trying to convince new users that the Blackberry is for everyone and not just for corporate users. A commercial that shows this repositioning very well is the Blackberry boys of Vodafone India.