Amid a dwindling revenue base and shrinking profit, the company’s chief executive, Thorsten Heins (in case you don’t know, he took over the management of the company in 2011 after its founders were ousted by angry and disappointed investors who were no longer confident in their leadership) announced some days back that the company intends to shed 4,500 of its staff in a bid to cut costs and channel resources into areas that are likely to rescue the company from the throes of a takeover or a fold up. It is a figure that represents nearly half of its global workforce and it is coming barely months after another wholesale layoff in which the company parted ways with a lot of workers.

Perhaps, one of the areas which Heins and co. intend to channel their resources into is their popular Blackberry Messenger service. On September 21, Blackberry Ltd. released its Blackberry Messenger service on iOS and Android platforms and within two days it had recorded over 1.1 million downloads worldwide. It was a last-ditch effort to salvage the troubled company with its flagship service. The warm reception to the move from the smartphone community shows that there is still life in the Blackberry franchise after all, but that did not come without its own glitches as they were forced to halt the roll-out after an unofficial version of the BBM for Android app was posted online.



In a period that has seen Finnish giants, Nokia, sell its phone manufacturing unit to USA’s Microsoft, one can only but wonder if Blackberry is doomed to go the “Nokia way” or fizzle out like Motorola before it.



But what happened to Blackberry? A lot of things went wrong with Blackberry, but it all boils down to three major things.


Blackberry Messenger

Blackberry Messenger was once upon a time Blackberry’s numero uno feature. Years (or even months) ago, if you didn’t have a BBM pin, you were either not buoyant enough to get yourself a Blackberry and rub shoulders with the business elite or you were simply not interested the whole smartphone craze.



But today, it has become a waterloo of sorts for the Waterloo, Ontario-based firm. Previously touted as the world’s most flexible and secure social networking platform for messaging (which was a top draw for the phone’s customers until late 2011 or early 2012), the emergence of Whatsapp and other instant messaging services has ensured that it is no longer “if it’s not BBM, then you must be joking”. Smartphones from other companies now come with their own messaging platforms and there are thousands of mobile messaging apps available for download on the internet.



The fact that BBM is now available on rival platforms, iOS and Android might just spell the end of the road for Blackberry as smartphone makers. They could as well now bid goodbye to the smartphone industry and focus on developing software for other companies to use.



No variety whatsoever:

Blackberry made no efforts to treat its customers with variety, which they say is the spice of life, until the recent release of the Blackberry Q10 which came rather too late. It’s astonishing how Blackberry failed to learn from the very mistake that made rivals, Nokia, go under. Blackberry releases new phones constantly, but the problem with that is that the phones are not quite new. They may be brand-new, but nothing is new about them beyond the model name and the price. One new release after the other, we ended up with basically the same phone over and over again with barely-noticeable differences here and there. It’s like a James Bond franchise with the same plot and characters over and over again. Why would I want to replace my old Blackberry with a new one if the new one has exactly the same features and looks as the old one, but costs nearly twice as much?



Tecno, Samsung, Apple and others:

The emergence of the Hong Kong-based Tecno as major players in the budget smartphone niche has really put BB out of its element. Blackberry’s share of the smartphone market it once dominated is on an ever-increasing slide. In emerging markets, it is on a losing battle with budget smartphone makers Tecno (Africa) and Samsung (Asia). In developed markets, it is battling with high-end products from Samsung (again) and, of course, Apple. The acquisition of Nokia’s mobile phone manufacturing unit by Microsoft piles further misery on the Canadian company as it could slide further down from its position (behind Samsung and Apple) to somewhere behind Microsoft-Nokia. Other companies like Huawei, LG, ZTE and Sony are lurking in the shadows and they are not far behind in the race.

http://observerreports.com/2013/09/what-went-wrong-with-blackberry/

D only special feature of BB is gone, I hv to change my bb to an android fone so dat I ll be free frm battery problem.

isaco: D only special feature of BB is gone, I hv to change my bb to an android fone so dat I ll be free frm battery problem.

The battery issue is also a downside for BB

There was a time when BlackBerry
ruled the enterprise world.
Countless businesses handed outBlackBerrys to its workers because of
its simple and effective way of
giving constant and secure access
to email.

let me tell u whats wrong with blackberry, they have never recived such much traffic b4

runzlord: let me tell u whats wrong with blackberry, they have never recived such much traffic b4

Do you think so?

She died....

Koolmexxi: She died....

"She's" not yet dead, but she could be if they don't buckle up

TEAM 'NOKIA 3310'

is black berry dead

Blackberry's problem was lack of foresight. If they released a phone with a long battery life, good design and banging apps like instagram e.t.c things would have been different. The first rule of business is giving the customers what they want, sadly Blackberry did the opposite.

They are confused

Like everyother dying business, it refused to change with time. The whole world was going touchscreen with bigger screens and better resolutions. I never had a BB because I just thought it was crappy. Only thing about it was the bbm but with whatsapp, that is no longer needed.

Wat happened to BB
























Pinging lori Tecno

Blackberry came, they saw, they conquered, but were conquered eventually.

isaco: D only special feature of BB is gone, I hv to change my bb to an android fone so dat I ll be free frm battery problem.

Android phone also experiences battery problem...my HTC one battery is just like that of BB.

too many abortions

They drank rat poison and died!

but still there is difference between the pin hahaha

Am proud to be a TECNOcrat!

Tecno for life!

RIP to Blacberry!

What happened to Walkmans?

What happened to floppy disks?

What happened to timberland boots?

What happened to eight tracks?

What happened to cassettes and cassette players?

What happened to Dialup?

What happened to Cammo?

What happened....


Same thing happened, evolution baby, and blackberry just didn't evolve quickly enough!

I did my personal research on previous trends abt bb early this year n last year. most of the ppl listed were over hyping this useless phn called blackberry, dey will fight n attack u if u dare say something bad abt their phn. i knew this day will come n have bookmarked all there post bak then. who is laffin now? i warned them 2 port yet they claim to be on the winning side. who is winning now? Android OS is bb father any day,any time.

BB fans bak then
*Billyonaire (na thier leader be this, e can kill anybody 4 bb)
*Tundeiab
*sheyma
*wizard01
*caukerzee
*12 inches
*4llerbuntu
* oseiwe
*binger
*Nasri100
*Akainzo
*olumide109
*Joshcoli (he said this "Any naija person criticizing BB is simply because they can't afford one)
* toluxa1
* ROCK-J
* chucky234
* Highbros
*flux101
*chasy16 (BB 1ST LADY)
* naturalwaves (u wont want 2 argue with this guy concerning bb, trust me)
*mflexy8
*azpekuliar
*eagle_eye007
*Sam Milla
*komason
*Jayetiti (he said this "With my bold4 no business transaction is impossible....in the next life ¶'ll still chose my blackberry bold4 don't ask me why, just go and get one" i will kill u da day i see u with any andriod phn. lol)
*MrElai
*Zeddicus

MORE R STILL COMING

https://www.nairaland.com/1076525/blackberry-phone-becomes-source-shame/1

scientology: too many abortions

no, she was really sex starved.

I want my own blackbooty babe

Blackberry = Extinction