Does anybody still have a BlackBerry Phone? Notice I wrote,
“phone” and not a “smartphone”, because if you are smart, you wouldn’t buy an
outdated phone. Unfortunately because BlackBerry never made the transition to
touch screen smartphones when every other company in the market did. BlackBerry
has launched several campaigns and products in hopes of catch up with Apple and
Samsung; only problem is they are 4-6 years late. What BlackBerry owners (if
you still exist) should be asking is, why am I still living in the past when
all my peers are in the present.
There was a time when having a BlackBerry was cool, BBM with
friends was more efficient than text, and sharing your BBM Pin was the cool
thing to do when exchanging contact information with friends. Those times are
long gone; if I were to hear the letters “BBM” today, I’ll probably giggle and
make a comment. I might as well reactivate my Nokia while we’re embracing history.
I can go on and on making fun of the company and their products, or the silly
users who still exist probably in a 3rd world country somewhere. But
the facts are, they are a company fighting extinction.
Some facts about BlackBerry and their decline; recently
T-Mobile announced they will no longer stock BlackBerry products, probably due
to lack of sales and for taking up valuable shelf space. “BlackBerry
said Friday that it is committed to completing a series of major changes
quickly after posting a nearly billion-dollar loss and a 45 percent drop in
revenue for the second quarter.” Huffington posts reports. As they deal with
the company that seems to be on a lifeline, they still pride themselves on some
patents the company owns.
BlackBerry is also strong in having total cash and
investments of about $2.6 billion, with no debt, though it's burning through
that stockpile. In just the past few months, it's spent more than half a
billion dollars. Recently, Blackberry
announced that they will be firing almost 4,500 employees and expecting a loss
of $1 billion dollars following the lackluster sales of their newest Blackberry
z10 and q10 “phones”. This is apparently
the lowest sales they have had since 2007, when the first iPhone was released.
This only validates the fact that real “smartphones” always have and always
will prevail over blackberry.
I have a feeling, majority of the staff they
still manage to employ aren’t even using BlackBerry products, I mean, why would
they? BBM is dead because nobody has BlackBerry’s anymore, smallest App Market,
and emails are instant nowadays with push. I cant think of ONE good reason to
still stick with BlackBerry…
