The advent of jesus phone and how it ended the domination of the people's phone

  The iphone had a cult following even before it was launched and even before a single piece of it was sold.In 2007 the year of Iraq invasion and Paris Hilton’s jail sentence , the jesus phone was launched. Soon after its announcement,The blog Gizmodo dubbed it the Jesus phone ,as Apple for the first time used spiritual overtones for its iPhone launch. Its print and TV ads screamed “ Touching is believing"  showing a finger reaching out in dark to touch the iphone. The visual impact of the sleek iPhone overshadowed its features. Journalists played along its tune, comparing Michael Angelo's Sistine chapel painting of God stretching to touch the finger of Adam. The iPhone’s retail debut was termed iday. The official day when iPhone opened for retail was June 29th 2007 , which was also the day of Roman holiday celebrating the feast of martyred apostles ,St Peter and St Paul.By the time the 'iPhone: finally made it to the market,it had already inspired 11000 in print articles and  generated 69 million of google search

Meanwhile to rivals such as RIM, Motorola, Nokia, the iPhone's  popularity was illogical. Its battery lasted less that 10 hours , it operated on an older slower and second generation network,the network carriers were stretched strained by music, movies and other downloads. This particularly hit RIM hard.After unprecedented success and blitzkrieg growth since 2003 , it faced an adversary it did not understand. According to David Yach .RIM’s chief technology officer ,going by conventional smartphone ecosystem at that time, iPhone should have been a disaster.However the iPhone's masterstroke flipped the raisan de etre of smartphone from something that was functional to a product that was beautiful.

 Meanwhile RIM faced trouble from the carriers front.The carriers would not allow RIM to include more than a simple browser as it would crash its networks. After the iPhone autopsy, Blackberry’s bosses of realised that the ground beneath their feet was shifting. If carriers continued to embrace iPhone inspite of its apps and mutimedia applications chocking their networks. Blackberry’s positioning of efficient and secure email and the long battery life was under threat. In reality Blackberry was actually competing with Mac and not a Nokia.However RIM core market of corporate customers was safe at that time as the iPhone could not match blackberry’s reliable keyboard and in house network delivery of secure emails.However the consumer mass market where Blackberry Pearl was competing, needed a full browser . Blackberry led the smartphone market at that time as it managed to put email in people’s pockets. Now the iPhone was putting the entire internet in its pocket.
Continuing and Compounding matters was the conflict between RIM and and the carriers . Up against AT & T and its exclusive multiyear deal to sell the iPhone, Verizon who was currently RIM’s network provider had little interest in Blackberry’s new plan to counter iPhone by launching a new keyboard with an innovative track pad to take on iPhones touch screen keyboard and by building a larger screen. However Verizon who was caught off guard with the ascendancy of iPhone had little patience with what Mike Lazaridis termed as “ Jesus phone killer’ and wanted blackberry to quickly respond to iphone with similar touch screen, something RIM was not willing to do

Meanwhile Verizon was still smarting from a a lost opportunity to tie up with iphone 2 years earlier as it rejected Steve Jobs offer to partner with Apple’s new phone. Verizon who was known for its stickler for bandwidth reliability clearly declined Apple’s offer as it did not want to relinquish control of its network to an un known and unseen smartphone which Apple wanted to design. Like Mike Lazaridis verizon’s core executives .According to “ Sean silcoff “author of the book “ “Loosing the signal” which chronicles the fall of blackberry had correctly predicted that the iPhone traffic would create a gridlock on AT and T’s network What it did not anticipate that consumers did not care. A multi billion dollar market in carrier revenue was about to open up and AT and T had the lock on the hottest device . RIM’s new blackberry Bold was simply no match for the jesus smartphone.

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how RIM's ceo mike lazaridis underestimation of the iPhone led to its fall

 

Among one of the many reasons of Blackberry’s fall was its inability to understand and underestimate the power and the brilliance of iPhone. Mike Lazaridis did not give enough thought to Apples new iPhone for some months. Blackberry did not feel that it would actually be a threat to RIM's core business.According to RIM,  iPhone’s basic problem where RIM had a huge advantage was the  iPhone's rapid battery drain and what the smartphone manufacturer  felt was iPhone's lousy digital keyboard . RIM believed that iPhone would gain traction among the non enterprise customers who cared more about youtube and other online social escapades as opposed to RIM’s core enterprise customers who cared more about security and efficiency .

 Another fact that made RIM complacent was its fast growing business in a world that was hungry for blackberry. In the year  when steve jobs launched iPhone in 2007,blackberry was adding more than a million blackberry’s per quarter . By that time RIM’s new consumer phone “ Blackberry Pearl was a spectacular hit, with 59% increase in sales to 6.4 million handsets in fiscal 2007

What RIM had underestimated was the sheer tenacity and technical prowess about the iPhone. In the book "Loosing the signal " which  chronicles the demise of blackberry, Jacquie McNish writes that RIM’s CEO Lazaridis  was stunned what he saw when he began to break and disassemble the iPhone on his table. What he founded astounded him .The iPhone was no ordinary smartphone .The iPhone  was actually an apple mobile OS which used 7000 megabytes of memory , which was more than 22 times the power of Blackberry .The iphone had a full browser that travelled everywhere on the web, With carriers AT & T backing , Apple was changing the direction of smartphone industry, as RIM was caught napping..

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UK Blackberry Users drops to 700,000, as windows phone grabs 8.5% share

Its been a long time we heard about Blackberry ,While BlackBerry’s market share has been slipping for several years now, eMarketer’s latest figures indicate that  in the  United Kingdom  Blackberry  now has as few as 700,000 users in the UK, with this number expected to fall to 400,000 by 2017. 

Globally as  of June 2014 blackberry sales  was down to 46 million , from 85 million  in  September 2013 . BlackBerry subscribers worldwide has been  dropped steadily and the UK market's rapid fall will  only serve to  benefit windows phone, which has been picking up marketshare steadily.Windows Phone, meanwhile, has seen its popularity grow  and estimated to have around  3.3 million users in UK as per eMarketer estimates , and a projected market share of 8.5%

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With Net sales of 43billion euros Nokia manage 14% global share

via Statista

Global market share held by Nokia in the mobile device market 13.9%

Nokia Net Sales  from 2009 to 2013:42.45 billion euros.

Number of Nokia smartphones shipped worldwide : 8.8million

Nokia's expenditure on research and development 2.62billion

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From 50% Market share in 2009 to 2% in 2013 :Fall of Blackberry

The  Collapse of Blackberry : Infographic via NyTimes

In 2008 and 2009, BlackBerry controlled nearly 50 percent of the smartphone market, about the same as Android does today. Today, it owns hardly more than 2 percent. Via WSJ:

BlackBerry is also  " looking or " strategic Buyers including " venture funding , and pvt equit— as an alternative to the Fairfax deal. That deal, which values the company at $9 per share, has faced some skepticism from financial analysts — who believe a $7 per share price is more realistic — which may explain why BlackBerry is apparently looking elsewhere now.

Late last month, days before BlackBerry reported a $965 million quarterly loss (due mostly to a writedown on unsold Z10 devices), it signed a letter of intent to go private. Its largest shareholder, Fairfax Financial Holdings, is the prospective buyer, tabling a $4.7 billion bid for the company.

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BlackBerry Z10 Zooms Past 1 Million Smartphones

BlackBerry Moves 1 Million Z10 Smartphones | News & Opinion | PCMag.com: BlackBerry today announced that it has sold 1 million BlackBerry Z10 smartphones, the first device to sport the company's BB10 operating system.
Overall, BlackBerry earned $2.7 billion in revenue during the quarter ending March 2, more than most expected from the stumbling phone maker. "It was a year for change and we delivered significant positive change," CEO Thorsten Heins said in a statement

Between December and early March, the company shipped 6 million smartphones, including about one million of its new touch-screen Z10 device (pictured). It was first released in Canada and the U.K., and hit the U.S. this month.

Revenue breakdown for the quarter revealed about 61 percent for hardware, 36 percent for service, and 3 percent for software and other revenue. According to the BlackBerry fiscal report, the company hopes to break even in the next quarter, while increasing its marketing costs by 50 percent for the new Z10 and Q10 smartphones.

Gautami

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BlackBerry Z10 US Launch fails, UK Canada and India shows impressive sales

BlackBerry Z10 Phones Fly Like Penguins Off Shelves In U.S. - Forbes: BlackBerry’s new device, the Z10, has now been introduced in a number of markets including the United States. It appears to have had a strong launch in places like Canada, the United Kingdom and India.In contrast, the launch in the U.S. by AT&T has been listless. The reason the BlackBerry launch has gone better in Canada, United Kingdom and India compared to the United States is because in those countries the supply has been in balance with the number of BlackBerry loyalists.

Although BlackBerry has yet to release initial sales numbers for the Z10, these two studies indicate trouble for BlackBerry this quarter. However, both Deutsche Bank and Hudson Square noted that BlackBerry users may be waiting for the upcoming Q10, which offers a full traditional BlackBerry keyboard instead of a touchscreen. 

The Q10 is scheduled to arrive on April 26, but initial rumors indicate that its price is fairly steep - an unlocked 16 GB Q10 will cost approximately $800 - more than the $760 Z10. 

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Why Android is the Most Unsecure Mobile Platform, makes 79% Mobile Malware, compared to iOS 0.7%

AndroidAccounted For 79% Of All Mobile Malware In 2012, 96% In Q4 Alone, Says F-Secure| TechCrunch: Google’s mobile OS Android continues to be the world’s biggest magnet for mobile malware. According to a report out today from security specialists F-Secure, Android accounted for 79% of all malware in 2012, up from 66.7% in 2011 and 11.25% in 2010.

Android’s rival Apples  iOS,  platform ,the world’s second-most popular platform for smartphones in terms of new purchases, remains one of the least compromised, with 0.7% of malware on its platform.

Symbian, whose market share is in rapid decline and is being left for dead by its former parent Nokia, is down to 19% of all malware, compared to 62.5% two years ago. F-Secure predicts that it will go the way of the dodo bird and become extinct in 2013, as users replace their Nokia handsets with Android devices. Meanwhile, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry and J2ME each accounted for less than 1% of threat families in circulation in the year.

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Nokia Lumia 920 vs Nokia Lumia 820 Comparison

Nokia Lumia 920  vs Nokia Lumia 820 : Feature and Spec Comparison courtesy : TheVerge

Nokia's latest flagship smartphone, the Lumia 920, comes with a significant spec increase over the previous generation. While the Lumia 920 predictably bumped the display size up to 4.5-inches and runs Windows Phone 8, it also adds in some more unique tweaks like wireless charging and an 8.7 megapixel "PureView" camera.

The Lumia 820 is powered by the same 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 as the flagship Lumia 920, but will arrive with a smaller 4.3-inch display, only 8GB of storage, and a eight-megapixel rear camera. The 8GB internal storage can be expanded via Windows Phone 8's extended microSD functionality.

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BlackBerry Z10 To Launch On February 25 In India Before US Launch

Biztech2.com India - BlackBerry Z10 To Launch On February 25 In India - News on Mobility Enterprise Solutions: he much awaited BlackBerry Z10, powered by BlackBerry’s all-new, built-from-the-ground-up BlackBerry10 will be launched in India on February 25. Going by past experience, where BlackBerry India has made available smartphones on the day of launch or very soon after, availability should be around the day of launch.

kIndia is among the very few markets that blackberry has managed to retain, as the blackberry fortress around the world crumbled. Led by the Enterprise and Medium to Big Business, Blackberry has a very loyal following in India,  with no other Mobile OEM's managing to make adequate headway. Well known Movie start and  Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor is the new brand ambassador for BlackBerry in India, 

Clearly, in anticipation of the official launch, prices in the grey market, where the Z10 is available without bill and warranty, are falling. From Rs 75,000 a week ago, the price of the handset in the grey market has fallen to Rs 53,000.

Currently, the Z10 is available in the UK and some European markets, Canada and the UAE and it's interesting to note that the BlackBerry Z10 will be launched in India before the United States. This would be a tribute to the Indian Market, by blackberry as it witness a slown down for Blackberry products worldwide ...  all except India.

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The Evolution of Blackberry 1.0 to BB 10

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BlackBerry 10 Smartphone Wows .. as RIM tries to Reinvent itself

Finally the iPhone and Samsung S series will have some competetion when they wake up from tomorrow  Research In Motion Ltd. unveiled its first two phones with the new BlackBerry 10 system. The Q10 will have a physical keyboard, while the Z10 has only a touch-screen keyboard.

There has never been more pressure on a single device than there is on the BlackBerry Z10. This is the phone, along with its keyboard-wielding sibling, that must save BlackBerry, challenge Apple and stem the dominance of Google’s Android. It’s a phone that must surpass every expectation and achieve things that no user even contemplated a mobile phone could do. ( Telegraph.uk)

As BlackBerry's  unveiled its new mobile OS along with their smartphones today  along with a new corporate name, with the hope of restoring its products' status as a symbol of executive cool.RIM  has actually redesigned the system to embrace the multimedia, apps and touch-screen experience prevalent today. The question is whether there's time for the once-pioneering BlackBerry to catch up to Apple's trend-setting iPhone and devices running Google's Android system.




Analysts, technology reviewers and app developers with advance access to the BlackBerry Z10 and the BlackBerry 10 operating system have said it is the company's first competitive touch-screen phone( Techcrunch)


The Qwerty-packing handset resembles the N Series BB10 device which leaked in a promo video last September – with a ‘classic’ BlackBerry shape housing a relatively generously sized touchscreen that’s nonetheless considerably smaller than the Z10 full-touch device that RIM also unboxed today.

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RIM Fights Back For No 3 , reaches 80million subscribers

 if you had forgotten about a  RIM ( research in Motion) we dont fault you  .. as the only thung that kept RIM in the news was its declining marketshare among Mobile OS . However  Blackberry  10 seems to to bring back the company back from the dead   with the  launch of  the latest beta version of BlackBerry 10 and a new developer device, 

RIM's new Chief Marketing Officer, Frank Boulben   took pains to point out  that  RIM has changed its structure to create one single, integrated marketing organization. He also discussed an upcoming marketing campaign focusing on the BlackBerry 10 keyboard, which will be released before the OS itself. It will showcase the keyboard's "flick" feature that lets you automatically enter words by flicking up on a letter.In 

Blackberry has failed to gain back its marketshare in North America , it still has been able to lure buyers with its lower-end devices in emerging markets and countries like India which remains one of the biggest Blackberry Market Today

The company also announced that its BlackBerry subscriber base has risen to 80 million from the 78 million it reported earlier this year, surprising many on Wall Street and sparking a jump in the company's beleaguered share price.

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A Decade of Research In Motion: From Mighty To The Fallen

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion is a classic example of a company that had one great idea, grew huge because of it, but couldn’t save itself as the industry moved on. And now for the first time ever, RIM’s sales will probably shrink this fiscal year — despite continued rapid growth in the smartphone industry.The above visual data posted by Splatf shows the downfall of  Research In Motion

Its past is an impressive one: From $300 million in sales during fiscal 2003 to $3 billion four years later. RIM even continued to grow after Apple stunned the industry with its iPhone in 2007, peaking at almost $20 billion in sales during fiscal 2011, which ended this past February.

But behind the scenes, things were falling apart. RIM’s growth was downshifting, and its new sales were coming from lower-end devices in emerging markets. Now, almost 60% of RIM’s sales come from countries other than the U.S., U.K., and Canada — a dramatic change from just a few years ago

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Research In Motion:Most Studies Case Study in B Schools

Created by: MBAOnline.com

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RIM's obituary:Can the "#BeBold "save Blackberry

Research In Motion said its Be Bold cartoon superheroes unveiled in a recent blog infographic were always "intended to be a bit of fun" and are not a new ad campaign.

The BlackBerry maker, in an update posted Tuesday, admitted that its original blog, posted last week, had received "a lot of attention over the last couple of days."

RIM's slice of the lucrative US smartphone market fell to 9 per cent in the third quarter, down from 24 per cent a year earlier, research firm Canalys said in a report this week. 

Globally, the report placed RIM in fifth place among competitors, with 10 per cent market share, compared to 15 per cent a year earlier. It was the latest in a string of data points tracing RIM's dwindling global market share 

The original blog spurred many bloggers and BlackBerry users to criticize RIM's lack of marketing prowess, an issue the recently installed RIM CEO Thorsten Heins said he plans to address, partly by hiring a new chief marketing officer. RIM  in today's context " has been " seeing of its worst years, with declining marketshare of RIM Smartphones, as Consumers increasingly  lapping up Tablets,  Apple's iPad, or Kindle Fire,

RIM's updated blog explained how the Be Bold concept evolved, starting with RIM's request to BlackBerry Twitter followers to submit New Year's Eve resolutions on how they plan to "Be Bold" in 2012. RIM said it received 35,000 such resolutions via Twwitter, Facebook and giant billboards in Times Square.

During the 2011 Q3 quarter, RIM sold 150,000 PlayBooks to retailers (sell-in), although consumers bought more than that. By way of comparison, Apple sold about 120,000 iPads every DAY during its last reported quarter, which ended Sept. 30. And that was before the holiday shopping season kicked in

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Whats Driving 102% Growth in Mobile Internet Usage:

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