Could Blackberry have survived?

rfmcdonald · Nov 23, 2019

This Thursday while I was on a daytrip to Kitchener-Waterloo, I had the chance to see the compact City of Waterloo Museum. There is preserved a memory of the first and still most famous tech company of Kitchener-Waterloo, Blackberry.

Blackberry did blossom. It did, eventually, go under as a leading producer of consumer electronics. there a single POD, do you think, by which Blackberry might have survived as a trendsetting tech company, say with an operating system as widely used as Android or iOS? Or was Blackberry bound to flame out?

Petros >Peter Fergus< · Nov 23, 2019

Definitely. Could easily have been a major third option instead of the minor other option it is now. Heck, they might still bounce back up to major third option.

They'd just have to buy up some of the same small tech that the big two bought up, or hire the same people.

Blackberry might have bought Android Inc. Then they could have tried to bridge the gap between 'hardware exclusive' and 'open source', by making it so their operating system was available for anyone to use, but was designed to work best on their own devices. Then they'd have access to the whole library of free or almost free android apps, because the OS would be available for other smart-phones, while they'd still have their own prestige product that just works.

Other things they could have done if they'd gotten on this path early would be to specialize in having phones delivered so their users have the phones they want, they might have bought up some phone providers so their users have reliable (or at least predictable) service.

It was all up in the air as of the first iPhone. I think Apple was set up well to lead this industry, and google was set up well to have the majority of users connected to their service, but BlackBerry could have been the in between option, without losing their reputation as the serious business phone.

SealTheRealDeal · Nov 23, 2019

Born in the USSA · Nov 23, 2019

I had a Blackberry for years and loved it, if it did manage a comeback somehow I'd definitely look into getting another one. I agree a"Blackberry acquires Android" scenario has the most potential as a POD but I'm not sure how successful triangulation between the two technology models would be.

Simon · Nov 23, 2019

It could have been, but it's going to be a challenge. IIRC the major problems are the two founders having too much control whilst being wedded to certain ways of doing things which led to poor working practices, their suffering a couple of large technology failures which when one of your major selling points is security is a problem, and their missing touchscreens – although to be fair they certainly weren't the only ones.

Personally I think they should have introduced a hybrid model with physical keyboard and touchscreen as soon as possible, made sure their software for corporate client admins was the best possible, and doubled down on the high-end security conscious segment of the market. Segment it with secure messaging applications like Signal or Telegram for the lower to middle end, their own handsets and operating system for the upper end, and models that meet government security standards for mobile phones at the very top – you won't sell massive numbers but you can charge top price and it provides a certain cachet for the whole range.

rfmcdonald · Nov 26, 2019

Simon said:
It could have been, but it's going to be a challenge. IIRC the major problems are the two founders having too much control whilst being wedded to certain ways of doing things which led to poor working practices, their suffering a couple of large technology failures which when one of your major selling points is security is a problem, and their missing touchscreens – although to be fair they certainly weren't the only ones.

Personally I think they should have introduced a hybrid model with physical keyboard and touchscreen as soon as possible, made sure their software for corporate client admins was the best possible, and doubled down on the high-end security conscious segment of the market. Segment it with secure messaging applications like Signal or Telegram for the lower to middle end, their own handsets and operating system for the upper end, and models that meet government security standards for mobile phones at the very top – you won't sell massive numbers but you can charge top price and it provides a certain cachet for the whole range.

Blackberry's corporate management, agreed, seems to have been an issue. Neither co-founder was a Steve Jobs, and probably neither would be likely to be one unless you have them a personality transplant.

Could it be that Blackberry might have seen some sort of corporate shakeup? Was there someone in a position, perhaps, who could have changed things?

BigBlueBox · Nov 26, 2019

If you want a PoD after the iOS and Android, the best option is to have Blackberry switch to Android sooner and continue marketing itself as business friendly and encouraging corporations to buy them for their employees. Another option would be for Microsoft to buy them instead of or in addition to Nokia when it tries to enter the mobile field.

Simon · Nov 26, 2019

rfmcdonald said:
Could it be that Blackberry might have seen some sort of corporate shakeup? Was there someone in a position, perhaps, who could have changed things?

Depends on who owned the shares. If Lazaridis and Balsillie own a majority, or at least a large enough minority, then they're pretty much immune. There's also the problem that Research in Motion were wildly successful right up until they weren't, it's going to take a lot of foresight for someone to see the coming events and then one hell of a pitch to convince people. As for changing things the problems with the firm was that it was run as a partnerships which slowly became more and more unwieldy then dysfunctional, the board deferred too much to the founders rather than hold them to account, and there weren't any obvious internal candidates that could step in and take over.

IIRC Balsillie had an interest in hockey on several occasions trying to buy NHL teams, with a long-term goal of relocating them to Hamilton, so perhaps he succeeds which sees him bow out from active management of the company. That still leaves Lazaridis though. Perhaps if Balsillie left to concentrate on his sports team it's an opportunity for the company's management structure to be normalised and people promoted or brought in to fill the gaps. Someone without the personal history Balsillie had with Lazaridis might be more willing to be forceful in raising any concerns. Alternatively this might be a case where an activist investor coming in to purchase a stake, demand seats on the board, and reforms be made would actually be beneficial.