Who remembers the BlackBerry phone?
My earliest memory of it was, when I newly into a role… and the manager (GM) had a blackberry. We were on the shop floor (manufacturing company) and he asked me if I’d seen a particular note from another senior person. I said, no. He instantly, pulled his blackberry out – and said, it’s in your inbox, have a look and walked off.
Wow. The power in his hands at that moment!
I rushed up a flight of stairs, to the office, and put the laptop on and had a look for the email – and rightly so, it was there! Read the email and replied and knew what was happening.
It was rather ground-breaking.
Having the power to do your emails on the go. Not having to get to the laptop. Not having to run up a flight of stairs. Nope… none of that. In the palm of your hands – you could be quicker, simpler and empowered (to a certain extent) to make decisions and get work done!
What was your first memory of the BlackBerry phone? (if you’re old enough to remember them!)
But… we know what happened to the trusted BlackBerry device. Don’t we?
You’ll have heard, it’s the End of the Road for them.
Sales have been plummeting for a while. Every since Apple and other devices didn’t use physical buttons, every since other devices had better integrations with other applications and then the whole eco-system between devices (laptops, phones, tablets, etc…)
BlackBerry stuck with their unique selling point – the physical buttons. And to be honest, there were some die-hard fans that loved them. But the problem was, technology moved on so much… that honestly, there were other features that were more important than having the physical buttons. And on top of that, we all got used to the simplicity.
Simplicity of the screen.
Unfortunately, BlackBerry didn’t advance. They didn’t innovate. They stayed as they are.
And the other strand to this is… people aren’t sending as many emails as they used to previously.
We have more chat functionality. (Yes you had that on blackberry – but it was limited).
We have MS Teams. We have Slack. We have Whatsapp. We have all the social media platforms – Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, etc…
Let’s be honest, who has the time today to read long emails. It’s quicker and easier to send a quick message.
I think this only proves one point. It’s not the strongest of the species that survive…
… it’s those, who are most adaptable to change.
Unfortunately, BlackBerry, like Blockbuster, like Kodak… just didn’t adapt to the change. Didn’t innovate. We know companies like Apple have that innovative spirit built within…
Look at the two graphs from 2011 to 2013. Blackberry’s huge decline and Apple’s huge increase in sales.
I’m sure there’ll be many who are emotional about BlackBerry being no more… and I’m sure they’ll tweet/share their sorrows via their Apple or Android device. Basically, their non-BlackBerry device.