Way back when, BlackBerry was the house to rule all smartphones. Nokia had a stake in that claim, too, but for many BlackBerry was the dominant force to be reckoned with.
That is not the case any longer, though, and according to a new book called Losing the Signal, written by Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff, the iPhone played a big role in why BlackBerry finds itself in the position it’s in right now. Back then BlackBerry was known as Research In Motion (RIM), and the company had phones that marketed the best hardware keyboards to date. BlackBerry’s infatuation with the physical ‘board, and an unmitigated ignorance towards consumable media, which the iPhone excelled at, would eventually lead to the downfall of the Canadian company.
“If the iPhone gained traction, RIM’s senior executives believed, it would be with consumers who cared more about YouTube and other Internet escapes than efficiency and security. RIM’s core business customers valued BlackBerry’s secure and efficient communication systems. Offering mobile access to broader Internet content, says Mr. Conlee, “was not a space where we parked our business.“
Another factor in the downfall? The Storm, the company’s “iPhone Killer†back in 2008. Unfortunately for BlackBerry, Verizon Wireless rushed the company into developing the touchscreen handset, and when it did finally make its way to market it was plagued with bugs and other issues. The Storm was supposed to be a massive hit, but unfortunately it was anything but. The same situation would reemerge when BlackBerry would launch the Storm 2 soon after, to little fanfare.
The Wall Street Journal has a nice excerpt from the book available through the link below, and it’s certainly worth checking out.
Did you ever use a BlackBerry?
[via The Wall Street Journal [1] ]
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