Neeltalks

There were certain dominant entities that ruled the 2000s, Manchester United ruled the Football world, Sachin ruled the Cricket World & Engineering branch ruled over your passion. One such dominant leader during those times in the smartphone industry was a Canadian firm, originated by the name of Research in Motion, popularly known by the world as BlackBerry Ltd. BlackBerry was a famous smartphone manufacturer, synthesizing technology with luxury in a perfect blend and hitting the right note with the infant cellphone consumer of the 2000s. Today, new kids on the block assume that iPhone has been the hottest commodity since the big bang. However, they would be astonished to find that in 2010, Blackberry alone held a market share of 45% even though Apple launched three versions of its highly marketed & hyped product-iPhone. The year was 2011 and Blackberry was at its peak.

What made them so famous & so desirable? To start with, a simple design & a specialized set of features. The sleekly carved black design with a finely edged QWERTY keyboard made it an instant fan favorite. During those times, the promise of working & playing on a phone simultaneously appealed to the mass consumer market. Blackberry had a unique server-Blackberry Enterprise Server- for managing your emails, & enhancing the mailing experience on a mobile device & it also had a unique security protocol to provide the end user with an advanced level of privacy, this made BlackBerry tap & conquer the massive market of business & government users. People across age groups were deeply in love with their new & exclusive communication channel BBM. The Blackberry models, the Curve(2009), the Bold(2009), and the Torch(2010),  were so famous that everyone wanted a piece of them, the Blackberry men ad was thought to be uber cool, and its messaging app BBM talk of the town and its fans ranged from Kim Kardashian to former US president, Barack Obama.  

Rome was built over hundreds of years and was ruled by the greatest of kings in human history but eventually, Rome lost and crumbled, so did the highly profitable & once loved brand, BlackBerry. The rise of a new decade led to the fall of the old King. Anticipating the huge market potential of smartphones, larger rival companies such as Apple, Samsung & Google started knocking on the doors & ushered in a new era that brought a compelling user interface with IOS & Android on a fully operable smart screen, and this started an era of smartphone apps, an era in which your smartphone will ultimately become your mini portable computer. The party started & the crowd joined in but BlackBerry was so late to the party, sadly, it got kicked out. Initially, Blackberry decided to stick with its roots but gradually when it decided to acclimatize, doors had been already shut. The BlackBerry Z10 & the BlackBerry Priv were a desperate attempt to reclaim the lost throne but they were simply not adequate as the BlackBerry stock trembled from a mighty high of $146 to $4.5 during this turbulent phase. The once mighty & supreme, BlackBerry lost the smartphone race, eventually, it was sold to different companies in the hope of a much-needed rebound but they never really recovered. In early 2022, BlackBerry announced its retirement from the core smartphone business, marking the end of a glorious era.

Where is BlackBerry now? What happened to them post-retirement? I have some good news here, they are still around the block. When Blackberry acquired QNX(a commercial Unix-like real-time OS) way back in 2010, they would have never truly known the impact of this acquisition in their ultimate revival. Leveraging QNX, BlackBerry shifted its focus on Automation tech in Cars and the unexplored world of cybersecurity. Currently, Blackberry has a modest market cap of around $5 billion. They are still not dominant in these fields but it is good to see them survive to fight another day. Fast forward to 2023, there’s another smartphone leader, it’s brand name is also based on a fruit. It is also very stubborn in comprehending the needs of a smartphone consumer & consequently adapting them. Only time will tell its fate, but right now, iPhone is the king. For now, as we bid farewell to the former leader, innovator & undisputed champion of the smartphone market in the 2000s, I hope one day in the distant future, the King will return.