The false steps RIM and BlackBerry - El Comercio (Ecuador)

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iron ball, known as ‘ blackberry ‘ (because of its similarity to a black cherry) prevented the freeing of slaves in the U.S. That ball went a shackle attached to the ankle of the prisoners. This is a legend that tells of the forms of captivity in the eighteenth century.

With the passage of time and the emergence of RIM technology company , Canada (1984), with the name of BlackBerry was baptized the first smartphones crowded in the world. Even at the height of its use, consumers are hypnotized by their innovations (see graphic). But now everyone is talking about their failure.

What happened? The Canadian was the first company to develop wireless technology and when it launched its first BlackBerry in 1999, users could not only check your mail and browsing, but also send messages through the famous BB Messenger.

Raul

Sannjinés, Senior Manager of Technology and Risk of Ernst & Young and president of ISACA Ecuador, remember that this marked advantages over other phones. In fact, this innovation placed the company at number one in the world, with over 20% of global market share between 2009 and 2010 and to 70% in the United States.

boom of the phones of RIM-BlackBerry now in Ecuador started in 2007 or so.

Marcelo Ayala, owner of Impracell technical workshop, it was agreed that the 8100 line, Ecuadorians were immersed in the consumption of this device through the ‘joystick’ (the ball in the middle of the phone). Thus, users gained expertise in sending messages until the ‘joystick’ was damaged.

After repairing the ‘ball’ more than three times, Joseph Riofrio phone changed. First bought an iPhone and then a Samsung and now has a Galaxy S4 and although the Canadian firm incorporated BB Messenger on Android , Riofrio and do not use it. Prefer to download services such as Line and Whatsapp.

and two years, the boom collapsed BB. To Sannjinés, the appearance of iPhone in 2007 worldwide marked the decline of BB. He says if this is added the iPad launch, in 2010, you can understand the imbalance of RIM. From that moment the market turned to a different mobile platform, despite the efforts to create something similar (its PlayBook tablet), could never compete with the other.

In this maelstrom of deals, the Blackberry 2011 suffered the fall of their messaging services. This was also felt in Ecuador, causing user dissatisfaction. That’s how Alejandro Sierra, a BlackBerry user until 2011, he decided on an iPhone, a device that instead of BB had WhatsApp Messenger, a service that not merely talking just contact RIM phones.

According Hugo Carrión, director of the research center for the Information Society Imagine, the lack of evolution of RIM BlackBerry led to failure. Even with the new BB10 operating system models, the firm tried to claim the touch-screen terminals, technological market leaders such as Samsung and Apple have mastered consumption BB preventing them worthy competitor.

Elvira Torres, director of the Centre for Research Digital Media in Spain, believes that the company not only had to renew the software, but also the image of the brand. While Z10 and Q10 models are the best that RIM has made in its history, according to Director of ISACA, were intended as an alternative to Android or iPhone. But in his attempt also sinned with defects “are a lonely island in the ocean of innovation and integration offered by other platforms,” ??says Sannjinés.

Just

mobile services development is what is most criticized for BlackBerry, which claims to have 120 000 applications available for its users, but it does not have timely updates. The Ctrl Alt Freak blogger, Diego Cevallos, believes the little innovation responds to BlackBerry developers are not attracted to create mobile services in an insecure operating system, transform that despite the new BB10, fails to make a difference. An example of this are the failed application upgrades.

So Marcelo Mejía prefer to create mobile applications for the competition. The Ecuadorian Apple’s developer and after his experience says that ‘developers’ BB services not believe the lack competitiveness and loss of users. That is the reason, why the firm has repeatedly and own applications.

Although the country

no official statistics of income of these phones from their official arrival, Carrion, director of Imagine, believes that Android and iOS dominate the market in Ecuador.

So the best solution is to sell the Canadian firm, in the same way as did Motorola and Nokia when they felt that the failure came. Only in this way, the iron ball can hold back the hands of users worldwide.

His innovations

One aspect that should be noted is the phone safety of the Canadian firm. By having a closed system, the flow of information runs directly through the BlackBerry and, therefore, no leaks.

Therefore, the company has targeted business consumption. In Ecuador, for example, it is common to state officials and members of the financial sector with these models.

BlackBerry

achieve less than 5% share of the global handset market for 2016, according to analysis firm specializing in technology Gartner. The company reported losses of USD 646 million at the close of its fiscal year 2013.