Research in Motion

‘The mobile OS platform war’Sonal Kotecha Eesha Palkar Akshara Dr. Ritesh Malik

1984

‘The Beginning’RIM is started as an electronics &

computers consulting business• Transmission of wireless data.• Radio Waves technology research.

Mike Lazardis

Douglas Fregin

Waterloo (Canada)

1988

‘RIM becomes the first wireless data technology in North America’

LED based terminal for General Motor assembly line.

1992

‘The 2 way paging innovation’

Conventional pagers could receive messages but RIM developed a technology for 2 way communication through electronic mail.

Jim Balsille (Harvard Alumni)

Joined Mike Lazardis as Co-CEO (1992)

with an investment of 2,50,000$

1993‘Personal Communicator’ A revolution in the field of wireless

messaging.

1995Working Ventures Canadian Fund Inc.

$ 5,000,000 is added to the cash reserves of RIM for completion of the telecom hardware and

software technologies.

1996Inter@ctive

Introduces the first wireless handheld to the market

1997Initial Public Offering at Toronto

Stock Exchange Raises $115 million

1998

‘Hello BLACKBERRY!’

Worlds first wireless handheld computer is introduced in association with BELLSOUTH, IBM &

ROGER CANTEL wireless.

6 line display

E-mailNews/

weather2 way paging

Stock market

Launches worlds first QWERTY based computer handheld BB850!

Blackberry 850: The most revolutionary product of the decade. -NewYork Times

1999NASDAQ it is

Raises $ 250million

Launches worlds first QWERTY based computer handheld BB850

2001Patent Infringement

US Federal Court asks RIM to pay 23.1million $ to Virginia based NTP

Inc.

‘Blackberry adds voice capabilities with 5810 model’

2003 Blackberry banned

A judge rules an injunction of BB in the states, but ruling stays.

2004

Milestone Anniversary

More than 1 million subscriber’s worldwide

2005

Case continues RIM agrees to pay $450 million to NTP Inc.

Finally the case went up till the Supreme Court

2006Settlement

RIM finally pays 612.5 million $

BALSILLIE, THE SELF-DECLARED "QUANT JOCK" WITH A HARVARD MBA, GAVE RIM A NEW BUSINESS-SAVVY - WallStreet Journal (2001)

2007 (1st/2ndquarter)

• 10 million subscriber’s • Most valued mobile technology company in the

world • iPhone launched in the summer season. Not seen

as a threat to Blackberry at the moment. • Alcatel Lucent partners with BB for China

distribution which leads to a 8% increase in the market boost.

• Valuation $68 billion.

2007 (3rd/4thquater)

• Launches BB professional software • Opens first BB branded store with wireless giant

retailers. • 12 million subscribers (added 1.65million in 3rd

quarter).

The Craze Blackberry 1 the President’s BB

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6p_6Ij56EA

RIM goes BOLD! • 1st major radical new device with a beautiful interface. • Valuation touches $84 billion. • Competition from Apple. • Blackberry STORM is launched to a lukewarm response

and mediocre reviews

How Ballmer laughed at iPhone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U&feature=player_embedded

2009 • Online App Store to compete with Apple Store • Becomes worlds largest growing company with

average growth 77% over previous years, in contrast to 27% for Apple.

2010• Buys QNX Software Systems for inspiring the

next Blackberry OS’s. • Launches Blackberry Storm (1st touch screen

with type QWERTY). • Acquires Astonishing Tribe.

2011 (the year of doom)

• PLAYBOOK opens to mediocre reviews and pathetic sales.

• Job cuts 2,000 (10% workforce) • First year sales iPad 9.532 million Vs

Playbook 405K (after reduction of prices and massive discount marketing).

RIM was the industry creator not the follower.

Should never have launched a product such as Playbook. Should have taken

time and launched a disruptive product.

The 3 days that changed Blackberry’s perception

• Oct 10-13 2011.• 3 day Blackberry system failure. • 70 million frustrated users.• As a move to compensate the system failure,

Blackberry gave a $100 coupon for the Blackberry App Store purchases.

Mike Lazaridis apologizes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hqp7s5LRYuY

OUTRAGED USERS TOOK TO TWITTER, TURNING

#DEARBLACKBERRY INTO A TRENDING TOPIC

2011 A sad year for RIM

BBM hit by Whatsapp!

http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/16/whatsapp-bigger-than-twitter-with-over-200m-monthly-active-users-8b-inbound-and-12b-outbound-messages-

daily/

http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2013/06/13/whatsapp-is-now-processing-a-record-27-billion-messages-per-day

/

2012• Balsillie / Lazardis step down • COO Thorsten Theil becomes the CEO. • RIM hires investment banks JP Morgan/RBC

Capital to assist in reviewing its poor performance. • BB10 launch • 5000 job cuts • $518 million loss • Stock stoops to an all time low of $6.10.

The Era of Thorsten Heins!

Turnaround for Blackberry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbpDJr6MoqU

2013 (A new Blackberry Era?)

• BB 10 opens to customers.• Z10 the first touch based blackberry with the all

new User Interface. • Q10 the first touch & QWERTY on the knew UI. • $94 million profits for first quarter. • Name change to Blackberry. RIM is the dissolved. • Rebrands App Store and lures the developers to • Sign of optimism

The dancing stock!

What went wrong in 2011 ?

‘The company spent more time trying to justify its existing smartphone philosophy and less time getting

ahead of trends.’- Financial Times; December 2011

PROBLEM ANTICIPATION!

Segmentation of market for Blackberry - Enterprise - Government - Consumer

Who are Blackberry’s biggest buyers?

What kind of Brand loyalty did Blackberry have till 2010?

-Who has used a Blackberry?

-Who have shifted from Blackberry to other phones and why?

- Who are still on Blackberry?

What are the substitutes of Blackberry?

Product differentiation

• Brand identification • Customer Loyality • Time to build the loyality

Turnaround specialist

• Create an industry in itself WEARABLE

• Something like Bizspark Microsoft • Niche Blackberry’s (Doctors etc.) • Accessory base • Brand ambassador • Clear the structural clutter • Shift the base to Silicon Valley

Innovation!

This is the only answer for turning the wheel of fortune for blackberry!

Can you name a company which had a similar situation and got a buyout?

Apple has created an ecosystem

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI1rACgRYZc

Analysis of the failed enterprise

http://technorati.com/business/article/5-reasons-why-blackberry-is-losing/

http://buzz.money.cnn.com/2012/06/04/research-in-motion-blackberry/

Management & Business Judgement

Exapnsion & Diversification Structural &

Heirarchy control

Markets, Marketing &

sales

Financial Accounting &

Equity

Technology & IP

Govt regulations

Product differentiation

• Brand identification • Customer Loyality • Time to build the loyality

Why did Blackberry compete on prices? It was a niche phone not

a mass utility phone!

They should have segmented the market instead of dropping the price.

POOR STRATEGY!

Lesson to learn from APPLE! They created an industry.. iPad (TABLET) Become a market leader in innovation

Dr. Ritesh Malik

Positive Aspects of RIM

5 Reasons of RIMs Success

• Carriers liked Blackberry.• Device management is included with

blackberry server.• Security was locked down.• Blackberry was comprehensive.• Blackberry was easy to use. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6SDPelzcHA&list=PL08E661C7C9C04C5A

Carriers

• Nokia signed a patent license deal in2012.• Airtel launched Blackberry handsets in 2004.• In the year 2007 Blackberry was made

available on Reliance network.• BSNL also launched.• AT&T launched solar charging station for

blackberry.

Customer Friendliness

• An education app was introduced in 2012 to keep youth connected.

• There was a blackberry introduced in 2009 for babies with help of LeapFrog.

• Blackberry launched a global premium apparel brand in India.

• MAX Health care started a Blackberry app for patients.

Why was Blackberry so popular

• Blackberry launched the email concepts on the go.• The phones had svelete design, sharp screen,HD

video capture.• Blackberry improved the gap between work &

home• Blackberry became famous for its app BBM

especially from 2010 to 2012. •

Celebrities

• US President Barack Obama had love for the phone as it could be used for office related work.

• In 2012 Blackberry smartphone makers RIM had roped in an Indian celebrity Ranbir Kapoor.

Barack Obama

Ranbir Kapoor At the country launch of Blackberry Z10 on Feb 25th 2013.

Comparision Phones Design Dimensions Camera Processor App Microsim Battery

LifeRAM `

Blackberry Z10

Rounded & rectangular

130mm*65.6mm*9mm Chassis

8mp – rear & 2mp front

Qualcomm S4 plus 1.5Ghz dual core

Approx 70000

Required !0 hours. Standby is 13days

2GB RAM

Iphone Round & Rectangular

130mm*65.6mm*9mm chassis

It has a retina display

Apple A6 Dual Core Processor

Approx 900000

Required !0 hours 1GB RAM

Samsung

Round & rectangular

136.6mm*69.8mm*7.9mm

13mp-rear & 2mp -Front

Quadcore 1900MHz,Krait 300

Approx 500000

17 hours 2048 MB RAM

Phones

Z10

• It can be easily operated with one hand• The interface of OS Blackberry 10 is

completely new.• User friendly has is there is BBM,BBM

Voice,BBM Video.• Z10 is capable of image & video stabilization.

Q10

Eesha Palkar

FINANCIAL CRISIS

Contents

• Impact of Apple iPhone• Disattraction from core business• Compitition• Late Acquisition• Launch of Playbook• Service interuptiom• Other criticisms• Financial Table

Impacts of the Apple iPhone

• In 2007,Apple iPhone was introduced.• The media attention led more consumer

attention towards Apple iPhone and then was called “Blackberry Killer”.

• In 2007,initially iPhone sales lagged Blackberry sales.

• In 2008,Apple sold 6.9 million iPhones and RIM sold 6.1 million which lead to downfall

Disatraction from core business

• Jim Balsillie was very big hockey fan.He purchased hockey teams worth 1200 million dollars.

• There were no innovations or patents made during this span of time.

• This led to no change in RIM’s business from 2006 to 2009.

Competiton from Google

• Google Android was launched.• Initially Jan 2010,hardly 7.1% Smartphones of

Android were sold in comparision to 43% Blackberry devices.

• Then in a span of 1 year Android’s sales increased(67.768) and Blackberry’s sales declined(7.63).

Late Aquistion of QNX Softwares

• RIM management got a shock by the iPhone success and aroused to a world where smartphones with amazing UI where present.

• To renew the damage they acquired QNX. • But further delay in the implementation of the

software for Z10, Q10 caused significant damage to the companies reputation.

Playbook

• In 2010,Playbook was introduced based on QNX software.

• This innovation led to poor sales.• The stock declined from $70 to $15.8

Service Interruption

• In oct 2011,there was service interruption for 3 days which affected the Blackberry users all over the world.

• This outage led subscribers without e-mail access and other messaging services.

• Rim attempted to placate by providing free applications worth over $100 to subscribers.

Leadership Problem

• Dual CEO structure was considered dysfunctional management structure.

• Promoted a closed culture of communications.• Lots of Lawyers and no action.

Other Criticisms

• Blackberry Phones were less attractive.• Browsing Capabilities were poorer.• Therefore developers didn’t developed

consumer applications for Blackberry.• Operating systems were dated and Hardware

was unappealing.

Financial Table

Financial Chart

Sonal Kotecha

Overview of market area

Blackberry

Competition analysis , Growth Forecast &

Attractiveness of the market.

SWOT

4P’s

Growth Forecast

Patent acquisition & monetization

Headquarter shifting

Financial planning

Analysis of consumer psychology

PEST analysis

Marketing

Creative market research

Development/Growth/introduction/maturity/decline

Akshara Ravilla

Bibliography • Wall Street Journal • New York Times • Forbes Inc. • CNN money • RIM-war of the OS platforms • Youtube.com • Vimeo.com • Competitive advantage (Michael E. Porter) • Harvard Business Review • Mint • Jakarta Business (THE POST) • Financial Times • The economics • Financial statements from Yahoo Finance.com • London School of Economics Study package for marketing • MIT Sloan Techology Review • Canada Technology Post • Times of India • Business Standard • Deccan Chronicle

A presentation by

• Dr. Ritesh Malik • Akshara Ravella • Eesha Palkar • Sonal Kotecha

Harvard Consulting Group