When a company do not fine tune their products with the fast changing technology especially in mobility then they are left far behind and can’t cope with customer’s aspirations. This is the main reason that once the darling of enterprise customers, BlackBerry phones are considered now obsolete and those still using them have to face derision sometimes.
This story which has appeared in The New York Times speaks volumes about fall of grace of this beautiful device called Blackberry phone, which were once considered as true business companion.
“I’m ashamed of it,” said Crosby, a Los Angeles sales representative who said she had stopped pulling out her BlackBerry at cocktail parties and conferences. In meetings, she says she hides her BlackBerry beneath her iPad for fear clients will see it and judge her.
Research In Motion may still be successful selling BlackBerrys in countries like India and Indonesia, but in the United States the company is clinging to less than 5 percent of the smartphone market – down from a dominating 50 percent just three years ago.
The BlackBerry was once proudly carried by the high-powered and the elite, but those who still hold one today say the device has become an object for mockery and derision from those with iPhones and the latest Android phones.
To keep pace with latest Apps available in Apple’s iOS and Android OS, Yahoo allowed its employees to replace their BlackBerrys with iPhones or Androids smartphones. BlackBerrys may still linger in Washington, Wall Street and the legal profession, but in Silicon Valley, they are as rare as a necktie. Even the White House, which used the BlackBerry for security reasons, recently started supporting the iPhone.
BlackBerry outcasts say that, increasingly, they suffer from shame and public humiliation as they watch their counterparts mingle on social networking apps that are not available to them, take higher-resolution photos, and effortlessly navigate streets – and the Internet – with better GPS and faster browsing. More indignity comes in having to outsource tasks like getting directions, booking travel, making restaurant reservations and looking up sports scores to their exasperated iPhone and Android-carting partners, friends and colleagues.
Still, a few BlackBerry users say they’re sticking with the device, mainly because of the BlackBerry’s efficient, physical keyboard. “I use my BlackBerry by choice,” said a 32-year-old investor who frequently travels and needs to send emails from the road. “I can’t type emails on touch-screen phones.”
This is the true story of modern fads and how people make their purchase decision. Majority of the people prefers to buy as per current trends and will be influenced by what others are buying. Can you afford to force your decision on your college going son or daughter to buy as per your wishes? NOT at all. She or he will not listen to you and will go for the phone as per the latest trends and what his or her friends are having.
It is a pity that a marvelous hardware product like BlackBerry has not changed with the time. They are stuck with their old operating system, which has lost its relevance. Had they adopted Android OS in their hardware, then the story would have been different. But that is the price a company has to pay for its rigid decision not to move forward with developing trends. On the contrary, Samsung has emerged as leading player of smartphones by adopting Android OS in majority of its devices.
