A presentation to discuss the rise and fall of RIM

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

2. 1984
‘The Beginning’
RIM is started as an electronics &
computers consulting business
• Transmission of wireless data.
• Radio Waves technology research.
Mike Lazardis
Douglas Fregin

4. Waterloo
(Canada)

5. 1988
‘RIM becomes the first wireless
data technology in North
America’
LED based terminal for General
Motor assembly line.

6. 1992
‘The 2 way paging
innovation’
Conventional pagers could receive
messages but RIM developed a
technology for 2 way communication
through electronic mail.

7. Jim Balsille (Harvard
Alumni)
Joined Mike
Lazardis as Co-
CEO (1992) with
an investment of
2,50,000$

8. 1993
‘Personal
Communicator’
A revolution in the field of wireless
messaging.

9. 1995
Working Ventures Canadian Fund
Inc.
$ 5,000,000 is added to the cash reserves of
RIM for completion of the telecom hardware
and software technologies.

10. 1996
Inter@ctive
Introduces the first wireless
handheld to the market

11. 1997
Initial Public Offering at
Toronto Stock Exchange
Raises $115 million

12. 1998
‘Hello BLACKBERRY!’
Worlds first wireless handheld computer is
introduced in association with
BELLSOUTH, IBM & ROGER CANTEL
wireless.
6 line
display
E-mail
News/w
eather
2 way
paging
Stock
market
Launches
worlds first
QWERTY
based
computer
handheld

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

15. 1999
NASDAQ it is
Raises $ 250million
Launches worlds first QWERTY based
computer handheld BB850

16. 2001
Patent Infringement
US Federal Court asks RIM to pay
23.1million $ to Virginia based
NTP Inc.

18. ‘Blackberry adds voice
capabilities with 5810 model’

19. 2003
Blackberry banned
A judge rules an injunction of BB in the
states, but ruling stays.

21. 2004
Milestone Anniversary
More than 1 million subscriber’s
worldwide

22. 2005
Case continues
RIM agrees to pay $450 million to NTP
Inc.
Finally the case went up till the Supreme
Court

23. 2006
Settlement
RIM finally pays 612.5 million $

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

25. 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.

26. 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).

28. The Craze Blackberry 1 the
President’s BB
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X
6p_6Ij56EA

29. 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

30. How Ballmer laughed at iPhone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e
ywi0h_Y5_U&feature=player_embed
ded

31. 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.

32. 2010
• Buys QNX Software Systems for inspiring
the next Blackberry OS’s.
• Launches Blackberry Storm (1st touch
screen with type QWERTY).
• Acquires Astonishing Tribe.

33. 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).

34. 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.

35. 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.

36. Mike Lazaridis apologizes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
Hqp7s5LRYuY

37. OUTRAGED USERS TOOK TO
TWITTER, TURNING
#DEARBLACKBERRY INTO A
TRENDING TOPIC
2011 A sad year for RIM

40. 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/

41. 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.

42. The Era of Thorsten
Heins!

43. Turnaround for Blackberry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V
bpDJr6MoqU

44. 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

47. The dancing stock!

50. 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!

51. Segmentation of market for Blackberry
- Enterprise
- Government
- Consumer
Who are Blackberry’s biggest
buyers?

52. 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?

53. What are the substitutes of
Blackberry?
Product differentiation
• Brand identification
• Customer Loyality
• Time to build the loyality

54. 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

55. 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?

57. Apple has created an ecosystem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k
I1rACgRYZc

58. Analysis of the failed enterprise
http://technorati.com/business/articl
e/5-reasons-why-blackberry-is-
losing/
http://buzz.money.cnn.com/2012/06
/04/research-in-motion-blackberry/

59. Management &
Business
Judgement
Exapnsion &
Diversification
Structural &
Heirarchy control
Markets, Marketing
& sales
Financial
Accounting &
Equity
Technology & IP
Govt
regulations

60. Product differentiation
• Brand identification
• Customer Loyality
• Time to build the loyality

61. 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!

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

63. Dr. Ritesh Malik

64. Positive Aspects of RIM

65. 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=x6SDPelzcH
A&list=PL08E661C7C9C04C5A

66. 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.

67. 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.

68. 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.
•

69. 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.

70. Barack Obama

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

72. Comparision
Phones Design Dimensions Camera Processor App Microsi
m
Battery
Life
RAM `
Blackbe
rry Z10
Round
ed &
rectan
gular
130mm*65
.6mm*9m
m Chassis
8mp –
rear &
2mp
front
Qualcom
m S4 plus
1.5Ghz
dual core
Appro
x
7000
0
Required !0 hours.
Standby is
13days
2GB
RAM
Iphone Round
&
Rectan
gular
130mm*65
.6mm*9m
m chassis
It has a
retina
display
Apple A6
Dual Core
Processor
Appro
x
9000
00
Required !0 hours 1GB
RAM
Samsun
g
Round
&
rectan
gular
136.6mm*
69.8mm*7.
9mm
13mp-
rear &
2mp -
Front
Quadcore
1900MHz,
Krait 300
Appro
x
5000
00
17 hours 2048
MB
RAM

73. Phones

74. 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.

75. Q10

76. Eesha Palkar

77. FINANCIAL CRISIS

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

79. 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

80. 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.

81. 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).

82. 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.

83. Playbook
• In 2010,Playbook was introduced based on
QNX software.
• This innovation led to poor sales.
• The stock declined from $70 to $15.8

84. 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.

85. Leadership Problem
• Dual CEO structure was considered
dysfunctional management structure.
• Promoted a closed culture of communications.
• Lots of Lawyers and no action.

86. 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.

87. Financial Table

88. Financial Chart

89. Sonal Kotecha

90. Overview of market area
Blackberry

91. Competition analysis ,
Growth Forecast &
Attractiveness of the market.

92. SWOT

93. 4P’s

94. Growth Forecast

95. Patent acquisition &
monetization

96. Headquarter shifting

97. Financial planning

98. Analysis of consumer
psychology

99. PEST analysis

100. Marketing

101. Creative market research

102. Development/Growth/introduct
ion/maturity/decline

103. Akshara Ravilla

104. 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

105. A presentation by
• Dr. Ritesh Malik
• Akshara Ravella
• Eesha Palkar
• Sonal Kotecha
Harvard Consulting Group