New Book Explores How the iPhone Contributed to BlackBerry's Downfall

[sinsin07]

And guess who's ahead of Apple?
Android.

Android is an entity made up of multiple vendors. Android being ahead means nothing if the vendor can't turn a decent profit. Bills gotta be paid.

Android is ahead in market share. So what? What does that mean for Google, Samsung, LG, Sony or HTC? Apple's profit is more than all those companies combined. So who is really ahead?

At the end of the day, you count up your pennies and that is how you see who is ahead.

Oh and Nokia is jumping back into the phone market.

Good luck.

And Blackberry is still alive and kicking.

Alive, barely. Kicking? More like twitching in its death throes.

I'm getting a hunch that 2016 is when things start to get very interesting when Apple start losing its grip.

What grip? Android is winning, right?

Strategy Analytics: Android Captures Tiny 11 Percent Share of Global Smartphone Profit in Q4 2014
BOSTON, Feb. 26, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, global smartphone operating profit reached US$21 billion in Q4 2014. The Android operating system captured a record-low 11 percent global smartphone profit share during the quarter. In contrast, Apple iOS took a record-high 89 percent profit share.

Linda Sui, Director at Strategy Analytics, said, "Global smartphone operating profit grew 31 percent annually from US$16.2 billion in Q4 2013 to US$21.2 billion in Q4 2014. Android hardware vendors combined took a record-low 11 percent global smartphone profit share, down from 29 percent one year ago. In contrast, Apple iOS captured a record-high 89 percent profit share, up from 71 percent in Q4 2013."

Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, added, "Apple iOS continues to tighten its grip on the smartphone industry. Apple's strategy of premium products and lean logistics is proving hugely profitable. Android's weak profitability for its hardware partners will worry Google. If major smartphone manufacturers, like Samsung or Huawei, cannot make decent profits from the Android ecosystem, they may be tempted in the future to look at alternative platforms such as Microsoft, Tizen or Firefox."

Now take that 11% profit and divide by:
Samsung
HTC
LG
Sony
Motorola
myTouch
TMobile (G1)
Nexus
Dell
Acer
Sprint (Kyocera, Force)
Casio (G’z One Commando)
Pantech
Amazon
Huawei
ZTE
Kyocera (Milano)
ATT (Avail)
Orange (San Diego)
OnePlus One
Xiamoi
Lenovo
Oppo
Meizu
and many more.

 

[usarioclave]

Apple got a deal with AT&T that other companies weren't able to secure and established its App Store without needing to offer payouts to AT&T. "

Apple made a deal with Cingular, not AT&T. AT&T bought Cingular before launch day.

 

[bdkennedy1]

It's common sense. You can change the keyboard with software instead of creating an entirely new hardware keyboard. That's where Blackberry failed.

 

[AppleScruff1]

Arrogance. It's that simple.

It killed Nokia, and it killed BlackBerry. It nearly killed Microsoft (Before they managed to recover under S. Nadella).

And it'll be what kills Google as well.

And probably Apple too.

 

[thekeyring]

Or straight from their Android phone/tablet with Google search built in. Which means they saw the future of mobile and bought an OS, tweaked it, and made it free so google search continues to be used...

Exactly. I wasn't trying to say they were doomed I just meant it was interesting to see what might happen

 

[SchneiderMan]

Someone should tell Samsung.

Samsung innovates on Apple's expense.

 

[QCassidy352]

And you are mixing the situation with the previous management with the turnaround being staged by the CEO who joined in November 2013.

http://www.businessinsider.com/blackberry-cuts-jobs-2015-5

That's from today.

 

[thekeyring]

Based on profit it would appear Apple is smarter.

They make more with less.

At the end of the day you count up your pennies and that is how you see who won.

Case in point: Blackbeery. They're running out of pennies.

True. And it's also worth noting who is relevant.

Microsoft has plenty of money left, but ask someone in the street and they'll say 'no one uses windows phone'.

iPhone is easily the most relevant. When there's a new model, everyone knows. 90% of the screenshots you see on Facebook and Tumblr are iPhone.

iPhone has managed to win on both counts: profitable and relevant.

 

[patent10021]

iPhone -> BB dies

Apple Watch -> Pebble dies

Apple TV -> ___?

Apple Car -> ___?

 

[Pman17]

When Apple released the iPhone, the rest of the industry hit a brick wall. Nobody was prepared for what happened. It was obvious though. I had a Nintendo DS with a touchscreen back in 2004. A screen that didn't require fixed buttons. Cash registers had this tech at the time too. I thought wow, why doesn't phones have this technology? Sure enough, Steve Jobs announces the iPhone.

As tech becomes easier and cheaper to work with, it's obvious that you can't have exclusive stuff anymore. The hardware must be open and easy to work with. Apple did that with the developer program. If you look at Microsoft right now, you can see that transition. The new management there will succeed over Balmer. Microsoft opened up like Apple and made their OS universal on its devices like Apple. I think they're almost caught up with Apple too. Now they released their secret weapon, Hololens.

Android survived because it was open.

Blackberry was too slow to catch up and it just didn't look appealing anymore. Nobody likes bulky chunks of plastic.

 

[randian]

it was at that point in time did RIM tell everyone that they were in fact going to create a brand new OS, from the ground up. it would be a fresh start and be the best OS you've ever used. Fast, Portable, and installable on all their devices. (Playbook and phones). They then had to clarify, that no, no current generation phone running BBOS6 could upgrade to it. You'd have to buy a new device.

Memories sure are short these days. That's exactly the same mistake Osborne made 20+ years earlier.

 

[MacMulti]

I didn't buy bb storm but feels funnily sick think of it, having tried on one in store some years ago. It simply one failed and terrible product hands down. *speechless*

 

[bhayes444]

Yes, the Blackberry Storm was my first smartphone and my only RIM product. It had massive bugs, and a memory leak that's only fix was to pull the battery and hard reset it at least daily. Not to mention the App Store was horrendous and no wifi. I was naive then, but not anymore.

 

[APlotdevice]

Yes, the Blackberry Storm was my first smartphone and my only RIM product. It had massive bugs, and a memory leak that's only fix was to pull the battery and hard reset it at least daily. Not to mention the App Store was horrendous and no wifi. I was naive then, but not anymore.

Oh yeah, I remember having to do that.

 

[Michael CM1]

Lesson learned (again): carriers are clueless

Kind of reminds me of automakers when I heard Toyota said it was happy with its Entune app suite for its cars compared to either CarPlay or the Android version. I haven't been able to use CarPlay, but if it's anything like the handoff features and AirPlay, it's way better than Entune. The only thing that I can halfway use is my navigation system, and it's basically a clunker where you have to type in the state, then the city, then the street name.

It's a shame companies like Toyota don't just admit, "You know, we don't know what we're doing. Apple and Google, build us a head unit worthy of Mordor." Then the Apple and Google systems can get built in to head units by Pioneer, JVC, etc. instead of the bargain basement stuff you get from factory units.

BlackBerry sounds very similar. "Of course customers want a real keyboard! WHY? Because if they don't, we're f@%#ed!"

 

[ilmman]

I remember I had a BB Bold 9000 that had google maps i think. I then looked at my friends iPhone with google maps and I recall it ACTUALLY had animating blue dots where as mine was not and it was nothing close to smooth compared to his iPhone.

After that I jumped ship and that was it.. Also installing apps on the BB was a nightmare..

 

[Michael Scrip]

I still say the biggest mistake RIM made, was trying to compete with the iPhone in the consumer market, instead of keeping their core enterprise customers happy.

Never bite the hand that feeds you. At least, not until you have other hands

Perhaps if the Blackberry remained enterprise-only... there wouldn't have been a problem.

But once regular consumers started using a Blackberry... RIM had to cater to them.

So what would you have suggested they do? I would imagine that RIM was tickled pink that they were selling Blackberries to more people than just enterprise customers. They gained a whole new customer base!

Should they have just ignored consumers altogether?

There was a time when nearly everyone I met (average consumers) were using Blackberries. I had to memorize my BBM PIN because I'd give it out so often.

The Blackberry was THE phone to have. It wasn't just for enterprise users anymore.

I took this pic in 2010 in the southeast United States. Many of my friends had Blackberries... and it was funny to see so many of them in one room together:

Here's the kicker though: while we all had Blackberries at that time... none of us got another Blackberry.

We went from flip-phones to Blackberries... but then to iPhone or Android.

So... in a sense... RIM could have gone back to being an enterprise company. But even that wouldn't have been good enough considering how many enterprise customers also moved to iPhone and Android.

I don't know what RIM could have done to change the outcome. There were other platforms that were simply more appealing.

 

[cwerdna]

If you copy the link and type it into Google.com search box (not your browser's box) and click on the link that shows up, you should be able to read the entire article without subscribing.

Yep, that's the way around WSJ's paywall for most (all?) of WSJ's articles.

 

[Mike MA]

Do you even know what Samsung does as a company? The mobile divsion is small part of Samsung in the scheme of things. actually Samsung made more money than Apple last year.

Exactly that division I was talking about. With reduced R&D budget and now missing USPs like display size sales decline. So talking about semiconductor, TV and others divisions rather doesn't make sense in this threat dealing with mobile devices

Samsung innovates on Apple's expense.

This.

 

[Abazigal]

Moral: Must keep innovating or you will not survive.

To be fair, anyone can throw out new features. Not everyone can come up with new features that actually appeal to consumers and which they are willing to shell out a premium for.

 

[Arndroid]

Should be an interesting read. This was one of the biggest industry disruptions to happen in most of our lifetimes. Rim had a very dominant position and an unassailable lockdown on enterprise.

Now they are a non factor and the one area where people said apple would not likely make inroads with the iPhone, enterprise, apple has 90% of the market.

This kind of shift with a dominant player dying while an upstart takes over, during a really short period of time almost never happens.

We are still only eight years from the launch of the original iPhone. It was a spectacular fall for RIM.

 

[vladi]

Although this story is very US centric meanwhile in rest of the world another manufacturer dominated sales, Nokia.

Nokia's downfall started with the carriers who were pushing for its demise. Managers were getting memos to find a replacement for Nokia asap.

Nokia got so big that its started pushing its own OVI services that took carriers money from selling you ringtones, pictures and what now.

That is why Nokia failed. It was sabotaged by leading worldwide carriers.


Even BlackBerry and resurrected Palm had more harm done to them in their downfall by carriers than by Apple. Blackberry is not in US because of the burnt bridges with carriers. That's why we need not 4 but 14 nationwide carriers while Verizon needs to disappear from the face of the earth together with all of its executives.

 

[Marx55]

BlackBerry made fun of the iPhone when released. There you are now.

 

[Aaargh!]

Also RIMs third party developer program was so exclusive, it was like applying to a country club or private society club. The rush of apps going on the iPhone also overwhelmed RIM.

As someone who did BB development back in the day, this so much. It's not that the support for developers was lacking, they were actively trying to prevent you from developing apps.

Everything changed when we had to develop an app for a big name international brand, then they got *real* friendly real fast.

 

[sinsin07]

I don't know what RIM could have done to change the outcome. There were other platforms that were simply more appealing.

Get off of Java sooner. They were still rockin' Java well past 2010.

iPhone came out in 2007.
Android 2008

By the time 2010 rolls around it was pretty clear what the market was shaping into.

How long did RIM/Blackberry think they could keep milking that OS?

Moreover, they had every opportunity to release something different before the iPhone even hit the streets.

Example: Apple and Google. Neither company was in the phone business before 2007.

Blackberry was/is a phone company.

So was Motorola, Nokia and Palm.

All four destroyed by Apple and Google.