The fall of BlackBerry
So, in this case, I really do hate to say "I told you so". I'm Canadian. As an alumni of Carleton University's Computer Science program I also spent many years with a lot of Canadian developers, many of which probably went on to become employed by BlackBerry, then RIM. I went job searching in Ottawa at a time that was years after the main fallout of the Nortel bankruptcy and I know a little (I imagine very little compared to how things were immediately after) about what kind of an impact these sorts of things can have on the economy and the people that suffer through them.
After the Nortel thing I was on a different end than many. It was weird to be a fresh graduate in an area which was in high demand and still needing to fight tooth and nail just to get an interview. I never expected things to be handed to me on a plate. But I won't forget the first time I got an interview for a job even remotely in my field. Nerds on Wheels. It was barely a job interview... it was more of a franchising opportunity than anything. But they only wanted so many people on board, and so there were interviews. In a room of 50 people I was the clear bottom runner. Half of them were programmers or in a similar technical vein with decades of experience. Many from Nortel, and others from other tech companies that had crumbled. And as much as people pretend to desire fresh graduates... they desire experience more. It was a hostile environment both for the experienced and the initiates.
It was terrible, and I don't wish it on anyone. Many of the people in that room were living a fate many more are likely to suffer. People with advanced degrees and years of experience working in retail or in call centers or as first level tech support.
And that is why I began this by stating that I really do hate to say that I saw this coming. I just hope everyone there saw it too and prepared their exit strategies well in advance.
I saw it coming a mile away. And from the rumours that BlackBerry had been looking for a buyer since 2012, it appears as though they speculated this was probable for quite some time now. Which makes a lot of my prior questions even more salient. But the biggest one, and excuse my language, WHY THE F*** DID THORSTEN HEINS OPENLY MOCK WINDOWS PHONE?!
This isn't a personal jab as a Windows Phone user. It is more a question of, you know your company is in the shitter and you know you will more than likely need someone to buy your company. Knowing that, why would you possibly think it a good idea to mock the competing product of the company in the best position to actually follow up on your backup plan. Insulting any company or product at when your in that state is idiotic, but insulting anyone else would have been smarter.
How is he still their CEO? I don't get it. Google has already bought Motorola at the time, and Apple clearly had no interest in buying someone else's hardware OR software divisions. This made Microsoft the only viable party. Other handset manufacturers would only be interested in buying them for the sake of patents. And yet Microsoft is the only company it seems Thorsten Heins went out of his way to snub.
There is also, still my argument that BlackBerry probably should have focused on hardware and adopted someone else's software since it was the hardware that the BlackBerry die hards liked more than the OS. And I already made my argument for why I feel Windows Phone would have been a better OS option for BlackBerry than their own OS. And also why I felt it was a better option than Android (the only viable alternative for a 3rd party).
You can disagree with my conclusions all you like. But I think anyone will agree with the points I made. Mainly that Windows Phone is on the rise whereas BB OS was (and still is) on the decline. It would have required not only a new OS, but complete rebranding, and then time for that new brand to take hold and frankly they didn't have the cash to ride out that solution. I'm still not sure which idiot there thought that riding the dead BB OS horse into the ground was going to save them.
Switching to Android would have left them in a market where there are too many competitors and there is no way of differentiating their products. They can't go to iOS because Apple doesn't license their OS. On WP though, their hardware would have been distinct from other WP offerings. Also, since WP is less "complete" in terms of apps and functionality and RIM could have brought their portfolio of applications and perhaps even services to the WP platform which would undoubtedly have served to boost the platform even further doing a great service to both Microsoft and RIM.
Now, unless Nokia turns tail (a possibility) I don't see Microsoft expressing any interest in BlackBerry except perhaps to contribute to a consortium of some sort that ultimately absorbs BlackBerry's patent assets. With all of the big players likely out of contention for a direct bid for BlackBerry as a company, they are likely to be dismantled and gobbled up piece meal and spit back out just to take what little they have in terms of a patent portfolio.
After the Nortel thing I was on a different end than many. It was weird to be a fresh graduate in an area which was in high demand and still needing to fight tooth and nail just to get an interview. I never expected things to be handed to me on a plate. But I won't forget the first time I got an interview for a job even remotely in my field. Nerds on Wheels. It was barely a job interview... it was more of a franchising opportunity than anything. But they only wanted so many people on board, and so there were interviews. In a room of 50 people I was the clear bottom runner. Half of them were programmers or in a similar technical vein with decades of experience. Many from Nortel, and others from other tech companies that had crumbled. And as much as people pretend to desire fresh graduates... they desire experience more. It was a hostile environment both for the experienced and the initiates.
It was terrible, and I don't wish it on anyone. Many of the people in that room were living a fate many more are likely to suffer. People with advanced degrees and years of experience working in retail or in call centers or as first level tech support.
And that is why I began this by stating that I really do hate to say that I saw this coming. I just hope everyone there saw it too and prepared their exit strategies well in advance.
I saw it coming a mile away. And from the rumours that BlackBerry had been looking for a buyer since 2012, it appears as though they speculated this was probable for quite some time now. Which makes a lot of my prior questions even more salient. But the biggest one, and excuse my language, WHY THE F*** DID THORSTEN HEINS OPENLY MOCK WINDOWS PHONE?!
This isn't a personal jab as a Windows Phone user. It is more a question of, you know your company is in the shitter and you know you will more than likely need someone to buy your company. Knowing that, why would you possibly think it a good idea to mock the competing product of the company in the best position to actually follow up on your backup plan. Insulting any company or product at when your in that state is idiotic, but insulting anyone else would have been smarter.
How is he still their CEO? I don't get it. Google has already bought Motorola at the time, and Apple clearly had no interest in buying someone else's hardware OR software divisions. This made Microsoft the only viable party. Other handset manufacturers would only be interested in buying them for the sake of patents. And yet Microsoft is the only company it seems Thorsten Heins went out of his way to snub.
There is also, still my argument that BlackBerry probably should have focused on hardware and adopted someone else's software since it was the hardware that the BlackBerry die hards liked more than the OS. And I already made my argument for why I feel Windows Phone would have been a better OS option for BlackBerry than their own OS. And also why I felt it was a better option than Android (the only viable alternative for a 3rd party).
You can disagree with my conclusions all you like. But I think anyone will agree with the points I made. Mainly that Windows Phone is on the rise whereas BB OS was (and still is) on the decline. It would have required not only a new OS, but complete rebranding, and then time for that new brand to take hold and frankly they didn't have the cash to ride out that solution. I'm still not sure which idiot there thought that riding the dead BB OS horse into the ground was going to save them.
Switching to Android would have left them in a market where there are too many competitors and there is no way of differentiating their products. They can't go to iOS because Apple doesn't license their OS. On WP though, their hardware would have been distinct from other WP offerings. Also, since WP is less "complete" in terms of apps and functionality and RIM could have brought their portfolio of applications and perhaps even services to the WP platform which would undoubtedly have served to boost the platform even further doing a great service to both Microsoft and RIM.
Now, unless Nokia turns tail (a possibility) I don't see Microsoft expressing any interest in BlackBerry except perhaps to contribute to a consortium of some sort that ultimately absorbs BlackBerry's patent assets. With all of the big players likely out of contention for a direct bid for BlackBerry as a company, they are likely to be dismantled and gobbled up piece meal and spit back out just to take what little they have in terms of a patent portfolio.
Comments
Post a Comment