The Recent Market Assessment: From Blackberry Applications To Playbook

By Author: Turtlejet
Total Articles: 20
Comment this article

With the arrival of new smartphone leaders, familiar names in the smartphone market have seen a massive downfall. Blackberry application development has suffered from a colossal downfall. Rim profits shrank to $695 million from $769 million in the last year. Continuing the same era of losses, RIM is bleeding in the market leading to 200 job cuts. While new comers such as Android have captured RIM’s market, RIM has constantly failed in proving itself as an efficient smart phone service for both corporate as well as other users. Let’s take a formal look at RIM’s market.
Market Perception
Market is unfavorable for those who are planning to invest with Blackberry or developing Blackberry applications. RIM has lost around one million US subscribers in last 3 months, even though the smart phone market grew 11 percent over the period, according to the National Business Review. RIM’s shares fell 11 percent in a day and has reported a 9.6 percent fall in profit for its may quarter.
When considered Playbook, RIM official commented saying that RIM regrets late ...
... launch of its new products. While RIM still could not take its Playbook to New Zealand, Android and iPhone are being promoted on a large scale. Reuters report initial Playbook sale as “lumpy”. RIM had set high expectations on its latest release Blackberry Torch, which includes a touch-screen and a slider, QWERTY keypad. However, it is placed as a local market product.
Playbook Blunder and Merits
The most hyped, RIM’s playbook, does very little to spur Blackberry application development. Company’s freelance developers are no more interested in Blackberry application development and have extended hands to develop for better and profit-oriented companies. There are changes in RIM’s demand for programming work for various devices, platform and operating systems.
Soon after its launch, RIM’s Playbook and Blackberry applications designed for Playbook, fell prey to mixed reviews. With major bug fixes and updates soon after its release, Blackberry Playbook has become a mere joke in the market suffering from 6 percent loss in the second quarter. Even after adding several new features such as Video Chat, Blackberry Messenger, Docs Editing and Photo Editing features, its sales have been very weak.
Favorable Indian Market
The falling cost of Blackberry curve and other devices worked wonders in India. The large groups of Indian youth, who desire to buy a mid-range phone with all new interactive features, have participated in buying Blackberry. The major reason of Blackberry’s success is its BBM campaign. BBM went viral in the countries like India and Indonesia. In fact, it is well received even in Latin America and European markets.
The future of Blackberry completely depends on its core strategies. Although it builds world-class products, most of them lack proper promotion or enter the market at a wrong time. In order to survive, Blackberry has planned to strengthen its sales and service network to tap the potential in Tier II and Tier III cities. It plans to add 2000 outlets in 25 cities, so current Blackberry holders can experience better network strengths, soon.
Encouraging Blackberry application development also plays a vital role. Unsatisfied but skilled Blackberry application developers need to be confided in and supported, helping them build great apps for the BB devices.