Blackberry went from selling 52 MILLION phones in 2011 to ZERO 5 years later. Let's talk about it...

- The biggest one is in 2007 Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone to the world. But this alone wasn't the death blow, it was the writing on the wall. Things were shifting, but BlackBerry didn’t see that consumer wants were shifting too. They infamously laughed it off saying no one is going to trade it a keyboard for a touchscreen.

📌 Lesson: Don’t assume your customers will always want what you value.

- This next one in my opinion truly was the beginning of the end and that's the software. Apple and Android came out with their app stores in 2008. Blackberry didn't introduce theirs until almost a full year afterwards. The issue with this is developers were already locked in on Apple and Android so again they were behind.

📌 Lesson: Being a year late in tech can mean a lifetime lost.

- Essentially while Apple and Google were building out whole Ecosystems Blackberry was still on the everyone just wants BBM, a keyboard and to email with their devices.

📌 Lesson: Build communities, not just products.

- When Blackberry finally and I do mean finally came out with their BB10 system in 2013 iPhone already had 5 phones by this point. Samsung's Galaxy was dominating on the Android side and unfortunately for them they still hadn't gotten developer support. So think no Instagram, snapchat, YouTube app, Spotify, or all those mobile games blowing up around that time. Think Angry birds etc.

📌 Lesson: Innovation delayed is innovation denied.

- They also had a two CEO structure which was good at the beginning but became a liability during the times when quick decision making was needed.

📌 Lesson: When everyone’s in charge, no one makes the call.

Blackberry's strength was in security and they are still in that business (cybersecurity and enterprise) fortunately for them but they missed the boat with continuing in the phone sector.

Did you ever use a Blackberry? Do you remember BBM? Do you miss them?

#businessstorytelling #businesstalk #businessgrowth

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