Is the BlackBerry Dead?

[Mzalendo_Mkweli]

It was only six weeks ago that the Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry announced it had formed a special committee to explore options to “enhance value,” including selling the company. Then, last Friday, the company said it would lay off forty per cent of its workforce, and focus on business users of smartphones rather than consumers. On Monday, BlackBerry revealed that it has agreed to sell itself for $4.7 billion to a consortium led by Fairfax Financial Holdings, which will take the company private. There’s not much to say about BlackBerry’s fall that hasn’t already been said: as I wrote last month, the company failed to recognize the iPhone as a credible challenger; it overlooked the threat of Android and low-cost competitors in Asia; and, finally, it threw its little remaining energy into a new line of high-end smartphones that failed to resonate with consumers.
With the postmortem complete, on to the funeral. For many—and for better or for worse—the BlackBerry marked the dawn of a modern era in which work doesn’t end at five o’clock but, rather, follows you home and stays by your side, blinking that little red light like a faithful pet that feels neglected. Many of us have moved on to other smartphones—iPhones and Android devices, mostly—but the BlackBerry, as the object that started us down this path of constant connectedness, holds a special place in the collective heart of the American workforce.
BlackBerry may have a little life left. Last week, days before the announcement about the layoffs and the strategic turnaround, BlackBerry unveiled a new, larger phone called the Z30 at a small event in Malaysia. According to the Wall Street Journal, citing a person familiar with the matter, the company has kept up work on some new devices in recent days—finishing a small version of its Z10 touch-screen phone, for instance, and continuing limited production runs of Porsche-branded BlackBerrys. It’s unclear whether and how any of this thinking would change after an acquisition, though the company likely structured the reorganization with such a takeover in mind.
But how much longer is the BlackBerry likely to exist before it, like plenty of other once-vaunted devices, gets relegated to some quiet corner of the Computer History Museum? Certainly, the new owners could potentially milk BlackBerry’s existing customers for revenue as long as they can, even if they don’t go looking for new ones. As of June, BlackBerry had seventy-two million users—more than twice the population of Canada, for comparison. It could take a long time for that number to dwindle to zero, as long as BlackBerry keeps supporting its customers. But there’s a difference between a product that persists among a relatively small group of diehard loyalists and one that, like the iPhone, is deeply embedded in consumer culture. Even if BlackBerry technically exists for some time, it’s unlikely to ever again capture us the way it did in its early years. And if, at some future point, the company is dismantled and sold for parts—patents, the BlackBerry Messenger service, security technology, etc.—could the BlackBerry disappear for good?
No one’s saying yet, and an e-mail to BlackBerry requesting clarity didn’t immediately get a reply. But judging from the layoffs and the acquisition announcement, the future doesn’t look good for the BlackBerry.
In a press release, Fairfax’s C.E.O., Prem Watsa, offered only that the new owners “can deliver immediate value to shareholders” and “focus on delivering superior and secure enterprise solutions to BlackBerry customers around the world.” Any mention of the BlackBerry itself—the device for which the company is known—was conspicuously absent. Nor does the press release discuss growth plans.
People have been calling on BlackBerry to make a change for years now; still, BlackBerry’s executives deserves some credit for moving quickly once they finally decided the company couldn’t hang on in its current form for much longer. It’s a pity they couldn’t move as quickly to make sure the world’s first beloved smartphone kept hold of our attention.
Source: Is the BlackBerry Dead? : The New Yorker