BlackBerry's 10 biggest mistakes
The long fall from the top.
By Staff Writers
on
Sep 25 2013, 1:10PM
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Where did BlackBerry go wrong?
Crackberry. That’s what its fans and indeed foes used to call the mobile phone company whose handsets were deemed so addictive, scores of celebrities, politicians and business leaders couldn’t put them down.
It was the first mobile handset to offer emails on the go. At its peak, BlackBerry controlled half of the smartphone market. Everyone from Barack Obama to Beyonce had one. But the phone maker is failing.
As Apple hits the headlines, having reportedly sold nine million iPhones in three days, BlackBerry has a different story to tell. It has agreed to be bought for $4.7bn (A$5 billion) by Fairfax, its main shareholder - a tiny fraction of its former valuation, and less than the amount Apple has raked in over the past few days in sales of its new iPhone 5s ($4.9bn).
Last week, the company announced it is cutting 4,500 jobs (40 percent of its global workforce). Its second quarter results pointed to a near $1bn loss and it now intends to write down $1bn in unsold inventory.
All told, it’s a spectacular fall from grace. But how did it happen? Here are BlackBerry’s top mistakes…
Crackberry. That’s what its fans and indeed foes used to call the mobile phone company whose handsets were deemed so addictive, scores of celebrities, politicians and business leaders couldn’t put them down.
It was the first mobile handset to offer emails on the go. At its peak, BlackBerry controlled half of the smartphone market. Everyone from Barack Obama to Beyonce had one. But the phone maker is failing.
As Apple hits the headlines, having reportedly sold nine million iPhones in three days, BlackBerry has a different story to tell. It has agreed to be bought for $4.7bn (A$5 billion) by Fairfax, its main shareholder - a tiny fraction of its former valuation, and less than the amount Apple has raked in over the past few days in sales of its new iPhone 5s ($4.9bn).
Last week, the company announced it is cutting 4,500 jobs (40 percent of its global workforce). Its second quarter results pointed to a near $1bn loss and it now intends to write down $1bn in unsold inventory.
All told, it’s a spectacular fall from grace. But how did it happen? Here are BlackBerry’s top mistakes…
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