Blackberry Case Study
MKTG
Prolific Resistance
Fiona Li
Maggie Ma
Johnny Wu
Cecilia huang
Table of Contents
Problem Identification ......................................... 1
Key Findings ........................................................ 1
SWOT Analysis ................................................. 1-2
Competitive Analysis ........................................ 3-4
Target Market ..................................................... 4
Alternatives and Solutions ................................ 5-9
Implementation Plan ........................................... 9
Plan B...............................................................9-10
Course concepts ..................................................11
Reference............................................................11
Problem Identification
How to achieve brand dominance in the mobile Smartphone market and adapt new technology
to changing consumer behaviors?
Key Findings

Blackberry Storm and Apple iPhone offers similar features – Mobile phone, e-mail,
organizer, internet device, GPS, music and movie entertainment.

iPhone has lower costs for a company compared to Blackberry since Blackberry’s
servers requires experienced IT specialists to manage and maintain functions.

Only Blackberry Bold offers seamless integration in Japan and Korea currently, whereas
all iPhone will work in the same fashion.

iPhone is in the growth stage of its product life cycle

RIM’s traditional target market consists mostly of the professional, executive, and
industrial market
SWOT Analysis
Positive
Internal
Strengths

Strong customer Base in
Negative
Weaknesses

Technical weaknesses in
professional, executive, and
Blackberry such as
industrial markets
synchronisation and specialized

among customers

development environments
Extreme loyalty and interest

Limited third-party application
support
Numerous security features
offered

Proprietary servers

Reliable Connection

Limited integration with

Controlled APIs (Application
Programming Interface) helps
desktop software

boost security for third-party
Blackberry Storm does not
support Wi-Fi
applications
External
Opportunities


Threats
Smartphone development allows

iPhone has Wi-Fi Support
RIM to expand customer base,

Various companies (Sony,
allowing them to compete with
Microsoft, Palm, HP, etc.)
iPhone using Blackberry Storm
joining the market
Social and cultural trends are

increasing demand for social
media such as Facebook
Apple has already established
consumer market dominance

Economic trends are forcing
companies to move away from
Blackberry’s proprietary
servers
Competitive Analysis
The current and powerful competitor for Blackberry is Apple's iPhone. Particularly the
Apple iPhone 3G is a direct competitor to the Blackberry Storm. Both products have similar
features, such as mobile phone, e-mail, organizer, internet device, GPS, music and movie
entertainment.
The price of Bell Blackberry Storm 9530 (Dualband Smartphone-3years Agreement) is
$299.95. However, the price of Rogers Apple iPhone 3GS (16GB Smartphone-Black-3 years
Agreement) is $199. Therefore, Apple iPhone brings a price challenge to Blackberry.
According to the data service IDC, which tabulates sales by units, the BlackBerry's Smart
phone market is 44.5%. However, iPhone becomes more powerful competitor.
% Share
U.S. Smartphone Market Share
data from IDC, 2008
RIM
44.5
AAPL
19.2
PALM
13.4
Samsung
8.6
Motorola
2.6
HTC
4.1
Other
7.6
U.S. Smartphone Market Share in 2008
HTC, 4.1, 4%
Other, 7.6, 8%
Motorola, 2.6,
3%
Samsung, 8.6,
9%
RIM, 44.5,
44%
PALM, 13.4, 13%
AAPL, 19.2, 19%
Also, there are many other potential competitors, such as Sony, Microsoft, Palm, and
Hp.
Target Market
Blackberry should build its' global empire not only based on professional field, but also
based on entertainment field.
Blackberry should target individual customers market and at the same time, remain
focused on the executive in boardrooms. The young people consumer group becomes the
important part of the market through the whole world, particularly in Asia. For instance, China
and India are huge market, especially for devices like Blackberry Curve and now the Pearl 8120.
Alternatives and Solutions
Alternative 1: Enlarge sales market by improving the appearance and the media and
entertainment functions of Blackberry cell phones. It belongs to growth strategy.
Objective: Attract more young generation from domestic and international market, including
attract potential consumers from Apple’s market and create new market world widely.
Advantages:
1. Young people always want to buy cool and fun cell phones which are fashion to
them. This market strategy can satisfy them.
2. This strategy can make Blackberry more competitive when compete with other
companies’ products in Smartphone market. Such as iPhone.
3. This will attract non-professional group from all over the world, which can
create new market.
Disadvantages:
1. The strategy needs new research and technology to support; this needs more
investment.
2. The increase in sales caused by this strategy is imponderable. It is impossible to
compare the increased costs with the future increased sales.
3. We cannot predict our competitors’ strategy in the same point. We do not
know how we can do better than them.
Alternative 2:
Improve the competitive strength of the Blackberry products in the
Smartphone market by reforming the Internet Technology, such as Wi-Fi, Internet speed and so
on.
Objective: Focus on the consumer market; the consumers need to use Internet widely with
their phones as well as Internet speed.
Advantages:
1. Keep pace with iPhone--- our main competitive product at the moment. Now,
iPhone’s Wi-Fi technology and Internet speed are better than Blackberry storm.
Improving in the two important fields can cover our shortages.
2. Applying Wi-Fi in all of Blackberry cell phones can draw potential consumers
from other cell phone markets. Apple only has iPhone, however, Blackberry has
series of cell phone products. People who do not love cool or smart phone have
other choices.
3. Internet speed is critical to the users; this strategy can help us beat iPhone.
Disadvantages:
1. Blackberry needs to put more money and human resources to improve the Wi-Fi
technology and the Internet speed. This will increase the costs of their products.
2. Apple has a large base of consumers. I n their opinion, iPhone is the symbol of
“cool” and “fashion”. Even if we improve in the two sides, it is still not easy to get
them.
3. It will take some time to achieve the goal. We do not know other competitors’
reaction or strategies in this period (Apple, Sony, Microsoft, Palm and so on), this
also increases our risk.
Alternative3: Achieve brand dominance in the Smartphone market by improving App World
and add more free downloads to make it easy and fun to use world wisely.
Objective: Achieve customer excellence to retain loyal customers. Beat other products,
especially iPhone using wonderful services.
Advantages:
1. Attract more potential users who are interested in easy and fun application
connected to the Smartphone.
2. Competitive with App Store. We can make App World is a new way to live. Add
more free and fun application for the users worldly, this can develop a long
relationship with our consumers.
3. Compared with App Store. Now App Store is the only place to get application for
iPhone. But App World is one place of applications for Blackberry cell phones, this
makes it not convenient to use. Developing App World to make it easy and free to
use will enhance competitiveness of Blackberry products.
Disadvantages:
1. The strategy will reduce resume of charging from downloads from App World.
2. It will cost much to apply this strategy. We need to update the applications and keep
developing new applications to users.
3. In order to make the applications can be used globally; we have to add new
investments in the technology and management.
Solution:
In order to achieve brand dominance in the cell phone market and adapt new technology for
our Strawberry products, improving the appearance and media and entertainment functions
are critical at the moment. This strategy belongs to development and short term strategy.
Make our products fashion enough for the young people to use by improving the appearance
of the Smartphone. This can help us catch the pace with iPhone. And also help us attract
potential consumers from Apple’s market. Besides, it is the tendency for the Smartphone
producers to make their products fun and cool to use. So, this is the important step for our
products too.
When considering the disadvantages, once we have new products, they will stimulate our
Blackberry stock markets, where we can finance more money for our research and promotion
of the new products.
Implementation Plan
In order to achieve our solution, we need to follow steps to implement our proposed strategy:

Budget: firstly, we need a larger budget to develop a new Blackberry cell phone.

Development: Next, we need to develop the new cell phone which will include media
and entertainment functions in it. Especially the cell phone appearance, it must be cool and
fashion because the young people do not like the traditional cell phone.

Promotion: After the new blackberry developed, we need to promote the new cell phone
to the market through advertising, newspaper and studio. New cell phone’s promote not only
can stimulate market, also can win the brand dominance in the mobile Smartphone market
place and increase competition.
Plan B
If our solution cannot happen, our back up plan is improving App World and add more free
download for the customers. Currently, customers can use Blackberry App World to check the
weather, play games, and track the market and so on. Blackberry's applications are both free
and paid$2.99-$999.99US. iPhone App store offer the same feature; however, it available either
for free, or for a small cost. Also, App store contained 500-third-party applications (125 of them
are free downloads) for the iPhone and the iPod Touch. Therefore, if Blackberry can improve
the App World and add freer download, it will attract many customers and increase the
competitiveness of Blackberry. We believe this plan will further blackberry change the
shortages and target iPhone market.
Course concepts
In order to analysis this case, we use the following course concepts:
SWOT analysis to find the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats.
4Ps- Price, Place, Promotion, Product.
Target Market defines by age and Geographic.
Competitive Analysis
Reference
http://henstudio.com/apple/2009/04/03/blackberry-storm-vs-iphone/#
http://gizmodo.com/5093715/blackberry-storm-review-verdict-not-quite-a-perfect-storm
http://gizmodo.com/5060378/blackberry-storm-first-hands-on
http://www.topix.com/forum/city/corralitos-ca/TD1V3IRB5NRE5A0V5
http://www.wired.com/reviews/product/blackberry_storm
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/11/att-buys-waypor/
http://www.rimarkable.com/rim-launches-blackberry-app-world
http://www.businessinsider.com/2008/11/rim-blackberry-storm-review
http://docs.blackberry.com/en/developers/deliverables/1076/development.pdf
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Why-Companies-Are-Switching-siliconalley3481794139.html?x=0&.v=8
http://www.ehow.com/about_5452119_blackberry-thunder-vs-iphone.html