According to a report by TNS, the BlackBerry still dominates in the enterprise with over 81% market share in companies with over 1000 employees. The report also shows that the iPhone and other platforms are catching up in small companies where the BlackBerry’s share is only 39% compared to 28% for the iPhone and 19% for Android, however, with 69% total share of all corporate users, the BlackBerrys advantage in the enterprise compared to its competitors may just buy RIM the time it needs to bring it’s next generation handset to market and be a hit even though consumers aren’t really feeling the BlackBerry at all these days.
What RIM and the BlackBerry have going for them is that corporations are incredibly slow to adopt new technology and switch over to it. RIM is working on a QNX BlackBerry, and, although consumers may not be willing to wait for QNX to make its debut on a BlackBerry device before going with something other than the BlackBerry, corporations won’t switch en masse away from the BlackBerry before RIM makes the switch to QNX. So long as the RIM’s new Blackberry OS is comparable to iOS, Android, WP7, and webOS (BlackBerry 6 currently is not) RIM will continue to maintain millions of BlackBerry users by way of the corporate provisioned devices.
RIM may not ever enjoy the stature they once had with consumers again, however, the BlackBerry will continue to be a force in the smartphone landscape for the foreseeable future so long as QNX lives up to they hype…
I just had a conversation with a couple of buddies where, among other things, we started talking about stocks and good picks. Three of the 4 of us are BlackBerry users and were thinking that it my be time to get rid of a little RIM stock. The one of use that was a iPhone user said that this may be the actual time to pick up RIM because, “consumers are fickle and switch devices based off some feature that they will rarely use, but, have to have. Businesses on the other hand move at the pace of grass growing in the desert and the BlackBerry isn’t going anywhere anytime soon because big business is heavily invested in the BlackBerries success…
Didn’t MS used to be number one in the enterprise, or, was that Palm???
Both. Some even were Palm devices with Windows Mobile.
Problem with being number one is, there is always someone there waiting to take your place if you’re not on your “A game”. RIM is not on their “A game”.
RIM might not even be on their B game… The hope that big companies won’t start switching before you can get a decent phone by today’s standards is not a winning strategy. I will give you that RIM’s overwhelming lead in the enterprise while buy you a little time, but, I think that RIM has already eaten through what little cushion they had.
While companies change slowly, consumers flow like water to the next best thing. If Blackberry can make a winner, they can win back market share in the consumer market quickly.
I think what is happening in the Enterprise is they are giving users options. In many cases, cheaper for the Enterprise as individuals are BYOD now. So, individuals want the slick new phone. The question becomes, do they appreciate the Blackberry more to return to it or do they stick with the slick new device (or a similar replacement).
Wanted to add:
The Enterprise market in many cases IS the consumer market. This is due to being able to choose your device and getting company IT to add access to Exchange. The lines have blurred and will continue to do so.
Problem with BB is that to get Exchange support the company has to be running BES. And who really wants their own phone Enterprise Activated and subject to corporate policies. With the iphone and Android, you can connect with Exchange and not have to worry about all that BES nonsense.
They should offer some non BIS/BES phones with Exchange support. If everyone else can do it, I’m sure they can. It’s obvious there are companies allowing this method. But, lets say they don’t want to do that, get rid of BIS for the consumer phones and those line of phones would be the ones that do e-mail, web, & MMS the way every other phone does.
I would add to this by saying while I agree wholeheartedly that the Enterprise and Consumer market boundaries are getting increasingly blurred, the direction of influence is clear. In today’s world consumer use shapes enterprise behavior. This was not the case when RIM was leading the pack, but is absolutely the brave new world they face today. Economic trends only fuel this trend (see http://tinyurl.com/brown-cuts-cell-phones). Playing the “catch-up game” with the slickest new device is a difficult proposition, especially given market perception. So will RIM be able to survive by developing an aggressive app program? Should they focus on apps that match their area of dominance by building a war chest of high-function business apps? Or is the party over and it’s just a matter of time until they turn off the lights. I’m interested in seeing what others think.
Not everyone gets a check ($$) from Uncle Sam to buy nice iPhones on this planet. The US consumer might not like the RIM products but many consumers in other countries that are not as fortunate as the US consumer are attracted to RIM’s less expensive smartphone (BBM) solution. In this international consumer market, the situation for RIM is not as bleak as in the US as the trends in sales have shown. This international consumer market which is by the way very strong, will be an other element on top of the corporate clients that will certainly help RIM survive through this “dark” period until the QNX is ready.
Every BlackBerry smartphone we know of today is using technology that’s 3+ years old and was launched well over 2 years ago. There’s been in essence NO improvements other than some slight bump in camera resolution and some bumps in RAM. Other than that your BlackBerry you buy today is little different than what you could buy in late 2008. And RIM seems to not think this is a problem. Give me a break, you don’t need a dual core 1+ GHz processing to make a super smartphone, Android has been showing us kick ass phones for over a year now that every single model has exceeded even the most recently launched BlackBerry in specs. The pace of the smartphone world changed when Android got serious, and RIM was obviously caught with their pants down. I think it’s a seriously risky move to hold on to hope that corporate use will carry them through to where they again have devices the average consumer wants to have. We are seeing dual core 1+GHz Android phones launching now. If RIM takes their typical 2 years to get a polished product to market, they’ll be irrelevant by then.
Don’t let their financials fool you into thinking all is well either. Sure, they’re still moving millions of devices and making money hand over fist, but those sales aren’t HERE in North America. Look at device software leaks…see how many of them say “EMEA” in the file name? That’s Emerging Markets East Asia, that’s where RIM is growing. North America has gone Apple/Google in a BIG way and it pains me to realize my next phone is very unlikely to be a BlackBerry (after ~7 years with at least one).
Where’s the “Like” button for this comment?
EMEA stands for Europe, Middle East, Africa.
My bad, but the point is more that they aren’t growing here in North America where we focus, their growth is “over there”. They’ve lost the battle (though not the war) here. Perhaps they have a grand strategy and this is but a strategic retreat to come back full force or even stronger, but with what little we know its hard to hold on to such a hope.
i believe in 2 things and those explain why its too late for RIM
1- the world market & the international consumer usually follows what they see on tv , movies and ads in general everything around them that says cool, and cool is america to everyone followed closely by europe. 2-3 years ago the bb was everywhere in the states and europe from tv shows, soaps to movies … the international market noticed it and bb became a thing of status as it is now in a lot of 3rd world countries but the tides will soon change.
2- RIM should learn from palm, they r on the same path as the one palm took 8 years ago ; even if consumers “who flow like water” notice what an amazing gadget and OS RIM has came up with, they wont bother to check it out , they r now caught up with something different , case in hand the palm pre and web os.
palm pre and web os failed to generate buzz and consumer concern and still fail to even thou web os blows BB OS out of the water.
consumers look at palm as the past and a failed company, and that is how ppl will view RIM if something big does not come out of there headquarters soon.