End of Blackberry as we know it

Attack of the BlackBerry killers?

Economist is carrying an article about the stiff competition that Blackberry will face in the near future, particularly from Microsoft. This theme has already been played out many times while Blackberry has been growing from strength to strength.

Parallels can be drawn with the success of iPod. Well executed integrated solutions seem to be the flavour of the season. Though you can go an purchase mp3 players from dozens of players and then go and purchase songs from multiple vendors, iPod+iTunes solution is the preferred one. Disjoint solutions from other players instead of providing choice seem to create confusion amongst customers. If I have buy mp3 Player A, will it work with software B and will the songs purchased from vendor C work on it ?

Similar story is playing out it the Enterprise mobility domain. Blackberry - Blackberry hardware, proprietary software solution, proprietary middleware, self-owned server software and Networking Operating System are preferred over disjoint solutions. I belive that Blackberry has a good time ahead of it, especially with the settlement of patent infringment case with NTP.


“These guys exist because Microsoft is bad at mobile e-mail,”
Notice the Microsoft connection. Reminds me of the often quoted joke - If your product/service competes with Microsoft then forget about VC funding.

Though Microsoft has shown growth in its Mobile business its market share is nowhere close to its share of the desktop market and still not been able to crack the mobile market. I doubt it will be able to do so. Biggest reason is the reluctance of players such as Nokia which do not want the desktop story to be repeated in the Mobile market. Symbian continues to the default choice for all major vendors.