From $77 Billion to $5 Billion --Where It All Went Wrong for BlackBerry?

Its official, BlackBerry (BB) is now the next big company to come under the grips of uncertain times and finally has decided to take the sales route. Fairfax is the company which has agreed intent to sale arrangement reported to be at $4.7 billion. Now for a company which was valued at $77 billion five years back, it is staggering to see its decline and the end figure of $4.7 billion clearly shows the ineffectual handling of operations at the Canada-based company.

If you look at the turn of events over at BB, one would be astounded to see the drastic downfall of a brand, which was once considered to be an epitome of enterprise solutions. While the likes of Android and iOS were busy accumulating their large scale user base across the globe, BlackBerry was making its merry in the enterprise segment, wherein the former did not show keen interest. Gradually, the company decided to shift its focus towards a dual strategy i.e. both consumer as well as enterprise market and experts felt that BB has the right ingredients to supplement its assault on the consumer side with its BB operating system powered on its own hardware. Now, this meant BB was the only other company after Apple to offers its own software as well as hardware (Microsoft has joined the line-up now).

Initially, the company garnered rave reviews with its Curve, Bold smartphones powered by BB OS 7 that was more suited to the corporates than the end consumers (We're the BlackBerry Boys encapsulated that) . BB tried changing this image by making use of its BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) product that became a rage across the globe for its integrated messaging set-up, which merely required user to have a PIN number for his device. The strategy worked and even markets like India became a viable avenue for the company especially targeting the youth consumer with its affordable Curve models.

From there on, anything that BB touched turned sour and this apparent downfall started taking shape when it launched BlackBerry Playbook tablet that was supposed to be BB's ammunition to compete with major tablet brands. However, the product tanked and to such an extent that BB was forced to clear-off its stock by offering more than 60% discount (selling around Rs 14,000).

While Android and iOS were charting their own growth, BB went under the radar, to work on its next OS version, BB 10. This platform was supposed to BlackBerry's second coming in the market but sadly things did not fall into place as the company would have expected. After almost two years delay bringing out the BB 10, the platform was announced along with two BlackBerry handsets, Z10 and Q10. While Z10, the company's first all-touch device powered by BB10 got positive response from the industry but the moment BB decided to sell it as a premium product, alarm bells were well truly up and away.

BlackBerry's story is an episode that everyone should look at and not follow under any circumstances. For the company, it will reportedly go private, sell its consumer business and operate where its expertise lies, offering enterprise solutions.