As iPhone BlackBerry destroyed

In 2007, forever changed not only the smartphone industry. Presentation of the iPhone, which Steve Jobs held a brilliant, literally turned upside down

 the world of Mike Lazaridis and he founded the company Research in Motion.

iPhone is able to download music, videos and maps directly from the internet and thus it is compact, mobile and highly stilnyy.V when Lazaridis saw the broadcast of the event, announced the iPhone, his head throbbed only one question: "How did they do that?" Curiosity even turned into distrust when head of AT & T Cingular Wireless Sigmen Stanley told the public about the long-term contract with Apple to sell new smartphones. "Yes, what they do think there in the AT & T?», - Lazaridis showed that such a prospect threatens complete collapse of the cellular company.

The next day, the head of RIM seated before a computer my colleague, CEO Jim Balsillie and demonstrated his webcast presentation daveshney iPhone:

They have built a full-fledged browser in this thing! Mobile operators do not allow us such!

Shocked Mike Lazaridis

Balsillie even initially thought that RIM (which was later renamed as BlackBerry) loses AT & T as a customer.

"They got hold of Apple smart condition. We never managed to get such. Now working in the US market will be difficult, "- he said. Lazaridis said that the guys from Apple really cool, and now things will change. "However, we can handle", - assured the company's founder Balsillie.

In subsequent months, the head of RIM thinking and talking about the iPhone is not enough. At that time, a brand new smartphone from Apple did not threaten the core business of the company. One of the managers of the then BlackBerry Larry Conley shares memories: "He [iPhone] was not safe enough in terms of protection of personal data, its battery was weak, and the onscreen keyboard will not even old enough."

As the head of RIM, and if the iPhone becomes popular, it is only among fans of YouTube and mobile web surfing. Certainly not among those who are interested in performance and data security. And it is a reliable and well-functioning gadgets from RIM attracted the bulk of users BlackBerry. Free mobile access to the Internet - it is not an area where your business is Research in Motion.

In principle, a crazy popularity of a brand new iPhone was something from the category of unexplained competitors Apple - RIM, Nokia and Motorola. Smartphone could barely 8 hours worked gadget only second-generation cellular networks, and the active use of the Internet iPhone owners heavily load the network AT & T (there were many complaints about the quality of communication). That is why the head of the RIM and could not understand why consumers are so "peck" on the new product from Apple.

"By all measures, the product was supposed to be a failure, but it did not happen," - says RIM CTO David Yak. He, like other heads of Research in Motion had to reconsider its attitude towards the production of smartphones. For now, according to the users like the gadget was distinguished not only the functionality but also the aesthetics of performance.

We suddenly discovered that beauty is also important. We could not believe that people want to buy this thing.

Yak David, Technical Director of RIM

Verizon impossible requests

The RIM decided to confront Apple, teaming up with mobile operator Verizon Communications. The manual of the cellular company realized that a partnership with its Apple rival AT & T strongly threatened her in the market.

During the summer of 2007, during the first three months after the release of the iPhone on sale, Apple sold more than 1 million of their smartphones. The novelty was not just a phone, it was already a cult with a mass of loyal followers, rapidly growing in numbers.

Of course, Verizon had to find a counterbalance to iPhone, and it is not surprising that the choice fell on the cell phone company RIM. At that time, the BlackBerry maker was considered one of the largest in the world for the production of smart phones. Initially, the partnership program, Mr. Lazaridis offered Verizon new development - Bold model with traditional keyboard and touch screen. However, Verizon rejected this gadget. If Apple in the company AT & T has successfully traded touchscreen phone, then Verizon customers had to present something like that.

Then Lazaridis offered its partners a model Storm, which in 2007 was more like a prototype than a working product. As with the iPhone, Storm implied with the glass display with capacitive touch-panel, but it was he and hallmark. Desk on this smartphone can be scrolled (unlike the iPhone, the first versions of the software which was impossible to do this), and a numeric keypad activated by pressing the lower part, it is with the same physical sensation of clicks that have been popular phones from BlackBerry to their key keyboard.

At Verizon this smartphone from RIM furor, and the leadership of the cellular company has pledged to invest in advertising Storm $ 100 million. For the BlackBerry, this situation has become a great breakthrough in the US market, so Lazaridis could not deny the potential partners. Although the reasons for the refusal were. For example, a very short time to start the Storm finished model on sale in the spring of 2008. (Recall that the device at the time of the show could hardly be called anything more than an early prototype.)

Deadline came suddenly somehow, and of course, in the RIM have not coped with the task. Ready Storm smartphone went on sale in the autumn of 2008 to the beginning of the Christmas season sales. At the same time the engineers at RIM knew perfectly well that at that time they post on the shelves completely ready to use product. Its web browser barely worked, touch screen does not respond to touch at the corners, and he himself gadget constantly "hangs" and reboots. Like many other manufacturers that the product is crude, RIM tried to stall for time. The Verizon tried to support the sale of additional investments in advertising, and the developers of RIM hurry to update software platform Storm, to somehow fix all the errors in his work. Surprisingly, the gadget turned out to be very popular. In the words of Mr. Lazaridis, Storm became the biggest selling product of the brand BlackBerry is in its first generation. For the first two months of sales the company sold a million copies of the new smartphone, demand even exceeded supply.

However, it is worth to mention that this success proved transient. In the spring of 2009, Mr. Balsillie was invited to the headquarters of Verizon in Basking Ridge, NY. New Jersey, for the study of sales data collected by mobile operator. There Jim discovered that caused a fuss gadget project was a failure. It turned out that almost every one million sold smartphones in need of replacement, it Balsillie told the director of marketing for Verizon, John Stratton. And many consumers replaced devices is also returned as a result. That is, Storm suffered a complete failure in sales, and in Verizon demanded compensation invested in a failed project funds.

You will have to fully indemnify us all spent on solving problems with malfunctions funds. Otherwise, we completely revised our partnerships with you. It is your responsibility, and we expect you to solve this problem. That you are responsible for her decision, not us.

Stratton statement at a meeting with Balsillie

The Verizon demanded that RIM compensation of $ 500 million as compensation for all the costs of the project.

Balsillie had to admit that such a sum to compensate RIM can not. Instead, the manufacturer suggested to his partner an alternative solution in the form of special offers for customers. For example, a free repair program to upgrade gadgets and free BlackBerry, which you can distribute as part of some shares. This solution was dispensed RIM at about $ 100 million and would cause great damage to the budget producer.

Head of Marketing Verizon this proposal did not have to like it, but little way out it was not. Mobile operator virtually "stuck" in a deal with RIM, and never could escape from smartphones, which have pledged to buy. Mr. Stratton agreed to the new terms, but warned the representative RIM, that the relationship between the companies change much in the future.

Failures Storm

For the first time since becoming a joint stock company Research in Motion has released a failed product. The ability to bypass Apple's smartphone market the company missed. At the time, she earned an excellent reputation for reliable mobile devices. But now critics have increasingly expressed doubts about its ability to create something innovative.

"Everyone was disappointed, demoralized the situation of each employee. Our world is turned upside down ", - says Director of Production RIM Don Morrison.

Mr. Conley confirms: "We felt that this project is fully under our power, but everything is wrong, and everything was very ashamed."

Only one only founder of the company, Mr. Lazaridis, Storm did not consider a failure product. Looking for a novelty, he could see her strengths - a good camera, the ability to broadcast video, high-quality speaker and a removable battery. In addition, Storm was the first device with network support 3G, which supplies the operator Verizon. But most of all liked the Lazaridis original clickable display. He could not bear to touch screens that respond not felt the virtual keyboard when writing text. (Chapter RIM and could not allow that the user does not like it is this feature of the touch pad in the Storm.) So Lazaridis blamed team Research in Motion, which is not able to collect a good smartphone from different components.

"Mike thought that we brought, because we did not do what he asked. Nobody even thinks about whether this requirement is reasonable, "- says Don Morrison. He was echoed by RIM CTO David Yak "He Lazaridis said that we must have a crappy team. He was very upset and, although believed that we let him down. "

According to the head of the company, Storm was still a gadget that RIM should continue to improve. The Storm 2 he wanted to see a clickable display. By the way, this particular Lazaridis persisted until 2010 - as long as the mobile operators do not lose interest in cooperation with RIM.

Although the market did not need a smartphone with this type of touch screen, Lazaridis still believed in the four pillars of the success of BlackBerry. Among them - a powerful battery, a limited choice of mobile operators with whom collaborated manufacturer, security and the ability to print with a sense of the physical response of the keyboard. And the smartphone market these features present in other gadgets, and people continue to buy such products. In this light, for the head of RIM remained inexplicable success of iPhone. For all his predictions about the weak and insufficient battery capacity networks AT & T to provide the desired amount of traffic for the iPhone were accurate.

However, the way back was not, and Apple gradually establish its own rules on the market. Like all other manufacturers, RIM is now was among the followers, just watching innovation company from Cupertino.

That we have created the perfect product and service, which launched the development of the industry. The moment when one operator, changing the rules of the game, and forced the other operators to follow suit. This allowed Apple to completely change the users' expectations. No economy, no cost, no battery is no longer mattered. This - the genius of Apple. And we just have to adapt our products do not always come out such as the expected audience.

If the failure of the model Storm forced Mike Lazaridis to do work on the bugs, then Jim Balsillie felt at a crossroads. He was difficult to understand the new dynamics of competition. Balsillie seemed that RIM has come to a kind of existential crisis, which he called a "strategic confusion". The company's business was crumbling, and on several levels at once, and the light at the end of the tunnel he had not seen. Whether it was RIM defend the right to exist QWERTY-keyboard smartphone? A manufacturer may nevertheless should follow the market and transfer their gadgets on the touch screen? In what the company had the market to compete with Apple - in expensive gadgets or budget smartphones with his models and Curve Gemini? After all, these smartphones were sold very well in the market segment that Apple had not yet conquered. Finally, in favor of what platform it was necessary to make a choice - open or closed proprietary standard?

Another controversial issue was the application. Balsillie tried for years to win the operators the right to sell RIM applications to users of its gadgets. At the same time, he used arguments like his company's desire for constructive cooperation and political support for the interests of operators. Then Apple breaks into the market with its own app store, to which the operator AT & T does not have any relation at all.

In short, the time has come when RIM did not set the tone in the mobile market and has participated in a wild race for survival. Unlike all other manufacturers Apple also acquired a team of developers who create applications for its computer platform and player iPod (http://www.iphones.ru/tag/ipod). These people were able to write programs for the iPhone. And by the time the Research in Motion launched its own application store in 2009, iPhone users have already downloaded one billion programs from App Store. What, then, is left to do RIM? Go on a new path and to create their own applications, or still remain faithful to a constructive partnership and operators retain the right to sell software for its platform?

Each of these questions bothered Jim Balsillie: "Failure to Storm confirmed that we are no longer dominated the smartphone market. We could not even figure out who we are in a new environment. Specifically, the company was no longer the one that before, and a sense of understanding was terrible. We did not know what to do next. " [WSJ]

Here's a sad story of the confrontation turned BlackBerry and iPhone. But it is worth to pay tribute to the Canadian company, which is still able to stay afloat after a series of serious failures and even started to let stand out from the competition excellent gadgets, created a sensation like BlackBerry Passport. On the other hand, more and more rumors going around about selling BlackBerry. Unfortunately, the future of this company is a big question.

http://www.iphones.ru/iNotes/448845