Blackberry Z10
One of the biggest debacles in the history of product marketing was the launch of New Coke in 1985. Venerable Coca-Cola had been losing market share to rival Pepsi Cola going from 60% market share in post war USA to 24% just before the launch of New Coke. Needless to say the executives at Coca-Cola were desperate They needed to stop the slide in market share so they launched New Coke and it was an unmitigated disaster. Could it be that this is exactly the position Blackberry (formerly Research In Motion) have put themselves in?
The marketing executives at Coca-Cola did extensive market research and the studies indicated a preference for New Coke over Coca Cola. There was only one problem, it was research and not the real world results. When New Coke launched consumers went nuts, Coca-Cola was messing with the brand their customers loved and trusted the emotional reaction was only partly due to the taste of New Coke. Just 77 days after the launch loyal Coke fans got their wish and Coca-Cola launched Coke Clasic. I’ve been using my new Blackberry Z10 and it seems an awful lot like an iPhone. Some of the Blackberry features I’ve come to rely on are now missing. I believe that Blackberry has spent more time trying to capture they iPhone market that they have neglected their core and very loyal audience.
At its heart Blackberry is a hardware company. This is evident in the feature, functionality and ecosystem of the new Blackberry 10 platform. The hardware is fine but the days of hardware being differentiated are over. The phones have to be of a certain size because the human hand is of a certain size. Too big or too small and a phone becomes unusable to grown humans. Good hardware is just table stakes today. What people want, myself included, are applications that help me make life easier whether that is at work or at home. People don’t buy phones because they like the hardware, they buy phones for what the phone lets them do. With limited apps the phone, good hardware and all, will have limited utility in people’s lives.
I am a long time Blackberry user. The Z10 is my fourth Blackberry. I’ve resisted the move to an iPhone for many months. The new BB10 was coming so I thought I’d wait. I was in line before 0900h on the day they became available to pick up my Z10. I am the kind of customer Blackberry wants. I’m loyal and I’m okay with change. You would think I am the kind of consumer that Blackberry would court but you’d be wrong. Blackberry was more concerned with getting Angry Birds on the BB10 than something that me, as a current Blackberry user, is already using. One example is Audible. As of right now I can’t listen to my audiobooks on my Z10. If I had an iPhone I could. I’m pretty sure I’ll switch phones before I stop using Audible. What I want is to listen to my books; the phone is just the method I use to make that happen. The same applies to Kobo, Nomad Analytics and Geocaching Navigator. These are all services supported by iPhone or Android applications. If I used either of those platforms I’d be able to use the services I want to use right now.
I know that Blackberry relies on the development community to build the applications that will run on their hardware. Instead of trying to make the BB10 more like an iPhone why aren’t they making it easier for existing users to transition. Is Blackberry looking at market research in the way that Coca-Cola did? Is the Z10 their New Coke? For Blackberry’s sake I hope they recognize the fact that keeping their current users is the best way to help them get new customers.
