[bluetroll]

Today was in marketing class and an idea came to my head....

The product lifecycle is as follows...

Introduction ->Growth->Maturity->Decline

I've been reading a lot about smartphones being the future of mobile computing. It's definitely what RIM is striving for. Little portable smartphones that double as your desktop PC.

So, I thought about PC manufacturers. In the last 10-15 years, desktop and laptop computers mostly ran a Windows OS of some sort. Now, the idea is that the Windows OS was ALWAYS the same (maybe I.T. stripped out some functions, but all worked the same). For PC hardware manufacturers, it's always been about selling different hardware specifications since it's they were competing in the mature industy. The problem is that there is just too much competition in hardware and margins are just too low. There's just too much choice for consumers, so they go with what is cheap. Apple on the other hand, who has sold a differentiated product, with their own hardware and OS has benefitted hugely. If you want a MacBook, you pony up the dollars and buy it. If you want MacOS, you pay a premium to buy a Mac.

Fast forward to now, and you can somewhat see similar trends occurring in the smartphone world. If you look at what Android has done over the last 2 years, they have gained huge momentum similar to Windows OS. The smartphone industry is somewhere in the middle of the growth stage of the lifecycle and will probably hit maturity less than 5 years in CAN/US. Within the last year, you can already see Android manufacturers promote their products with hardware specs. Hardware specs are the only thing that differeniate their product with a competitors product. You need to stand out in a sea of similar products through promotion. You can already see it, Samsung is basically the ONLY Android manufacturer because of big marketing dollars. There's just so much competition between Android manufacturers, they will just eat at each others margins. If RIM went with Android, they would be really DOA. It's interesting to see what happens with Windows 8 Phones because they will be in a similar situation.

The benefit of going your own route, like RIM is that you have a TRUELY differeniated product. You don't need to market on hardware specs alone. You can market the whole experience. It's just like the iPhone, they don't need to sell the product on hardware specs because there's nothing else like it! RIM is on the right path. They need to be different, and they need to let the customers know how BB10 will make their lives better.

#TeamBlackBerry #BB10Believe

[tinysalmon]

The benefit of going your own route, like RIM is that you have a TRUELY differeniated product. You don't need to market on hardware specs alone. You can market the whole experience. It's just like the iPhone, they don't need to sell the product on hardware specs because there's nothing else like it! RIM is on the right path. They need to be different, and they need to let the customers know how BB10 will make their lives better.

#TeamBlackBerry #BB10Believe

Good post mate. I totally agree

[CairnsRock]

Yes, you are correct. Good post. I always loved my mktg classes.

Thats what Thor has declared to be his strategy. Differentiate on os function, not hw specs.

[hurds]

Somewhat relevant article

Disruptions: You know you can't live without Apple's latest glass rectangle - Yahoo! Finance Canada

The argument to go android never made any sense and its becoming more obvious with time. Googles bound to focus on motorola anyways, it makes no sense to have a deadweight part to their company and the integrated approach has shown to be successful. The patents thing was just a distractor.

Great thing about going with their own new OS is not just differentiating but they are now already into different markets and with BB10 and all the elements from RIM and QNX combined their possibilites are enormous.

[bluetroll]

Somewhat relevant article

Disruptions: You know you can't live without Apple's latest glass rectangle - Yahoo! Finance Canada

The argument to go android never made any sense and its becoming more obvious with time. Googles bound to focus on motorola anyways, it makes no sense to have a deadweight part to their company and the integrated approach has shown to be successful. The patents thing was just a distractor.

Great thing about going with their own new OS is not just differentiating but they are now already into different markets and with BB10 and all the elements from RIM and QNX combined their possibilites are enormous.

this guys stole my post!!! totally ripped it off! lol...

The slack that RIM takes in US/CAN is true. They are falling behind in market share in that region. Like I said earlier, the North American smartphone market will hit maturity soon. Almost every individual old enough will have a smartphone. Once that market is saturated, then it becomes a blood bath. Sooner or later, Android consumers won't care what brand computer they use, they will want the lowest price. They can throw out brand loyalty.

RIM on the other hand, has market share is developing nations which is huge. Developing nations are still at the early stage of growth and have plenty of share to gain. ex. Brazil, India and Indonesia are among the top 10 in population and top 20 in GDP. There will be plenty of people moving into middle class, so the market will continue to increase.

Once RIM gets these BB10 devices out, they will be in great shape (as long as they don't mess up their marketing plan!)