Apple's 1986-97 decline highly resembles BlackBerry's
- I stumbled across this video of Steve Job's keynote at Macworld 1997. It was his first public appearance since returning to Apple which, at the time, was in an eerily similar situation as present day BlackBerry Inc. Apple was in a lot of turmoil with revenues on the decline, saw their stock tumble, product flops, missed deadlines, a lack of respect in the media, etc. Windows was gaining market share at a rapid pace, and Apple couldn't adapt to that trend quickly and effectively enough. In 1996, sweeping layoffs began. In July of '97, Apple's board imploded, opening up the door to most charasmatic, focused CEO the world has ever seen. It's amazing how Jobs came in and cleaned house, first acknowledging to the faithful that Apple was broken, and how he vowed to turn things around by rethinking everything. That even involved making a deal with what they considered the devil, then basically telling the audience to deal with it.
One can only imagine an inspiring figure standing in front of a passionate audience at the next BlackBerry event with the resolve to stop the bleeding by taking extraordinary measures like that.
Jobs takes the stage at 5:39, but the preamble is highly relevant as well. Enjoy.
BBVegasGirl80 likes this.09-02-13 08:52 PMLike 1 -
- Maybe I'm too young, but I don't see the similarities at all. Tech world was different, not to mention Blackberry doesn't have anyone with the vision of Steve Jobs and crew. Cool video though.
Sent From My New IPad using Tapatalk09-02-13 09:02 PMLike 5 -
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- This is a very interesting look back, and I agree that some of the parallels are striking.
A major difference is that BB/RIM had phenomenal early success based on a very unique product. Certainly even more than Apple, who never dominated the PC market, except in some very specific niches (as Jobs makes clear).
It is misleading to suggest that Apple's problems were solved simply by instituting inspirational leadership. Yes, for sure that was part of it. But for several years, and in spite of the new leadership, their share of the PC market continued to be only somewhere around the 10% mark, and still is only around 12%, if I am not mistaken.
What really turned Apple around was lucking into the iPod several years later. That was the device that revolutionized several industries, and became the basis for the successes (and profits) that followed. Their effective execution of the ipod/iphone/ipad has been phenomenal, no doubt about it..
Blackberry should not conclude that more inspired hype and more concentration on their "core competencies" (e.g., enterprise) will be enough. It was not enough for Apple, and will not be enough for BB.
They DO need more inspired leadership. But they also need some new ideas and new products.
I hope they find them.09-02-13 10:31 PMLike 3 - Jerome York. BlackBerry has a lapdog board for the most part. Research apples board when it made the big change.
Posted via CB1009-02-13 10:51 PMLike 0 -
- Precisely. That we know of, certainly. After all, BBRY is where it is today largely because its founder rode it into the ground in his last couple years. That wasn't the case with Apple, which was largely ridden into the ground by the people that stayed behind after Jobs was fired.09-02-13 11:31 PMLike 0
- What really turned Apple around was lucking into the iPod several years later. That was the device that revolutionized several industries, and became the basis for the successes (and profits) that followed. Their effective execution of the ipod/iphone/ipad has been phenomenal, no doubt about it.
Apple's success with the iPod, iPhone, and other products wasn't by accident (or at least not mostly by accident); the company identified useful ways to utilize new or newly-capable technologies in various market segments before their competitors did. That's why Apple has been successful.BCITMike likes this.09-02-13 11:51 PMLike 1 - Apple's success with the iPod, iPhone, and other products wasn't by accident (or at least not mostly by accident); the company identified useful ways to utilize new or newly-capable technologies in various market segments before their competitors did. That's why Apple has been successful.09-02-13 11:57 PMLike 0
- Apple's success with the iPod, iPhone, and other products wasn't by accident (or at least not mostly by accident); the company identified useful ways to utilize new or newly-capable technologies in various market segments before their competitors did. That's why Apple has been successful.09-03-13 03:04 AMLike 0
- If GM had adopted his recommendations, it would not have gone bankrupt. Apple had a board that enabled Jobs to do what he did. I don't think BlackBerry does and as much as I like Heins, he is too much of an insider.
Posted via CB10BBVegasGirl80 likes this.09-03-13 03:42 AMLike 1 - I agree totally. But in a world of 7.1 billion people, there's no way there's not one Jobs-esque person out there.BBVegasGirl80 likes this.09-04-13 12:29 AMLike 1
- Ok, maybe my "luck" comment was misleading. I only meant to suggest that the timing and market circumstances were right for these products. Obviously responding to those circumstances required insight, imagination and serious technical ability. You can say luck had nothing to do with the string of successful products (ipod/iphone/ipad), but then you'll have to tell us why several previous Apple products were only moderately successful.09-04-13 01:17 AMLike 0
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- Agreed. The development of the iPod was a complex, game-changing undertaking which had nothing to do with luck, and anyone who thinks otherwise should read the history of the product.
Posted via CB1009-04-13 02:03 AMLike 0 -
The terms "mp3 player" and "iPod" are not interchangeable in this case. They can't be switched at random here (though an iPod is an MP3 player, saying Apple invented the iPod isn't the same as saying it invented the MP3 player, and the fact that they didn't invent MP3 players certainly didn't prevent iPods from becoming the de facto standard.09-04-13 07:21 AMLike 0 - Apple's success with the iPod, iPhone, and other products wasn't by accident (or at least not mostly by accident); the company identified useful ways to utilize new or newly-capable technologies in various market segments before their competitors did. That's why Apple has been successful.
Apple really was the first major company to recognize the demand for digital music files and creating a store front and a method for sales the satisfied both the consumer and RIAA. Them being the only company offering it made iPod an easy choice for a lot of the music buying public.09-04-13 07:29 AMLike 0 -
Of course, you could argue that there's always an element of success that grows out of unpredictable external forces, but you don't luck your way into a 70% share of a lucrative market that you manage to maintain for years on end.09-04-13 07:32 AMLike 0 -
Without Apple there is basically no other competition in the desktop Operating System market - Linux is not a factor...
Microsoft had to bail them out. They weren't forced to, practically speaking, but they had basically no choice to do that because having basically 98% desktop OS market share with no viable competitor would have bought way too much anti-trust pressures on them.
Apple still hasn't made many inroads in the Desktop OS market.
What ultimately saved them was the iPod and iTunes [Store]. All of their smart devices are decended basically from the iPod. iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad and to a lesser extend devices like the AppleTV.
And to be honest, the market share situation is replaying itself in the smartphone market as they have always insisted on pricing themselves out of many markets in an attempt to keep their margins up (i.e. same profits as Samsung with half the shipments). Hopefully history doesn't repeat itself there. I heard the iPhone 5C is going to be like $500. Is that true?09-04-13 07:36 AMLike 0 - That's not true. There is one very basic similarity.
People bought PCs and not Macs (and to a lesser extent still do) for one basic reason: there were many more apps available for the PC.
There, the analogy falls apart, however, because there is no iPod (followed by an iPhone and iPad) waiting to be invented, and if there is something similarly revolutionary out there, it certainly won't be invented by the short-sighted collective in Waterloo.09-04-13 07:53 AMLike 0
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Apple's 1986-97 decline highly resembles BlackBerry's
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