[KingOfQwerty]

The company I work for makes a product which goes to both enterprise and consumer segments. We are experts in enterprise side and also have significant presence in consumer side. Decades ago the consumer side business went so well that a new company focused on that and snatched the market leader position. We became the distant second though we are market leader in enterprise side still. The trouble came calling again when recently another consumer focused company overtook us. The board went berserk and the reasons were scrutinized. The revenue decline from unfocused enterprises and the huge marketing budget & miniscule profit of consumer side are the main culprits. We realized we are in the middle of battle ground.

So is BlackBerry.

In such situations, focus is what the doctor orders and that is precisely Mr.John Chen is doing. For a company like BlackBerry which had trespassed into unknown territories just because of what consumers told or what it thought of, it will be a very taunting task to bring it to terms. Without doubt, 'Back to Roots' is the surest way to turnaround the ship, if at all any.

Unfortunately even in the enterprise side, it's not effortless for him to leverage. The tight spot created by duality resulting to operating both legacy BES and BES10 in parallel, poor adoption of BES10 and BB10, legacy devices not supported by BES10 is definitely overwhelming for him to set the house in order. The clock is ticking for him to bring legacy BES customers to BES 10/12 as he can�t afford to feed two horses with one bucket. Should one also mention how big the task will become if the enterprise mammoth Microsoft with its WP 8.1 and Nokia advantage acquires a MDM start-up? I believe, after participating in many surveys from BlackBerry as a consumer, Mr.Chen would have taken the right surveys among enterprises and focus energy where it is due. That could be the reason why BBMx which debuted with much fanfare and hate (due to missed deadlines) got sidelined and eBBM was put on fast track. On device part, instead of going behind iPhone look alike, he concentrated on Classic with physical keyboard and BlackBerry Belt which are very much a BlackBerry forte to this day.

That said the consumers side has to satisfy itself with the crumbs falling from the enterprise table as of now. We have to remember how BlackBerry evolved in the first place. The consumer app gap will be the last to get addressed by BlackBerry directly. As forums such as CrackBerry are right place to figure out consumer sentiments, the consumer app gap in these forums range from unfinished BB apps like Contact, feature less BB made apps like Facebook, no big name apps like Instagram, not-so-good native third party apps, ugly ported apps from BBW, lagging Android apps and finally �How many know Snap�. Phew. That�s a lot to take in from the miniscule BB10 users. What BlackBerry did though is to try to sell as much consumer grade handsets possible to attract developer crowd in turn to attract buyers. For that to be successful they saw where app requirement is low so that they can sell as much phone possible with low price. That�s the birth of Z3 in Indonesia. While momentum picks up to gain considerable market share, BlackBerry can hope developers will eye the pie. Yes it is hope, the best choice for BlackBerry consumers as of now.

While the aches and pain within CrackBerry community is understandable as a fan-site, this is the time to grow for CrackBerrians to the next level of understanding and supporting BlackBerry from a device perspective to business perspective. And hope that business does well to see the device we are eying debuts, specifically �BlackBerry Slider�.

Nevertheless, BlackBerry has its own battle of not letting the competitors and start-ups to gain in MDM market, precise and timely execution of deliverable to enterprise and some innovative ideas to hook the wandering enterprise fishes to bring BlackBerry in to a meaningful existence. Until then it will be a reporting from battleground.

[pkcable]

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