[deercreekmichael]

In 1997, Apple was "irrelevant" and in the brink of being bought by IBM and Sun Microsystems. They had declining revenues and market share. Their stock price was at a 10 year low. BlackBerry is in a similar situation now.

What could BlackBerry learn from what Apple did to recover?

[dna47]

Innovation and marketing.

The ipod (and probably some other things) saved apple. At the time, we wad 'basic' mp3 players and then came the ipod with the touch ring and all the other cool stuff.

Plus I remember when there was the macintosh with all the nice colors I was a kid back then and I WANTED one so bad!

So blackberry needs to come out with something innovative and 'cool' and market that thing like crazy!

I hear a lot of people here saying 'tool not toy', I'm not a teen, pastel colors, blablabla and still all my law teachers have iphones and there not teens either...




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[Karan Mohal]

Innovation and marketing.
The ipod (and probably some other things) saved apple. At the time, we wad 'basic' mp3 players and then came the ipod with the touch ring and all the other cool stuff.

Plus I remember when there was the macintosh with all the nice colors I was a kid back then and I WANTED one so bad!

So blackberry needs to come out with something innovative and 'cool' and market that thing like crazy!

I hear a lot of people here saying 'tool not toy', I'm not a teen, pastel colors, blablabla and still all my law teachers have iphones and there not teens either...




Posted via CB10

There ya go..

Nahhh im sure there is a lot more to it then that. Marketing is a damn powerful tool tho.

[early2bed]

Step 1: Revolutionize a consumer electronics category (iPod)
Step 2: Revolutionize another consumer electronics category (iPhone)
Step 3: Revolutionize yet another consumer electronic category (iPad)
Step 4: Revolutionize consumer electronics retailing (Apple Store)
Step 5: Do the other categories pretty well (PCs, notebooks, monitors, etc.)

[deercreekmichael]

Step 5: Do the other categories pretty well (PCs, notebooks, monitors, etc.)

I think this was supposed to be Step 1. Before the iPod and iPhone, Apple built upon their strength which was Mac OS and partnered with rival Microsoft. At the time, a majority of creative professionals in internet, digital, and print advertising used Macintosh computers. They had a small but committed following and Apple nurtured them.

[46Nico40]

Having Steve Jobs present every single shiny new device with thunderous applause helped im sure...

[sixpacker]

They installed an engineering organization that could turn out quality, innovative products quickly.
Engineering and marketing were their key functions.

These are both functions near the bottom of the pecking order at BlackBerry.

This has to change.

[Iggy City]

1. Create a simple OS
2. Market the hell out of it
3. ????
4. Profit

[BBSpring]

I think there is a ton of revisionist history on this topic .

Apple turned around, it's a great tech story and it could be done again if the circumstances were lined up just right.

Most folks do not remember that the company was mere weeks from having to shut it's doors, a deal with MSFT allowed the timely injection of much needed capital followed by the great strategic call of getting out of the head to head pc business for a short period of time, sent the company on a serious growth path. Good story, amazing brand with strong marketing prowess. It does help if the products works well too.

[deercreekmichael]

Most folks do not remember that the company was mere weeks from having to shut it's doors, a deal with MSFT allowed the timely injection of much needed capital followed by the great strategic call of getting out of the head to head pc business for a short period of time, sent the company on a serious growth path. Good story, amazing brand with strong marketing prowess. It does help if the products works well too.

So true. Most people only remember the iPad and iPhone era and forget that Apple needed to partner with Microsoft. They needed to crawl out of the hole they were in first.

[Qaddafi]

They capitalized on the failure of Windows Vista.

They then wage a culture war against Microsoft, saying Apple is hip and Microsoft is too corporate.

Third, they started attacking Microsoft with the whole virus thing and the Blue Screen of Death (Which sort of disappeared after Windows 7).

Last, with the newly respect they acquired they promoted the iPod, even if the mp3 already existed at that point.

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[labyrinth9]

I agree that the "creative person" user base came first for Apple (much like the prosumer user base BlackBerry has).

In my opinion it was the iPod which really started the charge. The iPod wasn't the first, best, or cheapest. It WAS cool, easy, locked up to the point that it was reliable, and required apple experts to diagnose problems and charge ridiculous amounts of money to replace the HD. Lastly, the marketing made it out to be the invention of Apple because the general public wasn't aware of the competition.

Apple has not once been innovative in its life. But, they speak with conviction and confidence. In the end, apple products follow a few basic principles.

1) Physically look expensive/minimalistic/futuristic

2) Be reliable (even at the expense of compatibility or functionality) If Apple claims something works... it had better work.

3) Extremely simple to use, but difficult or impossible to configure.

4) Multiple branded accessories which work ONLY with Apple. This drives up exclusivity, makes customers feel special, and ensures strong reliability with the product.

5) Market product as the main tool of what customers WISH THEY WERE (rebels, artists.. ) and thus when a customer buys it, they feel like they have stepped closer to that role.

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[nuff_said]

They kept their mouths shut and worked to design, innovate, test, THEN release and market products for the world to see.
Looks at the recent blunders of BlackBerry and you will notice the difference in the two strategies

[Clanked]

Marketing, bits of innovation, and timing(doing it in a country that is drowning in protectionism right now). Perfect storm.

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[der_mit]

The ipod, iPhone and ipad are the first affordable products they produced, before that their products were simply not in the price range for most consumers.
Most people that have an iPhone don't have a mac but the iPhone makes them feel like they are part of the apple system,

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[Supa_Fly1]

In 1997, Apple was "irrelevant" and in the brink of being bought by IBM and Sun Microsystems. They had declining revenues and market share. Their stock price was at a 10 year low. BlackBerry is in a similar situation now.

What could BlackBerry learn from what Apple did to recover?

Posted via CB10 on my Z10

First off Apple was not on the verge of being bought by IBM; they where collaborating on an OS; which never materialised and was horrible.

BlackBerry Q10 ? & Full Metal CB10!

[Mugenski]

150 million from microsoft helped Im sure. Also the fact that apple has never been forced to split up like microsoft was quite a few years ago now.

[Supa_Fly1]

Step 1: Revolutionize a consumer electronics category (iPod)
Step 2: Revolutionize another consumer electronics category (iPhone)
Step 3: Revolutionize yet another consumer electronic category (iPad)
Step 4: Revolutionize consumer electronics retailing (Apple Store)
Step 5: Do the other categories pretty well (PCs, notebooks, monitors, etc.)

Well said but you forgot something VERY important and your Order is incorrect.

Step 1: revolutionize the computer industry (MacIntosh color)
- no more beige box design. Connect to Internet (isdn/cable/dialup - AOL deal via pre installed software).

Step 2: revolutionize consumer electronics industry (ipod)
- it wasn't the ipod itself having mp3's, many like RCA debuted first and had a lot of sales before ipod debuted and for at least a year after - recall ipod was FW400 and Mac only. It was iTunes that revolutionised this.

Step 4: iphone
Step 5: ipad

Step 5: revolutionize education market (iTunes U)
- very few know this was their first ecosystem because it was USA universities then colleges only before spreading across the world. This occurred before major sales of iTunes music really took off.

And you know the rest.




BlackBerry Q10 ? & Full Metal CB10!

[deercreekmichael]

First off Apple was not on the verge of being bought by IBM; they where collaborating on an OS; which never materialised and was horrible.

Maybe not on the verge, but Apple Computers was desperately seeking a buyer and was "hours away" from being acquired by Sun.

IBM Offer: "But [Mr. Markkula] does acknowledge some board mistakes over the years. One of them, he said, was [Apple Computer's] decision about four years ago to reject a purchase offer by I.B.M. that was reported to be $40 a share. Later, with Apple's stock trading well below that level, the company tried to rekindle I.B.M.'s interest." Source: An 'Unknown' Co-Founder Leaves After 20 Years of Glory and Turmoil - New York Times

Sun Offer: "If we had bought Apple, there wouldn't have been iPods or iPads ... I'd have screwed that up," McNealy conceded in a talk Feb. 24 with another former Sun top executive, ex-President Ed Zander, at a Churchill Club dinner at the Santa Clara Convention Center." Source: How Apple Dodged a Sun Buyout: Former Execs McNealy, Zander Tell All

[Supa_Fly1]

I think there is a ton of revisionist history on this topic .

Apple turned around, it's a great tech story and it could be done again if the circumstances were lined up just right.

Most folks do not remember that the company was mere weeks from having to shut it's doors, a deal with MSFT allowed the timely injection of much needed capital followed by the great strategic call of getting out of the head to head pc business for a short period of time, sent the company on a serious growth path. Good story, amazing brand with strong marketing prowess. It does help if the products works well too.

What do you mean by getting out of the head to head PC business? Apple has always made PCs as in Personal Computers and never stopped. However if you meant they focused their OC products in 1 then 2 (or 3 offerings recently) into just 4 product segments then I'll agree there because they had way too many products that overlapped.



BlackBerry Q10 ? & Full Metal CB10!

[co4nd]

First, it bought Next computer and got Steve jobs back,

then it made a deal with Microsoft to get MS Office back on the mack and MS to invest cash in Apple, MS was willing partly because it made money from office and it had the Feds poking around looking for a monopoly.

Then Steve Jobs products hit and most were successes, Wallstreet G3 Laptop, iMac, Mac OS X, iPod, iTunes, Switch to Intel and some pretty amazing laptops (this was when I started seeing many fellow enterprise software developers start sporting Mac's because you could run Windows natively when you had to.). The Apple Store. Then came the iPhone and Then the iPad.

Also behind the scenes Cook really streamlined their operation; materials, outsourcing, inventory.

There were also lucky breaks that they took advantage of, Windows Vista, Windows Mobile, Blackberry's pathetic lack of innovation after 2007. The hole App thing that Apple basically stumbled upon and became the father of.

Also remember that Apple had a loyal cult following, in 1997 Apple Computer had been around for 20 years and had been a big player in the US school system. Many people had grown up on Apple Computers (Apple II and later the Macintosh) even though their parents and employers made them use cheaper and far more boring PCs.

Product placement was another thing they did. Wallstreet Laptop was seen on Sex in the City every week. Every new Apple computer could be scene on Buffy the Vampire Slayer whenever Willow needed to do some research.

And last don't forget their advertising. Always top shelf stuff.

[deercreekmichael]

then it made a deal with Microsoft to get MS Office back on the mack and MS to invest cash in Apple, MS was willing partly because it made money from office and it had the Feds poking around looking for a monopoly.
Their were also lucky breaks that they took advantage of, Windows Vista.

^-- this

In MacWorld Expo 1997, Steve Jobs said "We have to let go of this notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose." It sounded sincere but just 9 years later, Apple was running their "Get a Mac" campaign bashing Windows. And I gotta hand it to their marketing team. Mac sales were on a sharp decline but just a year after these ads came out, Mac sales were up more than 30%. Perhaps BlackBerry can run a similar ad around security?

[niss63]

First make great products. A year ago BlackBerry couldn't claim this, but now they are getting very close to being top shelf across the board.

The second step is to communicate "Why" effectively:



http://youtube.com/watch?v=l5Tw0PGcyN0


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[co4nd]

^-- this

In MacWorld Expo 1997, Steve Jobs said "We have to let go of this notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose." It sounded sincere but just 9 years later, Apple was running their "Get a Mac" campaign bashing Windows. And I gotta hand it to their marketing team. Mac sales were on a sharp decline but just a year after these ads came out, Mac sales were up more than 30%. Perhaps BlackBerry can run a similar ad around security?

I don't think MS was really to upset by the whole MAC vs PC thing. I think for MS Apple having even 10% of the computer market is a necessary annoyance to avoid the regulators. I think the people that took those adds personally were the Windows fanboys.

[MartyMcfly]

They kept their mouths shut and worked to design, innovate, test, THEN release and market products for the world to see.
Looks at the recent blunders of BlackBerry and you will notice the difference in the two strategies

Quoted for truth. +1


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