{"id":2778,"date":"2013-01-30T12:49:33","date_gmt":"2013-01-30T18:49:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/?p=2778"},"modified":"2019-01-12T17:27:44","modified_gmt":"2019-01-12T23:27:44","slug":"the-trouble-with-blackberry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/2013\/01\/the-trouble-with-blackberry\/","title":{"rendered":"The trouble with BlackBerry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, the company-formerly-known-as Research in Motion, creators of the once-dominant smartphone BlackBerry, announced a name change<\/a> to match their flagship product. In other news, nobody cares.<\/p>\n

Okay, that’s a little harsh, but it’s more true every day. BlackBerry is no longer relevant, except as a case study of what not to do when a competitor launches a paradigm-shifting product. As if determined to prove that the company lives in a bubble, a recent radio interview<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0from across the pond<\/a> made me laugh today. Unfortunately, it also made me cringe.<\/p>\n

Marketing buzzspeak is poison, but it’s downright\u00c2\u00a0mephitic<\/a> (That’s right! I learned a new word today!) when an executive refuses to answer a simple question. One of the most frustrating thing about corporations today (aside from The Evil™) is that they use a lot of fancy words to say nothing. Rather than give a straight answer to a question, they focus on redirecting the conversation to a fanciful edition of their press release.<\/p>\n

The problem BlackBerry is facing right now and that they just don’t seem to recognize is that they are no longer in control of the market. As such, they need to stop behaving like a large corporation and begin acting like a startup again. Make bold decisions, challenge the largest of your competitors and ignore the long-standing sithspit<\/a> that you shouldn’t acknowledge your competitors. You’re the underdog now. Act like it.<\/p>\n

Of course, BlackBerry could vanish into the \u00c3\u00a6ther and I wouldn’t care at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, the company-formerly-known-as Research in Motion, creators of the once-dominant smartphone BlackBerry, announced a name change to match their flagship product. In other news, nobody cares. Okay, that’s a little harsh, but it’s more true every day. BlackBerry is no longer relevant, except as a case study of what not to do when a competitor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[257],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rat","post-preview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2942,"url":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/2013\/05\/mashed-apples-and-google-gravy\/","url_meta":{"origin":2778,"position":0},"title":"Mashed Apples and Google Gravy","author":"Jared Cash","date":"May 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"John Gruber and Ian Betteridge got into a discussion recently about Apple, Google, hypocrisy, and hyper-competitive nature (I made a Readlist for it here, which I will update with any future discussions). It's an interesting read no matter on which side of the fence you rest (or, if you carefully\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Apple"","block_context":{"text":"Apple","link":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/category\/apple\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2690,"url":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/2012\/09\/would-you-like-that-gift-wrapped-our-gift-wrap-girl-has-a-clean-face\/","url_meta":{"origin":2778,"position":1},"title":"Would you like that gift-wrapped? Our gift-wrap girl has a clean face","author":"Jared Cash","date":"September 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"So, I was doing a little online bargain hunting today and I found the product I wanted for a really great deal. As I was going through the checkout process, however, I saw this: I immediately stopped to check on the website I was ordering from. It seemed quite likely\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A Day in the Life"","block_context":{"text":"A Day in the Life","link":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/giftwrapping.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/giftwrapping.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/giftwrapping.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/giftwrapping.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2315,"url":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/the-truth-behind-siri-honest-this-totally-isnt-made-up\/","url_meta":{"origin":2778,"position":2},"title":"The truth behind Siri (honest, this totally isn’t made up)","author":"Jared Cash","date":"November 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"First, a disclaimer. This may read like the ramblings of a conspiracy theorist, but that doesn't change the FACTS, man. Trust no one (also, in case you're unable to tell by the end of this article that it is satirical, then please leave my blog and never return\u00e2\u20ac\u201cdon't let the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Apple"","block_context":{"text":"Apple","link":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/category\/apple\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1524,"url":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/an-open-letter-to-mumbojumbo-games\/","url_meta":{"origin":2778,"position":3},"title":"An Open Letter to MumboJumbo Games","author":"Jared Cash","date":"October 27, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I read an article recently that told the story behind StoneLoops! of Jurassica and its removal from the iTunes App Store. In the article, it was mentioned that the factor that initiated the removal of Stone Loops was MumboJumbo sending Apple a letter requesting it be removed. When I discovered\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Apple"","block_context":{"text":"Apple","link":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/category\/apple\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":636,"url":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/snowflake-scarves\/","url_meta":{"origin":2778,"position":4},"title":"Snowflake Scarves","author":"Jared Cash","date":"November 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"My best friend in the entire world (after my wife, natch\u00e2\u20ac\u201dI love you, baby!) has started an awesome not-for-profit called Snowflake Scarves. The organization makes handmade scarves, sells them online, and then donates the proceeds to Outreach International. The site went live a couple of days ago and tomorrow they're\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Random"","block_context":{"text":"Random","link":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/category\/random\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2750,"url":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/2013\/01\/qualcomms-ces-keynote-the-perfect-shitstorm-of-crazy\/","url_meta":{"origin":2778,"position":5},"title":"Qualcomm’s CES keynote: The perfect shitstorm of crazy","author":"Jared Cash","date":"January 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Qualcomm's insane CES 2013 keynote in pictures and tweets Honestly, it's like when Steve Jobs died, necromancers from every tech company on the planet worked together to trap his soul on this plane and then tore it into pieces, passing them from company to company, binding them with dark magicks\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Random Acts of Technology"","block_context":{"text":"Random Acts of Technology","link":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/category\/rat\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2778"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3800,"href":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2778\/revisions\/3800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}