Apple and Blackberry crumble?
In the last fortnight the technology brand landscape has changed dramatically with the death of Steve Jobs and the worldwide failure of Blackberry’s infrastructure with the knock-on effect that has had on millions of its users.
The natural response is to look optimistically at the prospects for Apple given the strength of its brand – Apple the brand, the idea, the user experience is as much the icon as Steve Jobs was (and is). And equally immediate response to Blackberry has been that its reputation and brand are severely (or even irreparably?) damaged.
Both Apple and Blackberry clearly face some very big challenges, but their brands and reputations seem to put them in very different starting places.
Apple’s launch of 4S appears lacklustre and its hot feature Siri (a voice recognition / personal assistant app) is not as transformative as suggested, despite some digerati singing its praises. Has Apple got the product and user experience roadmap to continue living up to its brand promise as it moves into the iCloud?
On the other hand Blackberry has fundamentals – a secure system that (should) reassure corporate CTOs and devices with genuine keyboards that appeal to executives and texting teens – which give it something very tangible to connect with a wide range of audiences. Although it has a weakened reputation and brand, plus a demonstrable lack of ability to engage with those audiences, as evidenced by the low profile Blackberry/RIM kept during the outages.
So Blackberry and Apple are facing challenges that are in some ways mirror opposites of the other. Can Apple’s technology continue to live up to the promise of its brand? And conversely can Blackberry’s brand and reputation make a virtue of some of its underlying strengths?
Without a doubt the Blackberry brand is not in a very good place at the moment, needing a significant turnaround as does RIM as a whole. But Apple now may be facing the polar opposite – an over-promising brand that could begin to disappoint.
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24 Oct 11 - 11:50am
There is no doubt that these quite different, and yet closely aligned challenges are going to play out over the course of this year.
In my opinion the most interesting area will be around how the ‘others’ will begin to compete with the big two. Motorola and Samsung for example, have begun to make ground back in both the mobile and tablet arenas in the last few months. The challenge to the contenders, is whether or not they can capitalise on the perceived weaknesses of both Apple and RIM and change consumer habits away from the ‘mainstream’.
Will it be technology, brand or services that will prove the winning formula? Arguably an even-handed mix of all three.
27 Oct 11 - 09:31pm
I believe that the greatest challenge Apple will face will be convincing everybody and establishing the idea that it is not a one man company. As Steve Jobs has passed, customers, stakeholders and investors will all be waiting to see how the company performs. Each party will be personally evaluating the company to determine its viability and sustainability in terms of business, meeting consumer needs and innovation; as the case may be. The decision now remains if the company is aiming to redefine itself say, as having a particular corporate culture which is responsible for its success; or will it continue to stand behind one leader, whose characteristics embodies and represents the Apple brand.
Blackberry on the other hand have to still address a major issue, which is the availability of other attractions asides the BBM. The OS7 is a good upgrade to the services already available, but there is no blackberry equivalent of the App Store or the Android market, at least not on the same scale. And it is this issue blackberry needs to address, so that they can maintain the market position they currently occupy. It can only take so long till consumers are offered something better by another manufacturer, then what happens to Blackberry? The question they should be asking is why have our other services, applications and so on not gained the same level of awareness or publicity as the Android market and the Apple App store?
I believe both companies are not in imminent danger of losing both public perception or economic value, however the decisions they make now will determine their futures as early as 5 years away. So, in as much as there is no urgency, decisions still need to be made.
11 Nov 11 - 04:54pm
The time horizon for Apple’s and Blackberry’s challenges are probably a lot closer than 5 years.
5 years is 20 or 30 years in web time, think about Yahoo and Netscape – they fell from grace much faster than 5 years. Apple’s reputational equity certainly will give it more than a (real) year or two, but Blackberry’s weak performance over the recent outages means that their audiences may be less tolerant if they take one or two more wrong turns and give them less time.