business messaging blog
BlackBerry Classic: Changing isn’t always a good thing
Scott Navratil

Have you been keeping up with BlackBerry lately? Well, if not, don’t worry. You aren’t alone. Most people don’t care about or pay any attention to what is going on with BlackBerry. But the company is hoping to change that by going back to its original design. Who says change is always a good thing? Not the BlackBerry CEO who seems to think that the company was better off before trying to play catch up with the competition, which is why it produced the BlackBerry Classic.

Typically trying to one-up the competition

One thing we constantly see in technology, especially mobile technology, is a lot of mobile carriers constantly trying to either play catch up with each other or one-up one another. It makes sense. If Apple has something that its customers really like in a smartphone, why not add that feature to your smartphone too? There have been plenty of times where we’ve seen Apple trying to play catch up with Samsung too. This is the game that BlackBerry has been playing for a while now. Though it used to be the number one brand for smartphones, it has since been left at the starting line as other companies have zoomed past. BlackBerry has put in way too much time and money into trying to catch up with the competition, and now it is re-thinking it’s decision with the BlackBerry Classif phone.

BlackBerry CEO says enough is enough

According to ZDNet, BlackBerry CEO John Chen believes that the years of trying to keep up with the competition wasn’t worth it when really, the company could have stuck with its original design and been just as successful, if not more successful. He said the following about the new BlackBerry Classif phone being released:

“It’s tempting in a rapidly changing, rapidly growing mobile market to change for the sake of change – to mimic what’s trendy and match the industry-standard, kitchen-sink approach of trying to be all things to all people. But there’s also something to be said for the classic adage, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. BlackBerry Classic reflects that. It is classic BlackBerry – complete with a top row of navigation keys and a trackpad. It’s the device that has always felt right in your hands and always felt right in your busy day.”

It’s clear that he believes sticking with the classics in this situation would have been the best option, and now they are going back to what they know once again.

Marketing via smartphones

No matter what smartphone your customer owns or what type of features may come with that phone, you’ll be able to easily market to them through texting. Every phone, whether new or old, still has this feature and will continue to have it into the future. Believe it or not, I still see people every once in a while with an old phone that doesn’t seem to keep up with current industry standards, but I know that they are still always reachable via text message.

Source: zdnet.com/blackberry-ceo-questions-value-of-innovation-champions-classic-style-7000035213/

Chantel Fullilove

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