Performance decline: Where is the future of BlackBerry?

When Apple and Google battled each other in the smart phone market and Microsoft and Nokia brought Windows Phone to the forefront, RIM (Blackberry), which has been in a precarious position, released its latest financial year fourth fiscal quarter and full-year financial report. Its quarterly financial report showed revenue of $4.2 billion, a year-on-year drop of 25%, a net loss of $125 million, and a net profit of $934 million for the same period last year, which was below analysts' expectations, which also caused RIM's share price to fall by 9%. about. At the same time, this again triggered a change in RIM's top management. Jim Balsillie, the former CEO, has left the board of directors; Jim Rowan, COO, resigns; and CTO David Yach also Will leave.

After another lower-than-expected earnings report, the outlook of BlackBerry seems to be even more bleak. Where exactly is its future is the problem facing CEO Heins? In fact, before the financial report was released, it was on the market through Apple iPhone and Google Android smartphone. In the strong performance, it is not difficult to guess RIM's performance. At the same time as RIM released its financial report, Nielsen released statistics on the US mobile phone market. RIM's market in the United States continues to fall, and the proportion of users who choose to buy RIM is also far lower than Apple's iPhone and Google Android. At the same time, for the first time, smart phone users in the United States have reached 50%. In this symbolic process, RIM can be said to have lost its first and perhaps only chance.

Based on this, the author believes that RIM has no hope at least in the highly competitive US market. First, relevant statistics show that Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android will continue to attack the city. Second, with the US market’s smartphones reaching 50%, the future growth will gradually slow down, further intensifying competition. In particular, Nokia, with the help of Microsoft WP, began to counterattack the US market. RIM will bear the weight of the three parties in the future. Imagine the fastest growth rate in the entire market before, and you still have an advantage. Not only has it not developed, but it has fallen again. So what opportunities are there now? So there is no future for RIM? Where is its future?

When the US market penetration rate of smart phones reaches 50%, RIM may lose one or the only chance to stay in the U.S. market. Although the latest financial report shows that RIM is still continuing to decline, but the performance from the past year Look, RIM's net profit is 2.2 billion U.S. dollars, at least still in a profitable state, which is what the industry and the author did not expect, because last year RIM as a whole has seen the decline in smart phones, RIM seems to be in The state of loss.

Another point that surprised the author was that in the latest quarter, shipments of its Playbook tablet reached 500,000 units, returning to the high level in the first quarter of last year, since the first quarter of last year, the sales of the Playbook It went straight down until 150,000 in the third quarter of last year. Of course, the radical price cuts adopted by RIM afterwards played an important role, but did it directly affect RIM's revenues and profits, and how large the impact was, is it worth continuing? RIM should have its own judgment. But in view of the successive launches of Apple’s new iPad, Google’s own-brand tablet, and Amazon’s new series of Kindle Fire and year-end Microsoft’s Windows 8 tablet, RIM’s chances of gaining market share and revenue in the tablet PC market are very difficult. A lot, so whether RIM will stay in this market in the future deserves careful consideration and choice.

The rebound of 500,000 unexpected tablet computers is reflected in the back light or in the wild? For the retention of the tablet, RIM should make early plans. In addition, from the latest financial report, RIM services accounted for 27% of the revenue, the proportion has increased. Due to previous analysis, RIM's service revenue will shrink by half, and the proportion of this increase is still surprising. Does this have to do with RIM gradually opening up its services to its rivals' platforms? In short, the change in the proportion of services in RIM revenue may be a good revelation for RIM's future transformation.

Finally, while the US market is gradually losing, RIM's advantages in Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America remain. For example, in the Middle East and Africa, RIM sales were 8.3 million last year, higher than the 2.5 million iPhone; in Latin America, RIM sales last year were 10.6 million, which is much higher than the 2.1 million iPhone. With the slowdown in the growth rate of the smart phone market in the United States and other countries, these markets will be the focus of future vendor competition. It is worth looking forward to whether RIM can maintain and utilize its current advantages or even become the starting point for counterattack.

It is undeniable that RIM is losing ground in the competition of the entire smart phone market, but through this financial report and the reality, RIM is not as good as what the industry said. For example, the leading position of some regional markets, changes in revenue structure, etc., these may become the opportunity for RIM in the future, when the hot it depends on RIM's strategy in the future. Because in the highly competitive industry, the so-called opportunities can also become the trap of digging the grave in an instant. Where is RIM's future? It will be clear this year.