Blackberry Strengths:-

1) Unique Offering & Strategy:-

BlackBerry is a line of mobile e-mail and Smartphone devices developed and designed by Canadian company Research in Motion (RIM) since 1999.

Blackberry was the first company to understand that mobile applications need to be delivered as part of an integrated package, including hardware, software and services, that is bothComplete and simple to use. BLACKBERRY’s business model is also a strong weaponAgainst the competition, as it enables its resellers to charge for maintenanceAnd support as part of a subscription, rather than charge an annual fee. ThisRemains BLACKBERRY’s main strength and weapon against its competitors.

BlackBerry is primarily known for its ability to send and receive (push) Internet e-mail wherever mobile network service coverage is present, or through Wi-Fi connectivity. BlackBerry is mainly a messaging phone with the largest array of messaging features in a Smartphone today, including auto-text, auto-correct, text prediction, support for many languages, keyboard shortcuts, text emoticons, push email, push Face book, Twitter and MySpace notifications, push EBay notifications, push instant messaging with BlackBerry Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ, Windows Live Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger and Yahoo Messenger; threaded text messaging and a customizable indicator light near the top right of all Blackberry devices..

The company loaded its devices with multimedia features and software aimed at retail users and introduced sleeker models including the BlackBerry Storm, its answer to the phone.

Blackberry mobile phones are mainly appreciated for two things, their use for business management and the QWERTY keyboard that facilitates faster typing. Some of the newer models of Blackberry have broken away from the tradition of

having QWERTY keyboards and have been equipped with either numeric keypads or touch screens

2) Well Designed software:-

Blackberry software is designed to be easy for the enterprise gatekeepers (usually purchasing or IT departments) to deploy, offering simple enterprise server or desktop software integration solutions. These allow users an easy upgrade path as their requirements grow, withoutPlacing heavy financial and resource burdens on the enterprise. The solution is also designed to remove the need for any additional software, which is something that customers have come to appreciate.

All data on the phone is compressed through BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS).

BlackBerry's push gives BlackBerry devices their renowned battery life.

All notifications and conversations from applications are shown in a unified messaging application which third party applications can access also. Many of these applications would have to be running in the background of other phones to be used.

BlackBerry functions as a personal digital assistant with address book, calendar, memo pad and task list capabilities. It also functions as a portable media player with support for music and video playback and camera and video capabilities.

Other Application for Blackberry Phone:-

1. Amazon Shopping Application - According to the company, that app was designed in response to the popularity of a similar program for the phone.

Users can take pictures with their Blackberry and upload them to Amazon.com–the app will then attempt to find similar products in the store. Amazon App for BlackBerry also features one click purchasing with Amazon Prime, package tracking, personalized recommendations, Wish List, and more.

2. Pandora for BlackBerry – Pandora Radio is your own FREE personalized radio now available to stream music on your BlackBerry. Just start with the name of one of your favorite artists, songs or classical composers and Pandora will create a “station” that plays their music and more music like it.

3. BBNotePad - BBNotePad is a free text file editor/creator application for BlackBerry. It simply lets you save, edit, & create text files on your BlackBerry SD card or memory. The developer also added some more functionality in this release.

4. Palringo – Multiplatform instant messaging software. With this you can chat to all your friends on Facebook, iChat and QQ. Plus with location you can see where your friends or colleagues are in real-time making it really easy to arrange to meet up.

5. BBScreenShooter – BBScreenShooter is a small tool to capture the current screen of Blackberry. This is useful to e.g. create documentation.

3) Powerful Brands: - With just under 5 million subscribers, BLACKBERRY now has more influence than many larger device and software vendors; so much so that BlackBerry is now almost a synonym for wireless email.

Blackberry Offers many Powerful Brands as such :-

1) Blackberry Torch(Act On inspiration) -Enhanced Browsing, Touch and Type, Maximum multimedia and Socially Aware

2) Blackberry Curve-Wi-Fi and 3G networks, colorful options, compact

3) Blackberry style- First Flap Phone which is fully loaded with all the features required

4) Blackberry Pearl-Tagline “Carry your friends in your pocket” , Social world , style And substance

5) Blackberry Bold –Tagline “Do more Faster”. A pleasure While Doing Buisness

6) Blackberry Storm-Tagline “Dream Big” .Upto 2 gb of phone memory ,A virtual qwerty Keyboard .

4) Offering Carrier Friendly:- It is easy for MNOs to sell the BlackBerrysolution to enterprise customers,and the product performs well in terms ofthroughput speed,latency and capacity requirements on 2.5 (and equivalent)networks,in part due to proprietary compression in both server and handhelddevice.

Weaknesses::-

1) Scalability & Global coverage: - Blackberry’s business model (selling purelyThrough operators) means that it is dependent on operators to launch theBlackBerry service. This takes time, and the cost associated with launching canBe high for smaller operators. Global presence, including small and emergingMarkets, can be crucial to win and extend contracts with multinationalCorporations (MNCs).Many MNCs are trying to rationalize their investments inMobile email by selecting a single supplier. While this is not a key issue today,Mostly because of the lack of viable alternatives, it will become an importantFactor for enterprise users to consider in the near future.

BlackBerry commands a 14.8% share of worldwide Smartphone sales, making it the fourth most popular platform after Nokia's Symbian OS, Google's Android, and Apple's iOS.[3] .So they are lacking behind NOKIA ,GOOGLE ,APPLE

2) Blackberry architecture: - The much-discussed network operating centre(NOC) is perceived, rightly or wrongly, as a weakness in the market today.Competitors have done a good job in popularizing the belief that the relayCentre (through which all information sent and received by BlackBerrySubscribers transits, albeit in an encrypted form) is a security issue. So far, the

Campaign has not affected sales to security-conscious organizations in keySectors such as government and finance.However, the need for organizationsTo let data transit via a third-party server, and sometimes abroad, in order toUse BlackBerry is in some respects a weakness.

3) Total Cost of ownership: - BlackBerry is now perceived as a high-endProduct that is not cost effective for enterprises wishing to deploy email acrossA large part of their organisation.Perhaps as a result, almost all BlackberriesCompetitors now position themselves as cheaper equivalents of the famedBlackBerry. Claims made by competitors can easily be squashed today,Because there is no data supporting them.However, in the future Balckberry shouldRespond to such claims with smarter pricing and marketing strategies. Ideally,BLACKBERRY should aim to price and package its products for different categories ofWorkers as well as for different segments of the market as it does today

4) Business model not carrier friendly: - BLACKBERRY’s arrangements with carriers, which include per-seat and per-BES fees, reflect the strength of itsBrand and the weakness of competition. Several carriers have expressed theView to us that they would at least like to have an alternative offering in theirPortfolio alongside BlackBerry.

Opportunities:-1) Differentiated offerings for several categories of mobile workers.BLACKBERRY’s ability to cater for a growing range of mobile workers will be crucial in theFuture, as enterprises look to deploy mobile email across their diverse mobileWorkforce. Enterprises now understand the value of mobile email, but few areWilling to pay a premium for company-wide deployments.

2) Extend the range of third-party BlackBerry devices.

By licensing its software through the BlackBerry Connect and BlackBerry Built-In programmers,BLACKBERRY is able to expand its presence with users who favor other form factorsAnd device platforms. Connect and Built-In extend BLACKBERRY’s addressable marketAnd improve acceptability of BlackBerry’s products in certain markets, such asNordic countries.

Threats

1) Tougher competition . BLACKBERRY is facing tougher competition than ever before, from a range of suppliers. Until now, competitors have been small niche vendors, but going forward BLACKBERRY will compete with large global players such as Nokia and Microsoft, as well as with operators, many of which have launched their own branded email services. It is unclear what impact the newcomers will have on the market, but many enterprises are willing to consider them as valid alternatives to BlackBerry today.