BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) has convinced at least some people that it can bounce back from years of disappointing returns by changing its focus from hardware to software. Stocks have seen a small rise and could go even further now that BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins is connecting with investors, according to the International Venture Capital Post.
BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY), once the smartphone of choice for business people and the IT crowd, has seen its market share drop steadily as Google Android and the iPhone have become more popular. Whatever the reasons behind this change, and most people would agree there are many, there has been a general consensus that BlackBerry is on its way out. The U.S. launch of the Z10 and Q10 models was something of a debacle, and investors are even wondering if BlackBerry is hiding the full scale of its problems behind vague sales reports.
The newest attempt to turn things around seems to hinge on a new platform called BlackBerry Enterprise Services 10. Unlike previous platforms, this would allow BlackBerry software including the still popular BBM service to run on any smart phone, not just BlackBerry handsets. The number of corporations using BBES 10 was up 50 percent in June to around 18,000, though the extent of use in each of those corporations isn’t clear.
BlackBerry basing strategy on its software popularity
BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) appears to be basing this strategy on the idea that its software is still popular among security experts and IT departments who will want to use it on corporate phones, regardless of what hardware their colleagues want to put it on, but this ignores the other problem BlackBerry faces. As its market share has declined, many software developers have stopped supporting their phones and the BlackBerry app market is much smaller than Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOD) and Apple Inc. (AAPL) equivalents.
It also ignores the importance of the consumer market in smart phone growth. When smartphones were used primarily by executives and business leaders, many people received corporate smartphones as a perk. Now that the market has grown significantly, people expect to have more input into the model and platform that they use.
The IVC Post report does point out that BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) stocks went up 3 percent after the shareholders meeting held this week, and that Heins appears to have convinced a number of large investors to increase their holdings. At least some people are convinced that this change in direction is exactly what BlackBerry needs to turn itself around.
