Trouble Up North?

What was once one of the world’s most influential and forward thinking companies is no longer a force to be reckoned with.

It is now just a wreck, a far cry from its glory days in 2008 when you couldn’t take a step without bumping into somebody that had their eyes glued to their blackberry screen.

The company, now legally known as Blackberry changed its name this past January.

The Company adopted to the name of its revolutionary BlackBerry Smartphone to coincide with the launch of its new mobile computing platform, BlackBerry 10. The move consolidates the company’s brand into a single cohesive global presence.

However the presence of Blackberry hasn’t really been felt in a very long time, Back in 2009,the Smartphone company was sitting pretty with a stock price of $83.02, and it currently sits at $8.03.

Its stock prices are a true testament that other companies and platforms can always come and recapture territory that were thought to be off limits. With companies like Apple and Google finally putting their hands in the Smartphone business and strived to make advancements, it was clear that Blackberry wasn’t.

Blackberry could have stayed on top or at least in the top tier if they listened to the needs of the people, instead of the voices in their heads and the people in those giant corner offices.

As other companies made their phones more usable, thinner, and bigger screens, Blackberry stayed in the lane of Business phones and refused to budge.

They were given ample warnings as well. The first iPhone was released on June 29, 2007 for a whopping $599. It wasn’t until a year and a half later that Apple would release a second, more affordable version, which would of course sell better. During this time Blackberry could have developed a newer device or at least target a different audience to increase sales.

However, Blackberry didn’t release a touch phone until March 2013.

This phone, called the Z10 produced horrible sales for the company, which is mostly what they attribute the expected $1 billion net operating loss in Q2 of 2014.And for the first time, the consumers aren’t the only ones being affect. As Blackberry looks to cut nearly 40% of their global employees, adding up to about 4,500 people being laid off.

CEO Thorsten Heins said in a statement that "We are very disappointed with our operational and financial results this quarter and have announced a series of major changes to address the competitive hardware environment and our cost structure."

 Canadian investment company Fairfax put in a $4.7 billion buyout offer earlier this week. It is likely that Blackberry will agree to the deal, making the phones only available to the enterprise market.

Blackberry may have lost touch in the Smartphone world but some hate the idea of touch phones.

Audre Canon, a sophomore at St.Francis College hates even thinking about having to use a touch phone.

Holding out his hands, he says “Look at these fingers, can you imagine typing on a touch screen with these fat things?”

“If I have to get a iPhone I’ll be able to type a word with one press from these huge thumbs” said Canon.

Others are a bit more excited that the future of Blackberry isn’t so bright.

Ariana Turkson, a St. John’s student thinks it’s about time the company reaped what they sew.

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder right? Maybe if I stop seeing those archaic phones I wont hate them as much as I do now. They can’t seem to do anything right”

This statement holds true to even last week. On September 22 BBM was supposed to come to iOS and Android devices. BBM, which stands for Blackberry Messenger is a messaging platform made exclusive to Blackberry Handsets until recent. At the tail end of June it was announced by Blackberry that the company would make BBM available to everyone by summer’s end.

Apparently someone took this time frame very literal as September 22 was the official first day of fall. BBM, which was suppose to be the world’s first true cross platform messaging system never even came to fruition. Due to sudden complications, the release was delayed. This announcement of course was made on the day it was suppose to release.

As Blackberry continues to go down the wrong path, many hope that the once dominant company will find its way.