Reading the avalanche of bad news coming out of Waterloo
these past few weeks, there seems to be one small positive that most pundits
agree on. When RIM releases their new
Blackberry 10 devices later this year, it will be a make or break moment for
what was once Canada’s most valuable company.
I actually think there is a subtle nuance in that sentiment
that some are overlooking. RIM needs to
actually get most if not all of their current 75 million users to actually
upgrade to the new devices and platform as soon as possible.
That’s the precariously same situation that every technology
company finds themselves in every few years.
In the case of Microsoft, usually every 3 years, Apple every year, and
RIM will face later this year. How can
you ensure the smoothest and fastest possible upgrade cycle?
Existing customers on one hand love familiarity. In my own day to day, I’ve been a loyal RIM
user for many years, so the quirks that come with their devices are something
that I’ve grown accustomed to. You could
almost say that are quirks that I’ve come to expect and as such have accepted
as part of my daily routine. On the
other hand, those same quirks are what make me consider competing devices as a
replacement. In fact on some days those
quirks even have me contemplating paying for my OWN better device, in lieu of
my “free” company provided blackberry.
As with most technologies, I have no doubt that Blackberry
10 will be an improvement on their current operating system.
So how can they get those better, faster RIM devices in the
hands of their most loyal users as soon as possible?
As with many things in life I suspect the secret lies in
going back to the basics. For RIM that
means focusing on the five Ps of marketing, and tuning them for their core
audience. The 75 million people globally
who they’ve already captured as customers.
Products, Price, Placement, Promotion and Packaging that will appeal to
all those people that at some point already bought into the RIM value
proposition.
How easy that will be remains to be seen however, not to
mention how soon they need to begin executing on this…
