Acquiring New Market Segments: RIM's Foray
Previous Market Segments
Previous to 2004, RIM’s devices were slanted towards corporate and business users starting with it’s Inter@ctive Pager 900 (Ziegler, 5). It’s mobile phone product lines didn’t become popularized until email became a mission critical application. RIM saw the potential in email and grew it’s business along with the popularization of the then nascent technology.
New Market Segments
RIM’s first cellular unit that was directed at mass market consumers was the BlackBerry 7100 released in 2004 (Ziegler, 38). They were trying to capitalize on ordinary users that enjoyed the features of a corporate device (calendaring, email, tasks, ect) but didn’t have a corporate environment (Exchange/Windows Server, ect).
Differences Between the Segments
The two market segments they’re catering to are on opposite ends of the spectrum even though they have overlapping qualities. Business users (their original niche) need constant access to email and calendaring applications to be more productive and provide added value to their organization. Consumers enjoy the same features that business users do, but they “require” features such as cameras, social media applications, and entertainment.
Risks of Acquiring Their New Segment
By opening up to a new market segment, RIM is hoping to not only gain more consumers (Silver, 11), but to get younger consumers used to using their platform so when they have a choice of platforms to use in a corporate environment their unique selling points and purchase their profitable software and hardware platform.
RIM must be careful in opening up it’s mobile devices to other markets because they can easily be judged by the same consumers they want to woo as being negative if their handset’s features are not judged positively. Consumers judge products differently than business users. If they don’t get the features they want, whether business users care about those features or not, they will shun the product and perhaps the company. The bigger threat is that RIM will lose money on it’s investment in the consumer market as well as losing mindshare if their products are not adopted.
Bibliography:
Ziegler, Chris “Ten Years of BlackBerry” engadget.com Dec 28, 2009. Feb 9, 2010 <http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/28/ten-years-of-blackberry/>
Silver, Sara “BlackBerry’s Consumer Push is Coming at a Price for RIM” Mar 30, 2009. Feb 9, 2010 <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123836687235267447.html>
