Success in the marketplace can be a very ?eeting thing. Not long ago, BlackBerry (the smartphone pioneer, not the fruit) was among many consumers’ most favorite things. BlackBerry’s smart-phone market share dropped from nearly 50% to about 10% between 2010 and 2012. By 2014, that share dropped to less than 1%! Where did they go wrong? In contrast to Apple or Samsung products, BlackBerry smartphones were described as useful, e?cient, and simple. They were great to get things done and became particularly dominant in the business market where companies issue phones to employees. In the late 2000s, BlackBerry altered its image by promoting features in their smartphones such as video displays and gaming abilities. With this positioning, they moved closer toward the iPhone and gave up their positioning as the premier utilitarian value phone in the market-place. Consumer analysts see BlackBerry’s strategic move toward the hedonic value positioning as a mistake and a reason for their poor performance. In early 2013, BlackBerry launched the BB10 Smartphone and operating system. With performance specs that match the iPhone 5, BlackBerry hoped to deliver utilitarian value to recapture lost business and hedonic value to appeal to consumers. However, this e?ort too failed, and the company is considering options in an e?ort to avoid becoming the defunct former leader in smartphones.

Question:

Should Blackberry have stuck to their original marketing position as a utilitarian (business and commercial usage) phone provider instead of trying to compete with Apple and Google in the phone business? Why? Why not?