Research in Motion

July 6, 2010

Research In Motion: Managing Explosive Growth

Research In Motion (RIM) is a company that was founded in 1984 by Mike Lazaridis, who was a 23 year old student at the time. The company that he founded has become a leader in mobile communications. This includes the design, market and manufacture of the BlackBerry mobile phone. As of 2008, the BlackBerry has 14 million subscribers worldwide and produces just over $6 billion in revenue for RIM. RIM is one of Canada’s largest companies and was recently recognized as having one of the top 10 products in the past 40 years. The BlackBerry product is a wireless phone that integrates email, phone, instant messaging, SMS, internet, music, camera, GPS and more. The BlackBerry has become very popular with corporate America based on its ability to integrate and secure corporate email. There have been many companies that have tried to compete with RIM and the BlackBerry product, but none were very successful until Apple introduced the Iphone in 2007.

RIM follows a focused differentiation strategy. This general idea for this strategy is to offer a niche product or service that is customized to their needs. For RIM, they offer several services including BlackBerry Enterprise Server, BlackBerry Mobile Data System, BlackBerry Smartphones, BlackBerry Connect Devices, BlackBerry Alliance Program and BlackBerry Solution Services. Two of the biggest offerings that are utilized by customers are the BlackBerry Smartphones (73% of Revenue), followed by services such as the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (18% of Revenue). One area that RIM is trying to focus on for this niche product is the consumer market. RIM has developed and launched the BlackBerry Pearl smartphone that will be more appealing to the consumer than to the business professional. This phone will offer more features that the consumer will use and will allow for the apps to be downloaded and utilized by the end user.

In performing a SWOT...