Research in Motion Case Study

1. Why is the BlackBerry controversy prominent in Asia, particularly in the Middle East, and not anywhere else in the world?

The reason BlackBerry is controversial in Asia and the Middle East and not in the Western Nations is due to the instability of the region, government corruption, and restricted freedoms. The Middle East is rife with active terrorist groups that are well funded with little disregard for human life. The governments there are under threat and need all of the information on potential terrorist plots they can get to protect their sovereignty. However, part of their activities involve suppressed freedoms for the populace (often aligning with religious practices) in order to protect the people, or to maintain a dictatorial grip on the power they wield.

2. Analyze the measures that RIM can take to address security concerns while taking care of its business interests effectively. BlackBerry needs to take a longer view that eventually the developing nations in the Middle East and Asia will increase the freedoms their citizens have. Until that point they should strongly cater to those entities that will benefit the most from high security: Corporations and Governments. The BlackBerry Phones are not very popular anywhere in the world at this time and their market share of mobile devices is decreased to the point that they hold less than 1% of the market in the United States. However, our top government officials all still use BlackBerry phones because of the strong encryption keys. Strategically Blackberry need to use the NSA debacle as a selling point along with other personal information leaks to push new BlackBerry products into the market.

3. Discuss the strategic lessons arising from the BlackBerry episode for MNC's operating in the technological arena.

A lesson to learn is to make decisions swiftly and make a stand for something rather than allow wild speculation to damage your reputation and sales. RIM failed to answer the ASE's...