Ein Artikel der zeigt wie groß die Herausforderungen für BlackBerry doch sind und wie stark die Konkurrenz ist! Besonders erwähnenswert ist der Abschnitt über den Marktanteil im Business-Segment für BlackBerry. Die aktuelle Situation ist also alles andere als rosig! Es wurden zwar viele Schritte in die richtige Richtung gemacht, allerdings bleiben die großen Erfolge noch immer aus.
Der Artikel ist zwar relativ lang und auf Englisch, allerdings sehr lesenswert!
"By Will Connors
TORONTO—Samsung Electronics Co. is revamping its push into the U.S. enterprise and government sector, adding further pressure to the new leadership at the company that once dominated that space, BlackBerry Ltd.
Samsung recently won an order for roughly 7,000 smartphones from the U.S. Army and is close to an order for several thousand devices from the U.S. National Security Agency, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The Army order is for the company’s Nett Warrior system, which outfits soldiers with a chest-mounted Samsung Note II smartphone to use while on the battlefield. While Samsung already had an initial contract to supply devices for the Nett Warrior system, the new order expands the number of Samsung devices in use there. The NSA order would be for the agency’s Fishbowl Project, an initiative it started several years ago to update the devices used by NSA personnel. Both the Army and the NSA equip the devices with their own, secure software.
A spokesman for the Army didn’t respond to requests for comment. A spokeswoman for the NSA declined to comment.
A Samsung spokesman declined to comment on the specific orders but in a statement said: “We are working very closely with many customers and we’re seeing great progress with adoption of our devices and solutions.”
While those orders pale in comparison to overall phone sales at Samsung, they signal to other companies—especially in highly regulated industries like banking and health care—that Samsung phones can work in sensitive environments, long the bread and butter of BlackBerry.
Cisco Systems Inc., for example, is readying a new product, referred to internally as “Spaghetti Western,” for its government and business customers that aims to monitor employees’ mobile-phone usage, according to Cisco executives. Its exclusive partner on the project: Samsung.
This momentum could spell trouble for new BlackBerry Chief Executive John Chen. Shortly after taking the helm at BlackBerry in November, Mr. Chen said he would focus on winning back enterprise customers.
But his predecessor, Thorsten Heins, said this too, in September. The problem then, as now, is that many of BlackBerry’s enterprise customers have already moved on—and deeper-pocketed competitors like Samsung are encroaching on BlackBerry’s territory. In 2010, BlackBerry had a market share of nearly 70% among business customers in North America, according to IDC. In 2013, that figure had dropped to around 5%, IDC said. Globally, BlackBerry’s business-market share has slipped to around 8% from 31% in 2010, according to IDC.
Mr. Chen has been on the road for the past three months making his pitch to banks and government agencies, but so far there have been few signs of progress.
BlackBerry has announced a handful of clients for its new software in Europe and India. In India, the conglomerate ITC Ltd. said it would deploy BlackBerry’s new enterprise software for its employees. And in Germany, information-technology company DATEV, an existing BlackBerry customer, said it would upgrade to BlackBerry’s new server and order 1,000 BlackBerry phones.
In response to questions about customers in the U.S., BlackBerry said that several companies, including law firm Skadden, Arps, Meagher & Flom LLP and insurer MetLife Inc. have signed up for its new server.
BlackBerry said it has more than 80,000 enterprise customers globally, but 50,000 of those customers are on the company’s older network. And of the 30,000 customers on the new network, many are only testing the service. BlackBerry hasn’t said how many customers have actually installed the new service.
“We have sharpened our enterprise focus to government, regulated industries and other large organizations,” and “have developed a broad vision of how we will serve these companies,” John Sims, BlackBerry’s president in charge of the enterprise, said in an emailed statement. “Customers are listening and we believe they will respond positively to our strategy.”
The company built its reputation and won thousands of customers largely on the strength of its proprietary network, called BlackBerry Enterprise Server. When the company shifted to a new operating system last year, BlackBerry 10, it also tried to shift companies to a new version of its network, called BES 10. Mr. Chen’s job is to convince more customers to make that shift.
The BlackBerry CEO is working on several fronts. He wants to make BlackBerry Messenger a video and chat service for enterprises. But he concedes that this might not be profitable until 2016, and companies like Cisco have been offering enterprise video chat tools for years—and have billions more in cash than BlackBerry that enables them to invest more easily in new bells and whistles or make acquisitions.
Mr. Chen said he wants to ramp up his mobile-device management offerings for companies that use Apple Inc.’s iPhones and Samsung phones. But bigger companies like Microsoft Corp. and VMware Inc. are also in this line of business. VMware recently announced a deal to acquire mobile-device management company AirWatch for $1.5 billion, and just this week Microsoft’s new chief executive, Satya Nadella, said mobile-device management would be a key area of focus for him.
In the meantime, Mr. Chen has his work cut out for him dealing with Samsung, which is hiring former BlackBerry executives to help.
Samsung recently hired BlackBerry’s former chief information officer, Robin Bienfait, to work at its IT services subsidiary Samsung SDS, according to people familiar with the matter. Ms. Bienfait stepped down from her post at BlackBerry in late 2012, just before the launch of the company’s new line of phones.
Samsung also recently hired Carl Nerup, from Washington, D.C., contractor General Dynamics Corp., to lead sales of its enterprise software, according to a person close to the company.
A Samsung spokesman confirmed the new hires.
Samsung had already hired away dozens of executives and employees from BlackBerry and other Washington, D.C., contractors."
Er lässt vor allem durchblicken wie lange und steinig der Weg für BlackBerry noch sein wird und ob dieser eingeschlagene Weg erfolgreich sein wird, steht auch noch in den Sternen.
Ich denke nicht, dass die BlackBerry Aktie ohne weiteres immer weiter steigt, wie der ein oder andere User gerne schreibt. Fundamental ist jetzt schon das Ende der Fahnenstange erreicht, solange das Unternehmen nicht aus den roten Zahlen herauskommt. Ich kenne kein Unternehmen, dass es nicht geschafft hätte vor der Insolvenz nicht durch alle Vermögenswerte zu brennen... Wenn BlackBerry kein Erfolg hat, aber auch nicht zerschlagen wird, dann wird es so enden... Naja, mal abwarten!
Gruß
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