This quarter, Blackberry (Research In Motion – RIMM) posted it’s first revenue decline in 7 years. I’m surprised it took this long, but it was going to happen sooner rather than later.

BlackBerry’s strongest customer base was always business men and women, who were always on the go. Blackberry never really catered to the average Joe and that’s where they dropped the ball. Blackberry could’ve held on for a lot longer in my opinion, if they keep innovating with better features, and not simply mimicking what Apple’s Iphone and Google’s Android were doing. But mimic they did – poorly. They were light years ahead of most of the competition, In fact, they were the UN-disputed kings until Apple showed interest. There was not other real smartphone company other than RIMM. HTC was trying somethings here and there, but they were retarded enough to run Windows Mobile, which, let’s face it, was a disaster. Microsoft too had light-years of research and development, all ahead of the new kids on the block, Apple and Google, but they dropped the ball, like Microsoft always does.

They could’ve developed their mobile browser so it showed more of a website, but I guess they thought they didn’t need to. It’s also easy to criticize a company, cause Hindsight is always 20/20, but when the Iphone came out, with it’s browser that did all the functionality that a regular desktop browser did, why is it that in 2012, 5 years after the Iphone came out my brother’s new blackberry phone has one of the most ridiculous browsers every seen. The browser looks like it was from the Netscape versus Microsoft Internet Explorer era. I mean come one, 5 years later, even the lowest of your model phones should be able to not remind me of the browser wars of the mid 90s. My father has one of the newer Blackberry phones, real advanced too. So advanced, there was an update that disabled the browser, and he can no longer get on the internet through their browser. The T-Mobile representatives couldn’t even figure it out. I attempted, and failed. You know what I told him “Just get an Iphone and call it a day.” My brother asked if that was the answer to everything, just get an Apple product. I stated, “Well, I can get on the internet, and you guys can’t, so it’s not about right, wrong, or preference. I’ve got the internet.” My father ended up canceling the data/internet package, cause the phone simply could not get online.

The problem with Blackberry is lack of innovation and weak development. It doesn’t have the magic and spark that Apple has, that Google still has. It doesn’t have the “thinking of the future” mentality.

This reminds me, I was on a phone call with a Blackberry user, and he had to send me a text message with a phone number on it, and I told him to go ahead. He paused and said, “I have to hang up to send text messages.”… I had to think about it for a minute, cause I didn’t understand what he meant. Then I realized, what I take for granted on my Iphone is still beyond anything Blackberry phones have. Maybe it’s a data plan, or whatever, I don’t really care what the bottom-line thing is that requires the user to hang up the phone to send a text, but that was ridiculous. Thinking back, I recall Verizon phones can’t doing two things at once also, I recall that from an AT&T commercial.

Microsoft’s Window’s Phone has less than 1% market share, and they have seen an increase, and they are MICROSOFT. Come on. Blackberry had it’s moment in the sun I guess, but I don’t. I guess it just couldn’t innovate anymore…

And let me not even talk about the RIM network being down for days in October, the 4th quarter. It’s not a coincidence that the first decline in revenue in 7 years, happens in the quarter right after that. Think about it, your whole world wide network goes down, right before the holiday times, where people are definitely going to be shopping for phones. That’s a huge publicity nightmare. EVERY SINGLE Blackberry user was not able to get messaging for days.. What is the likelihood that they were going to buy another Blackberry phone during the holidays? NONE… NONE.

I wish I could help them with some advice, or marketing strategy, but they need to clean up their act across the board. They need a young and innovative team leading the charge for development. They may have to simply give up their operating system and go with Google’s Android. Whatever they do, DO NOT go with Microsoft’s Window’s Phone Platform. That’s like teaming up with IBM at this point. Microsoft is simply doing what they do best, copying and pasting Apple and Google’s innovations. They had a chance awhile back. I used to have a HTC PPC 6700 and even the HTC PPC 6600, but now they are just overpriced paper weights. Blackberry needs to team up with winners, and Android is going toe to toe with Apple, and is the best bet for Blackberry’s survival. Now, can Android take out Apple? That’s another topic.

Blackberry should become a hardware company, selling the hardware components that help power the great Mobile Apps. HTC saw the light. Sell tablets and smart-phones, but not the software, because the current Blackberry developers, simply don’t get it. Also, get with the program, if you are still attempt to get people to not use touch screen as your main selling point, you are in a lot of trouble. People clearly want touch screen. And honestly, there is no different then a built in keyboard when typing in my opinion. In fact, Google’s text swipe’s a pretty cool feature. And now, Siri and voice to text, and voice controlled phones – why are you still having commercials on the air taking weak jabs at people with touch screen, when your phones remind everyone of a Brother’s typewriter.

Blackberry, Good luck.