First it develops its applications far beyond email

It is now widely commented: the tribe of drug addicts in the BlackBerry grows day by day. They are already more than 5 million to be able to separate from their small Internet terminal, the bringing into their bed for the final after the evening before turning off the light. But that is its great designer, the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM)

A party very early market access to its mails using a handheld terminal, society was able to create its community of fans. Like Apple with the iPod. But now that the niche extends as no longer to be one, that a true mass market profile, the competitors rolling with big means. They call Microsoft or Nokia and their only research budgets are vastly superior to the total turnover of the Canadian (2 billion this year). In other words, is RIM a new Apple or Google, a company capable of building an empire on the exceptional success of a single product, or a clone of Palm, the inventor declining personal Wizard gradually marginalized by Microsoft

First let's see the reasons for the success of the BlackBerry. As in the case of the iPod, it is based on the fine alliance between ecosystem and a product. A software platform on a hand (iTunes for Apple, the BlackBerry Enterprise Server for RIM software) and a well designed terminal on the other hand. But the differences end there. While the iPod is based on the concept of the Walkman, more twenty year-old, RIM is revolutionary: access his mails on mobile terminal without the need to look for. Each new mail received at the Office just to automatically display on the screen of the handheld terminal, in real time, wherever it is.

Differences also in the target: the general public for the firm of Steve Jobs, hence the priority given to the design of the aircraft and its ergonomics, businesses for the BlackBerry. At the time, it is the value of use becomes essential, far before the style and ergonomics which notice even the nothing, could still be improved. No matter, RIM ensures that its terminal saves 47 minutes of productivity per day, this is a language that perfectly include professional purchasers.

Finally, not content to target a narrower target, the Canadian firm has chosen to establish a close partnership with the mobile operators that prevents the establishment of a costly distribution system.

This was not always the case. Born in 1984, the company of Waterloo, in Ontario, has marketed its first pagers, direct sale, as early as 1996. The arrival in 2001 in the United States of GPRS, the evolution of the GSM with higher speeds, convinced her to change the product (a nearest terminal to a phone) and model. Given its very small size, she could move the gear closely espousing the cause of the large operators. Even today, the firm takes care to pass all of his activity by this channel and its commercial activity is entirely organized around these few "very large accounts" that are Orange, Vodafone and T-Mobile.

Of course, it leaves them at the time a little margin, but his service has been sufficiently innovative to ensure that the operators accept its rates. Thus, society itself produces its terminals and will yet pay the luxury show a margin of more than 20, much greater than that of the traditional manufacturers of terminals, such as Nokia or Motorola. Because if small BlackBerry account for 70 of the turnover, the bulk of profits comes from software and services. For each contract signed by the operator with a firm, RIM installs its software in servers of the company. It is he who will search the mails arrived at the Office to send on the BlackBerry. For smaller companies, it is squarely RIM that hosts the server and invoice the operator service.

In five years, the Group has accumulated considerable experience in the matter in an area where the symbiosis between terminal and software is essential, especially when flows are low, as in the case of GSM/GPRS. That is why, at the last score of the firm Gartner, the Canadian accounted for 25 of the market of the personal assistants, or PDAs, twice more than Palm or HP.

Only problem, this market is gradually extinguished for the benefit of smart phones. And in this field, nor is RIM who leads the dance but Nokia, with more than half of the market alone against less than 9 for RIM. Or this segment of telephony, under the effect of the arrival of the mobile broadband (UMTS / 3 G) literally explodes. 50 million last year, 100 million this year, nearly 250 in 2008, according to the Finns. The latter is therefore Overdrive, as Microsoft, Motorola and Sony Ericsson trying to catch up to share what is becoming one of the last areas of growth in mobile telephony. Therefore, prices are down. In SFR, the last model BlackBerry (8707) is for example sold 40 more expensive than its equivalent Nokia.

With the announced invasion, RIM reacts in three directions. First, it develops its applications far beyond e-mail. Now, 60 of its users use their terminal for something else, such as access to the software business. Second, it grows the lights from professional individuals (self-employed, professions...). The firm believes it is more than 90 of the market to conquer. And third, it sells its software license to its competitors, always through operators. The goal is to expand its platform to establish as the standard of fact left to lose ground on terminals. PAS won, because the competitors argue them as their software offerings, often with the help of the operators.

Positioned on the top of range, RIM may know the situation paradoxical but well known business victim of the success of the market that it has created. Netscape, Palm and others are there for we remember that, when the large numbers, firepower premium often on the quality of the offer. When a market becomes mature, the talent of Organization (marketing, manufacturing), own large structures, premium on innovation, prerogative of young shoots. As some players in delay, like Motorola, could be tempted out the Chequebook to Canadian star.

Alumni will then recall with emotion of the time where they were only a handful of the "crackBerry" addicts to satisfy a more subtle defect was rare.