For as long as Apple has been Apple there have been calls for the company to make “affordable products.” By this, most mean lower price tags. They’re not talking value or Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). When you bring those ideas into the discussion, Apple’s prices are very low indeed. No, this is all about price tags. People want Apple to sell products for less, so that more people can use them and – side benefit – it hurts those ripping off Apple’s intellectual property to produce cut-rate facsimiles of Apple’s innovations. Android, I’m looking at you.
One major problem: Offering low priced products is, as Apple’s leadership likes to say, “not part of Apple’s DNA.” This is a nice way of saying: We can’t dominate entire markets (outside of the fluke iPod/iTunes Store) because it would irrecoverably damage the Apple brand or as Steve Jobs once said, “We can’t do it; we just can’t ship junk.” More recently, this has been parroted by Tim Cook: “There’s always a large junk part of the market. We’re not in the junk business.”
I have a solution that satisfies everyone: Buy an established brand (on the cheap, no less) and design and market products for mid-tier consumers. There are other possibilities – other brands, creating your own (quite expensive) – but the BlackBerry brand would fit the bill quite nicely. No sense letting a widely-known brand just whiter away to nothing.
What would happen if Apple bought the BlackBerry brand and soon after, this new BlackBerry announced two products to start: A brand new 5-inch BlackBerry smartphone and a brand new 7.9-inch BlackBerry tablet, both of which are powered by Apple A-series processors, run iOS 7, and connect to the App Store (or the “BlackBerry App Store” which just so happens to mirror exactly what’s in Apple’s App Store)? Remember now, these aren’t junky products we’re talking about, these will be quality mid-tier Jony Ive-designed products. They will offer quality components and excellent build quality, they just won’t be the very latest, highest-end stuff. BlackBerry will be the best of the mid-tier, not at all low-end. (Bold emphasis added following initial comments below.)
Here’s what I think would happen: Apple iPhones and iPads would continue to own the high-end smartphone and tablet markets. BlackBerry smartphones and tablets would crush Android in the highly-profitable mid-tier (the low-end can keep buying junk). Apple would, of course, keep all of the money (instead of watching Samsung bank all of that non-Apple revenue using products based on Apple’s IP). iOS market share would rapidly overtake Android; first in the U.S. and then quickly spread elsewhere around the developed world. Even though the mid-tier BlackBerry users wouldn’t buy as many apps, patronize as many ads, spend as much money on services, etc. as Apple user, they would be iOS users. This would only make developers even more enthusiastic about developing for iOS. Many would lose interest in Android rather quickly. Android et al. would be relegated to the low-end. Google would be sucking fumes in mobile advertising. iAd would dominate. Plus, all of these new BlackBerry users would be far more primed to graduate to Apple devices next than even the Android settlers are now.
Mini Cooper has worked very nicely for BMW. BlackBerry could work even better for Apple.
Apple should buy BlackBerry for the brand and use it to preserve the Apple’s brand cachet while hitting Android and Samsung where it hurts, relegating Google’s wannabe OS and Samsung’s wannabe devices to the junk liquidation warehouses where they belong.
SteveJack is a long-time Macintosh user, former web designer, multimedia producer and a regular contributor to the MacDailyNews Opinion section.
This didn’t work for Daimler, and it wouldn’t work for Apple. This is no different than having licensed iOS to a third party.
Sorry Charlie, we aren’t looking for good iOS phones. We are looking for iPhones which are magical, and run iOS.
‘Daimler’ I assume you mean Daimler as in Jaguar version. Think it was a successful brand for about a century longer than BB would if bought by Apple. Disappeared only because of its owners failings in the past, I wouldn’t be surprised now that Jaguar is thriving that the name could be revived should they decide to produce a limousine again in the future. Bentley and RR have done rather well for there new masters going up market for them.
I was thinking about how they bought Chrysler and then sold. They tried making Chrysler branded versions of Mercedes vehicles, which were popular, but still it didn’t work for them as we’ve seen them sold, and now owned by Fiat. The corporate culture clash was too much. I thing BB would clash with Apple just as badly.
Maybe the dumbest thing I’ve ever read.
I just pictured a bunch of brushed stainless steel, keyed devices with iPod Classic sized screens.
So this is what happens when MDN hit-whores its own site!
I read this not realizing it was original content, and was looking for MDN to rip the analyst a new one.
Wow.
This is by far, one of the stupidest suggestions I’ve read in a long time.
Yes me too, not sure I can take this sites comment seriously now that they talk the same tosh as those they ridicule. This ideas sounds sensible for about 5 seconds at best. Did it take less than that write this trash I wonder.
Wow, hard to believe Steve Jack wrote this.
1. “For as long as Apple has been Apple there have been calls for the company to…” This is a paradigm crux. Some do not mind their personal power being usurped and will be happy if this, that and whatever happens. That’s fine listen to the call of others to… The other aspect is to take responsibility for your happiness so regardless of this, that and whatever happens, the happiness is sustained and endures. Personal empowerment, and that is core to Apple. Oh they will listen to the calls, and more often than not ignore them, choosing their own path.
Going on about the price tags and what people want from Apple has to be carefully gauged. The thing is that “some” people (and I use the term loosely because I am talking about you, yes you jouranalysts) who want, desire, crave and constantly attempt to coach Apple from the side lines, make so much noise that you’d think that it was from a line up at the Apple store. The loud mouth minority sound off is impressive, but to the long relatively quiet line up at the Apple store the silent majority leave the store with their excellent Apple products.
That is really the one major problem, trying to generate a solution that satisfies everyone. Apple is happy they don’t need a solution. The Apple customers are happy, you can tell by the way they push their dollars that way. The only ones I see that are not happy are the whining analysts and whore street journalists that whine whine whine and want Apple to do this that and the other thing. People with several synapses to spare know darn well that if you start doing thing the next thing you’ll be doing it trying to satisfy them by offering the moon, and you can rest assured that it won’t be good enough, it will never be good enough because it’s not about this that or the moon, it’s about control someone else to do your bidding. It’s not even a vision thing.
Apple won’t buy Blackberry.
-To report that is what a journalist should do.
-To have an opinion on it is what an editor should do.
-To speculate and move along a certain course of action, that’s up to the company decide. These days it seems that a lot of jouranalysts think that this is where they should be. With free speech and free will, go right on ahead because fortunately thanks to free speech and free those jouranalyst will be ignored, and worse yet called out as the buffoons they have now become.
In effect, by entering into a licensing agreement with HTC, Apple is already partially doing what SteveJack suggests they do: take the mid-tier money away from Android.
SteveJack’s idea works better because Apple gets all of the money, not just a small percentage per device, and the mid-tier users would already be on iOS and ready to move up to Apple devices (already have the apps) when the time comes.
Apple could even run the Blackberry brand at break-even or just above. No profit would be necessary with the Apple brand continuing to generate very healthy profits. The pain inflicted on competitors and the growth of iOS alone would be worth the effort.
There’s more to this idea than many naysayers here seem to recognize. Perhaps the “BlackBerry” brand is what’s thrown so many for a loop. In Apple’s hands, Blackberry is still a salvageable brand, unlike Palm, for example, which is too far gone.
Imagine Apple bought a brand you like or have no strong opinion about, or created one (very expensive), would the idea of Apple having a separate mid-tier brand work then?
Do you have any idea of the cost to this ‘fantasy’, they have just pumped a billion into this rotting corpse, and the one company that had effectively agreed to take it on has suddenly run a mile. I will remain a naysayer thanks as will Apple.
SteveJack only suggests buying the BlackBerry brand, not running the company as it is now.
While I’ll lean towards spyinthesky’s conclusion, I’ll grant you that the idea could be valid if Apple were looking at getting inside the corporate structure by a back door approach. Insofar as brand, the software contracts are interesting from that perspective. Plus the patents would have a value, but puhlease, it’s a dead company walking, let it die in peace.
Fail.
Negatory
Idiot
okay… then Apple should buy HP and Microsoft. Because there is a huge install base of enterprise Windows PC users around the world, and it would be cheaper for everyone if Apple owned and controlled ongoing development rather than forcing this installed user base (and those who spend money to maintain it) to start wringing their hands over switching issues. Apple could set Microsoft’s strategy at just Windows, Office, and the Xbox. All those enterprise WinXP users and their support base could heave a sigh of relief at not being abandoned, Apple-Microsoft would develop free upgrades to XP that would largely maintain it’s user interface while bringing it ‘up to code’ behind that UI.
Microsoft’s big Achilles heel issue is that they waste so much strategy time and capital investment trying to chase Apple. That would stop, and development would slow down to becoming mostly a company that maintains enterprise installations, where they don’t need to upgrade things every year because no one from this market stands in line outside stores to buy the cool new gizmo. ‘Stable and consistent’ is more important than ‘cool an hip’. Millions of office workers
are interested in doing their jobs, not having to stop what
they are doing to have to pointlessly learn how to use the new gear that they don’t need.
With HP, Apple would then compete with IBM’s big iron
business and whittle down HP’s desktop PC product line
to a few models, like the way the Mac is marketed. Enterprise
market purchasers would love not having to waste time trolling through the absurdity of so many different models.
The PC is a long way from being dead, nor is it heading towards and kind of nursing home. Give it yearly checkups and it won’t scream for a facelift or organ transplant for many years to come, or ever.
I tell ya fellas, it’s Win-win (har har). Better to control and just
dump the wasteful strategy of ‘competition’ because in reality
they really only compete in the mindset of fanatics.
Dying industry vs. new, rapidly-growing ones.
Only in the minds of fanatics. Outside the realm of
editors seeking clicks on wow-the-world-is-changing
news articles, the PC is very much alive.
This is actually a sounder proposition, though still extremely questionable. It at least made me think, whereas the BlackBerry proposition had me nodding my head before the end of the first paragraph.
dmz
I just don’t see Apple buying BlackBerry.
Apple doesn’t skate to where the puck is. Rather, they skate to where it will be.
BlackBerry is in the past.
It’s not about “BlackBerry.” SteveJack just used that to hook you into the article. Forget the “BlackBerry.”
It’s about the idea of an Apple-run secondary brand that makes good iOS-based products for the mid-tier buyer.
I have to respectfully disagree.
This year saw the bifurcation of the iPhone line with the 5c and the 5s.
Apple has now established two iPhone product lines. Over time, these two lines will continue to diverge. There is no need for badge engineering.
Aaaaand SteveJack has officially jumped the shark.
I saw this headline, and I thought, “What brain dead C – business student come analyst cooked up this ridiculous idea?” I cannot tell you the level of disappointment that arose from seeing that it was mind other than SteveJack.
That your sober mind would even dream this up, let alone consider worthy of sharing is testament that you do not understand Apple, or what they want to achieve.
Shame on you for making us previously think otherwise.
See my longer post above. Is it the “BlackBerry” that bothers you so or is it the idea of an Apple subsidiary brand that goes after the mid-tier smartphone and tablet markets that Android is gobbling up?
SteveJack knows something. I can’t wait to check back on this article after this goes down.
Why would they need to buy Blackberry to do this? If they’re designing them, creating the software and the internal hardware, what about them is Blackberry?
The thing for Apple is that they can’t really have more tiers than they have now. If they run the same software but have less hardware, then they’re essentially just the same as older models, except they’ve had to spend more money and time to design these extra ones. With the software being such an integral part of these devices, there’s not a lot of differential you can offer when they’re all essentially doing the same thing. They could be as well served by keeping old models around for 1 generation longer and further reducing the prices for that oldest generation.
Where’s the ‘or something’ MDN would normally add to such lunacy, oh I forgot this idiot is one of their own so stupidity doesn’t matter it seems. Heard a report today that their white knight having done a runner after seeing the books Blackberry have not a snowflake chance in Hell of remaining in the smartphone business. Apple would have to pay millions just to get rid of/close down what they don’t want and a billion perhaps to do that and keep the rest going till new phones as described above could be ready by which time the brand will be worth zilch. Even Microsoft wouldn’t be so stupid, just imagine the effort to simply produce products for it to sell, especially quickly. This idea is madness the only future for BB is to become a services company which may allow it to survive making moderate profits if it is lucky. The rest is the fantasy of a madman. Get back to the Roadkill commentary and keep off the dope.
Apple should buy Blackberry or something…
SHould have, and would have, been the title if it wasn’t produced “in-house”. C’mon Steve, WTF?
dmz
Jony Ive does not design mid-tier product.
iPhone 5c.
iPod Mini, Mac Mini, iPad Mini, Macbook ….
Haven’t seen a whole lot of these “Apple should buy (failing company that I hold shares in)” articles lately. I remember a pile of them about five years back.
There is nothing Apple could possibly want that BlackBerry has, that can’t be had for far less than the cost of assimilating a failed company into Apple’s operations.
-jcr
The ONLY thing SteveJack suggests buying above is the BlackBerry brand, NOT assimilating a dead company into Apple.
Reading comprehension is your friend.
MDN, let me fix the headline for you: “… or something.”
apple Blackberry crumble
Yum
Isn’t it interesting when somebody outside Apple tells Apple how they should spend their money. If the author had the same knowledge and information as Tim Cook does, then the recommendation for buying BB would not be entertained. The author simply does not have all the relevant facts to suggest such an investment decision. Apple will do just fine on its own without having to buy a failed company.
I agree! Apple should buy blackberry and port their iOS to it minus the butt-ugly looking interface of iOS7. They should instead opt for a blackberry-apple combo because the blackberry interface looks like it was designed for adults while iOS7 looks like it was designed for young girls.
Apple should also keep the blackberry keyboard with the trackpad and extra buttons and give us a screen that slides straight up so that we have the joy of a large screen phone with a real keyboard and an OS that works by Apple (minus the iOS7 kid look)…
Do not agree
BlackBerry it’s self is a very well-known brand. It’s not a brand that is known for mid-level products but rather a brand identified with the business community. Trying to pitch blackberry phones to middle consumer market just doesn’t play. Leveraging the blackberry name to business market might make sense.
I think M$ should buy BlackBerry. They could name it BlackWindow, or WindowBerry! They’re two of a kind companies and deserve each other. Please Stevie B buy BlackBerry before you leave for good, 🙂
There is something beautiful and democratic about Steve Jobs vision to only have one basic iPhone model (color and memory configuration aside)… The same one for billionaires and movie stars as well as high school students and office workers around the world. By contrast, looking at the car analogy mentioned above… Most companies pour the best components and design into their millionaire models and peddle inferior crap to the rest of the world… The same goes for Sony and almost every other company. Jobs made the best product apple could, made it affordable, and put the same version in everyone’s hands as the one he was using…
Why buy a brand that is on its way out?
However, there is something to be said about having a low-cost brand to reach the masses. Fender Guitars has Squier. Gibson Guitars has Epiphone.
Hmmmpphh! Here’s MDN’s own take on this same brain-sead thread from an “outside” blog (Seeking Alpha I believe) from October. to wit:
“If the main reason why Apple should buy beleaguered BlackBerry is the very same reason why Apple should’ve at one time bought beleaguered Palm, beleaguered RealNetworks, beleaguered Creative Technology, beleaguered ad nauseam, but didn’t, then your logic is fatally flawed.
If BlackBerry was “a valuable property,” they’d still have a future instead of dying on the roadside after being steamrolled by Apple.”
Not only is MDN now hot-whoring with the best of them, they’re cribbing from their own backfiles.
WTF???
dmz