Blackberry and AT&T Form An Interesting Strategic Alliance

Alliance Of Two

Blackberry has made an interesting strategic decision to make its model BlackBerry Passport as well as the Blackberry Classic, will be available exclusively available only through AT&T within the USA.

These two new market entrants are in fact the first models Blackberry has released since the company's Q10 and Z10 phone models.

This release is clearly a crucial period in Blackberry's history coming off the back of poor financial results for both its Q10 and Z10 models. Since its halcyon days where it dominated the mobile space, it has become a mere shadow of its former market leading glory with a miniscule market share of less that one percent along with a rapidly declining sales top line against the continued growth of key rivals Apple and Android supremo Samsung.

Differentiated

Like all other aspiring brands Blackberry want to stand out from the proverbial crowd and have come up with a unique square shape that to date at least will not be mistaken for any other currently available model in the smartphone market. The key question of course is that being unproven, the American manufactures will  need to wait and see how well or otherwise the market responds to the shape.

Specifications

Structurally the new handset has a 4.5-inch, 1440x1440 full HD square touchscreen along with a  manual keyboard with a full QWERTY layout. The model operates on a quad-core 2.26-GHz processor and is equipped with 3 GB of RAM memory and 32 GB of disk storage, along with a micro SD slot for additional space, an impressive 13-megapixel camera and the BlackBerry 10.3.1
operating system.
Benefits to AT&T

From AT&T's point of view the alliance makes a lot of sense where by they can offer the complimentary handset, based on taking out new subscriptions to mobile plans starting at under $22 per month. Alternatively the users can also get the smartphone for $199.99 with a two-year agreement, or buy it outright without a contract for $649.99.Safety First

The Market knows that the Blackberry is a safe phone which was one of the key drivers for its success and the company is hoping that its long standing market position as a secure option, will help return it to a meaningful position within the commercial and business segment once again.

The O In SWOT

No doubt Blackberry's SWOT analysis would highlight malicious attacks on both Android and Apple phones as an unresolved need in the market space, and an intuitive positioning with a credible URL  becomes clear and logical.

The BlackBerry Passport is ideal for the mobile professional who wants an innovative wireless device focused on security and productivity," said Jeff Bradley, Senior Vice President of Device Marketing and Developer Services at AT&T.

So from a marketing point of view I believe Blackberry should be given a lot of credit for this creative and i believe logical approach to target likely users and provide value add through a strategic Alliance.  As always time will be the ultimate judge as to its success, but from a design point of view, Blackberry have released some very smart and sexy phones that will again put a third viable contender into the mobile ring.

So unitil next time, ggod luck and good marjketing
Regards,
Daniele.