Why leaving the Japanese market was a mistake for Blackberry

Anybody who has read my other articles by this stage has probably realized i am a tiny bit pro Blackberry and the reason is that i believe they can rise again, they were once cool and this coolness is still firmly embedded within society they will not just fade away (i'll write another blog about this at some point) or rather they wouldn't if they had a smart ceo.

I understand that with a market share as low as 0.3% and the highest being 5% then this is not an encouraging market but here is why i believe that this is perhaps a brilliant market to be in for Blackberry.


1) Japanese people are tech-heads, they like the latest gadgets and groundbreaking stats and software, Blackberry has never had a very big market in this country but think back when have they ever offered something truly revolutionary or something that could be potentially on par with what is being offered by the competitors, now a lot of people reading this will point back to before the iPhone but that was also before the smartphone exploded onto the scene, with the z10 Blackberry are offering a product that not only keeps up with the rivals but also is in my opinion ahead of the game against the iPhone. Japan in my opinion would be the perfect place for Blackberry as they can finally show that there phones are capable of breaking into this market, normally i would say to break into a market a company needs a U.S.P but this companies U.S.P is that its Blackberry and if they can just recreate the hype there once was in the west then i'm sure the trend will follow to the east.

2) From a 0.3% market share it doesn't take much to publish results such as  "market share in japan at new high" (all that would take is above 5%) or "market share in japan tripled". This really wont take much to achieve and will make Blackberry look very good to investors, if i came home and clicked on Google news and up pops the story "Blackberry share in japan at all time new high" i would definatley see this as better then "Blackberry exits Japanese market" and i'm sure many investors would as well, how good does a company that manages to turn around there position in a dwindling market look? answer very good.

Blackberry had the fight or flight situation here and they chose to turn and run away, run away from a country that has a lot of tech and a lot of potential, well done Mr. Thornsten Heins you've clearly made the best decision for your company.