What is the future of BlackBerry as users embrace its rivals.

Way back in 1999, Research in Motion (RIM) revolutionised the mobile industry with BlackBerry products and services. In the corporate world, the smartphone is well known for its business-friendly messaging features, security, and reliability. Over the years, the BlackBerry maker has experienced an exponential rise in adoption of its products. This was clear before the company succumbed to the ripple effects of black days in its messaging service and challenges of stiff competition. The BlackBerry subscriber base stands at 80 million globally. A substantial number of these people are loyal to older productsfrom RIM. The challenge lies ahead infuture products and how the company willadjust to trends in the smart world. Currently, users are being lured by alternative gadgets. In the mid-range class of phones, the brand is battling with thousands of Android phones. In the high-end category, BlackBerry faces competition from Samsung, Apple’siPhones, Nokia, and HTC. Firms are allowing their staff to opt for their own desired brands unlike the tradition that saw BlackBerry dominate enterprise employee acquisitions. Shrinking market share As users switch to iPhones and Android phones, the trouble forRIM is a shrinking market share. In the recent quarterly results,the company sold 7.4 million BlackBerry smart-phones and 130,000 PlayBook tablets. The three-month period ending September saw it post a net loss of $235 million. By selling a paltry number of tablets, the BlackBerry company seems to fall short of expectations from users. Apple andSamsung tablet sales are in millions of pieces monthly and this portrays how distant RIM is in the slate race. Besides, there is an un-avoidable competition from tablets from other device makers, especially from Asian countries. One notable feature on BlackBerry phones that makes the gadget unique is messaging. The BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) is quite synonymous withmost BlackBerry users. In the smartphone world, the challenge for BBM lies in free-text messaging Apps. WhatsApp was one thefirst alternatives to the messaging service offered by BlackBerry. It works perfectly on all platforms hence it’s readily available on Android, IOS, windowsphones and Nokia. TheApp has push notifications with free text, images and audiomessages. There are several otherfree-text Apps that are a threat to the BlackBerry messaging service. Besides, Apples iMessage is more similar to the popular BlackBerry Messenger service. The iMessage service is a free text and multimedia service that only worksbetween IOS devices like iPhones and iPads.