20 years of restarting life

Chapter 3813 The Positioning Differences Between RIM and Pro

Zhao Chang'an did initially have the idea of ​​interfering with and guiding the development and growth of BlackBerry.

However, after officially taking control of the company and understanding the common characteristics of Mike, Doug, and the core members of the company, he gradually had to let go of this idea.

Eighteen years ago, Mike and Doug founded BlackBerry. In the following ten years, after continuous personnel turnover and screening, the middle and senior management and technical staff who remained were almost all people who strongly agreed with and aligned with BlackBerry's corporate culture of 'technology first'.

Their top priority has always been technological progress and innovation, which brings them a tremendous sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. Commercial prospects and development, on the other hand, come second.

It wasn't just that Jim mortgaged his house and took out all his savings to join BlackBerry ten years ago. Rather than these financial injections temporarily keeping BlackBerry afloat, what was more important was that Jim, as a successful businessman rather than a pure technology promoter, used his keen insight and courage to define the Pager 900 wireless email receiver as a 'product for corporate and government elites' when it was launched in 95.

From that moment on, BlackBerry entered a new chapter that was more in line with business rules and logic; otherwise, this outstanding global company would have gone bankrupt or had to sell its technology and patents and faded into obscurity long ago.

However, what brought success also brought failure. In Zhao Chang'an's previous life, BlackBerry's positioning as the "choice of business and political elites" gave the product a high level of prestige and created a high profit margin in the early and mid-stages. However, in the later stages, it severely restricted the expansion of the enterprise's user base.

Currently, the number of registered users of BlackBerry's Pager wireless email products, PAD notebooks, and RIM mobile phones is only about 200,000.

Moreover, these 200,000 active members are the result of seven years of cumulative accumulation by BlackBerry since 1995.

In Zhao Chang'an's previous life, it wasn't until early 04, two years later, that BlackBerry's registered users exceeded 100 million. Then, by the end of 05, it took almost two more years to triple the number of users to 400 million.

Riding on this momentum, BlackBerry's stock price was pushed up to $140, with a total market capitalization exceeding $420 billion.

However, this sales concept of positioning itself as a 'business and political elite' has become outdated at this time. Previously, it was positioned this way because Push Mail email service was still a high-end and expensive tool for elites with few users.

However, with technological advancements and a surge in the user base, wireless communication costs have begun to drop significantly. Pagers have been phased out of the market, mobile phone prices have continued to decrease, and the confidentiality and security of information have been continuously improving. Moreover, with advancements in wireless base station technology, situations like large-scale communication outages due to extreme weather have become increasingly unlikely.

Just like in Lu Xun's writing, "Northern cabbages were transported to Zhejiang, where they were tied to the roots with red ribbons and hung upside down in fruit shops, and were revered as Jiao cabbages." The same principle applies here. A few years ago, Jiao cabbages have now been cultivated on a large scale and become Chinese cabbages. But if we still use the same marketing methods as Jiao cabbages, such as tying them with red ribbons and creating a gimmick, then basically only a small number of fools will continue to be fooled.

Jim was the one who made BlackBerry soar to unprecedented heights by tying red ropes to cabbages and hanging them upside down in front of the fruit shop. However, he also successfully imprisoned himself in that shell, unwilling to come out and not allowing anyone else to break it.

It was with these considerations in mind that Zhao Chang'an decided to create the Pro brand.

BlackBerry, a wireless communication tool that was very successful in both the technology and elite sales fields, may have withdrawn from the mobile phone market afterward, but the brilliance and advantages of its products are undeniable.

At the 05 Davos Economic Forum, almost every delegate carried a RIM mobile phone. It was as if using any other phone would make one appear out of touch with the elite, because its "always-on" phone and email communication function was unmatched by any other wireless communication device in the world at the time.

This includes BlackBerry's cloud server storage and access capabilities, the BBM personal chat tool, PIN code recognition, server and terminal device keys, PCB motherboard JTAG interface shielding, and CPU and flash boot ROM encryption.

These elements have all been referenced and applied in future smartphones. Zhao Chang'an intends to use BlackBerry's technology, combined with a more user-friendly phone design, to make the Pro a world-class smart communication tool.

As for BlackBerry, it is highly likely that he will gradually reduce his holdings or even exit completely when the stock price is high enough, such as in 05.

Of course, it cannot be ruled out that after Qi Xidong joins BlackBerry, he will continue to replace and optimize the company in the coming years, influencing and persuading the core management to carry out a group transformation.

If this were possible, it would certainly be a good thing for Zhao Chang'an.

It was with this dual-pronged approach that Zhao Chang'an was so actively pushing forward with the Pro project, while no longer paying too much attention to the choice and direction of BlackBerry, letting it grow wildly on its own for a few years before making a decision.

Moreover, for BlackBerry today, its innovation and technological advancements mainly lie in two aspects: one is the dedicated Push Mail email service, and the other is a pager-like device that matches this service, except that the manual pager has been replaced by a computer server that uses software to drive information storage, retrieval, and transmission.

As for more advanced technologies, such as no longer using Texas Instruments, Intel and AMD, STMicroelectronics, and ARM (a British chip design company), —

These chip design and manufacturing companies don't use mature CPU chips; instead, they design their own CPU chips and outsource their manufacturing.

Uniquely customized flash memory, shielded JTAG interface on PCB motherboard—these technologies have not yet been developed and manufactured by BlackBerry. Previously, due to poverty, Mike's ingenious ideas and designs simply lacked funding. However, in the next three or four years, Mike will realize these blueprints of his dreams one by one.

This is also the main reason why Zhao Chang'an, who now has the power to influence BlackBerry, only dares to put Qi Xidong in the company and no longer interferes in other ways.

Perhaps in the future, BlackBerry, which will exit the mobile phone industry and focus on the automotive safety software industry, will no longer need these technologies. However, Pro is eager to learn about these technologies.

For the entire day, Zhao Chang'an and Wen Ye accompanied the Ericsson team, showing them around the entire Pro phone phase one, including the employee cafeteria, dormitory, bathhouse, and cultural and recreational learning center. Zhao Chang'an also explained in detail the various benefits and treatments for the company's employees.

Five social insurances and one housing fund, lifetime employment system, salary calculation method and approximate standards, employee annual leave, weekly leave, team building trips, care for employees' parents and children, employee resignation principles and compensation, —

DeWeiner listened very attentively to these rules and regulations and benefits, making Zhao Chang'an feel that he seemed to care more about them than the factory buildings, equipment, and production lines.

This made Zhao Chang'an want to laugh a little.

It's not that I'm laughing at DeWeiner's pedantry, nor am I questioning his hypocrisy. Rather, I'm laughing at how these developed Western countries, after becoming wealthy through the Enclosure Movement, the Age of Exploration's piracy, the slave trade, the East India Company, and oil plunder, have entered what's commonly known as the "poverty breeds cunning, wealth breeds conscience" phase.

It's quite simple. They need to use these high thresholds and barriers, setting up a large number of stumbling blocks, to restrict and delay the economic development of emerging Third World countries.

It wasn't out of genuine kindness.