????黑莓（Blackberry）決定在其他手機(jī)平臺(tái)上提供其免費(fèi)短信服務(wù)BBM，對(duì)于一家已經(jīng)沒有什么可以失去的公司來說，此舉是其背水一戰(zhàn)的“絕望之舉”。BBM是在黑莓日益減少的用戶群體中用戶粘性最高的功能。公司希望通過將該功能免費(fèi)提供給安卓（Android）和iOS用戶，擴(kuò)大或至少維持一度利潤(rùn)豐厚的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)。

????如今，指摘黑莓非常容易。過去五年，公司前一個(gè)管理團(tuán)隊(duì)的拙劣表現(xiàn)，或許將成為商學(xué)院課堂上的經(jīng)典負(fù)面教材，被一屆又一屆的學(xué)生們用來研究一家公司在面臨競(jìng)爭(zhēng)時(shí)是如何坐以待斃的。但無論如何，現(xiàn)在的黑莓正處于上升期。公司股票比去年的最低點(diǎn)上漲了超過一倍，而且，經(jīng)過兩年的發(fā)展（在科技界已經(jīng)是很長(zhǎng)時(shí)間）后，公司憑借最新推出的操作系統(tǒng)?Blackberry 10以及Z10、Q10和最近發(fā)布的Q5等幾款新手機(jī)，終于重回正軌。

??? 然而，盡管Blackberry 10系列的發(fā)布在近期引發(fā)了一些樂觀情緒，但在競(jìng)爭(zhēng)激烈的消費(fèi)類硬件領(lǐng)域，公司的市場(chǎng)份額仍在被使用谷歌（Google）安卓平臺(tái)的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手不斷蠶食。據(jù)IDC周四公布的最新銷售數(shù)據(jù)顯示，今年第一季度，搭載黑莓操作系統(tǒng)的手機(jī)出貨量?jī)H占市場(chǎng)份額的2.9%，比去年減少了35%。運(yùn)行微軟Windows操作系統(tǒng)的手機(jī)首次超越黑莓，市場(chǎng)份額達(dá)到3.2%。而安卓與蘋果（Apple）iOS則聯(lián)手拿下了92%的市場(chǎng)份額，其中安卓的市場(chǎng)份額達(dá)到59%，比去年同期增長(zhǎng)了80%。全球智能手機(jī)中，運(yùn)行安卓系統(tǒng)的比例占75%。

????公平地說，第一季度的銷售數(shù)據(jù)僅反映了新黑莓手機(jī)在美國(guó)八天的銷量和在加拿大兩個(gè)月的銷量。但消費(fèi)者對(duì)于黑莓產(chǎn)品的冷淡反應(yīng)令人沮喪。比如沒有任何人徹夜排隊(duì)購(gòu)買新Z1O。據(jù)報(bào)道，Z10手機(jī)在發(fā)布一個(gè)季度后，出貨量終于突破了100萬臺(tái)，這算不錯(cuò)的表現(xiàn)，但對(duì)于一家擁有如此巨大的品牌認(rèn)知度的公司而言，這并不值得慶賀。相反，去年九月，iPhone手機(jī)在發(fā)布后僅僅一周時(shí)間內(nèi)的銷量便接近500萬臺(tái)。

????如今，黑莓手機(jī)能做的，在安卓手機(jī)上都能實(shí)現(xiàn)。沒有多少必備應(yīng)用是僅在黑莓手機(jī)上運(yùn)行的。實(shí)際上，黑莓似乎把應(yīng)用開發(fā)空間拱手送給了谷歌，甚至它把Blackberry 10能夠運(yùn)行安卓應(yīng)用作為一個(gè)重大的賣點(diǎn)。

????不過，黑莓有一個(gè)消費(fèi)者導(dǎo)向的功能，是其他設(shè)備制造商或移動(dòng)平臺(tái)無法提供的——黑莓信息服務(wù)（BBM）。該服務(wù)允許黑莓用戶之間發(fā)送和接收信息，共享軟件，甚至交換音樂，而無線運(yùn)營(yíng)商不會(huì)對(duì)此收費(fèi)。事實(shí)證明，在印尼、海地和尼日利亞等無線服務(wù)不太可靠的地區(qū)，該功能具有很高的用戶粘度。

????Blackberry's decision to make its free messaging service, BBM, available on other mobile phone platforms is a Hail Mary play for a damaged company that pretty much has nothing to lose at this point. By giving away the stickiest feature available to Blackberry's dwindling consumer base to Android and iOS users for free, the company is hoping that it will be able to expand, or at the very least maintain, its once lucrative ecosystem.

????It is extremely easy to bash on Blackberry (BBRY) these days. The bunglings of its former management team over the last five years will probably be studied in business schools for generations as how not to do just about everything. But Blackberry is on an upswing of sorts at the moment. Its stock has more than doubled from its lows hit last year, and after two years of development (light years in the tech world) the company is "back in the game" with the launch of its new operating system, Blackberry 10, and a few new handsets, the Z10, Q10, and the recently announced Q5.

????Yet despite the recent optimism over the launch of the Blackberry 10 series, the company will almost certainly continue to lose market share in the crowded consumer hardware space to rivals that use Google's (GOOG) Android platform. Phones shipped with the Blackberry operating system made up just 2.9% of mobile phones sold in the first quarter of this year, down 35% from last year, according to new sale numbers released by IDC on Thursday. Phones running Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows operating system outsold Blackberry for what appears to be the first time, capturing 3.2% of the market. But phones running either Android or Apple's (AAPL) iOS, captured 92% of all mobile sales -- with Android garnering 59% of the total market, an 80% increase from the same time last year. With that, Android now runs on 75% of the world's smartphones.

????To be fair, those first-quarter sales numbers just reflect eight days of sales for the new Blackberry phones in the U.S. and just a couple of months of sales in Canada. Nevertheless, the public's lukewarm reception to the product -- no one was camping out for the new Z10 -- isn't encouraging. The phone has reportedly passed the 1 million shipped mark in its first quarter of launch, which isn't bad, but isn't great for a company with such huge brand recognition. By contrast, nearly 5 million iPhones were sold in the first week of its launch back in September.

????There really isn't much you can do on a Blackberry that you can't do on an Android phone these days. There aren't a bunch of must-have apps that run exclusively on Blackberry, for example. Indeed, Blackberry seems to have surrendered the app development space to Google as it considers the new Blackberry 10's ability to run Android app clones as a major selling point.

????But there is one consumer-focused feature that Blackberry offers that no other handset maker or mobile platform has -- its Blackberry Messaging Service (BBM). The service allows Blackberry users to send and receive messages, share files, and even exchange music with other Blackberry users without incurring special messaging charges from their wireless carrier. It has proven to be very sticky in places like Indonesia, Haiti, and Nigeria where wireless service is unreliable.