程守宗:黑莓要回歸企業用戶
????智能手機是一個消費品。蘋果(Apple)從2007年推出第一代iPhone時就教育了我們這一點。但是隨著越來越多的員工堅持攜帶自己的數碼設備來工作,企業的信息總監們現在也默認了這種現狀。 ????過去五年里,黑莓(BlackBerry)和其他廠商一樣使盡渾身解數想要贏得消費者的芳心,不僅不惜血本搞名人代言,還打了不少電視廣告。去年,這家公司決定在全球范圍內統一更名為“黑莓”,而且還重金聘請R&B天后艾麗西亞?凱斯擔任全球創意總監。(我去年春天去看了凱斯的一場演場會,順便看到了她在臺上照本宣科認真代言黑莓手機的模樣。) ????但是黑莓CEO程守宗卻認為這家公司的這些路子都走錯了。這些法子只注重年輕人和他們的“新玩具”,忽略了黑莓最有優勢的企業用戶基礎,而現在是黑莓在企業領域收復失地的時候了。程守宗表示他會讓公司穩定下來,而且要在2016年前扭虧為盈。 ????程守宗在1月7日的專訪中向《財富》勾勒了未來以黑莓企業服務器為中心的路線圖。黑莓企業服務器是一款讓企業用來管理移動設備的軟件,具有超高的安全性。他還強調,人們現在已經可以在任何移動設備上使用黑莓的即時通訊軟件BBM,還說黑莓的QNX操作系統有潛力成為一款真正能讓機器實現相互交流的軟件工具,而且有望從“智能汽車”領域——也就是QNX系統已經占據半壁江山的車載信息娛樂系統領域發展到未來的智能家庭領域。 ????那么手機呢?當然,黑莓還會繼續賣手機。程守宗表示,公司與富士康(Foxconn)簽訂的代工合同將降低黑莓手機的生產成本,從而創造出一些利潤空間,但這并不是主要的增長點。 ????黑莓現在已經瀕臨崩潰的邊緣,兩年來沒有任何好轉,能否咸魚翻身就在此一役。上個季度,黑莓巨虧44億美元,尷尬地反映了黑莓10手機上市一年來幾乎無人問津的事實。(差不多就在一年前,《財富》就曾刊出《黑莓背水一戰》一文,而現在我們又在討論什么才是真正的背水一戰。) ????雖然現在看起來讓黑莓起死回生幾乎已經是不可能的事了,但程守宗還是很有信心。首先,投資者們迫切地愿意支持任何一家能打破谷歌(Google)和蘋果在智能手機市場的壟斷地位的公司,以便競爭能夠變得更均衡。其次,有整整一代智能手機用戶都是先在黑莓手機上學會了發電子郵件,這些人仍然非常喜歡實體鍵盤。因此程守宗表示,他會把實體鍵盤帶回來。 |
????Smartphones are a consumer business. Apple (AAPL) taught us this truth back in 2007 when it introduced the iPhone. Chief information officers are now acquiescing to it as their employees insist on bringing their own devices to work. ????For the last five years, BlackBerry (BBRY) has tried to win consumers over, too. It spent money on celebrity endorsements. It ran TV commercials. Last year, the company rebranded itself to take the name of its well-known device. And it hired R&B star Alicia Keys as global creative director. (This reporter went to one of her concerts last spring and had to witness her over-scripted, non-ironic onstage embrace of her device.) ????BlackBerry chief executive John Chen thinks the company got it all wrong. All that focus on the kids and their toys? It distracted BlackBerry from its enterprise roots. It's time the company reclaimed them. Chen says he will stabilize the company and make it profitable by 2016. ????In a Jan. 7 interview with Fortune, Chen mapped out future opportunities for the company centered around the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, the ultra-secure software that companies use to manage their mobile devices. He reiterated that people can now use the company's instant-messaging product, BBM, on any device. And he highlighted the potential for BlackBerry's QNX operating system to become the de facto software tool for helping machines talk to each other, and thus powering everything from "smart" cars -- where it already has a strong foothold -- to "smart" homes. ????Oh, and phones? BlackBerry sells them, too. Chen suggested that his company's handset business could make some money once partnerships like its recent five-year manufacturing deal with Foxconn bring down the cost of manufacturing. But that's not where the growth is. ????It's a last-ditch effort to save a company that has been on the verge of collapse for nearly two years. BlackBerry lost $4.4 billion last quarter, mostly reflecting the fact that almost no one bought that snazzy new BlackBerry 10 device it debuted a year ago. (Yes, it was nearly a year ago that Fortune took readers "Inside Blackberry's Last Stand." And here we are again, discussing what is really the last stand. Really really.) ????Despite the seeming improbability of bringing BlackBerry back from the dead, Chen has a lot of goodwill behind him. For one, investors are anxious to support any company that can disrupt the stronghold that Google and Apple have in the smartphone market, making the competitive dynamics more equitable. And a generation of smartphone users who first learned to send e-mail on the go with a BlackBerry still miss the physical keyboards. Chen has said he'll bring them back. |