The rise and fall of Blackberry: How an $80B giant collapsed

A company with 50% of the smartphone market and an $80 billion valuation — killed by the very infrastructure decision that made it dominant.

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By The Numbers

$80B

peak market valuation

50%

U.S. smartphone market share

<1%

market share today

What They Nailed Early

Built the first mobile data platform that worked wirelessly anywhere. Centralized infrastructure through Waterloo servers enabled push notifications and didn't clog carrier networks. Wall Street, Fortune 500 executives, even President Obama couldn't put it down.

What Changed

The iPhone arrived in 2007. Co-CEOs split on strategy — one wanted keyboards, one wanted consumer pivot. Nobody won. They shipped 37 models in 2011 while Apple shipped one perfect phone. Carriers, tired of BlackBerry's chokehold, pushed Android aggressively. The 2011 network outage shattered trust.

Where it Landed

Exited hardware entirely in 2016. Now a $4B cybersecurity software company. Market share went from 50% to effectively zero. Stock crashed from $140 to single digits.

The Principles

Co-CEO structures fail under disruption. When two leaders can't align on existential bets, the company does nothing well.

Your moat can become your trap. Centralized servers gave BlackBerry push notifications — then became a single point of failure that killed trust.

Listening to current customers can blind you to the next wave. IT departments loved keyboards; consumers wanted platforms and apps.

Builder's Takeaway

3 warning signs your advantage is becoming a liability:

•

Your core infrastructure decision creates a single point of failure

•

Leadership can't align on whether to defend or disrupt the core

•

Partners who once needed you are actively looking for alternatives

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