Sweet or sour?

Blackberry’s tough times continue as their shareholders cry foul.  In a recent class-action lawsuit, thousands of investors claim that they were misled by the company’s lofty sales expectations.  Many are complaining that the company failed to compete with industry leaders Google and Apple (let alone Microsoft). The lawsuit includes a number of those who bought stock in Blackberry over the past calendar year.  Unhappy campers are furious that they mistakenly placed their faith in the wrong smartphone/technology movement and are seeking damages. 

High expectations for Blackberry were brought on by a number of reasons.  Many reports from numerous parties state that things were “looking good” for BB in the early onset last year.  Software developers reportedly preferred the Blackberry OS over that of Android or iOs, pointing out how intuitive and easy to use the platform was.  Regardless, sales suffered as the iPhone and Galaxy/Nexus phones sky-rocketed in popularity, leading a small share left for the Blackberry.  Pundits point to BB’s data system as a problem, claiming it was simply too inexpensive for the company to be successful, while others feel this was all but inevitable. Blackberry laid off 40% of its workforce in attempts to stop the bleeding.

A few years ago, a Blackberry was the must have item.  It was the first in a line of phones that you could actually perform tasks with, whether it be surfing the web or checking an email.  How easily we forget the days where we actually had to wait for a webpage to load on our mobile phone, long before App’s were just a tap away.  The fall of Blackberry (and subsequently, RIM) is kind of a sad thing to behold.  Regardless, the class action participants claiming that Blackberry misled them and they lost money seem to be treading water.  After all, if the investment was a slam dunk to succeed, wouldn’t it have done just that?  Choose your stocks carefully.