The demise of Research in Motion and its BlackBerry smartphone, which once was the premier enterprise device, can be blamed on several failures:
Underestimating the iPhone and touchscreens
Missing the app platform and app store transition
Evolution of the smartphone use case, from single-purpose to multi-purpose
Delayed operating system upgrades.
For me, BlackBerry lost because it stuck with “email on a phone” when the market was shifting to “internet on a phone.”
As I recall, it was specifically turn-by-turn directions which was the “killer app” that displaced email functions as the key feature.
The elimination of the standalone GPS device is perhaps one of the more underappreciated reasons why consumers abandoned devices such as the BlackBerry in favor of touchscreen smartphones.
Although the iPhone's multi-touch interface, app ecosystem, and media capabilities receive most of the attention, navigation was one of the first "killer utility" applications.
The BlackBerry dominated secure mobile email but was not designed around rich graphics, mapping, or location services.
As I recall, the turning point came in 2009, when Google introduced free turn-by-turn navigation for Android devices.
And though it was for me a relatively minor change, the ability to use the smartphone in place of a dedicated music device also was an advantage. Others might have found replacement of a camera or laptop more compelling.
As I also recall, turn-by-turn navigation also was the trigger for upgrading early to 4G, even before the standards issue was decided.
Back then, there was an ecosystem debate between Long Term Evolution and WiMax.
LTE, backed by 3GPP and the big cellular carriers faced WiMax, backed by the IEEE/802.16 world and Sprint.
As I recall, Sprint’s version had a half-year deployment lead over LTE, so Sprint got the immediate benefit of the account. We all switched to LTE when the standards debate was settled.
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