新款黑莓：正方形的智能手机？

    黑莓（BlackBerry）或许已经到了摇摇欲坠的地步，但还没有丧失斗志。

    下个月，黑莓公司将推出一款叫做Passport的新机型，它依然搭载了黑莓标志性的QWERTY全键盘，但是键盘只有三排按键，也就是只有字母部分。另外它还搭载了一块罕见的4.5英寸正方型显示屏。有人也把Passport称作一款“平板手机”——尽管它的体型相比之下更像个“矮胖子”。它最适合放在人们的夹克内侧口袋里。

    这正是黑莓想达到的效果。近年来，由于在与苹果（Apple）和谷歌（Google）的竞争中败下阵来，黑莓已经失去了很多企业顾客，急需通过Passport来扳回一城。黑莓希望政府机关、金融行业和医疗卫生行业的工作人员能觉得Passport“不走寻常路”的三围恰好适合他们的工作。

    市场调研机构IDC公司的分析师拉门•拉马斯表示：“很高兴看到黑莓没有继续抱残守缺，而是在设计上走出了自己的路。你绝对不会把Passport与黑莓之前的Bold、Q10等机型混淆了，而且它的大屏也有助于黑莓与其他竞争对手保持一致。”

    仅仅是追上竞争对手还不够。据IDC估算，2014年第二季度，黑莓的全球市场份额（根据出货量来计算）仅有0.5%。而短短五年前，黑莓的全球份额最高时曾达到20%。不过如果黑莓的份额能保持稳健的个位数，也足以让股东相信，公司正在朝着正确的方向发展。

    IHS公司的电信行业分析师韦恩•兰姆指出：“从黑莓重返企业客户阵营可以看出，CEO程守宗的目标是很现实的。不过除非他能阻止企业顾客继续‘弃船’，并且阻止黑莓的BB10平台继续被边缘化，否则不管设计上如何创新，都无助于黑莓的苟延残喘。”

    高德纳公司（Gartner）的分析师肯•杜拉尼也认为：“问题的关键是黑莓的BB10软件。虽然它的设计不错，但它依然存在缺乏应用的问题，另外它也没有微软（Microsoft）、苹果和谷歌那么多的资金。”

    另外黑莓也缺乏给力的合作伙伴。今年七月，苹果和IBM达成合作，同意IBM将安装了自家数据分析软件的iPhone和iPad销售给IBM的企业客户。企业客户原本是苹果的软肋，但与IBM的合作却使苹果在这一领域获得了强势支持——而企业客户阵地正是黑莓的传统“自留地”。

    兰姆表示：“此举对于黑莓来说非常危险。如果在IBM的帮助下，iPhone和iPad在企业里成了主流，那么黑莓就再没有地方可去了。”

    黑莓现任CEO程守宗去年11月才正式走马上任，不过他从没公开表示过黑莓的扭亏为盈要依赖智能手机销量的复兴。相反，他花了很大精力继续改善Blackberry Messenger应用。归功于行业领先的安全性和文字与邮件的无线通讯加密技术，BlackBerry Messenger一直是黑莓引以为傲的一个差异点。程守宗希望与安卓和苹果通过签订授权交易的方式获得收入来源。

    另外，黑莓的QNX软件部门（QNX是黑莓于2010年收购的一个操作系统）也在为汽车行业和云服务行业开发新技术。拉马斯表示：“程守宗正在把黑莓开放给更多的生态系统合作伙伴，此举反过来也会给黑莓的解决方案带来更多价值。”

    但是这并不意味着程守宗不愿看到黑莓智能手机成功“续命”——尤其是公司决定将生产外包给台湾的富士康科技集团（Foxconn Technology Group）之后，做手机的利润已经有了很大的提高。

    兰姆表示：“黑莓需要做的是专注于他们对企业的价值定位，同时继续专心发展他们著名的安全性能。他们要赢在给‘《财富》500强’企业提供更好的解决方案上。硬件创新只是锦上添花。”当然如果“添”得好也是不错的。（财富中文网）

    译者：朴成奎

    BlackBerry may be on the ropes, but the company hasn’t lost the will to fight.

    Next month, the company is expected to release the Passport, a new model of smartphone that fuses the company’s signature QWERTY keyboard, slimmed to three rows and strictly alphabetical, with an unusual 4.5-inch square display. The device has been called a “phablet,” the term for a tablet-like smartphone, though it is comparatively squat. It’s best suited for the inside pocket of a jacket.

    tly the point. The Waterloo, Canada-based companyhopes that its device will be used by the enterprise customers it lost in recent years as it failed to keep pace with rivals like Apple and Google. BlackBerry hopes that government, finance, and health care workers find the device’s unorthodox dimensions ideal for their work.

    “It’s great to see BlackBerry step outside of its comfort zone and forge its own path in terms of design,” says Ramon Llamas, an analyst for the market research firm IDC. “Passport won’t get confused with previous BlackBerry models like the Bold and Q10, and the large screen keeps BlackBerry in pace with the competition.”

    Keeping pace may not be enough. For the second quarter of 2014, BlackBerry’s global market share, as measured by shipments, was a paltry 0.5%, according to IDC estimates, down from its all-time high of 20% five years ago. Still, strong single digits may be enough to convince shareholders that the company is making the right decisions.

    “By going back to their enterprise client base, CEO John Chen is being realistic with what he can accomplish,” says Wayne Lam, a telecom electronics analyst at IHS. “But unless he can stop enterprise customers from jumping ship and having the BB10 operating system decline into irrelevance, no measure of design innovation can really help him remain viable.”

    Ken Dulaney, an analyst at Gartner, concurs: “The issue will be the Blackberry 10 software. While well designed, it suffers from a lack of applications and doesn’t have the funding that Microsoft, Apple, and Google have.”

    Or the partnerships. In July, Apple and IBM announced a partnership in which IBM would sell Apple’s iPhone and iPad, loaded with IBM applications for data analysis, to business customers. It’s a move that gives Apple serious support in a market where it traditionally has been weak and, it’s no coincidence, where BlackBerry has traditionally been strong.

    “This move is a huge danger for BlackBerry,” Lam says. “If IBM can help legitimize the use of iPhones and iPads in enterprise, BlackBerry will be left with nowhere else to go.”

    BlackBerry’s CEO Chen, who was officially named to the post in November, has never predicated his turnaround strategy on a massive revival of smartphone sales. Instead he worked to turn BlackBerry Messenger, an application that continues to be a point of differentiation for the company thanks to industry-leading security and encryption for wireless text and e-mail communications, into a significant source of revenue by signing licensing deals with Android and Apple.

    Further, BlackBerry’s QNX software division—named for the operating system it acquired in 2010—is developing new technologies for the automotive and cloud-services industries. “Chen is opening BlackBerry to more ecosystem partners, which in turn adds value to the BlackBerry solution,” Llamas says.

    But that doesn’t mean Chen wouldn’t like to see BlackBerry smartphones take a new lease on life—especially now that profit margins have been greatly improved by his decision to outsource manufacturing to Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group.

    “What BlackBerry needs to do is focus the value proposition they offer to enterprise as well as their renowned security capabilities,” Lam says. “They need to win in offering the better solution to Fortune 500 companies. The hardware innovations are just the icing on the cake.” Still, how sweet it would be.