iPhone generasi pertama yang diluncurkan Apple pada 2007 silam tak diragukan adalah penyebab runtuhnya beberapa pabrikan smartphone besar dunia. Salah satunya adalah BlackBerry yang saat ini tengah berjuang dari keterpurukan sejak hadirnya iPhone.
Seperti dikutip Cult of Mac, CEO BlackBerry Mike Lazaridis dikisahkan merasa geger dengan kemampuan-kemampuan pintar iPhone yang diumumkan mendiang Steve Jobs 8 tahun yang lalu itu. Bahkan, ia sampai lupa melanjutkan kegiatan olahraganya ketika Steve Jobs mengungkapnya kala itu.
Sehari setelahnya, Mike Lazaridis pun segera memanggil Co-CEO BlackBerry Jim Balsillie untuk membahas iPhone dan kemampuan pintar yang tidak dimiliki smartphone besutannya.
Mike Lazaridis mengakui bahwa Apple menciptakan gadget yang sungguh bagus dan berbeda (dari BlackBerry). Kehadiran iPhone disebutnya bakal membuat BlackBerry kesulitan untuk bersaing di pasar smartphone AS.
Kisah BlackBerry tersebut terdapat dalam buku terbaru Losing The Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry karya Jacquie McNish dan Sean Silcoff. Secuil ceritanya bisa kamu baca di bawah ini.
Lazaridis was home on his treadmill when he saw the televised report about Apple Inc.’s newest product. Research In Motion’s founder soon forgot about exercise that day in January 2007. There was Steve Jobs on a San Francisco stage waving a small glass object, downloading music, videos and maps from the Internet onto a device he called the iPhone.“How did they do that?†Mr. Lazaridis wondered. His curiosity turned to disbelief when Stanley Sigman, the chief executive of Cingular Wireless joined Mr. Jobs to announce a multiyear contract with Apple to sell iPhones. What was Cingular’s parent AT&T Inc. thinking? “It’s going to collapse the network,†Mr. Lazaridis thought.
The next day Mr. Lazaridis grabbed his co-CEO Jim Balsillie at the office and pulled him in front of a computer.
“Jim, I want you to watch this,†he said, pointing to a webcast of the iPhone unveiling. “They put a full Web browser on that thing. The carriers aren’t letting us put a full browser on our products.â€
Mr. Balsillie’s first thought was RIM was losing AT&T as a customer. “Apple’s got a better deal,†Mr. Balsillie said. “We were never allowed that. The U.S. market is going to be tougher.â€
“These guys are really, really good,†Mr. Lazaridis replied. “This is different.â€
“It’s OK—we’ll be fine,†Mr. Balsillie responded.