The iPhone came out in 2007, and by 2009 Android had got going. This was the beginning of the end for BlackBerry (RIM).
Many believe the iPhone and Android succeeded, and BlackBerry didn’t, because BlackBerry had a clumsy keyboard.
But they’re wrong.
I absolutely loved my many BlackBerries. I loved the keyboard. And surveys show that consumers preferred keyboards to touchscreens. In fact, the keyboard was Blackberry’s strength especially in that it was a great differentiator.
Here is a survey from as late as 2012 asking what consumers wanted:
So why on earth did everyone suddenly start buying touchscreen phones instead of keyboard ones???
Apps. It was damn easy to buy apps on the iPhone and Android phones, and so people bought them, and so developers made even more of them.
I wasn’t willing to stick with BlackBerry, despite my strong preference for a keyboard, when the iPhone and Android had become complete business and entertainment systems – from maps, to music, to videos, to fitness-tracking, to Dropbox, to Skype, to games, to Google Translate.
BlackBerry did make an effort to support apps in 2009, but it was all way too clumsy. I mean buying each app was painful, finding them horrendous. So users didn’t buy, and developers didn’t develop.
And so we all moved over to our iPhones and Android phones at some point. I switched in about 2012.
BlackBerry failed because they messed up with their app ecosystem.
Source: Quora
Note: The above article was first published on September 3, 2017 before Blackberry fully embraced embraced Android Operating System.