Apple is making the exact same mistake the RIM made. They've gone from targeting hardcore fans, to targeting teenagers.
The problem is that teenagers are quick to jump ship to the coolest new thing. Apple has been making "coolest new thing" for a while, but they're getting really popular now, which seems to be inversely proportional to "cool".
For RIM, they moved away from targeting hardcore, email-addicted business people, and it made them vulnerable enough to get killed.
What happened to RIM is that all they were left with was their hardcore, email-addicted, security minded end users and corporations. But that proved to be a small subset of their overall user base. The majority (me) jumped ship when the iPhone came along. Why? Mobile email was critical to us because we were always on the move. The apps that you could get on the iPhone - whether a 2 hour movie for a plane ride or a flight app that let me understand where my plane was before the gal at the counter did, or maps that let me find a Starbucks near the meeting - more than made up for the slightly less (then) optimal email vs a BB. RIM had to move. They just moved poorly because they couldn't adjust.
The RIM situation was even worse than you describe. It was actually very similar to Nextel's earlier fast rise and collapse.
They saw erosion in their enterprise sales, but missed the fact that the superior web browsing experience and eventually applications on the iPhone was driving folks away. They honestly thought that their keyboard was still a key differentiator that folks cared about.
So they stuffed the channel in the low end of the market, and pushed the cheap text messaging of BBM as the core offering. Suddenly sketchy cell phone kiosks are pushing BlackBerries, and they became the new T-Mobile Sidekick. Just like with Nextel, that low end push tainted the brand, as thugs and drug dealers learned quickly that BBM (like DirectConnect) was initially not interceptable.
Maybe my experience is warped, but if I had to stereotype I'd say it's younger people walking around with Android phones and older well-off businesspeople walking around with iPhones. I'm not sure "targeting teenagers" really holds.
The people I know who still use Blackberries? Both of them are hardcore fans. Back in the 90s, every Mac user I knew was a hardcore fan… all five or so of them.
Apple is what it is today because it started selling to everyone else. RIM is what it is today because it hasn't yet figured out how to do that.
As for why people keep saying that Apple is targeting teenagers, the reason is that the iPhone has a crazy bathtub curve to its user base and most people only see half of it. The wealthiest, most successful business people I know all own iPhones. On the other hand, all the people I know with who are unemployed with uncontrolled substance abuse issues also own iPhones. Everyone in the middle owns Android. In a particularly funny anecdote, I knew someone who went through rehab, got clean, and almost immediately tried to replace his iPhone with an Android.
If you don't know any crackheads, then the iPhone seems like the phone of the wealthy entrepreneur. If you don't know any people who are successful in business, then the iPhone looks like the choice of the crackheads. Your experience is warped, but no more so than those who say its the phone of teenagers.
RIM never moved their target. In fact I still think they try and promote the Blackberry as the device for 'email-addicted business people'.
And I think it's because of the fact they thought their 'hard-core fans' would stick with them put them where they are today , not the other way around.
I think the company you're explaining is Microsoft :) Both MS and RIM have released a me-too tablet with a curiously bad email client, and both have lost a lot of smartphone market share since the iPhone & Android have been introduced.
And even if Apple is treating power users badly - I certainly think they are - there is still nobody who treats them better. The BlackBerry was killed by more practical smartphones. Who will kill the Mac?
"Apple is making the exact same mistake the RIM made. They've gone from targeting hardcore fans, to targeting teenagers."
What is a RIM "hardcore fan" these days, and how many of them still buy RIM products? How profitable is the demographic who wants a smartphone but needs a full keyboard?
The problem is that teenagers are quick to jump ship to the coolest new thing. Apple has been making "coolest new thing" for a while, but they're getting really popular now, which seems to be inversely proportional to "cool".
For RIM, they moved away from targeting hardcore, email-addicted business people, and it made them vulnerable enough to get killed.
Apple is doing the same thing.