Although I am a Gen-Zer born in 2000, Iâm not that young to forget the classic revolutionary BlackBerry!
Since the dawn of the touchscreen interface revolutionized by Apple with the first iPhone launched in 2007, BlackBerry soon lost its purpose and functionality but its mogo, style, and popularity have always stayed cool. In fact, the classic device is still extremely hot and getting hotter about to burst like the housing market. Wait a few years and past trends will be reversed. Weâre already witnessing a cultural generational shock.
Clunky digital cameras, baggy mom jeans, a second dot-com bubble on the horizon, the iconic BlackBerry, and a flash to the past are making waves.
It seems crazy to witness consumersâ eagerness to tap into old eclectic dated trends but they are happening and Silicon Valley isnât prepared nor should they!
You can admit you prefer slower less personalized addictive tech tracking your every move. We all do. Too much of a good thing is bad. Maybe Big Tech wonât be so big after all. Web 1.0 and a new âgoldenâ age seem to be coming back! Even faster this time but at the right pace.
I guess only time will tell!
Similar to alternatives such as artwork, collectibles, and the new hot thing, NFTs, the reason unusable BlackBerrys are still popular and are predicted to be worth as much or more than the BlackBerry on the secondary market is due to their scarcity.
If you have a BlackBerry, keep it safe and treasure it. Kim K the billionaire is after you for it.
Golden Berry
Scarcity leads buyers to pay a higher premium for the item since it is irreplaceable and a true sign of the times.
We adore our latest gadgets such as our iPhone too much. I consider them destructive nuclear weapons in our pockets. We rely, take, and use them in far too many places than we should. On the other hand, BlackBerry was used prior to the social media addiction and mental illness pandemic the world is witnessing today. At the time of BlackBerryâs prominence, Zuck was still at school and China didnât steal nearly as much of our data as they do today in their mega super-apps, considered as their new oil.
The BlackBerry marked one of the last moments where users felt at peace with their devices. Extremely rare and impossible today. I havenât heard of any complaints of excessive binging, scrolling, comparing, or obsession with that device. We didnât strangle or scroll with them for hours wasting our precious time with them. Now itâs not surprising that an average iPhone user would spend more time with their device than with their loved ones.
Weâve sadly gone to a place where Big Tech has created the most uncomfortable and unhealthy Big Hug.
When it came to BlackBerry, users engaged with them when they needed them. Then Apple and other players jumped into the market, promised our lives would be better, more efficient, and calmer with them and we ditched the BlackBerry out of gullibility and innocence. Sad and destructive move on our mental health, time, and sanity.
BlackBerry has truly shaped and marked a new beginning with technology that we will never forget. Many treasure the device for keeping them sane and connected to work in just the right way. The memories made with BlackBerry feel special to those that relied on it during an age when mobile phones were reserved for the elite, upper business class society.
One of the most fascinating phenomenons about the cycle of societal trends, cultural adoption, and gadgets is that the things that we were once embarrassed to have as kids or that seemed clunky, uncomfortable, and pointless wanting to get rid of them and not be seen in public with today are precious antiques, collectibles, and worth more than one can imagine.
Black Market?
The sneaker resale market is estimated to be worth $4 billion! Apparel companies from Nike to Addidas, no pun intended are dipping their toes into the NFT marketplace, diving into OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace as a way to earn royalties from digital virtual digital assets such as their unwearable digital shoes and earn a fast additional revenue stream that investors are willing to pay top dollar for.
Since Jack Dorsey, former Twitter CEO and founder was blocked on Twitter by Marc Horowitz, founder of VC firm, Andreessen Horowitz, Netscape founder and legendary entrepreneur, due to investing in companies that promote WEb 3.0, a decentralized version of the internet where platforms and apps are built and owned by users on the blockchain democratizing corporate governance, Dorsey has clapped back.
Nonetheless, this hasnât stopped the boom for blockchain investments, cryptocurrency, and NFTs. NFTS are pieces of code associated with digital assets such as videos, art, collectibles, apes, yes, lazy apes search it up, and now sneakers for sneaker buffs! Iâve always been a sneaker junkie myself. My favorite pair are the New Balances 515 from the 1980âs. I wear them daily and prefer to be transported back in time at the moment alongside the BlackBerry since I didnât get to experience a time with buttons on the screen.
BlackBerry Battle
As they say, all good things must come to an end.
Although BlackBerryâs functionality officially stopped working on January 4th, 2022, ending the iconic era of the ubiquitous mobile cellphone used by Wall Street analysts, business titans, and Kim Kardashian herself fiercely disappointed and on the year-long lookout for one for show, thereâs no slow-down in the search and secondary market.
If Kim canât find one that works, no one has luck. Yet Iâm sure she will be able to get an NFT BlackBerry one day. Is that possible? Iâm sure! Anything is on the blockchain especially since NFTs stand for non-fungible tokens that cannot be replaced by an original or identical asset since it has none. Fungible items include dollar bills or barrels of oil even stock but non-fungible cannot be replaced with an original copy such as a home or piece of art.
Why were people devastated to let go of BlackBerry?
It was a healthy part of their working and personal lives. It was the first time they were able to view their email outside of the office and see a partial digital screen and keyboard resembling their chunky computer.
Now The Big Question IsâŠ. What To Do With Your Blackberry
First off, although I would consider myself tech-savvy, Iâm not the go-to consultant on this device. You would need someone older. I definitely do not have one at this point. In fact, I just came across them a few years ago and I have to say, they look pretty cool and fun. Although mom jeans, athleisure wear, baggy pants and the hoodie Silicon Valley Honda Accord 1 shirt all day for a year stealth wealth look looks unfashionable and strange, it has come back with vengeance and style thanks to stealth wealth and frugalism.
Who would have thought that we want heavier, slower devices that would seem to make our lives more difficult but in hindsight freer? I thought technology wants to escape the past but society revolts!
The flash to the past is a fascinating sign of the times. Iâm even participating in it as well with my classic New Balances and digital camera I received last year for Christmas! Funny enough, a few months ago an article was written in the WSJ lifestyle column citing the popularity and appealing style of wearing string cord headphones indicating the do-not-disturb state.
As a personal finance blogger and market fanatic, I believe these trends are fascinating to uncover and I cannot wait to see BlackBerryâs dispersion and pivot in the near future.
Although it may be time to let go of a BlackBerry and finally adopt an additive all too personal nuclear weapon device (phone), make sure to take good care of your precious metal souvenir youâve held onto for so long. In this collectible, resale, earth-friendly, consignment, handy-me-down world these days, it seems as if hoarding and keeping everything is popularized and the best way to earn extra passive income!
If you do own a BlackBerry, I would strongly urge you to keep it for as long as possible to sell it at a premium in a few years. It is certainly considered an appreciable investment asset. Or you can keep it as a collectible and consider it an antique to show your grandkids the good old-day technology when people used technology as a tool, not a drug.
BlackBerryâs Bleek Horizon?
In 2012, BlackBerry had over 80 million active users! This was an incredible rapid adoption with top brand equity. Powerhouse and titan names such as President Obama, Kim Kardashian, Jay Z, and even your grandma helped fuel global sales. It was accessible, frictionless, and simple in design. Although thatâs Appleâs superpower, too many options (apps), consumption, convenience, and no boundaries destroyed userâs appreciation for devices. Nothing will compare to the BlackBerry.
Soon enough once the rollout of the iPhone took shape, BlackBerryâs stubbornness to change led to the demise of the brand. Its failure to simply adapt to consumer culture, its competitorsâ products, and reduce its âawkward clunkinessâ although that is what we crave today, were features and tools people wanted to move past. And here we are again. History does in fact repeat itself in every industry.
If youâve invested in the company, BB since 2016 you would have returned a decent 26.79% return. Speaking of tech, gadgets, and all things FAANG, Iâm surprised BB wasnât a part of Cathie Woodâs ARK Innovation ETF. In its first two full years, 2015 and 2016, ARK Innovation gained less than 2% cumulatively. Then it took off, rising 87% in 2017, 4% in 2018, 36% in 2019 and 157% in 2020 managing $54.7 billion as of Dec. 31st. In the last year it underperformed the Invesco QQQ Trust, which tracks the tech-dominated Nasdaq 100 index, and this year ARK Innovation Fund is down more than 15%.
At this point, similarly to AMC and Gamestop with record valuations and delusional market caps, BB is practically a penny stock and although the market cap is still in the mid-cap range at ~$5B, there are high hopes on the horizon. They arenât dark.
I believe none of BBâs features and uniqueness will set them behind! Yes they have major catching up to do but I have confidence, besides in other meme bankrupt stocks, BB will become a player in an alternative industry once againâââhopefully for longer this time. In the most recent years, theyâve pivoted to focus on security, cybersecurity, privacy, and operating systems for cars as the auto industry moves towards autonomy, autonomous roads, and EV which are hot markets today.
For now, so long BlackBerry. Itâs been a fun ride. Youâve helped me revisit the good times before everyone went delusional, jealous, and obsessive with their devicesââânot to mention develop chronic neck pain from looking down for so long.
Although I never used you, you wonât be in the dark for long!