Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry

Description

An unprecedented exploration of the remarkable rise and fall of Blackberry. Winner of the Canadian National Business Book Award 2016 Shortlisted for the FT/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award 2015 In 2009, BlackBerry controlled half of the US smartphone market. Today that number is less than one per cent. What went so wrong? Losing the Signal is the riveting story of a company that toppled global giants before succumbing to the ruthlessly competitive forces of Silicon Valley. This is not a conventional tale of modern business failure by fraud and greed; instead, the rise and fall of BlackBerry reveals the dangerous speed at which innovators race along the information superhighway. With unprecedented access to key players, senior executives, directors, and competitors, Losing the Signal unveils the remarkable rise of a company that started above a bagel store in a small Canadian city and went on to control half of the US smartphone market. However, at the very moment BlackBerry was ranked the world's fastest-growing company, internal feuds and chaotic growth crippled the company as it faced its gravest test- the entry of Apple and Google into the mobile phone market. Expertly told by acclaimed journalists Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff, this is an entertaining, whirlwind narrative that goes behind the scenes to reveal one of the most compelling business stories of the new century.

Jacquie McNish (Author) Jacquie McNish is a senior writer with The Globe and Mail and before that The Wall Street Journal. She has won seven National Newspaper Awards and is the author of three bestselling books, two of which won the National Business Book award. She lives in Toronto with her husband and two sons. Sean Silcoff (Author) Sean Silcoff is a business writer with The Globe and Mail and before that the National Post and Canadian Business magazine. He is a two-time National Newspaper Award winner. He lives near Ottawa with his wife and three children.

In Losing the Signal, Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff tell the harrowing and riveting story of how we lost the connection to the BlackBerry, a communication device so innovative and addictive that it was known, among aficionados, as a CrackBerry. It's a tale of rivalries, jealousies, and missed opportunities. You won't be able to put it down. -- WILLIAM COHAN, author of House of Cards and Money and Power In the tech industry, they say that you learn more from a failure than from a hit. Well, if that's true, Losing the Signal will give you a postdoctoral education. Reading the inside story of the BlackBerry's helpless flameout is like watching any other train wreck: You're horrified, but you can't look away. -- DAVID POGUE, author of Pogue's Basics and founder of Yahootech.com Losing the Signal tells of the marriage and divorce of Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, how two opposites built RIM into a world-beater and how they lost it. This is first-class reporting that reads like a juicy novel, with one amazing story after another. A terrific book. -- HOWARD GREEN, author of Banking on America