Why BlackBerry failed
Or did BlackBerry just get too old? Is that it?
Actually, no. The difference between technology companies (and companies generally) that survive and those that don't is much simpler. As with biological species, it's all about adaptability. If you can't adapt, then you will be erased by history.
So success isn't foretold in the technology business. Nor was BlackBerry's demise. True, it had a lead, but a detailed analysis by Canada's Globe and Mail of the failure of the nation's darling shows that its managers discussed different ways to get out of their predicament time and again. The problem wasn't that they didn't have ideas; it was that they made the wrong choices. They didn't fail to adapt; they failed to make the correct adaptations.
So while it might seem as though BlackBerry's time simply came and went, the truth is – if we only had time machines, and a desire to save it – that there were always times when it could have been saved from this agonising swirl around the black hole of irrelevance. And Twitter, too, will meet some point when it abruptly faces a choice that will either kill it, or make it stronger. Every company does; and many choose wrongly. That's why most companies go bust in their first five years. Surviving beyond that (as Twitter, Facebook and many others have done) doesn't exempt you from having to adapt.