Can "BlackBerry..Avoid Hall of Fallen Giants"? Comeback, decline, or oblivion? Like college on brink of closing?

Blackberry 850 - First one?

Recent NYTimes article reminds us that once-dominant now-fading Blackberry killed the pager market.  Article describes 3 "ways forward" for RIM, maker of Blackberry. 

Join us online free this Friday Feb 3 and discuss how these strategies (hopes? fears?) might apply, if at all, to colleges on the brink of closing:

1. "Triumphant comeback" - major changes but continue original mission

2. "Gradual decline and diminution" - serve much smaller still-loyal constituency

Road to Oblivion

3. "Oblivion" - concede to competitors that can more quickly and efficiently meet old constituency's needs better - in new ways  

INVITATION Please join us this Friday Feb 3 2pm ET for a BOOK DISCUSSION 

More info:  tlt.gs/ABrownChngCrs
Changing Course: Reinventing Colleges, Avoiding Closure, Alice W. Brown Jossey-Bass 2011 Register Free: tlt.gs/frlv
Brown, Past Pres. Appalachian College Assoc, will be interviewed by Steve Gilbert.

Excerpts quoted in the title of this post, above, and below are all from 
"The BlackBerry, Trying to Avoid the Hall of Fallen Giants," by Sam Grobart & Ian Austen, January 28, 2012, New York Times 

"Over the last year, RIM’s share price has plunged 75 percent. The company once commanded more than half of the American smartphone market. Today it has 10 percent.
"RIM has two, maybe three ways forward.
"The first — the one that Mr. Heins is clearly aiming for — is a triumphant comeback after a near-death experience. Think Apple and its iMac. RIM is on the verge of upgrading its PlayBook operating system ...and will release the BlackBerry 10 OS this year.
"Behind Door No. 2 is a gradual decline and diminution as rivals like Apple, Google and Microsoft devour most of the market;...BlackBerry would keep the scraps — a small but dedicated following...
"...oblivion. The road of progress is littered with the corpses of fallen titans. Objects that once seemed as indispensable as the companies that made them have been mercilessly superseded"

IMAGE selected by Steve Gilbert 20120201

Photo of first Blackberry device, the Blackberry 850, "Original Blackberry" 

2010-08-02, " Source Collection_of_old_phones_and_PDAs.jpg Author Collection_of_old_phones_and_PDAs.jpg: Shiny Things derivative work: Traveler100 (talk)" 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b5/Collection_of_old_phones_and_PDA-BlackBerry.jpg/478px-Collection_of_old_phones_and_PDA-BlackBerry.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Collection_of_old_phones_and_PDA-BlackBerry.jpg

Permission "I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license."   http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

IMAGE selected by Steve Gilbert 20120201

Photo of "The Road To Oblivion...Orford Ness. After alighting from the ferry to Orford Ness, one walks down this road wondering if one will ever see the mainland again! Littered either side with a deserted airfield, debris and Nissen hut remains!" 7 September 2005, "From geograph.org.uk Author Tim Hallam,"

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/The_Road_To_Oblivion...Orford_Ness_-_geograph.org.uk_-_176381.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/The_Road_To_Oblivion...Orford_Ness_-_geograph.org.uk_-_176381.jpg

Permission "This image was taken from the Geograph project collection. See this photograph's page on the Geograph website for the photographer's contact details. The copyright on this image is owned by Tim Hallam and is licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.  

Tim Hallam [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons