The Lonely BlackBerry Store
On a gray stretch of highway 25 miles northwest of Detroit, in a strip mall next to an OfficeMax and a dry cleaners, sits the only stand-alone BlackBerry retail store in North America.
The store opened in 2007, six months after Apple Inc. rolled out its first iPhone. It was supposed to mark the beginning of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd.’s retail push in the U.S. and Canada.
Instead, the store serves as a somber reminder of RIM’s failed strategy to stave off competition from larger rivals domestically.
