Will BlackBerry's introduction of the Z10 while ditching its former Research in Motion brand be enough to regain loyalty and regain market share?

After pioneering the Smartphone category in 1999, Blackberry soon owned the market. But in the early 2000s, Apple reinvented the category, adding web browsing, multimedia and apps that focused on personal rather than corporate use.

BlackBerry saw the iPhone as a toy and maintained a narrow focus on corporate clients. In fact, corporate IT departments restricted many of the functions that were becoming popular.

Execs who wanted to experience the iPhone started carrying two phones, one for work, one for personal. BlackBerry's worldwide service BlackOut in 2011 was a coup de grace that set off an avalanche of defections to Apple and Samsung.

Haven't we seen this movie before?

• Wang Laboratories pioneered word processors and owned the market. It failed to take seriously the arrival of PCs and rigidly focused on processors and mini-computer networks. Its crash would've been unthinkable just five years earlier. 
• Friendster, pioneered social media in 2002 and soon had 100 million users. In 2003, it turned down an offer to be acquired by Google for $30 million. The reasons for its epic failure in 2009 are nicely explored in "Autopsy of a Dead Social Network."

All of these companies failed because they did not keep up with innovations and competitors who were delivering new and more desirable user experiences.

For BlackBerry to get out of its jam now, it has to do more than just match its competitors. It has to offer something better. How it will fare remains to be seen but the lesson is that customer retention must always be a primary strategy.

Our own recipe for retaining customers - while always trying to acquire new ones - is:

• Know what your customers want and keep them happy. Pay attention to competitors and preempt encroachment by providing a better experience and better value.
• Be clear about what you stand for and make sure you communicate it. According to the Corporate Executive Board, 64 percent of consumers who say they had a strong relationship with a brand cite "shared values" as the primary reason.
• Keep your promise. Lack of trust will lose customers faster than anything. Don't over promise but always try to over deliver.