Once Dominant, BlackBerry Seeks to Avoid Oblivion.

It is a ruthless law of modern business: adapt or die.Make that: quick adaptation - or die gee-whiz countless companies that caught and even faster.Like imagination and dollars lost, BlackBerry, a giant of the pre-iPhone, has remarkably quickly vanished. After enduring years of dwindling sales, the company said on Monday it was exploring "strategic options" - code for the search business for a savior.

So far, few seem to want to buy BlackBerry or, for that matter, its latest products. Barring a suitor, BlackBerry is at risk of joining the ranks of technology has ended the game as Palm, Gateway and Commodore.

The abrupt fall of BlackBerry illustrates how consumers and investors demand almost instantaneous change these days, especially technology companies. And redemption window for a high-tech company misses a step can be very small indeed.

Four years ago, BlackBerry has 51 percent of the smartphone market in North America, according to research firm Gartner. And Mike Lazaridis, co-founder of BlackBerry who was then co-chief executive and co-chairman, was promising an even brighter future.

But then, the company responded slowly to the new iPhone and Android and sales company evaporates. Now, the company has 3.4 percent of the market and Mr. Lazaridis BlackBerry is gone.

BlackBerry's board and its current CEO, Thorsten Heins, portrayed Monday's announcement as part of a new beginning, but some analysts and small technology community were buying the idea. Instead, BlackBerry is often grouped with other technology companies once powerful, like Nokia and Dell, who are struggling and hard roads seem to return to growth, or none at all.

"The acquisition of BlackBerry is necrophilia," said Jean-Louis Gassee, a former Apple executive, who was president of PalmSource, a failed attempt to convert Palma, once the leader in handheld computers, in a software company . "The BB brand is tarnished."

He added in an e-mail written on an Apple iPhone 5: "This old BB fan is sad."

Exactly who would want to buy BlackBerry or how the company could finance its privatization was not clear on Monday. Speculation has circulated for years that large technology companies, especially Microsoft, have looked BlackBerry and decided to pass. The smaller technology companies based in China, no doubt covet the BlackBerry brand and some of its technology, but the government of Canada, where the company is headquartered, has hinted that such an acquisition would be prohibited for reasons of national security.