How Research In Motion Ltd (BBRY) Could Destroy Netflix, Inc. (NFLX)

Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) may have a small following with a reported 75 million subscribers worldwide, but it is a loyal bunch. Many BlackBerry users are enterprise or government employees; there are relatively few consumers that use BlackBerry devices, but those who do use BlackBerry devices seem to be hard-core behind them and wiling to defend them when their honor is questioned. And we guess with a recent announcement by Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) executives, BlackBerry’s honor was just challenged.

Here comes the white glove across the cheek of Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) CEO Reed Hastings on behalf of BlackBerry fans. We’re pretty sure Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) is staying clear of this. However, on a fan forum at the BlackBerry fan site CrackBerry, a few forum posters have posted strong reactions to Hastings’ recent announcement that Netflix would not be creating an app for devices running the BlackBerry 10 operating system. Considering the Netflix has made an app for Windows Phone 8 – and that Windows just passed BlackBerry as the No. 3 platform in the smartphone market – could this be considered a complete slap to BlackBerry?

While Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) has no official stance, fans of BlackBerry are rallying as one CrackBerry forum poster called for a boycott of Netflix by all BlackBerry users because of this Netflix decision.  How much of an impact this may have remains to be seen, but BlackBerry has about twice as many subscribers as Netflix has currently. The poster who made the call for the boycott said he had five Netflix accounts that we was going to cancel in defense of BlackBerry.

The outrage was palpable not only in the original post, but in many of the comments that followed on that thread (which numbered more than 1,000 as of this writing). There were several “I’m in!” comments as well as several others from BlackBerry users who had multiple accounts that they were cancelling, with one person writing that he was waiting for a live chat customer-service rep to come online so Netflix will know directly why the subscriptions are being cancelled.

What could this mean for Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX)?

While this call for  boycott is pretty recent by Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) fans against Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX), at least the early momentum seems to be building considering how many comments have appeared in a short amount of time. Now how many of the 36 million Netflix accounts belong to the number of BlackBerrysubscribers in not clear yet. But one can imagine here could be significant overlap when there are twice as manyBlackBerry supporters as there are Netflix subscribers. To think that 2-3 million Netflix subscriptions could disappear may not be out of the realm of possibility.

Would that be enough to change Hastings’ mind and produce a Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) app for BlackBerry? Would this help raise status of Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) if such a boycott proves successful? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

DISCLOSURE: None