Chill lounge

[RobinM]

I can't say I am suprised, I have been saying this would happen for years. RIM just don't seem to be putting enough effort into new technology IMO. At the end of the day, if you don't evolve, you die out.

Personally I hope they rot in hell for the mongrelled beasts known as the Storm  and the Storm 2.

Quote= Gizmodo.co.uk

RIM, the maker of BlackBerry, was absolutely destroyed today in the stock market. But that's just part of the story. RIM is screwed.

1. No new products until the summer

RIM's current lineup of phones is subpar, to say the least. Worse, basically none of the current models will get the marginally newer and better BlackBerry OS 7.0 update. Yet, RIM says there are going to be "delays in new product introductions into the very late part of August." Ugh.

2. Upcoming leaked products are boooooooring

Just look what is coming up next, supposedly: Stuff like the BlackBerry Bold 9900. Sure, it'll run BlackBerry OS 7 and might have a touchscreen! But it's also the same handset RIM has been pumping out for the last five years.

3. The Playbook

RIM's jump into the tablet market has been pretty floppy. The PlayBook is impressive under the hood and we liked it, at first. But the lack of basic features like email—something BlackBerry is very known for!—and a basically deserted app store makes it non-buyable. For basically anyone.

4. Blackberry App World is a ghost town

BlackBerry App World debuted in 2009 and had about 26,000 applications as of April 2011. Android had over 200,000 apps and iOS was pushing 350,000. More importantly, the number of quality apps? A barren wasteland.

5. Developers hate making BlackBerry apps

It's a bad sign when a developer who wants to code for your platform, throws up his hands in exasperation and says "screw it." It's even worse when that letter is posted on the Internet, goes viral and many nod in agreement.

6. Financials are in ruins

RIM's latest quarterly earnings were lower than expected. Terribly so. The expectation for next quarter has been cut 20 percent and serious layoffs loom. Hope you weren't planning on using your RIM stock to fund your retirement.

7. Leadership is struggling

RIM still has two CEOs, neither of which is a bold, innovative leader, even if Mike Lazaridis is an engineering genius. The pair spent a large portion of RIM's recent earnings conference call justifying why this co-leadership is a good thing. How about they just prove it with awesome phones and tons of happy users?

8. Even BlackBerry owners don't want BlackBerrys

A survey from last year suggested more than half of current BlackBerry owners were going to switch to Android or iOS. Enough said.

9. Enterprise interest is falling

This is death. RIM has a stronghold in the corporate world, but its grip is loosening. In the past, everyone from the CEO to the office manager had a BlackBerry on their hip. Slowly but surely, those BlackBerry handsets are being replaced with iPhones and Droids. Even the iPad is gaining ground. Apple's Tim Cook said recently that "more than 80 percent" of Fortune 100 companies are testing out the iPad.

10. Other companies are eating RIM's lunch

RIM's biggest advantage was its push email and BlackBerry Messenger service. Now just about every smartphone platform has push email (in some form) and Apple's new iMessage is gunning for BBM. BlackBerry OS 7 is already behind, and it's not even out yet. Just look at the voice control and navigation built into Android.

Co-CEO Mike Lazardis tried to put a positive spin on the company's "transitional" period when he said, "RIM has taken a unique path, and why we do things might not be obvious from the outside." Someone needs to tell big Mike that it's time to do away with this smokescreen and start releasing quality handsets ASAP. If it doesn't, RIM is going to end up like Palm.

[thesoupdragon]

@RobinM

An interesting read!

I think both Rim and Nokia have some serious problems with a public perception of being Old hat! They both need a design overhaul in terms of Hardware and software.

Regardless of whether you like Apps or not, they are the future. Both manufacturers need to entice developers into their eco-system.

It's all about innovation and design. If you can't keep up, then you will fall by the way side!

TSD

[MTL]

Very interesting, that.

RIM's main stronghold, as everyone knows, is the corporate environment. And as RobinM pointed out, 

more and more companies are seriously looking at iPhones, Android and even (shock! horror!) Windows Mobile.

I work for a glocal financial group, and the main reason they've stuck with BBs this far, is that 

they provided secure email, and they were really the only players in that market.

However, we've been looking at Good Technology (http://www.good.com) who have come up with an

app which allows for secure, corporate email access,on iPhone and Android. We've completed testing, 

and have now rolled it out in the UK and the US, cutting back on our BB estate (which at last count was

rather large - certainly in excess of 100,000 units).

I don't see it completely replacing the BB in our case, but I do think it'll make a serious impact - especially

when a number of our execs have iPad addictions, or as we call it - shiny shiny fever.

Another point in its favour is it allows people to use their own devices, and the IT & Security/Risk depts can

rest easy as its still secure. And Finance can chill out as personal devices don't cost the company....

Cheers

[Nabs]

---

MTL wrote:

I don't see it completely replacing the BB in our case, but I do think it'll make a serious impact - especially

when a number of our execs have iPad addictions, or as we call it - shiny shiny fever.

---

Never heard it called that before... i like!

[MTL]

heh - you know how it goes!

Exec 1 gets new shiny shinyiPad. 

Exec 2 gets all grumpy and shouty until he gets an iPad.

repeat until either all execs have iPads, or until a new shiny shiny comes out, at which point start again.

That is exactly what happened at my place. new MD came into job with an iPad, within 3 weeks I was getting

multiple requests (wouldn't do to call them shrill demands!) that the rest of the exec team be issued their

own shiny apple fondleslab......although one guy is showing sense and considering an Android slab....

[redpages]

I keep a BlackBerry for business and alternate between Android or an iPhone for personal use. The new BlackBerry OS is okay although I agree with the article about AppWorld.

It has been tempting to run my work email through an iPhone but as a rule of thumb BlackBerry have always been reliable in the past so I'll keep that, calendar sync etc with them.

One thing I have noticed is compared to the stuffy corporate image a couple of years ago I see plenty of younger people with BlackBerry's these days - I'd image the appeal of the instant messaging service is appealing

[Johnmcl7]

RIM have obviously branched out over the years and managed to get into the consumer space by offering very user friendly mail services. Now with the likes of Android and IOS offering easy to use e-mail services they're losing badly in that part of the market and by neglecting the corporate part of the market they've lost ground there as well.

The Playbook is an obvious example of this, when RIM announced a tablet I expected them to go for the corporate market where competition is less, you can get away with charging more and application support is less of an issue. However when the early previews highlighted its ability to play back 1080p video and Quake 3 I was a bit confused and even more so when they released the final product which didn't even have a mail client. I know it had that odd bridging mode I didn't see that as being particularly feasible.

Similar to one of the posts above I work for a very large medical company and Blackberries are the standard mobile mail solution, Ipads are not allowed although there has been demand for them. If RIM had made a solid tablet offering excellent batterylife with strong enterprise features I think they'd had a good chance to snap up a portion of the market relatively uncontested but as it is I think the Playbook is going to be an expensive, possibly fatal error.

John