Inside RIM

[Pliablemoose]

This is a great read about what's going on internally at RIM, sounds like they're not going to survive long with this mindset...

It also explains why they list "shipped" versus "sold" devices, shipped means they sold the phones etc to the carriers at full price, they're leveraging the 3rd world carriers and selling them a years worth of phones at a time, and calling them shipped vs sold.

http://www.bgr.com/2011/07/13/rims-...l-of-the-company-that-made-smartphones-smart/

 

[alent1234]

In wall street speak it's called stuffing the channel. And there are probably stipulations that rim take back any unsold product.

I predict a big charge to earnings coming soon.

 

[the DRIZZLE]

RIM was never a consumer oriented company. They basically put out a few consumer oriented models and did really well for a few years because of things like BBM. There was a lot of luck involved. It's not shocking that they couldn't really a company like Apple entered their market.

 

[poofyhairguy]

This is what the title made me think of:

 

[DivideBYZero]

More BGR 'Insider insight'. I love the part about 'no cameras, no MP3 player', when they added this back in 2006. This article is five years out of date. No news, just muck raking.

 

[gsaldivar]

This article is five years out of date. No news, just muck raking.

It's a retrospective... as should be completely obvious from the title of the article.

 

[gsaldivar]

“Every year, Jim Balsillie and COO Dennis Kavelman would take all the executives to Redtail golf course for a day of R&R with great meals, great VIP service, and every year one executive would not ever go.” Mike could not understand why everyone would go and have a golf day. In fact, he supposedly hated it and he never showed up on purpose...

Sounds like a great guy to work for...

 

[DivideBYZero]

It's a retrospective... as should be completely obvious from the title of the article.

Liek I said, muck raking.

I guess Mr. Geller needs stories to appease his new Paymaster:

http://www.foxbusiness.com/technolo...mpany-that-made-smartphones-smart/?test=faces

 

[Deeko]

I find it odd that BGR hyped this story up so much. On Twitter they were calling it a "huge" mind blowing story about RIM...Geller referred to it as "bigger than all the biggest losers combined before they went on the show"...and then this is what they come up with? Mike Lazardius is very smart but not very nice or consumer oriented?

 

[nixium]

What's wrong with focusing on battery life and data consumption? Sure they screwed up by not focusing on the user experience, but without a long lasting battery, what's the use of all those shiny graphics and UI?

And I don't understand the RIM haters. Sure the company fucked up in the past, but their new line of phones are supposed to address all the complaints the haters make. QNX for a much better OS, respectable processors, good battery life. Heck they even dropped the 10" tablet plan to focus on QNX. And they're doing all this without sacrificing their enterprise base. What else are they supposed to do? It's impossible to just completely transform overnight.

The company has made missteps, but I don't understand the malicious glee and schadenfreude that some posters here experience when discussing their downfall.

 

[Deeko]

Its "nerd cool" to hate RIM, just like it was nerd cool to hate Microsoft in the 90s and to spell their name with a dollar sign.

 

[alent1234]

What's wrong with focusing on battery life and data consumption? Sure they screwed up by not focusing on the user experience, but without a long lasting battery, what's the use of all those shiny graphics and UI?

And I don't understand the RIM haters. Sure the company fucked up in the past, but their new line of phones are supposed to address all the complaints the haters make. QNX for a much better OS, respectable processors, good battery life. Heck they even dropped the 10" tablet plan to focus on QNX. And they're doing all this without sacrificing their enterprise base. What else are they supposed to do? It's impossible to just completely transform overnight.

The company has made missteps, but I don't understand the malicious glee and schadenfreude that some posters here experience when discussing their downfall.

usability always trumps all other features

just look at Windows in the 1990's compared to the competition

and what is the point of buying a RIM phone next year when android and iOS will be years head of them including their app stores being better

 

[the DRIZZLE]

What's wrong with focusing on battery life and data consumption? Sure they screwed up by not focusing on the user experience, but without a long lasting battery, what's the use of all those shiny graphics and UI?

And I don't understand the RIM haters. Sure the company fucked up in the past, but their new line of phones are supposed to address all the complaints the haters make. QNX for a much better OS, respectable processors, good battery life. Heck they even dropped the 10" tablet plan to focus on QNX. And they're doing all this without sacrificing their enterprise base. What else are they supposed to do? It's impossible to just completely transform overnight.

The company has made missteps, but I don't understand the malicious glee and schadenfreude that some posters here experience when discussing their downfall.

I can only speak for myself, but part of it is that humans just like to say I told you so. Many people have been predicting this for 2 years if not more. There is satisfaction in being right.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

Its "nerd cool" to hate RIM, just like it was nerd cool to hate Microsoft in the 90s and to spell their name with a dollar sign.

I have an idea, lets have Steve Jobs take over RIM and turn them around. The first product will be called the RIMjob.

Thank you, thank you. I'll be posting here all night. No really you're to kind.

Back to the internet (it's serious business yo) If you need a device for making calls and emails, the BB is the way to go. They have by faqr the best battery life, and Enterprise email is so much better on them that fighting through hoops and hurdles to get it working smoothly on Android or iOS.

 

[Genx87]

I didnt follow the playbook much. But seriously, no email capability out of the box? /facepalm

Also, Mike sounds like a hard headed fool.

 

[poofyhairguy]

What else are they supposed to do?

1. Figure out a way to transition from their old OS platform to their new one so that the applications already made don't go away. A virtualization layer akin to what Apple did during the OSX switch would be very possible considering that the future QNX BBs (with dual cores and all) could literally have 4 times the power of most current BBs sold. That is a big enough gap to virtualize.

2. Put together some huge initiative to get Android developers to want to re-release their applications to the QNX OS above and beyond the access to the new market. Offer the first 50,000 developers a discount, or give them the some sort of sweet-heart deal.

3. Get people excited about the QNX offering by stealing Amazon's trick of one free app a day. The BB app solution is getting famous for being expensive, and RIM should counter that as soon as possible.

4. Finish the damn Playbook. Its very close, just needs some more polish.

5. Find some hardware vendor that is willing to make a licensed QNX BB to increase the hardware options available. Let real BBs keep the damn keyboard, and let the third party give the big screen and all. That way you can keep what people like about the brand intact for those who are slow movers in the market (some people feel comforted by that keyboard).

 

[poofyhairguy]

Actually I will be more specific on the last point: I think RIM should make a deal with Moto. Moto has technologies that the business market would love on RIM devices (the nettops, finger scanners, etc.) and Moto needs a hedge on the Android market.

 

[mammador]

What's wrong with focusing on battery life and data consumption? Sure they screwed up by not focusing on the user experience, but without a long lasting battery, what's the use of all those shiny graphics and UI?

And I don't understand the RIM haters. Sure the company fucked up in the past, but their new line of phones are supposed to address all the complaints the haters make. QNX for a much better OS, respectable processors, good battery life. Heck they even dropped the 10" tablet plan to focus on QNX. And they're doing all this without sacrificing their enterprise base. What else are they supposed to do? It's impossible to just completely transform overnight.

The company has made missteps, but I don't understand the malicious glee and schadenfreude that some posters here experience when discussing their downfall.

Battery life is not the sole factor people choose smartphone models/brands/OS'. Yes, it is important, but it's just one of several factors involved.

I dislike RIM only because Blackberry phones are rubbish relative to other major smartphone brands (and has a rubbish OS too). It's not "nerd cool" but simply fact, RIM phones at this point are not as good as rival products. RIM is developing a new OS, and better quality phones, but it remains to be seen if these can prosper or not. The Playbook in terms of specs alone is a good tablet, but in sales terms cannot rival the iPad.

 

[Pliablemoose]

More BGR 'Insider insight'. I love the part about 'no cameras, no MP3 player', when they added this back in 2006. This article is five years out of date. No news, just muck raking.

Check out these graphs: it's not muckraking, it's throwing gas on a funeral pyre...

And I'm calling it, RIM is toast, they'll be around in a couple of years, but they're going to be irrelevant, hell, they're irrelevant now...

http://allthingsd.com/20110714/bring-out-your-dead-is-research-in-motion-the-next-dec/

 

[3chordcharlie]

5. Find some hardware vendor that is willing to make a licensed QNX BB to increase the hardware options available. Let real BBs keep the damn keyboard, and let the third party give the big screen and all. That way you can keep what people like about the brand intact for those who are slow movers in the market (some people feel comforted by that keyboard).

Maybe a decent idea - as one of the keyboard crowd, I'm really not 'comforted' by it; most of what I use the thing for other than phone calls is typing, and the keyboard is just plain faster.

I like zooming and web-browsing on touchscreens, but that's about it.

 

[Pliablemoose]

The thing is, RIMs market share will erode more now because it's eroding...

Consumers will look at a BB and think, "Aren't they in trouble?" and buy a different device.