RIM in trouble?

[mammador]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13812316

I can't see them going under, but obviously some serious revision of their product portfolio is required. For me, if I were the RIM CEO, get all my phones on Android or iOS.

 

[smartpatrol]

What would RIM stand to gain by switching to Android? That would just make them one of many manufacturers cranking out generic Android phones. And good luck licensing iOS.

 

[mammador]

The possibility of gaining more revenue from existing Android users. And for iOS, well it's win-win for both Jobs and RIM. Jobs has more OS market share, and RIM can cotton off of iOS' popularity. And yes, lots of phones run Android, but only a few firms dominate it, like Samsung, HTC, Motorola and LG.

I don't see many other options. Yes, producing better quality phones is one angle, but one major factor in Blackberrys being seen as poor is the OS. Developing and marketing a new OS would take time and money. As Android and iOS are more established, there is no guarantee that people will switch to a revised Blackberry OS.

 

[Pliablemoose]

It would make no sense to do it now, they need to get QNX OS'd phones out, the sooner, the better. We need OS's other than just Android et al in the market to stimulate innovation.

http://thisismynext.com/2011/06/18/this-is-my-next-podcast-011-06-18-2011/

00:39 is where they start talking about RIM, and they're about right... They haven't made a smart move got nearly 5 years now...

 

[the DRIZZLE]

The possibility of gaining more revenue from existing Android users. And for iOS, well it's win-win for both Jobs and RIM. Jobs has more OS market share, and RIM can cotton off of iOS' popularity. And yes, lots of phones run Android, but only a few firms dominate it, like Samsung, HTC, Motorola and LG.

I don't see many other options. Yes, producing better quality phones is one angle, but one major factor in Blackberrys being seen as poor is the OS. Developing and marketing a new OS would take time and money. As Android and iOS are more established, there is no guarantee that people will switch to a revised Blackberry OS.

You don't seem to know anything about Steve Jobs. There is a 0% chance of Apple ever licensing iOS to anyone else. As bad as the situation is for RIM, it's not nearly bad enough yet to warrant switching to Android. As long as they put out something decent they will be able to maintain decent market share in the enterprise market.

 

[silverpig]

The possibility of gaining more revenue from existing Android users. And for iOS, well it's win-win for both Jobs and RIM. Jobs has more OS market share, and RIM can cotton off of iOS' popularity. And yes, lots of phones run Android, but only a few firms dominate it, like Samsung, HTC, Motorola and LG.

I don't see many other options. Yes, producing better quality phones is one angle, but one major factor in Blackberrys being seen as poor is the OS. Developing and marketing a new OS would take time and money. As Android and iOS are more established, there is no guarantee that people will switch to a revised Blackberry OS.

That has been in the works for quite some time now, since they bought QNX. The used that OS to build the playbook OS (which is steadily improving) and it will be in their phones for 2012. Yeah they're behind, but they'll be fine if they execute well on the QNX phones.

 

[s44]

Switching to Android or WebOS or whatever would just highlight how RIM is constantly a generation or two behind in hardware spec.

And... the company actually has *two* CEOs, which is rather bizarre.

 

[ew915]

Switching to Android or WebOS or whatever would just highlight how RIM is constantly a generation or two behind in hardware spec.

And... the company actually has *two* CEOs, which is rather bizarre.

RIM is taking the same path as NOKIA both firms filled with pride and still living in the late 90s when people buy phones based on hardware and basic functionality.

 

[tommo123]

if they switched to android, they would have a selling point of having blackberry messenger as an app on there - working only on their phones mind

if they leave it too late, there won't be enough people left using bbm for it to matter.

 

[Fire&Blood]

In theory, RIM still has a chance to turn it around, with a new OS and a new smartphone line up or more likely way to survive, adopting WP7 or Android. RIM just doesn't seem capable of revitalizing on their own, even Nokia couldn't.

The problem is that even their recent phones were made for 2007.

 

[gorcorps]

RIM still has much of the business sector by the balls. Large companies don't like change, and they like things to be the same across the board... RIM offers pretty much just what they need for reliable messaging that has been the same for years. While Android offers the same abilities, convincing large companies to change company phones to non BB OS is not a going to happen easily. Android is also fragmented and has a slightly different UI for each brand or phone. That makes things harder to teach and instruct as if everybody had a different phone with a different version of Android then everything is done slightly differently.

RIM needs to stop trying to cater to both casual users AND business users and just focus on business from now on. They still have some fairly durable phones compared to the new smartphones, and those buttons are important in some industries (like mine). They've lost the casual market and need to focus on the only left where they're still the preferred phone of choice.

 

[rchiu]

RIM still has much of the business sector by the balls. Large companies don't like change, and they like things to be the same across the board... RIM offers pretty much just what they need for reliable messaging that has been the same for years. While Android offers the same abilities, convincing large companies to change company phones to non BB OS is not a going to happen easily. Android is also fragmented and has a slightly different UI for each brand or phone. That makes things harder to teach and instruct as if everybody had a different phone with a different version of Android then everything is done slightly differently.

RIM needs to stop trying to cater to both casual users AND business users and just focus on business from now on. They still have some fairly durable phones compared to the new smartphones, and those buttons are important in some industries (like mine). They've lost the casual market and need to focus on the only left where they're still the preferred phone of choice.

Well the thing is business sector is not that complicated. Before ios 3 and Android 2.2, exchange server integration and security option like remote wipe is non-existent. But now those 2 camps are catching up with the latest release and those release while still not as good as RIM, is good enough for most business users and the gap will keep narrowing as new releases come up.

RIM just have not done enough to come up with new innovations and new phones and their competitors have matched their offering, plus offering many more in consumer oriented areas. People isn't gonna want to carry 2 phones, and if their daily phone can do what BB does, they will want to drop their BB.

Are they doomed? Well they are still making hundreds of millions of profit every qtr, but their market share is continuing to drop. They have sometime to come up with some innovation, but it will be tough to differentiate themselves in this very competitive market.

 

[boomhower]

iOS is catching up in the business sector. Many businesses have either switched to iPhones or are allowing employees to provide their own which IT sets up to connect to their servers. In most cases it comes from the top down, when the CEO wants an iPhone, well damn it they get it for them. Last big one I saw an article on was a bank in Europe some where. They need to get their new OS out NOW. It's not to late but they've lost a ton. Knowin RIM it will be two years before they get the new OS completely rolled by which time it will be to late and they will be another Nokia.

 

[poofyhairguy]

RIM missed their chance- it should have been THEM that teamed up with Microsoft. Microsoft's mobile OS and experience with corporate customers combined with RIM's experience with corporate customers would produce the ultimate executive phone. RIM + MS could take on Android and iOS, but instead they are forced to battle each other for third place.

 

[alent1234]

RIM missed their chance- it should have been THEM that teamed up with Microsoft. Microsoft's mobile OS and experience with corporate customers combined with RIM's experience with corporate customers would produce the ultimate executive phone. RIM + MS could take on Android and iOS, but instead they are forced to battle each other for third place.

microsoft is what killed RIM. they were a big threat because BES supported multiple email platforms and made the smartphone more important than reading Outlook. it could have killed Microsoft's Exchange business.

so MS licensed ActiveSync to Google and Apple and the rest is history

 

[corkyg]

RIM is struggling . . .

http://www.thestreet.com/story/1115...-but-not-as-bad-as-nokias.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN

 

[JS80]

paging Deeko to defend RIMM

 

[Deeko]

paging Deeko to defend RIMM

haha what do you want from me that hasn't been said before? They're still making money, which means they can still afford to turn things around. Unlike Palm, who was broke, RIM has the assets to weather the storm. Plus, its almost like everyone is forgetting that midway through the quarter they warned that the results were going to be below expected.

Unlike the various fanboys, I take no special pleasure in watching a company fail.

 

[DivideBYZero]

paging Deeko to defend RIMM

This forum is becoming a joke, and these posts are the punchline.

 

[Ns1]

iOS is catching up in the business sector. Many businesses have either switched to iPhones or are allowing employees to provide their own which IT sets up to connect to their servers.

most of the bigwigs at my F50 company have iPhones.

 

[smartpatrol]

http://www.bgr.com/2011/06/21/layoffs-begin-at-rim-report-claims/

Another day, another news story spelling doom for RIM.

 

[dpodblood]

IMO If RIM were to switch to Android it would put them at a great advantage. Sure it would make them just another manufacturer in a sea of android phone manufacturers, but they would still have their build quality, and excellent physical keyboards as selling points. They could also make their BBM software exclusive to their devices. And of course they can design their own custom launcher to make it look like any other BB device, while still having the advantage of the Android Marketplace.

They also need to either get rid of the BEZ software or make the license free. My company is getting rid of all Blackberry devices and switching to iPhone, and Android due to the licensing costs of BEZ (or at least that is one of the factors).

 

[Mopetar]

I don't see why they need to change to Android, especially if, like the Playbook, they incorporate the ability to run Android apps in their next generation of phones?

By changing to Android, RIM cedes a lot of control over their future to Google.

 

[Deeko]

I don't see why they need to change to Android, especially if, like the Playbook, they incorporate the ability to run Android apps in their next generation of phones?

By changing to Android, RIM cedes a lot of control over their future to Google.

Not to mention revenue potential - despite their slowing marketshare, Blackberry phones have curiously done very well in terms of actual app purchases, and RIM takes a healthy percentage of that money. With the Android model in PlayBook, they're still getting that percentage, devs just have to repackage and submit it to App World.

RIM's hope for a turnaround relies on QNX. It really is a very good platform. If it gets app support - whether it be Android or native - and it gets on some solid handsets early next year, they are still in the game. Like I said, remember, despite the poor trends, RIM still has money, its not like its "do or die" this quarter.

 

[alent1234]

RIM is going the way of Novell. after MS killed them they were selling some linux or unix software, forgot. but they were a shadow of themselves.

same with RIM. apple and google will kill their hardware business and leave them selling BES to manage iphones and android phones in the enterise