Ballsillie resigns from RIM

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Rathji

Any proof of that? I tried finding them on twitter via Google, but the complaining about the ad campaign seems to have removed any chance of me finding them quickly.

If so, that's just despicable.

I was just referring to the "example" ones in the ad. Just really lame marketing copy.

[Rathji]

I get that, but is there a source that says they are actually faked or somehow otherwise contrived?

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Rathji

I get that, but is there a source that says they are actually faked or somehow otherwise contrived?

The following sounds real to you?

Originally Posted by @dorwin101

@Blackberry my resolution for #BeBold 2012 just staying connected to #blackberry family and having a filled 2012 with #BeBold happiness

[Rathji]

No, but if I wanted to get my twitter account noticed, I might say something stupid like that.

[Starfishy]

Even as a blackberry user who is interested in the future of RIM and future products I found myself unable to read that ad. It looks like it is geared towards kids, yet has way too much verbage. Brutal.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Rathji

No, but if I wanted to get my twitter account noticed, I might say something stupid like that.

Okay fine, maybe they're real but insincere.

[Hack&Lube]

@Nike, my resolution for #JustDoIt2012 is to #JustDoIt 4 realz because U only live 1nce and i would sell my babies 4 #Nike because i love 2 #JustDoIt!

[OldDutch]

Even though it has been a slow decline for almost 4 years, and things getting much worse in the last 6 months, I think RIM has been caught off guard.

I really think the whole organization lives in a bubble, where they still think they are a force in the consumer mobile world. You can see it in the new CEO (Thorsten Heins, who's name is as ridiculous as this ad campaign, but I digress) he really believes they just have a image problem, not a product problem. You can see it in how he talks to the media.

So Thorsten probably walked over to the marketing department, and told them to come up with something that will help fix the perception problem that Blackberry is uncool. Problem is, when has Blackberry ever been great at marketing? They have always been about as good as Telus, who stole their branding 12 years ago from ClearNet, and has yet to change it (Almost out of animals and classic hits guys).

So this is what you get, when a company didn't have to market properly for 10 years, now suddenly has to do something. You get garbage like this, which probably would have gone unnoticed a few years ago. You see, they always have been doing it, but now people have to be convinced to buy their products, and with that, their marketing incompetence is being exposed.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Here is their latest rumored device, the "London".


Step in the right direction?

[Hack&Lube]

I had friends who went to Waterloo and worked at RIM. I could tell that place was not going to be around for the long term. It was a company of students and engineers. They had little business acumen, almost no talented industrial designers (Blackberries were some of the ugliest phones for years), and possibly the worst marketing management I have ever seen from a high-tech, stock market darling.

The bloody President of the United States (Obama) was on record saying he couldn't be without his Blackberry. He and other high level execs in government and business were all visibly using Blackberries for over an entire decade. RIM did nothing with this - the biggest free endorsement of all time since the BBC picked Acorn's (predecessor of ARM) computer to be the official BBC Micro Computer for television and schools in the UK.

As for the London, I'm not sure how this new phone can help them. There are already hundreds of "black bar" type smart phones all running Android that look similar. It doesn't win on looks so it will have to win on functionality so we'll have to see what BBX offers. Using my friend's Play Book, the RIM system feels like every other generic tablet device with apps and icons, etc. Not sure how they will differentiate themselves but they would be doing themselves a big favor by launching with a high level of Android compatibility. The time for independent smartphone OS's is over. It's like OS/2 trying to stay alive in the world of Windows and Mac OS in the 90s. Microsoft/Nokia might have a chance to stay in the game if Microsoft can find a way to leverage it's overwhelming software power in the business world with their Office and Sharepoint productivity suites onto the mobile platform with tight integration and replace Blackberry as the next business phone.

RIM has nothing going for it itself aside from the government certified security clearance. Their bread and butter used to be Blackberry Push servers but nobody wants those anymore. Everybody uses the Apple Cloud, Gmail, or Microsoft Exchange servers. RIM has to realize it's not a general consumer products/entertainment ecosystem company. It's target market is the business market and business infrastructure and communications. When IBM realized it had lost the initiative in the cutthroat world of consumer comuter products, it wisely pulled out and refocused it's efforts into R&D and business infrastructure and consulting and they have been a success. RIM needs to do the same. There is no way they can compete with the Apples, Googles, and even Amazons of this world with their versatility and depth of ecosystems.

I don't know if this Thorstein Heins really has any great vision for his company. What has he done? He presided over Siemens mobile (dead and gone) and then the BenQ version of Siemens mobile (dead and gone). They went extinct in this market. What qualifies him to turn RIM around? They need something revolutionary. RIM has gone from being the jewel of Canada to being the joke of Canada.

[chemgear]

http://business.financialpost.com/20...ls-rim-stasis/


But how different is the new management from the old?

Mr. Lazaridis is now the new vice-chair, who according to the committee’s report, “will provide strategic counsel and advice to the chief executive officer as may be determined from time to time by the board and vice-chair…”
Meanwhile, Mr. Balsillie sits on the board as a director.

How many CEOs have ever successfully made the transition from hands’ on operator to hands off director, especially a co-founder?

Also consider that Mr. Heins has said repeatedly he is staying the course set out by his predecessors.

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

RIM should really just focus on the fact that they're great for integrating with your office network and they're also cheaper than iPhones for the heavy user.

My company won't switch to iPhones because there are no unlimited U.S. data roaming packages with them. All the major companies offer one with BlackBerry, however.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by Sidney Crosby's Hat

RIM should really just focus on the fact that they're great for integrating with your office network and they're also cheaper than iPhones for the heavy user.

My company won't switch to iPhones because there are no unlimited U.S. data roaming packages with them. All the major companies offer one with BlackBerry, however.

Isn't RIM a pretty big sponsor of your companies "company" though?

[photon]

OC:

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

Isn't RIM a pretty big sponsor of your companies "company" though?

Yes, though the two don't necessarily need to have the same sponsors -- and don't in many cases.

Other examples are Bell and Telus, Pepsi and Coke, Honda and Ford.

[cal_guy]

RIM even with a terrible year is on track to make about $2.1 billion for it's 2012 fiscal year and has no long term debt. Contrast that to some of the bottom feeders of the Android manufacturing such as Motorola, LG, and Sony-Ericsson(soon to be just Sony) which have all been losing money on their handset divisions. I'm not saying that RIM will certainly return to prominence, but neither are they doomed.