RIM Cuts 2000 Jobs

[4X4]

I just don't like the fact people can see how long I've taken to respond. If your life is so free of any reason why you'd like to think before you speak, then I suppose I should be jealous. Glad you like BBM. I don't.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Russic

RIM confuses me. I've used them and I just don't understand the appeal. Truthfully one of the best ever explanations came from this thread, and essentially that was just from the IT perspective that it doesn't do a whole lot.

I prefer Apple and I totally get android, but RIM is a curious addition. Somebody compared them to Apple in the 90's and I think it's a fantastic comparison. Little direction, too many products that don't do anything well, and a pocket of people who are fiercely loyal.

IMO RIM just needs to write out the top 3 things they do and spend the next year focusing on that. Don't try to be iPhone and don't try to be Android... just focus on being a sturdy, dependable work machine and evolve from there.

At this point, frankly, the appeal is based on inertia. Also, the IT perspective can't be overlooked. Back in the day, Palm was the big player in the PDA market, and every executive worth his salt had one. Then RIM came along with innovative changes, and stomped the ever loving hell out of Palm in the business market.

And from the IT perspective, many companies have invested in BES technology, they integrate with Exchange, Lotus Notes and Novel GroupWise, and they have historically had a very good reputation for the business environment. So with that kind of investment, it is easy to simply keep moving to new models of Blackberry products. The client company I work for does exactly that, while my employer is still about 80% Blackberry in its supported offerings.

Problem is, RIM failed to learn from history. It broke through because Palm stagnated, and now it is stagnating itself. Apple changed the game with the iPhone, but while Droid and Microsoft both took steps to move forward themselves, RIM was very slow to adapt. The good news for RIM is that it still has the market share, and it still has the core reputation that if it has something very good in development, it can come back.

Otherwise, It may only be a few years before RIM goes the way of Palm.

[DementedReality]

Originally Posted by 4X4

I just don't like the fact people can see how long I've taken to respond. If your life is so free of any reason why you'd like to think before you speak, then I suppose I should be jealous. Glad you like BBM. I don't.

well sorry didnt meant to call you out, just caught my curiousity thats all.

carrying on so this thread can get back on topic!

[browna]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

At this point, frankly, the appeal is based on inertia. Also, the IT perspective can't be overlooked. Back in the day, Palm was the big player in the PDA market, and every executive worth his salt had one. Then RIM came along with innovative changes, and stomped the ever loving hell out of Palm in the business market.

And from the IT perspective, many companies have invested in BES technology, they integrate with Exchange, Lotus Notes and Novel GroupWise, and they have historically had a very good reputation for the business environment. So with that kind of investment, it is easy to simply keep moving to new models of Blackberry products. The client company I work for does exactly that, while my employer is still about 80% Blackberry in its supported offerings.

Problem is, RIM failed to learn from history. It broke through because Palm stagnated, and now it is stagnating itself. Apple changed the game with the iPhone, but while Droid and Microsoft both took steps to move forward themselves, RIM was very slow to adapt. The good news for RIM is that it still has the market share, and it still has the core reputation that if it has something very good in development, it can come back.

Otherwise, It may only be a few years before RIM goes the way of Palm.

RIM's other large claim, is its security, corporately, and for governments around the world. Rim's own set of servers seeing and controlling all the traffic to all of the tens of millions of devices out there is the backbone of the system and will be for as long as they are around. Its hard to break too far away from the massive infrastructure and model, once its set in place.

Thus, the software portion has a lot more restrictions in devlopment...no open source like Andriod, no security flaws through things like PDF's as the source for jailbreaking Iphones. With that eye on rock solid security over its platform and for all its apps, no way can RIM properly pump out software updates as timely,and thus it also cannot pump out powerful phones that can take advantage of the OS nearly as quickly as Iphone and Andrioid. Plus, the company itself has grown 4x in the past 3 or so years, so managing growth and allocating resources was probably a new challenge that they've taken missteps with.

Simply, given the growth and the focus on secure, software development time RIM just can't move as fast in bringing new things to market on the software side, which leads to the same issue on the hardware side and thus an unflashy experience compared to Iphone and dual core Androids.

This next round of phones have been delayed months in order to upgrade the hardware stats which will be outdated by the time the QNX OS phones come out in a year or less.

Playbook was an attempt to expand the horizons and the market, and the product is great, but it has been a horribly mistimed decision...among some of the many reasons, no app creators are going to jump on something that is running a red herring OS, at least for now. A lot of time and resources were poured into the Playbook project, slowing down and sucking out capital probably for other projects more on the phone side at RIM. I enjoy mine for what it is, great size, solid hardware, fantastic OS, and when the next generation of phones come out with that OS, Blackberry will be back in the game, assuming too many people haven't abandoned it yet. The Playbook needed to be released when QNX is available on BB phones to allow a similar playing field for developers ala Iphone/Ipad, so I fully expect to see Playbook 2 rolled out along with those new phones next year.

However, as long as the corporate and IT policies remain firm and RIM remains enterprise friendly over the next year, corporations will continue to rely on RIM and handing out BB's to their staff to "just plain work, hassle free" through the tough period....when it comes time for a more up to date OS and hardware with QNX system, RIM will be back..in the mean time, they're still gaining subscribers, clearly not at the rate of competitors though, and if they can keep their head above water, focus down on certain aspects and get the new OS out asap with hardware to match, they could claw back into the picture.

[darklord700]

Originally Posted by browna

when it comes time for a more up to date OS and hardware with QNX system, RIM will be back..in the mean time, they're still gaining subscribers, clearly not at the rate of competitors though, and if they can keep their head above water, focus down on certain aspects and get the new OS out asap with hardware to match, they could claw back into the picture.

Just bet a couple large on RIMM figure at worse someone would buy them out so hopefully I won't lose my shirt. But if QNX works, RIMM could be back. The company at this bad time was still making good money last Q.

[tjinaz]

While business is supposed to be about functionality, security and cost there is a hype aspect to it.

Back in the day all the execs would line up to get the latest greatest BB and would show it off to all of their Exec buddies. Now you say Blackberry and most are like... ewwww you are so not up on technology. Alot of business is perception and Blackberry has clearly fallen out of favor. That and the cost. BBs are expensive both in initial cost and support. The smartphone market has exploded and we are seeing newer better phones at a faster and faster rate. Now if you don't have a droid with dual core.. you are not current. The options now are outrageous and people want that. I can list several whitepapers on the corporate demand to link personal smartphones to corporate resources, it is a very strong trend in IT right now and is only expected to grow.