Flatlining User Base May Spell End of RIM 180
Meshach writes "There is an article in the Globe and Mail that says that the user base for Blackberry has stopped growing for the first time in the company's history, and speculates that this is the beginning of the end of RIM. The main problem seems to be that RIM's new Blackberry models like the Bold and Torch are selling poorly, and their production costs are much higher than other products manufactured in China. A recent research report says that after BB10 the company will need to sell or drastically change its business model."
Beginning (Score:5, Insightful)
THIS is the beginning of the end of RIM?
It began a long time ago...
RIM Indian Mobiles (Score:3)
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This is the beginning of the end of the end.
Android with BB flavor (Score:5, Interesting)
2. Enhance security; add exclusive BB apps.
3. Profit
No, no ??? needed. Just go straight to profit.
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That sounds completely reasonable and obvious. The problem with RIM isn't their product, it's their entire business model being outdated.
But RIM comes from a (short) history of dominating the smart phone business. I wonder if they can be rational enough to opt for a smaller marketshare of standard commodity smartphones instead of trying to regain that past glory. Perhaps RIM would be best served by simply selling their apps on all phones and get out of hardware alltogether. My guess is they'll keep trying t
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The problem with RIM isn't their product, it's their entire business model being outdated.
Get a government contract and hang on forever? I donno thats doing pretty well elsewhere...
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What company besides Samsung has Android actually been profitable for?
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" How good they play determines how much money they make."
There are only two Android manufacturers that make any profit whatsoever -- HTC and Samsung and HTC isn't doing so well.
http://www.zdnet.com/htcs-quarterly-profits-plunge-again-what-can-they-do-to-turn-things-around-7000002275/ [zdnet.com]
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1.5: fire 75% of staff.
staff is making these decisions.
that's why it doesn't happen.
though current route might mean fire 98% of staff.
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Android is shit compared to their new OS. It's a massive step backward, technically, from what they have with QNX.
Then why are they recruiting? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Then why are they recruiting? (Score:4, Insightful)
Because the people closest to the situation have decided to leave.
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Because everyone likes a good RIM job.
HP to the Rescue! (Score:5, Funny)
2. Sit on technologies for 3 years
3. ???
4. Sell what's left for 75 million
5. Profit!
3. ??? (Score:5, Funny)
Hire Carly?
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You forgot: Short HP.
1. Buy RIM for $10B
2. Sit on technologies for 3 years
3. ???
4. Sell what's left for 75 million
5. Profit!
Alternatively (Score:5, Insightful)
Alternatively RIM has all but stopped creating new legacy phones, and anyone who *is* interested (at least in the north american market) is pretty much waiting for BB10 devices at this point.
Financials are out this week; it'll be interesting to see if global growth did actually stop.
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The parent is correct. They will have an explosion of new users once BB10 devices arrive. I have a 9930 and I can't wait to upgrade.
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People waiting to upgrade are not new users. They're existing users buying new phones.
That will lead to sales, but not growth in the user base.
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RIM abandons all their old customers by passing the buck to the telcos, so I don't expect them to support my phone anwyay. I'm not sure why you think the 9930 won't be abandoned too.
I had to upgrade my 9700 with a leak from Bittorrent.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry_OS [wikipedia.org] "While RIM develops and releases updated versions of its operating system to support each device, it is up to the individual carriers to decide if and when a version is released to its users."
I don't care if they abandon the 9930. They've already told everyone that they will not be updating currently software.
Also, BB users know that they can download and install updated OS versions anytime they want regardless of carrier. You can usually get the software straight from BB's website. The phones are not locked and do not need to be rooted. Just check BB's forum, BlackBerryforums.com or CrackBerry.com for links to the software.
Actually QNX could be the best ever (Score:2)
QNX/BB10 has the potential to be the best ever mobile phone OS. Of course that means close to naught in regards market-share in the tech world.
stagnation due to saturation (Score:4, Interesting)
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the smartphone market has grown by 38.8% in the past year [bgr.com].
Even when the US becomes saturated, there are still international markets.
and finally, even though you are right: stagnation does not necessarily mean the end.. stagnation often does mean exactly that.
The problem is, when a company does not grow, it is essentially sitting in limbo until one of it's competitors kills it ... either by finding the next big product; or by growing large enough to enable economies of scale that the ungrowing company cannot
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No, I just believe that eventually those that stop growing, adapting and changing will eventually be left behind. It is in a way of never-ending, unlimited growth. Those that replace the stagnate company continue to grow until they themselves are left behind.
Apple is a classic example of a company that turned that around, dramatically. They were almost left behind, being given money by Microsoft just so Microsoft could claim that they are not a monopoly.
Now it is RIM's turn to show that either they need
Re-learning the lessons of Atari (Score:2)
Atari computers, back in the early 1980s, showed us the problem of rolling your own hardware, operating system, and software.
Any change you need to make will be (a) huge (b) require 400 internal departments to agree and (c) baffle users.
My suggestion for RIM: just go ahead and fire 2/3 of management and consolidate 2/3 of your internal teams. Then focus on using as much open source hardware and software as you can to reduce costs.
If they start doing this today, they might be able to save themselves from Cha
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And, Apple is unlearning that lesson, or what?
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Atari computers, back in the early 1980s, showed us the problem of rolling your own hardware, operating system, and software.
They didn't. Atari 8-bit computers used CPUs and interface chips from MOS Technologies (which was actually owned by their competitor Commodore), though they did have some ICs like the POKEY sound chip custom-fabbed. The BASIC interpreter was licensed from Microsoft, just like on Apple and Commodore computers, though all of these companies made their own customizations.
They are still the only ones outside the duopoly?? (Score:2)
Well I for one recently bought my very first Blackberry device (a 64-Gb Playbook, when the prices fell) for a very simple and clear reason: I want to stay out of Apple/Google duopoly.
I have been waiting for a linux tablet for a couple of years; now I feared to really turn too old before they come (I swear, I'll buy one anyhow).
While I am a bit pissed off by the ultraserious security and obviously definitive user-won't-ever-be-root feature, I find it has some positive side effects (you can lose the machine:
Add me to the RIM refugees list (Score:2)
The Solution (Score:2)
2) Make good software!
3) Follow trends and don't attempt to set them!
If Rim just got there act together and started running like a mature company and not a cutting edge start up then they might be able to turn around.
Or maybe... (Score:2)
...it's purely down to being that everyone who *wants* a Blackberry *has* a Blackberry.
They aren't doing anything to help themselves (Score:3)
If they want to expand their user base, they should try selling phones directly to users. It works well for Apple, there is no reason why it couldn't work well for RIM as well. They don't even need to open their own stores, they could sell them through best buy, target, walmart, radio shack, etc. Sell unlocked phones with manufacturer warranties, there is a market for that if they can hit a reasonable price point and free consumers from having to sign 2-year contracts to buy a new phone.
Old news: RIM analysis from Oct 2010 (Score:2)
He said it the best two years ago.
http://mobileopportunity.blogspot.com/2010/10/whats-really-wrong-with-blackberry-and.html [blogspot.com]
Flatenning != Flatlining (Score:2)
The growth of the user base is flattening, not flatlining. It's RIM itself that is flatlining.
The victory of patent trolling! (Score:2)
You can't run a company when every year someone successfully sues you for hundreds of millions of dollars over and over and over. I'm kind of hoping Apple does that no only to Samsung but to everyone everywhere and the whole cell phone market including all the carriers go under and we go back 30 or 40 years in terms of technology.
the fix (Score:2)
Put some developers BACK on the existing Software (Score:2)
*THIS*? (Score:2)
This is the begininng of the end for RIM? Yeah, that might've been poignant what, 4? 5? Years ago. They were like a dinosaur standing on a big block of wood...on top of a tar pit. It was just a matter of time without a miracle, and from the looks of it, they haven't even been praying.
Pity really... (Score:2)
I don't know if it's fair to say BB is done but I'm sure seeing a lot fewer of them these days. At a place I used to work at I got issued a BB and I've got to say that I really liked it. The battery would last forever it seemed. The phone calls came in loud and clear. It was great for texting and email. It was secure. I really liked the physical keyboard. But they were slow to adopt the touch screen interface and now seem dated compared to the iPhone and Android phones.
Hysterical nonsense (Score:2)
In any normal (non-tech) business, as long as you are making decent profits your company is successful. You don't suddenly panic and close down if one year your sales figures don't increase. I've worked for engineering firms that have been going for fifty or more years; they may be smaller than when they were at their peak and outsource a lot of manufacturing to China, but they're still ha
Just need to release the new phone already (Score:2)
All RIM needs to do is release the BB10 devices already. I'll buy one. I know many people who'll buy one. But there isn't one to buy, and the fact that it's "coming" is the main reason why existing (read - obsolete) models aren't being purchased. Why would I spend $500 on the 9900, if I know there will be a new one in under 6 months? If I wanted to spend $500 on a new phone every 6 months, I would switch to iPhones long time ago.
Re:RIM's Main Problem (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't forget that Android devices are ridiculously easy to lock down and set up with full encryption. There are actually companies out there whose entire business is doing just that for the corporate use scenario.
Its so stupidly easy to integrate Android with all of their existing email and even internal messaging apps(most of which are written in Java and trivially ported to native) that it beggars belief that they would consider much of anything else.
iPhone doesn't allow the kind of direct control that Corporate security demands, and WP7 has such a low penetration that no one is asking for it anyways. Android, even though there could definitely be better solutions, is currently the only real choice for corporate america. The worker drones get something that does everything an iPhone does(in some cases does it better, in some cases worse, but the important things are roughly the same, except for the GPS nav on android is much better) and they get their security.
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It's actually a very robust device and barring some annoyances (some of which are very annoying) the OS is attractive, intuitive and the hardware is great. But it's not Android and lack of apps kills it.
I personally think RIM's future should be on Android
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I personally think RIM's future should be on Android. Dump QNX and Playbook OS. Produce a Playbook / BB 10 OS runtime for Android and then move house over to it. Make money by selling security hardened Android devices and value added apps that sit on top.
And they should offer phones with hardware keyboards. I bet there is a market for it. Keep offering services like ping - kids here love it. All kids in high school here (Netherlands) have blackberries. Once they have money or go to university, they buy an iphone or android phone. BB should find a way to keep them instead.
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Android simply isnt designed for hardware keyboard use the way Blackberries were. RIM could try to do something with android, and it would still be a touch device first. It would also lose all of the benefits of BES that make RIM different and desirable.
Im really not clear why anyone would get a RIMdroid.
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Android simply isnt designed for hardware keyboard use the way Blackberries were.
It isn't? My old HTC Dream had excellent hard keyboard support, as does my current Samsung Captivate Glide. Now, it is quite hard to find a decent hard keyboarded Android phone (I had to import mine from the US), but the software itself supports it fine.
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Theres no way AFAIK to do swipes or many of the commands with the keyboard. There are a LOT of things that simply require taps and jabs. And I havent found the keyboard shortcuts to be terribly good.
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To port to PlayBook you have to own a PlayBook (Score:2)
It's not hugely difficult to port apps to the Playbook [...] but not many devs bother
A developer can't very well port an application to a device that he doesn't have.
and those that do stick a premium on to cover their efforts.
How much of that premium is to cover the cost of buying a PlayBook on which to test?
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They do, and I was saying this in regards to a world without RIM.
Without RIM you could pretty easily see a company that just does security springing up to make a sandbox/remote control suite for Android. I cant see Apple allowing the same.
Re:RIM's Main Problem (Score:4, Informative)
Don't forget that Android devices are ridiculously easy to lock down and set up with full encryption. There are actually companies out there whose entire business is doing just that for the corporate use scenario.
Its so stupidly easy to integrate Android with all of their existing email and even internal messaging apps(most of which are written in Java and trivially ported to native) that it beggars belief that they would consider much of anything else.
iPhone doesn't allow the kind of direct control that Corporate security demands, and WP7 has such a low penetration that no one is asking for it anyways. Android, even though there could definitely be better solutions, is currently the only real choice for corporate america. The worker drones get something that does everything an iPhone does(in some cases does it better, in some cases worse, but the important things are roughly the same, except for the GPS nav on android is much better) and they get their security.
The iPhone Configurator allows corporations to manage iPhones. But even with that, the iPhone's data-at-rest encryption and Activesync compliance hisorically gave them a heads-up over other BYODs. In addition, third party apps for iOS / Android have provided more granular and non-managed security features. For Android it filled in encryption feature gaps which is no longer an issue on the latest devices. On the iPhone the biggest benefit of these apps was to sandbox corporate data from personal, including a remote wipe.
Re:RIM's Main Problem (Score:4, Insightful)
Don't forget that Android devices are ridiculously easy to lock down and set up with full encryption....
is currently the only real choice for corporate america.
Correct me if I am wrong, but you need to get a third party product to manage that centrally (would be interested to hear how youre doing it if not). Blackberries are STILL a good choice for corp america, if you really care about security.
You really cant compare Android's email security to BES's; Android can be tricked into disclosing email with ANY legit-signed SSL cert with the proper FQDN-- even if it was issued by the DOD or one of China's authorities. You CANNOT fool BES devices in the same way-- you must either crack the AES encryption on a per-device basis, or grab all the per-device keys from the server.
I get the whole "Oh noes BES is dying" thing, but they still have superior management, and they still have superior security. Perhaps thats not what is in vogue, and failing to adapt will kill BES, but lets not go overboard by comparing Android security to Blackberry.
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They do, but the only ones that actually need that level of security generally only need it at either the highest echelons or is someone like the DoD. Sure RIM can survive on those customers but its margins are going to have to go way up and its going to have to restructure its whole business model to target ONLY the enterprise.
I was also saying this based on RIM going kaput. BES is very obviously the best choice at the moment, but in a world without BES Android becomes your only real remaining option.
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I fail to see any significant difference between IOS and Android from an IT perspective. Both support activesync, both support encryption, both support SSL, and both can be centrally managed to a degree (doesnt IOS have security profiles that can be deployed?)
Theyre also inferior to BES, but if BES goes kaput I dont see why Android becomes the only option.
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Because of the reasons companies are not mass deploying iOS already. Apple won't let them at the nuts and bolts to do their own security audits and never will unless they change course drastically.
Android on the other hand is very easy to audit. At present its not the best, but Apple won't let you at the nuts and bolts enough to essentially replicate what BES is now like they would be able to on Android.
RIM gets around this by allowing companies to have their own IT staff participate in penetration testing
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Sorry, but I don't believe the only ones who need that level of security are the highest echelons and the DoD. No serious business can afford the cost of lack of security and secure its data.
Given that, you scenario where RIM is going kaput is unlikely, they still have a niche market and if they care about it, they can still keep this precious customer base.
The point being, why should RIM target the mass market and the next door guy who need a smartphone to play some game while commuting and never use his p
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Oh I definitely think RIM should abandon the consumer market altogether. Its not their game, and never was.
Going after it has cost the company big time and they need to get back to ensuring they keep their core market.
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Yeah, in real life Android integrates far better with Exchange than either an iPhone or a BlackBerry. I dunno about windows phones, we haven't got any.
Blackberry needs BES if you are federally regulated (like any public corporation or HIPAA entity) which is a whole nuther server, for crying out loud.
And of course the iPhone has the stupid timezone calendaring bug [google.com] which has been known to cause epic mail loops.
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Here you go. Hope you're capable of reading.
http://www.apple.com/iphone/business/integration/ [apple.com]
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For most IT departments, the security needs aren't sufficient to warrant a source code audit.
Precious few though, do require source code audits, and do run their own firmware. Doing so is a lot easier if you actually can do so.
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Only the recent crop of premium Android devices support these features. I have a shiny new 2.x Android device which only supports application-level encryption through third-party apps. I'm pretty new to Android, but it's important not to mislead people on this.
The same is true of iOS. You need the new stuff to have these features. I would argue that features like remote wipe, manditory encryption and whitelisting apps is much easier in iOS 5 than on Android, although I haven't looked at iOS 6 yet though.
It's not hard to find this information: http://www.apple.com/iphone/business/integration/ [apple.com]
iOS and iPhone hardware have supported the features you mentioned for a long time. However, only in iOS 4.x have all the features been accurately reported.
Re:RIM's Main Problem (Score:5, Informative)
RIM's main problem is that enterprise companies have started moving away from the platform. People don't want to carry around several smart phones and are much more eager to choose either iPhone or WP7 phones. Microsoft is known for being the office centric company and therefore has fantastic support for Exchange server and office apps. RIM lost the audience it had when Windows Phones were introduced (while Windows Mobile also had many work users, WP was a major improvement)..
While you present an interesting theory, reality is that noone is using Windows Phone [bgr.com]. They had a market share of 3% of smartphones shipped. iPhone in particular [networkworld.com] and Android are the ones eating Blackberry's lunch. To make this even worse, this quarter Windows Phone is currently only sold on known obsolete phones [arstechnica.com]. I'm glad I didn't get suckered into buying a phone that obsolete immediately, unlike Nexus Phones and iPhones.
shippedh != sold (Score:2)
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Hell its worse than that, as we saw here a few months ago MSFT is paying $500+ in ads for every single user they get to pay $50 to take a Lumia on contract
Not defending what might still be a waste of money by MS, but comparing the supposed "$500+" cost of the ads to the $50 "cost" of the phone doesn't really say much since that $50 is the subsidised cost and can't meaningfully be considered in isolation from the obligatory contract.
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While Android is an excellent OS, it really sucks in some ways too. In particular it sucks with mouse and keyboard support. The experience of my Asus TF300 wouldn't hold a candle against a $200 netbook. Stuff like tabbing and cursor navigation / selection is horribly inconsistent and sometimes even missing from some apps (e.g. Polaris Office). I can easily imagine that Windows 8/RT is going to take off in offices because it won
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Stuff like tabbing and cursor navigation / selection is horribly inconsistent and sometimes even missing from some apps (e.g. Polaris Office).
Did you try reporting the inconsistency to the developers of those applications?
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Your troll was too subtle, to be funny.
"RIM's main problem is that enterprise companies have started moving away from the platform." While obvious, usually on par with the average Slashdot informative moderation.
"People don't want to carry around several smart phones and are much more eager to choose either iPhone or WP7 phones." This statement begins as true (insightful moderation) and if you changed WP7 or added Android. It would complete it. Your troll is based on skipping Android phones which are actua
Apple may shut down Android (Score:2)
Your troll is based on skipping Android phones which are actually far more popular then WP7.
Android phones won't stay popular in the home country of Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Slashdot if Apple keeps winning in patent court.
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Oh look, it's another first post at exactly the same time the article went up, and it's another user with no other posts, and it's another post talking about how Windows Phone shill post.
Man, Microsoft's PR department really gives us no credit at all.
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Well hello there, Mr. Ballmer! Glad to meet your acquaintence. That was the most blatant shill I've seen in a long time, the shills are really getting thick lately. How fucking stupid do you think we nerds are, anyway?
iPhone and Win7 when Win7's market share is tiny and Android has three times the sales as iPhones, and you omit Android? Again, Redmond, why do you think we're so damned stupid? Thank you for reminding me how evil MS is and to avoid their poorly designed, user-unfriendly software and OSes.
Now
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I think it's safe to say he's a troll. The combination of the user name "AndroidLover" with the actual post pretending that Android doesn't exist and that WP7, of all things, is a major force in the market is... implausible.
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He may or may not be a troll, but I work for a HUGE company, and they dumped all the Crack-Berrys and went all-in on windows phones. I was not surprised that they did that, as we are microsoft to the core (with all the benefits that entails, like blue screens galore). Before the giant black-berry purge, I had not actually seen a windows phone in the wild.
Apparently our IT folks examined the smart-phone landscape and something (hopefully) smart pushed them to WP7. so the GP may have a point.
BTW, I hate th
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He may or may not be a troll, but I work for a HUGE company, and they dumped all the Crack-Berrys and went all-in on windows phones. I was not surprised that they did that, as we are microsoft to the core
The problem is that Windows Phones actually aren't any better at integrating with real Windows infrastructure than iPhones, Android devices, or BlackBerries are. If Microsoft had added real domain/GPO features to Windows Phones, they could have made a good business case. But as things are, everyone has Ac
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
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Apparently they dont like a 30 minute server setup process, followed by no-hassle user adds (user needs to enter their email and the activation password) and device wipes.
Yes, Im sure something smart pushed them to WP7, but darned if I can figure out what it is. Oh wait, Im gonna go with "someone higher up doesnt care about email as much as he cares about 'slick' and 'can watch netflix'".
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Or rather, "someone higher up got some favours from a Microsoft rep".
Re:RIM's Main Problem (Score:5, Insightful)
Why would you think the IT people had any real input into this decision?
Last time Microsoft made an aggressive push to counter Apple et. al. in the workplace, they didn't target us lowly peons - they wined and dined presidents and CEOs. I recall several Microsoft-centric directives, a few years ago, coming from the office of our university's president regarding things like setting up a campus-wide Exchange service; they came roughly six months after our central IT department announced we were moving campus mail to Google Apps.
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There aren't any WP8 phones with full keyboards. None. It's one of the things that Nokia watchers shake their heads at and go "WTF?"
Re:RIM is already dead (Score:5, Insightful)
RIM was hardly dead 5 years ago. Android wasn't out 5 years ago, it didn't come out until 2008. 5 years ago the iPhone was just coming out and it was hardly a business ready device. Do you remember the state of Palm phones and Windows Phone 5 years ago? I doubt it.
I really enjoyed my BlackBerry 5 years ago, it was an impressive device. Heck I enjoyed my BlackBerry 10 years ago. RIM was on top of the world. Shame its basically the same thing they sell today. Arrogance, ignorance, whatever their failing was. They're done today. Had they done something good 2 years ago, maybe a different story, but 2 years is a long time in this market.
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From where I sit I saw one of the strengths of RIM turn against them - the BES server and all the administrative control it allows.
For many years I worked closely with the team that ran the blackberry infrastructure at my company. Whenever a new blackberry came out, users started asking for it. When I asked them about it, the answer could often be summarized as follows:
"Yes people want them, but that model has X. Our current version of X does not allow us to administratively disable X. On (date) we will
Re:RIM is already dead (Score:4, Informative)
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He's talking Dog Years.
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What kind of world is it that a company is "dead" the first quarter they don't grow their user base?
Here's a prediction: IBM is dead, it's only a matter of time, they're already slipping into obscurity.
And, while we're at it, how about Linux? I mean, really, with that pitiful market share, how long can they possibly last?
Just because Palm flamed out spectacularly doesn't mean that every handheld device maker will follow in their image when they lose market share. RIM is no longer going to conquer the whol
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In some industries, that might not mean much but the smartphone world is moving quickly and it doesn't take ling to go from a bit outdated to buggy whip.
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I had a blackberry once, my company gave it to me. As long as that is still happening, they have a market - IT departments don't change their buying habits as quickly as Starbucks patrons do.
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True they don't change so quickly. The problem for RIM is that they ARE changing right now, and that change is against Blackberry. They won't be so quick to change back even if RIM does get their act together.
Note, you HAD a Blackberry ONCE.
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True they don't change so quickly. The problem for RIM is that they ARE changing right now, and that change is against Blackberry. They won't be so quick to change back even if RIM does get their act together.
Note, you HAD a Blackberry ONCE.
And, I moved from a big company to a small one that does not provide company leashes.
The big company still gives out crackberries, on a hierarchical graded scheme with the more expensive ones going to the higher ups - they get off on that kind of stuff and will continue to keep their vassals in structured and graded RIM land until such time as Apple comes out with 6 levels of iPhone, each subtly but visibly just a little bit better than the other one.
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Some companies may well use them as social plumage (much like some 'primitive tribes have the men tying extensions on to their penis), but that's going to weigh against RIM too as their product line edges towards buggy whip. Nobody wants a floppy penis extension.
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Dunno, those guys in IT that were so hung up on the feature tables seemed like a floppy extension would be far better than their natural equipment.
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If I go to verizon's web site there are 4 android phones with slide out physical keyboards, and 4 blackerry phones with physcial keyboards.
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As others have pointed out, users waiting for BB10 have nothing to do with lack of growth: those users are part of the current userbase, and wouldn't result in growth.
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Liar.
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Wanting to save some money, I got a Blackberry, instead of an iPhone or Android. It was a stupid mistake. The phone's quality is sub-par (I had to send it off to be repaired after the screen snapped under the pressure of my thumb, from picking it up). The menus are complicated and convoluted; nothing is where you'd think it should be and somethings need to be adjusted from several different locations (and I'm good with menus. I work with computers all day). On top of all of that, the audio, on my phone model anyway, is terrible. It's muffled and hard to hear. As soon as my commitment on this phone runs out, I am ditching this thing and never looking back.
If you're going to succeed in the "being a stupid shill" industry, you need to remember to plug the product you're being paid to shill. Knocking the competition is only half the job.
I can only score you "5/10 must try harder". Remember, next time, the final clause should be something along the lines of "I am ditching this thing for an iPhone, with its vastly superior build quality, wide selection of Angry Birds games and easy-to-use virtual keyboard, and never looking back."