Another one bites the dust RIM

Apple's former main competition Research in Motion who not so long ago ruled the smart phone world took a giant step towards extinction today with their financial earnings announcement.

Kind of sad, as a Canadian I was rooting for them to do something special but they seem to have just rested on their laurels for too long and could not keep up when they realized they were no longer the "it" thing to own.

They had good leading edge products but failed to invest and do adequate R&R in my opinion. Apple and others have blown past them and they didn't even see it coming.

Think they have a chance? My prediction is Google buys them up.

I'm not sure how worth it purchasing RIM would be for Google. They're obviously moving into the phone market, but RIM's really got no technology that's worth pursuing currently (which is reflected, IMO, in their tanking stock price). We'll see though, I guess.

Actually they have a very secure and patented system that is preferred by Govt and business...but they just don't have the products to go with it anymore.

Well, we'll see. I see fewer RIM devices in use in my industry day by day. Replaced more and more with other smartphones, with customized security applications installed.

I know very few people that actually enjoy their BB. Just a few days ago, my friend told me to pull my car over on a bridge. Thinking that he was sick or something, I stopped, and asked him if he was okay. He said "yeah," and proceeded out the car, and HURLED his BB into the river. I was in such hilarious shock, that I had to rest my back against my car so I can hold my self up.

To me, BB just "doesn't want it as badly" as the other phone companies. They wasted so much R&D on their tablet and core business customers, that they alienated the people who purchase better phones because they now have options. It's not like they old days where it's just Palm or BB. BB doesn't know how to succeed in these conditions, and they are quickly burning through money.

iggibar said:

I know very few people that actually enjoy their BB. Just a few days ago, my friend told me to pull my car over on a bridge. Thinking that he was sick or something, I stopped, and asked him if he was okay. He said "yeah," and proceeded out the car, and HURLED his BB into the river. I was in such hilarious shock, that I had to rest my back against my car so I can hold my self up.

t

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ROTFL Thanks I needed a good laugh. I felt the same way by the time I got rid of my Palm Centro.

I think RIM's tablet made them look bad at a time they could not afford that. I remember the Fox & Friends morning show talking about it when it was released. The reporter who had used it, and covered most of the big tech announcements, was amazed that it did not ship with an e-mail client installed. Yes, you could download one but that was one more rep for the user to perform. Major annoyance if you were new to the BB setup and did not know which e-mail app was good.

I think some of the security news and whether they would share codes with other countries also hurt.

Dysfunction said:

Well, we'll see. I see fewer RIM devices in use in my industry day by day. Replaced more and more with other smartphones, with customized security applications installed.

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This isn't surprising given their shifting demographic. Last I heard, they're still growing overseas but are nosediving in NA.

Slydude said:

The reporter who had used it, and covered most of the big tech announcements, was amazed that it did not ship with an e-mail client installed.

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Nobody does. For a company that prides itself on communication tools, they sure did screw that one up.

I was watching a video the other day of the BB10 dev alpha device that doesn't actually come with BB10 but a pared down version of the PlayBook OS. All I could think the whole time was "why not ship it with an alpha of BB10?" and "why aren't they building their next gen phone OS off of that pared down PB OS?" From the looks of the performance and how well it scaled to a smaller screen, I can't help but think RIM might actually stand a chance if they used that platform and not another one that continually gets delayed (I bet that at Christmas, the "Q1 of 2013" date will be pushed back further).

I'm not saying "let them burn and crash" but they deserve what's coming to them.

vansmith said:

I was watching a video the other day of the BB10 dev alpha device that doesn't actually come with BB10 but a pared down version of the PlayBook OS. All I could think the whole time was "why not ship it with an alpha of BB10?" and "why aren't they building their next gen phone OS off of that pared down PB OS?"

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That would seem like the smart thing to do. I think that is one thing that has really helped Apple. Developers don't have to push out one version for the iPhone/iPod and one for the iPad. The could if there is some feature that benefits from it but don't have to.

A single OS for BB phone and tablet would cut RIMS dev time as well.

I didn't even remember the name of their tablet till Van mentioned it. Man I'm getting old.

I will say this, though. They can make great hardware. The PlayBook I had was nice, as was its OS. The only problem was limited apps.

I was going to ask how the PB was holding out for you but your use of the past tense for "have" helps answer my question.

vansmith said:

I was going to ask how the PB was holding out for you but your use of the past tense for "have" helps answer my question.

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Hah yeah, I sold it and bought my CZ75 It held out fine, but the missing apps, and the CZ that I wanted did for me

Haha, I didn't recognize what a CZ75 was so I went searching, expecting to find some sort of electronic device. Well, that's definitely not in the same category.

vansmith said:

Haha, I didn't recognize what a CZ75 was so I went searching, expecting to find some sort of electronic device. Well, that's definitely not in the same category.

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It sure is a blast

I think RIM's problem is that they have the same sort of attitude to their consumers as Apple, but a completely different usage ethic. Think of the Mac & PC ads, but make it iPhone & BlackBerry.

Both Apple and RIM are in the habit of telling their customers what they want; but whereas Apple tells its customers "You're cool, you're awesome, you want this cool & awesome thing to compliment you!" (&, indeed, probably ends-up selling a lot of people devices with features they will never use; but at least that way satisfaction is guaranteed); RIM seems to basically still say to their customers "You work a dull, down-to-business job; so why would you ever need anything more than a dull, down-to-business device to do anything but get the job done?"

Now they've tried to diversify & get them a piece of the modern smartphone market, and they just don't know how to do it. It's as if the best electronic typewriter manufacturers in the world decided to start making PCs & did produce computers of the same hardware quality as their typewriters; but only gave them 1MHz single-core CPUs, 64MB of RAM, & pre-loaded them with Windows 95 because it was good enough to do everything the kind of person who'd buy a typewriter would want to do on a computer; and then wondered why hardly anyone bought the blasted things!

BBOS & the low specs of their phones are problems, but if they were to up the processors & RAM a bit and dump BBOS for either a custom-skinned Android distro or possibly give-up on the BBUI too & go with Windows Phone 8 (but switching OS is something they've already categorically stated they *won't* do), then they'd be in with a shot; as their aesthetics, physical keyboard design, & mini-trackpad system are actually pretty good.

Ctrl-Opt-Del said:

BBOS & the low specs of their phones are problems, but if they were to up the processors & RAM a bit and dump BBOS for either a custom-skinned Android distro or possibly give-up on the BBUI too & go with Windows Phone 8 (but switching OS is something they've already categorically stated they *won't* do), then they'd be in with a shot; as their aesthetics, physical keyboard design, & mini-trackpad system are actually pretty good.

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But they have a great OS in the QNX based PlayBook OS. It's smooth, runs well and has better multitasking than any mobile OS (from what I've heard). What they really need to do is capitalize on that instead of creating a new OS that requires yet another set of new applications. This is the essence of their problem - they keep moving from platform to platform without giving one a chance. BBOS is no good? Fine, move on. PBOS isn't doing well? Hmm, perhaps it's because you priced it out of reach for most but this doesn't mean that it isn't good.

vansmith said:

But they have a great OS in the QNX based PlayBook OS. It's smooth, runs well and has better multitasking than any mobile OS (from what I've heard). What they really need to do is capitalize on that instead of creating a new OS that requires yet another set of new applications. This is the essence of their problem - they keep moving from platform to platform without giving one a chance. BBOS is no good? Fine, move on. PBOS isn't doing well? Hmm, perhaps it's because you priced it out of reach for most but this doesn't mean that it isn't good.

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I'm really hoping they sell off QNX in some way. They were a viable company with a decent niche before RIM gobbled them up.

Blackberry Enterprise Server is also a very valuable property.

RIM seems determined to stick it out to the bitter end so part of me thinks that won't happen. However, I don't know what's going on behind the "PR-speak" and the sale of portions of the company may very well be an idea floating around.

Here's to hoping that part of a company that has decent tech can survive what has been a tragic downfall (I found out the other day that, for a short period of time, they were the most valuable company in the country).

I liked black berry but the only thing I didn't like was how you scroll and the OS layout. iOS definitely has the lead against thei competition.