Comments on: How should RIM react to increased competition from Apple, Palm?

By: klayymann

klayymann — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:53:21 +0000

Exactly.

By: erich nolan bertussi davies

erich nolan bertussi davies — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 06:56:48 +0000

@soma__ has certainly stepped back from her early Palm Pre yearnings.. it seems too much hesitation in the data pool out here…

next step to visit a store and hold a working unit and see how it actually feels.. as well i noticed the schizophrenic RIM UI philosophy surfaced today with the new curve that sports a touch pad and not a rolly ball jam and and goop up thang.. hmmm.

By: Brill Pappin

Brill Pappin — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:01:20 +0000

@Lee Lloyd

Well i’ll be, “argumentation *is* a word. Common usage in the 15th century…

I must say however, using them didn’t help your argument :)

By: Bastien Koert

Bastien Koert — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:05:29 +0000

Only in the south. They also think “y’all” is a word

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 06:05:59 +0000

Here is huge products and variety of RIM. Awesome prices.. Different stores different offers. Just compare the prices.
http://www.justcompareit.com/s~q-rim~b-11580100~c-cell-phones~f-259-609018.aspx?ag=3

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 06:02:56 +0000

RIM is doing good work.. Ther shoud use web OS.

By: John Davies

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 05:57:07 +0000

BES is an advantage for RIM in only one market segment: large enterprise. It is a sales obstacle for many other market segments including small/medium enterprise and hosted Exchange. ActiveSync is a better solution for these market segments because it is simpler, requires no middleware and provides more features than BIS.

*disclaimer*
Our company has a great ActiveSync solution for BlackBerry:
http://www.astrasync.com
*/disclaimer/*

RIM’s market share over the last 2 years has been driven by Verizon with the Storm and the 2for1 Curves. Why? Simply because ATT has the iPhone. So much so that I’ve read that Verizon now represents 25% of RIM’s business.

Now imagine what happens if Verizon starts selling the iPhone….

Many Verizon customers are buying BlackBerry devices because they can’t buy an iPhone… and they would die before switching carrier to ATT.

BlackBerry *can* compete with iPhone…. if RIM makes some dramatic improvements in the OS *and* they jettison the NIH attitute.

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:59:18 +0000

i agree, Motorola are very smart, Sanjai, their CEO has made a huge gamble on Android but has focused the company very well.
I will not be surprised if there sales jump up very nicely.

By: Lee Lloyd

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:46:06 +0000

“Argumentation” is a very real word.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/argumentation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argumentation_theory

“Securitization” on the other hand, is a bit more murky. It isn’t a real word, it is silly business speak, but it is in common usage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securitization

By: Frank Castle

Frank Castle — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:03:15 +0000

@AaronR – you are wrong. ActiveSync still requires a Exchange CAL per user or device so it’s not “free”. Now yes BES has a CAL per user cost but it offers way more control / security then ActiveSync so your not really comparing Apple to Apple.

Now Microsoft and growing number of 3rd party vendors would love to sell you a solution to get that greater level of control / security and yes it’s a per user CAL that is often 2x the cost of a BES cal when buying volume.

If your a small/medium business do your homework and weigh the pros / cons of each solution. For now nothing can beat BES for what it provides and their TCO / ROI.

By: Dirk

Dirk — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:47:45 +0000

Seconded, RIM has been saying, or at least there have been roumors forever about coming out with a touch/QWERTY phone. They need to get this out! People aren’t going to ditch their curves to rush out for the tour or a newer version of the same trick pony. New, different product=new sales=more money.

By: AaronR

AaronR — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:15:51 +0000

RIM should stop being douches and start becoming more interoperable. One thing would help greatly… make BES free… the fact that blackberry is the only device out there that requires licensing in order to sync contacts, calendar, and other data is just stupid. ActiveSync is free people…. blackberry sync should be too.

By: Bastien Koert

Bastien Koert — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:02:19 +0000

One factor to take in is in what markets those phones sold in? If Nokia is reporting World Wide sales vs Apple’s North American / European sales then the ball game might be a little different.

RIM also when up because of the general increase in consumer demand for smartphones of which Apple has also more interest.

The most interesting test will be Apple’s move into the Chinese/Asian markets, which got approved last week. RIM has been there since late 2007 and this is one huge market.

By: moog

moog — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:50:27 +0000

Er…that’s the Apple formula. See notebooks, handhelds, etc… They *normally* aren’t on the forefront of technology. They wait for others to establish the market, learn by trial and error and then release products that attempt to improve on where the ground work has been established.

By: Colin

Colin — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:42:21 +0000

Agreed!

If they intend on entering the consumer market, they should be considering the Android OS for *some* of their models. I say some because they should keep their enterprise line with their standard OS.

By: JOe

JOe — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:49:03 +0000

Use the MS formula. See what competition is doing and then copy.

So for RIM, copy Apple.

By: moog

moog — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 03:08:02 +0000

I’m genuinely interested to hear what the execs have to say. I’ll keep an eye out for your post. :)

By: Bastien

Bastien — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 02:25:20 +0000

Moog,

Sorry about the brainfart..put it down to Friday night beers…I meant the Storm.

And I would have to agree with you, the devices are difficult to develop for. It the point I was awkwardly making.

Creating a set of standards or a comprehensive framework along the same lines as what apple allows a developer would go a long way towards making the user experience more cohesive and simplifying the job of the developer when creating apps.

Doing something along these lines may do more to generate some real buzz around the development of new apps on the devices. This would drive some new interest in the consumer market, though as mentioned, RIM seems to be still a bit shaky on committing to this. Though, at least from a Canadian perspective, this may be in part due to the horrendous data rates and packages that are available to subscribers from any of the big three providers in Canada.

By: Milton

Milton — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 01:08:46 +0000

I’ve been using RIM devices for years and can definitely say their quality control has gone down the drain, especially with their newest devices. I’m sure that and releasing great phones prematurely all have an effect on their reputation and business overall.

By: visua

visua — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 23:30:26 +0000

I agree. That and openness of API’s that integrate with other software like iTunes, .Mac, etc.

Presumably, they can start their own ’small business’ web apps that integrate into the network.

By: Alyssa Myers

Alyssa Myers — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:51:59 +0000

Buying Palm won’t help them. They are an insanely strong company, but if they want to keep their status, they need to compete with Apple on their level: The Interface. Their UI sucks and the new touchscreen Blackberries haven’t done much to help the UI. If they can refine the UI, they will be players for a long time to come.

By: Mark A

Mark A — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:55:48 +0000

I’m not sure how you connect the two actually. Apple make one premium product and charge a huge mark up for it.

So, yeah, lots of revenue but that means diddly squat when talking about market share, product diversity and long term stability.

By: k-rad

k-rad — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 18:11:02 +0000

I am in no means an iPhone fanboy. Don’t own one and don’t plan on it (like the Pre better) but the iPhone has only been around two years, yet accounts for 32% of the industry revenue. That is staggering when you consider that the company has not been making phones up until 2007.

http://fonefrenzy.com/2009/08/13/iprofit-the-iphone-money-making-machine/

RIM needs to completely revamp their OS and start over or they can kiss their market share goodbye to the likes of Apple, Palm’s webOS and Android platforms.

By: moog

moog — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 17:59:35 +0000

I guess I’d better define “better”;

RIM has, what Jim B calls, a “shadow network” that allows them to control the data. They are essentially acting as an ISP behind the scenes, optimizing and compressing BB data. This directly translates into less bandwidth consumption for the carrier (see AT&T’s problems with capacity) and improved battery performance for devices (more data being trasnmitted in smaller chunks).
Also, if I recall correctly, the Windows ActiveSync technology essentially requires a TCP ssh connection to be kept open in order for “push” data to work. This too is costly on battery life. With RIM’s solution, this isn’t required.

By: moog

moog — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 17:53:29 +0000

Soon my friend, very soon. See the reference above to the Torch Mobile acquisition. That can only mean good things for the BB browser.