RIM has just recently announced that it will be including in it's Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) the ability to manage Android and iOS phones, something that up to this point has been key in making Blackberry 'the' enterprise phone as this is how the devices are secured.
Things haven't been going well for RIM, it was once the 'hot' stock, trading around $88.08 in November 2009 and is as low as $18/share thanks to many a bad decision and no feasible plan to turn that price around. I am not a trader and I don't write about RIM on a regular basis (that's probably obvious), but I am left wondering if RIM actually intends to turn things around or if this announcement is actually a backup plan.
I think they are planning for their eventual failure in the phone market as it doesn't really make sense to provide a tool that would allow big enterprise to use non-Blackberry phones. It feels like they are trying to grab on to something that would still keep them in the enterprise even if the Blackberry were to eventually fade away, and if that ever happened you would probably see some sort of Blackberry e-mail software for other devices akin to 'Blackberry Connect'. If it does work the way that I think it does and is implemented, you can almost guarantee that executives in every enterprise will be clamoring for the latest iOS or Android device, since securing the devices was the only thing preventing that in the first place. It will also almost guarantee that there will be a steady decline in RIM's phone market share. Maybe it is not as simple as that, perhaps they have somethng up their sleeves that would make using a Blackberry worthwhile.
But in order to turn things around, RIM would have to understand what is most affecting them and it doesn't seem that they do. I personally think what is most affecting them is a combination of what the anonymous high-level RIM employee had stated (stagnation and endless levels of bureaucracy) and R&D on a more capable OS on par with iOS.
Back in the day (pre-2007) most people thought that there could very few phones that could compete in RIM's space. I remember at the time, that I could either have the Blackberry or a Treo 650, though I did love PalmOS, it was not a phone that you could really rely on as it would crash regularly and the interface/device was clunky by comparison. My Curve 8300 on the other hand was stable, just started having multimedia features running on Blackberry OS4 which was wirelessly syncing my calendar, tasks and memos back to the Exchange server... who could compete with that?
Apple could, it took a little bit of time to get people to leave the comfort of rock solid e-mail, BBM and a physical keyboard, but they have done it. RIM has had more than enough time respond to the iPhone and here is how they chose to do it:
So from June 2007 (the iPhone release) the best they could do for 1 year and 4 months is a device that almost everyone regretted buying due to the touch screen and general bugginess. It then took another 3 years to finally get a real 'hardware' answer to the iPhone but was was still no where close to competing with it in software.
With that being said and with all of the news of the last year, I am fairly positive that there is no clearly defined plan for Blackberry's future. In 4 years they have not figured out a way to make Blackberry phones compelling enough to buy or develop for.
After the iPhone initially launched the first thing they should have done was to figure out how a Blackberry device stands up to an iOS device. I am not sure who they had looking at it, but clearly the first thing RIM should have done was to speed up all OS development and try to create an ecosystem. Of course that is exactly what RIM didn't do and for whatever reason they decided only to mimic the device in hardware.
Software has been a disaster on the Blackberry and since the handset is only as good as the software running on it, it is no wonder people are choosing other phones. In terms of core functionality the Blackberry did it's job well and still provided e-mail to it's corporate users. But regular consumers are not going to be happy with just e-mail, they want their games, Facebook and Twitter in addition to their e-mail. This is where the disconnect begins because almost every consumer who has lived life on a Blackberry for a few years is blown away by what is possible on an iPhone (and Android) and it will most likely what they end up with when when they renew their contracts.
I have had a blackberry ever since the monochrome 957 (when it wasn't even a phone) and I have not seen any major improvements in the software over time, or at least not the type of changes you would expect would stand up to iOS and Android. It is the same display of icons, with the same standard blackberry applications (e-mail, calendar, tasks, memos). The Blackberry has only ever really gained the ability to play media and take pictures/videos other than that, it is fundamentally the same in most ways to Blackberry OS2 that ran on that 957. The only software that I have find to be worth mentioning in all of App World is:
So just to recap, since June of 2007, 4 years and 5 months ago all we have is a touch screen device running the same OS all blackberries have shared for years, only slightly better. I have deliberately neglected to mention the other devices and the distraction that is the Playbook, but with this much time between the debut of the iPhone and now, how can we expect anything to be different? All I expect is more disappointments and missed targets... possibly an acquisition.
I don't mean to be down on RIM, I was rooting for them for a long time but I am through hoping that they will come from behind and reclaim what they are losing. I can only offer up what I think they should do to come back:
Things haven't been going well for RIM, it was once the 'hot' stock, trading around $88.08 in November 2009 and is as low as $18/share thanks to many a bad decision and no feasible plan to turn that price around. I am not a trader and I don't write about RIM on a regular basis (that's probably obvious), but I am left wondering if RIM actually intends to turn things around or if this announcement is actually a backup plan.
I think they are planning for their eventual failure in the phone market as it doesn't really make sense to provide a tool that would allow big enterprise to use non-Blackberry phones. It feels like they are trying to grab on to something that would still keep them in the enterprise even if the Blackberry were to eventually fade away, and if that ever happened you would probably see some sort of Blackberry e-mail software for other devices akin to 'Blackberry Connect'. If it does work the way that I think it does and is implemented, you can almost guarantee that executives in every enterprise will be clamoring for the latest iOS or Android device, since securing the devices was the only thing preventing that in the first place. It will also almost guarantee that there will be a steady decline in RIM's phone market share. Maybe it is not as simple as that, perhaps they have somethng up their sleeves that would make using a Blackberry worthwhile.
But in order to turn things around, RIM would have to understand what is most affecting them and it doesn't seem that they do. I personally think what is most affecting them is a combination of what the anonymous high-level RIM employee had stated (stagnation and endless levels of bureaucracy) and R&D on a more capable OS on par with iOS.
Back in the day (pre-2007) most people thought that there could very few phones that could compete in RIM's space. I remember at the time, that I could either have the Blackberry or a Treo 650, though I did love PalmOS, it was not a phone that you could really rely on as it would crash regularly and the interface/device was clunky by comparison. My Curve 8300 on the other hand was stable, just started having multimedia features running on Blackberry OS4 which was wirelessly syncing my calendar, tasks and memos back to the Exchange server... who could compete with that?
Apple could, it took a little bit of time to get people to leave the comfort of rock solid e-mail, BBM and a physical keyboard, but they have done it. RIM has had more than enough time respond to the iPhone and here is how they chose to do it:
- The blackberry storm: Came out in November 2008 and ran OS5 and you had to physically 'click' the screen down for it to acknowledge a key press. Don't know what they were thinking, perhaps that only the touch screen made the phone?
- The blackberry storm2: Came out in October 2009 again running OS5 which still had the physical 'click', but not quite as bad as the first iteration. This is just a response to the unusable touch screen of the first storm and nothing more.
- The blackberry torch: Came out in August of 2010 the first device to run OS6 and the only touch screen blackberry that was ever 'like' and iPhone/Android phone.
So from June 2007 (the iPhone release) the best they could do for 1 year and 4 months is a device that almost everyone regretted buying due to the touch screen and general bugginess. It then took another 3 years to finally get a real 'hardware' answer to the iPhone but was was still no where close to competing with it in software.
With that being said and with all of the news of the last year, I am fairly positive that there is no clearly defined plan for Blackberry's future. In 4 years they have not figured out a way to make Blackberry phones compelling enough to buy or develop for.
After the iPhone initially launched the first thing they should have done was to figure out how a Blackberry device stands up to an iOS device. I am not sure who they had looking at it, but clearly the first thing RIM should have done was to speed up all OS development and try to create an ecosystem. Of course that is exactly what RIM didn't do and for whatever reason they decided only to mimic the device in hardware.
Software has been a disaster on the Blackberry and since the handset is only as good as the software running on it, it is no wonder people are choosing other phones. In terms of core functionality the Blackberry did it's job well and still provided e-mail to it's corporate users. But regular consumers are not going to be happy with just e-mail, they want their games, Facebook and Twitter in addition to their e-mail. This is where the disconnect begins because almost every consumer who has lived life on a Blackberry for a few years is blown away by what is possible on an iPhone (and Android) and it will most likely what they end up with when when they renew their contracts.
I have had a blackberry ever since the monochrome 957 (when it wasn't even a phone) and I have not seen any major improvements in the software over time, or at least not the type of changes you would expect would stand up to iOS and Android. It is the same display of icons, with the same standard blackberry applications (e-mail, calendar, tasks, memos). The Blackberry has only ever really gained the ability to play media and take pictures/videos other than that, it is fundamentally the same in most ways to Blackberry OS2 that ran on that 957. The only software that I have find to be worth mentioning in all of App World is:
- Nimbuzz
- UberTwitter
- Facebook (for every phone)
- File Scout
- Gmail
- Gmail Sync
- Opera Mini (a must for every blackberry, even OS6)
- Drive Safe.ly (don't ever use)
- Player for YouTube
- YellowPages
- Linked In
- Citrix
- Google Maps
So just to recap, since June of 2007, 4 years and 5 months ago all we have is a touch screen device running the same OS all blackberries have shared for years, only slightly better. I have deliberately neglected to mention the other devices and the distraction that is the Playbook, but with this much time between the debut of the iPhone and now, how can we expect anything to be different? All I expect is more disappointments and missed targets... possibly an acquisition.
I don't mean to be down on RIM, I was rooting for them for a long time but I am through hoping that they will come from behind and reclaim what they are losing. I can only offer up what I think they should do to come back:
- Shake up management. Put someone in charge that will change things up. The days of the CO-CEOs stating that everything is fine and that they have a plan are over.
- Split the blackberry devices into consumer and enterprise phones. If the problem is that you can't move fast due to the enterprise, create a consumer phone that is on par with the iphone to give you the time to upgrade the enterprise phones to the same level.
- Pause the Playbook. It is taking far too much time and attention when their core business is suffering. The iPad owns that space and RIM is too far behind application wise to even come close to being competition for it.
- Refocus on the OS for the device. Take all the focus that was placed on the distraction that is the Playbook and make a phone that competes with the iPhone or Android. Once the OS is finished, entice developers, give them a better deal than can be found anywhere else 80/20 or 90/10 the platform is going to be built on them. It should be easy enough that developers won't even blink an eye at wanting to develop for it and at the very least they should be #3 in the development order, the first 2 being iOS and Android.
- Build an ecosystem. Though they are trying with BBM Music, they are putting far too much focus into 1 specific Blackberry application. They should be building it into App World, where the store front is and emulating iTunes just like the Android Marketplace and the XBox MarketPlace (or whatever it is called) is doing. You want to give people the apps, music, video and everything else they need in one spot and you want to have enough content there to keep people interested.
Update: Here is an article not even 24 hours from the post describing their predicament (because of the playbook) http://m.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/rim-to-miss-targets-take-playbook-hit/article2257745/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=feedburner&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheGlobeAndMail-Front+%28The+Globe+and+Mail+-+Latest+News%29&service=mobile
Update2: Seems that CNN Money agrees with me: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/11/30/rims-new-motto-if-you-cant-beat-them-join-them/?section=magazines_fortune&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fmagazines_fortune+%28Fortune+Magazine%29
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