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One of RIM’s biggest investors says “Steve Jobs is a much better marketer”, sells over 5 million shares
The bloodbath continues today for RIM. After announcing disappointing financial results and declaring their upcoming devices will be delayed, the market is reacting and their share price is currently down over 20%, or $7.00/share. To make matters worse their 6th biggest shareholders with approximately 10.2 million shares has lost faith, selling over 50% of their stake in the company.
Jarislowsky Fraser Ltd had about $361 million tied up in RIM stock but Chairman Stephen Jarislowsky said “We are on the way out. The stake has been reduced by more than 50% or even more… They are resting on their laurels… Steve Jobs is a much better marketer than RIM”.
What do you think… will RIM make it back to the glory days?
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63 comments for “One of RIM’s biggest investors says “Steve Jobs is a much better marketer”, sells over 5 million shares”
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you better check the numbers on the Playbook.
they “shipped” over 500k Playbooks but how many were sold to end consumers is a different matter…
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I find it highly doubtful dominoes20 truly believes people should buy RIM. I consider it exceedingly more likely he currently hold RIM shares and wants the share price to stop bleeding. Good old fashion stock pump-and-dump.
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Research in SLOW Motion needs to act fast:
1) Forget QNX, it’s a war of ecosystems right now, nobody cares if it’s the best damn mobile OS on the planet if there are only handful applications for it.
2) Android is open source, take it, tweak it and put it on all your new BlackBerries.
3) Start manufacturing large tourch screen devices (3.5-4 inches) with slide out keyboards to differentiate yourself hardware-wise.
4) Finally make Android app for Blackberry Messenger available in Google Market.
5) Keep all security features Blackberry is known for to stand out software-wise.
Otherwise, RIM is going to follow down Nokia’s path pretty soon.
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@TomatoGuy
RIM is already doing all those things: android apps; qnx; bbm cross platform…
They don’t need to rush products. RIM is about solid and reliable phones, with business grade security. They’re a quality brand, not a hipster fashion brand.
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And yet apparantly, that just isn’t working for them.
Nokia was about quality, rather than having what people wanted. Look where that got them.
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Possibly. But that depends on a few things:
1) Back to school smartphone lineup – on time or not
2) New OS 7 – meets current market expectations or not
3) Applications – meets Andriod / Apple
3a) When Android apps will in fact be supported on BB
If most of the above fall into the “or not” category, I would be thinking about a short sale lol if I were a stakeholder
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uh-oh
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It hurts me to see RIM going down like this. They really need a better OS. QNX may not come fast enough or make enough of an impact for them.
As much as it doesn’t seem realistic, I kinda wish they would just adopt Android. With their established name on a popular OS, I think they could really do well… + they could add their own unique stuff to their versions to stand out from the rest…
Seems they are going down the route of Nokia really. Nokia with their weak OS, going down, even though they have a better OS coming out later (Meego), jumps to WP7. Same could happen?
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I don’t think it’s as easy a switch as many people would like to think. I’m sure a lot of their enterprise customer’s wouldn’t be happy with the open source Android, and with having to switch to a new platform.
They can be successful with their own OS, but they need to get hardware and software to the market much quicker.
If I had shares, I’d sell and wait to see signs of life.
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RIM has inertia on their side, they can take advantage of that and kick-a*s this fall when school starts, or at the latest by US Thanks Giving. After that, last one out turn off the lights!
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I don’t have any faith at all in the RIM OS’s at all. I know they bought Tata and could be working on something rather funky but other than a miracle Hail Mary that finds the target, RIM has got to come to grips with reality like Nokia has and realize that iOS/Android and Windows Phone are going to be the only viable mobile OS’s.
They should build Android and Window Phone devices. WP7 is going to awesome and the deepening integration with Xbox Live and Kinect is going to make WP a very compelling platform in the future so RIM should build for both despite WP’s lacklustre sales during its soft launch.
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Do you mean TAT? TATA makes vehicles… and acquired Jaguar..
Got me thinking of BBM services integration into the cars..
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Hopefully they can bounce back.
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To me it always seemed like BBs were incredibly over-priced. 450 for a 9780? Other keyboard phones run nowhere NEAR that (good keyboard phones too).
Maybe it’s because i’ve never owned one, but is there something i’m missing that would explain why they are so expensive?
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@caplin: not missing anything. RIM is a sinking ship that needs DRASTIC measures to get out of this. I’ve already made the switch to Android and I’m kicking myself for not switching sooner.
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RIMM’s dominance started when they started to market cheap (i.e. free with 3 year contract) Pearls and other BBs to kids. Virtually every teen at the local mall has a BB.
If RIMM can change to software to allow BBs to use the Android Marketplace, like mentioned here on their PlayBook, that might turn them around.
It’s time to stop relying on the Enterprise market and go after world+dog.
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BlackBerries are over priced hardware with their low end processors and ram. And their software is so limited and badly designed that they need a complete overhaul. Sure, the high efficiency was great way back when, but this is a different market, even in business.
BlackBerries are the only smart phone that does not connect with MS Active Sync, they need their own BES. Why should a company pay for 2 support contracts and licences? They NEED Microsoft.. they don’t NEED blackberry.
As far as consumers.. it’s all about the apps. Apps need devs and they need high end hardware. RIM is failing with both. It’s very sad, I want rim to succeed but who ever is making the choices over their is not willing to make the hard ones for drastic changes. Baby steps will not work here.
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BES Express is free and easy to install and configure. Any IT guy worth his salt can get this up and running 4 hours or less. For most business this is a non-issue, most IT professionals I talk too would take administering a BES over ActiveSync any day.
As for Apps you are completely right; until they get QNX on their phones and support Android apps anything they do is just stopgap.
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I like RIM and it is true that Mr. Jobs is a great marketer. However, his health is an issue and Apple has a history of doing bad things without him. Things would definitely become interesting again if Steve Jobs doesn’t return to Apple.
With that said, RIM should have been prepared for this.
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Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
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Everyone? Hardly.
Blackberries are an entry level smartphone for most people. Aside from businessmen, everyone looking to upgrade, seems to at least consider Android/iOS/WP7. Nobody looks at their Android phone and says “boy, the things I could do with a blackberry…”
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@Adam
Which is funny, cause i’m using an Android right now… And i feel the urge to switch to a BB.
The longer I use these smartphones the less I play with game apps. The gimmick is starting to wear off…
95% of my operations is text, call, facebook, and maps.
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As of this time, BlackBerrys are still very popular in Canada. However, I believe that when it is time for these people to upgrade to the next phone, a significant number of people is likely going to choose something else.
I use a BB at work since I have no choice at the time. There will be a choice when it is time to upgrade my work phone and I would prefer something else.
My personal phone is an Android phone. I don’t see anything from RIM that would make me want to get a BlackBerry when the time comes to upgrade.
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It’s a Canadian company. They always do well and then suck for the rest of their life in obscurity.
What is it about this country blowing it’s good fortune by leaving this half baked. Nortel, immigration, crime, technology legislation (yeah you CRTC).
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Wow, it sucks to see RIM like this… I think their problem is that they leave their devices baking in the oven way too long. Can’t believe they were originally planning to release the Bold 9900 with weaker specs than already stated…
They can’t even keep up with yearly releases… The question now is, “what needs to change?”
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It is upsetting to see this happening to such an ingrained Canadian company. However, it goes as a warning to all companies that become too comfortable in their market share and stop innovating – it doesn’t take much for a competitor to take over.
They need to refresh themselves, especially by ridding themselves of their over-zealous, old-fashioned and over emotion co-chairs.
It is never safe to become too comfortable in an industry that changes as constantly as the mobile industry.
They are suffering now for their over zealous pride and cockiness.
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Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
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So RIM lost $4BN marketcap in one day. I wonder how many NHL teams could they buy with that amount of money. Just shows how leadership without vision can ruin a company.
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I really don’t think the majority of you have given this much thought. Blackberry sales are almost the same as Apple worldwide. They continue to grow. They’re cash rich. They’re selling their old phones at full pop.
Remember, Blackberrys are popular because of their security. Oppressive regimes around the world are trying to get access to their servers. Can Apple offer that? Apple wants to put your personal info in a cloud!@!! What about Android or Windows.
I’ll bet you Rimm does another stock buyback while the getting’s good.
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It’s all about trends. RIM is currently still a very successful company but enthusiasts and investors looking longer term see that their trend line is looking worse by the month and that their technology is uninspiring and sadly lacking compared to iOS/Android/WP7. WP7, with a tiny fraction of the RIM’s installed base, has already blown by RIM in apps in both quantity and even more so in quality and that is quite telling about how horrid the RIM ecosystem is.
I really hope they (and Nokia) can find their way back.
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@keith. You maybe right about trends. But who saw Apple trends with the Ipod/Iphone or even the Ipad. Analysts don’t have a clue when it comes to technology. They guess and when a new company breaks out they try to cookie cutter all other companies into that mould.
Remember, Apple was dead a few years ago and now the analysts think they’re the second coming of christ.
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Really? The ipod 1G came out and was a huge success, despite about a $400 price tag.
the next few generations of ipods solidified Apple’s position as the #1 mp3 player in the market. They started diversifying, offering the Mini, Nano, Video, Shuffle Touch and Classic. There’s an ipod for anyone out there, and the trend with ipods has been steadily going up. If you couldn’t see it, you were blind.
Iphone, same thing. Iphone 1 comes out, 2G phone, limited functionality, broken OS, but still sold like hotcakes. iphone 3G was really where they took off and made it huge, and has been steadily going up ever since until the past year or so when Android has really been eating a chunk out of Apple’s Pie.
RIM on the other hand, has been steadily declining for the past 3 years or so.
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Apple made several attempts at coming up with a desktop that could capture the imagination of consumers and take off but it never worked. No one saw the iPod coming and therefore couldn’t predict the incredible upward trend it was going to launch Apple on. It is not the fault of analysts they couldn’t see that coming–it would have taken psychic powers.
But it does not take psychic powers to see the downward trend that RIM is on–most industry watches can easily see that and today’s stock plunge was overdue and I expect it will get worse yet. RIM, like Nokia, is bleeding bad and believe me it is the last thing I want to see happen to such a great Canadian innovator and success of the past.
I don’t know why anyone would down rank your comment though
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I hope RIM bounces back.
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Bad day to be a RIM investor. This wasn’t hard to foresee with all the numbers coming in with huge gains of market share from Android and Apple phones.
I’m sure they will bounce back, but not to the levels they have been at before. This stock will continue to fall. If your looking to buy, I’d wait until a couple weeks before they actually release their new phones.
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If RIM doesn’t start making some smart decisions, they’ll be following PALM on the way out as well!
Don’t worry, HP will buy them up too then.
It’s sad, really. As I had a Palm Treo, and now a Blackberry… that these companies start failing.
Too bad.
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@Adam When the ipod 1 came out everyone felt is was a blip on the radar. Macbook was steady but no one thought anything of Apple. The Ipod was hugely popular and they definitely built on this. But my point was no analyst saw the potential of this and doubted the Iphone then the Ipad.
Prior to the Ipod what analyst suggested buying APPL shares?
So now that they are all declaring RIMM dead although their worldwide smart phone sales rival Apples and that they offer something no other smart phone offers, privacy and security, I’m just suggesting that again, they have no clue what they’re talking about.
Rimm can release one phone and turn everything around and that will probably happen next year when they get the software from the playbook running on smart phone devices.
In the meantime they can continue to sell their existing devices, that are selling like hot cakes, their new devices, that will sell like hotcakes, and hold onto their 3 billion dollars in cash!
C’mon people, really???
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You know, everyone’s all doom and gloom over that and it’s becoming a self-fulfilling prophesy. Yes, RIM’s lagged and yes, the curb appeal of the devices lacks. No one wants a ‘stuffy old business device’ when there’s glitzy touchscreens. These things are their fault, and I expect that they’ll either fix it or die. But this public/analyst/Nortel comparison stuff is so much schadenfreude. The company is not in debt, has a pretty massive war chest, is doing better this year than last. They are not dead yet, and they have a lot of things going for them that get ignored because the public doesn’t care about the security over the glitz. Mark my word, all it’ll take is one geek in a basement who takes on the relatively simple task of writing a virus to compromise iOS or Android, and you watch what happens with RIM stock. All I’m saying is, it’s rather highly premature to say or act like the fat lady has sung here.
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RIM OS’s is ok for their market, just that they’re way
over prices for the values (all smart phone are way over prices) if Rim selling theirs phone between $100-$200 max for
newest phone, they’re going to be alright.
“Blackberries are an entry level smartphone” that’s the cold hard fact, live with it.
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RIM employees have been rumbling about Unionizing, they are not Google and Apple like employees – they want everything for nothing and this is what happenings – the competition runs right by you!
Only one way out now – merge with Windows or Android and some of RIM’s employees will survive along with some of the Canadian operations.
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Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
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At this point it definitely seems like RIM’s stock is dropping because people are panicking more than anything else. So long as cooler heads prevail, they should bounce back somewhat. When that happens is the question to ask though.
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Wow, I had never heard of this QNX operating system but I just looked it up and I must say it looks promising. I am currently an android user however there is something to be said for the efficiency of blackberry devices.
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So..RIM should start saying their devices are magical too then? And every version of their devices revolutionizes everything all over again?
Sounds like a plan. Cater your marketing to morons, stop thinking your consumers have any brains at all.
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WOW I feel sorry for the people that bought that today. Their faith is like Nortel, GET BIG AND BURN INVESTOR DOLLARS BY PAYING THEIR DIRECTORS OUTRAGEOUS SALARIES.
SELL RIM NOW, OR YOU WONT GET YOUR MONEY BACK
SELL RIM NOW, OR YOU WONT GET YOUR MONEY BACK
SELL RIM NOW, OR YOU WONT GET YOUR MONEY BACK
SELL RIM NOW, OR YOU WONT GET YOUR MONEY BACK
SELL RIM NOW, OR YOU WONT GET YOUR MONEY BACK
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Two Vs in savvy, bro.
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I think everyone, especially investors, need to stop hitting the panic button and believe in the company. Yes, they have goofed this year away but a big part of that fault was because the shareholders pressure on the company decisions. Let rim do their job
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Problem is, they’ve goofed away more than just one year. If you want to be publicly traded, you have to learn to manage shareholder expectations. Clearly they’ve done a poor job of this.
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Mr. Jarislowsky will be sorry he sold his stock when Microsoft buys them…
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RIM want to get a piece of the ‘consumer’ smartphone market but do not want to alienate their corporate customers – who are basically their ‘core’ market. That’s where I honestly think where their weakness lies. They are afraid of brand alienation, but in doing everything in half-measure, they are actually missing on both target markets. Consumers want bigger LCD screens, more processing power and fancy apps; corporate users resent that a portable tool is turning into an electronic toy (for teens).
RIM, here is my point of view:
- Two things that keep users (corporate & consumers) faithful to BB: BBM and QWERTY keyboard. These are your strengths, build on them.
- Clearly differentiate your consumer product line from your corporate product line. Don’t do anything in half measure; either you do it or you don’t. No mixed messages – nobody likes that.
- Corporate users like your communication security features. Keep going and build more enterprise apps. You may not need as much CPU power to run those (although it may be a plus), so hardware may not cost as much. It will make it easier for companies to provide handsets to their employees.
- Consumers want a smartphone that will entertain them (mostly) – but would also like (not need) some productivity apps. If that means compromising by mixing RIM’s OS with Android (it’s open source, no?), so be it.
You’re one great Canadian success story, keep it that way and don’t do a Nortel.
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@JY : I do agree with you on many points, however I must say that there is one thing you’re forgetting. Productivity in business is a HUGE deal. I see a lot of business people (in my store location) switching to Android devices just because of the increased productivity. Having all your information right on the front screen (and not having to open apps) is a major time saver.
The on-screen keyboard, with a large display, is just as effective as blackberry’s QWERTY keyboard. In addition swipe-text (after you get used to it) can easily get you typing faster than you could on a physical keyboard. So RIM’s physical keyboard really isn’t a big deal anymore.
Security features are a main point of RIM’s system, it’s true, but you can also get high-end security features with Android (not sure about WP7). With my Acer Liquid, and a free (commercial) app, I have full encryption of all my E-Mails through my own private exchange server. Text messages are still just text messages, but for business E-mail is much more important than texting.
Sadly I feel that RIM is failing to keep up with the needs of their business clients, and that will be their biggest downfall, not changing their devices into devices for “kids”.
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@JY : Oh, and I forgot to mention that with Android phones (WP7? iPhone?) you also have the ability to use VNC and Remote Desktop to access your work computers remotely. You also (as of 2.2) have the ability to use your phone as a wi-fi hotspot for your Laptop. Business wants all-in-one solutions. They aren’t getting that (anymore) from RIM.
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I agree with Mce. All it will take is one high profile company or government agency that switched from blackberry to iPhone to have a major security breach. If/when that happens it could change the worlds perception of rim.
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RIM is done. Have been since they decided everyone wants the same phone year after year.
Sooner or later people are going to get out of that “BB is a business phone!” lie and realize they’re paying out of their a*s for something made three years ago.
They really need to fix a lot of s**t with their company but their reliance on people being too stupid to research phones is what they seem to be banking on. So far it is still working. People are still actually buying BlackBerrys! There are f****** fanboys of them even! Wow.
I have one too. I know very well how pitiful RIM is as a company.
It only works once RIM. People who come from flip phones will be amazed and love their BB. The next time they buy they’re not going to be so amazed.
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I switched from a galaxy S captivate to a BB curve 3g. Android OS is definitely a lot nicer, but it lacks the messaging/email capabilities of the BB. The sole reason for me switching is because 95% of what I use my phone for is work emails (dealing with a lot of attachments) and the native android email app does not allow for them to be downloaded.
When android implements native attachment downloads and there is a nice candybar qwerty phone in Canada I’ll be making the switch back for sure.
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K-9 Mail allows attachment downloads. Also I’m also keeping an eye out for portrait/candybar QWERTY Android too, I’ve had the Motorola Charm for a short bit and it was a piece of dump but there’s the HTC Chachacha which looks nice but seems unlikely to hit Canada.
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I noticed something, if you look at all the pictures and videos taken from the Vancouver riot, there weren’t that many iPhones, I saw an awful lot of BB Bold and Curves and a handful of different flavored Androids but iPhones were scattered, it doesn’t seem as common as Apple/market suggests. I can count on one hand how many times I saw more than one iPhone in a single group/picture, other than that, there was a huge variation of different devices. Also if you read around Twitter and see the “tweeted via ” I see alot from Android.
Android is obviously on the rise, but BB is still quite popular, most of my 40+ contacts are still BB users.
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I saw this coming for a while now. Really, ever since Android made it to the main stream market.
RIM’s blackberry OS just isn’t open enough to compare to Android and WP7. Let’s face it, with the iPhone people were still somewhat locked in to restrictions as to the customization of their “home screens”. RIM could easily hold market value and do the very same thing.
Now that there are options out there for complete customization the Blackberry OS just can’t compete. (and no, the scroll bar across the bottom is NOT a good customization option)
People want their phone to be THEIR phone, and their information to be in their face, not have to navigate through some restricted interface which slows down productivity. Jobs knows this, that’s why they’re adding so many “make it your own” options in iOS 5. If they didn’t change eventually they would end up where RIM is now.
As for some comments about XBox Live being integrated into WP7, and that feature meaning they’ll lead the market. I mean, seriously? Sure, the XBL integration is going to get a lot of people into WP7 devices, I’ll give you that. What you’re forgetting though is Android pulled in Playstation. Not only that, due to it’s open source there are apps to run emulators for virtually all of the older gaming platforms. Add in future devices, that will maintain the XPeria Play’s gaming control interface, and I’m sorry but WP7 will hardly lead the market with real gamers.
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BlackBerry’s are beautiful devices. The hardware is perfect for what most people want or need.
The only issue is the ridiculously crappy web browsing experience. RIM needs to step it up with the web browsing experience if they are to survive.
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@Jay: I don’t disagree with you either. Since you’re on the front line (store location), you see how things are happening at the retail level. If I were part of the RIM marketing team, that’s precious information that I would try to gather via surveys or focus groups as part of the product development process.
Coming back to the purpose of my response. I was commenting on the article and rooting for a Canadian company, and could not elaborate further. Regarding productivity apps for corporate users, I agree with you and that would be up to RIM’s software development team to get cracking on that.
I still feel physical keyboards are a very important feature. I own a Galaxy S Vibrant and I use Swype. Due to its inherent nature, a touchscreen kboard relies on the sensitivity/response of the screen, and Swype, while effective, sometimes comes up with weird words.
Corporate customers (at least medium to large companies) are often conservative in their choice of OS and apps. This is why the company I work at still uses Windows XP across the company. The IT Dept wants to support a tried and tested system because it makes their life much easier. It is also less costly to remain with the same platform than to re-deploy a whole new system and hardware. Since many of these corporate customers have already adopted the BB, to RIM’s benefit, they are reluctant to move to something completely new. Android and WP7 are too new and/or are not stable enough (FC anyone?).
However, make no mistake, if corporate clients determine that there are tangible benefits to move on, they WILL.
I believe 2011 is going to be a turning point for RIM: it’s make or break time, baby!
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RIM seems to be steadily improving their phones but only at the same pace as technology allows. There is not much difference outside the case and what’s inside is the same selling points it always has, like it’s secure servers. It does not feel like it is doing anything really radical. The playbook is like copying the Ipad. It certainly is not considered in my office. Good old fashion presentations on paper, which any client can keep is still just as good as a PwrPt.
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I respect everyone’s right to an opinion, but while a bunch of us can come up with suggestions, we are all armchair users of smart phones, we don’t run a billion dollar companies and its great to have ideas, but it seems an awful lot of people on here are circling like vultures on this bad news. Focus your mind on positive things guys!
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