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RIM responds to the open letter: We are “aggressively addressing” the company’s challenges and opportunities
This is getting serious now. RIM has fired back from the “open letter” that was supposedly written by high-level RIM employee to RIM execs. You can read parts of it here (or the full letter here at BGR), but it basically blasted RIM for not moving innovation forward, failing as a company and falling behind Apple, Microsoft and others in the mobile space.
In response, RIM posted a note on their company blog that, for some reason, gives an outlook on their future products and ensures the world they are financial stable with “nearly $3 billion in cash and no debt”. Very interesting direction to take on an “open letter”.
RIM says that it’s “obviously difficult to address anonymous commentary” but the “senior management team at RIM is nonetheless fully aware of and aggressively addressing both the company’s challenges and its opportunities”. This is true as they publicly stated during their Q1 2012 fiscal results that will “streamline operations” to focus on offering new products that have the “highest growth opportunities”.
“RIM recently confirmed that it is nearing the end of a major business and technology transition. Although this transition has taken longer than anticipated, there is much excitement and optimism within the company about the new products that are lined up for the coming months. There is a fundamental business reality however that following an extended period of hyper growth (during which RIM nearly quadrupled in size over the past 5 years alone), it has become necessary for the company to streamline its operations in order to allow it to grow its business profitably while pursuing newer strategic opportunities. Again, RIM’s management team takes these challenges seriously and is actively addressing the situation. The company is thankfully in a solid business and financial position to tackle the opportunities ahead with a solid balance sheet (nearly $3 billion in cash and no debt), strong profitability (RIM’s net income last quarter was $695 million) and substantial international growth (international revenue in Q1 grew 67% over the same quarter last year). In fact, while growth has slowed in the US, RIM still shipped 13.2 million BlackBerry smartphones last quarter (which is about 100 smartphones per minute, 24 hours per day) and RIM is more committed than ever to serving its loyal customers and partners around the world.”
Thoughts?
Check it out here at RIM
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18 comments for “RIM responds to the open letter: We are “aggressively addressing” the company’s challenges and opportunities”
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They keep talking about streamlining, but I don’t see that as the issue.
Being more effecient will help, but their biggest issue is outdated hardware with poor software.
Get the new OS out, and get hardware that people want.
yeah, keep the Bold line around, because there’s a market for it, but there’s a market for flashy, touchscreen devices that do everything. RIM needs to get on that, not keep releasing last years hardware with a new skin and product name.
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By streamlining they basically mean kick people out who make things more difficult in the product side…. And they have to do that. They will do that. They need new faces new brains and less paperwork.
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Does this really help them, seems they are just grabbing at straws. Would have been better not to say anything.
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My issue is that this doesn’t directly address the issues raised in the open letter.
It isn’t about financials and past performance, RIM is being called out regarding innovation, being competitive, and having a plan for the future.
I’m not one to bash RIM, but the anonymous letter pretty much nailed a lot of very harsh truths.
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That response just summed up what RIM is. A total failure. They just don’t get it! How sad to see RIM go down the same path as Nortel… So much promise….
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if anyone reading this thinks peterH is a douche, say “I”!
Everyone knows that the first step in rehabilitating a situation is admitting and realizing the wrongs/downfalls/mistakes. This letter goes to show someone high up knows what’s wrong. He is now calling upon employees company wide to fix the issue and steer the company back in the right direction.
None of this “RIP” RIM or “TOTAL FAILURE”. Sit back and see if as a whole, RIM can get back on the competitive track. Time will tell. This ain’t a hockey game, its business!
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I think that “RIM recently confirmed that it is nearing the end of a major business and technology transition” is their offer on that note jellmoo, while your point is still true.
If what they are saying should be interpreted as
“yes we realize that soon our phones will be obsolete as people want full touch screens and that our OS almost is obsolete already, and we have been working to develop our new strategy”,
well then we still have to wonder if the direction that they are planning on taking Blackberry will do any better. As a Canadian, I hope so.
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“obviously difficult to address anonymous commentary” – translation (in my opinion), if we find the person, we will address them right out the door.
It is not hard to address an anonymous commentary when they are points made about company practice. I, for one, am not happy with the responses that RIM have been providing.
The fact that they have 3 Billion in the bank with no debt is extremely impressive. They are going to need it if they keep letting the perception of what I consider lack of innovation and product management slip.
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“Get the new OS out, and get hardware that people want. ”
Well! there are …. none, sorry.
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If that’s damage control then RIM needs to fire their media consultants. What a pathetic response to a rational and believable letter of concern.
RIM had better change their response and quickly or the company is in a worse state then the author of the letter thought.
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RIM is finished, just a matter of time. RIP RIM.
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Do not think RIM is over the have the means to develop better phones and OS than others iphone is a 1 trick pony while RIM has a larger product line to develop. North America is.just 1 small part of their buisness the are very much leaders in the rest of the world.
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What they meant by streamlining was 2 different teams would fall into working on the same issue, they would each work non stop for a week straight, then find out that another team was working on the same problem = one week work wasted… then you have nothing to do for a few weeks cause your schedule is botched…
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All this gloom and doom talk is premature. In one months time RIM will sell a tonne of new devices from thier new product line and all will be well again. The critics will still be negative and state that the devices aren’t as “magical” as the iPhone but never the less sales will be good. In addition I think the playbook sales may pick up once it comes stock with native email. These sales will be enough to sustain RIM until QNX is launched in 2012.
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It’s likely they will sell a good chunk to existing Blackberry owners, but their user-base is unlikely to grow by much. The negative reviews up until this point will start deterring people from buying.
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RIM, just answer one question: What are you doing vis a vis innovation? If it is only QNX then, sorry, I am not sold. The smart phone market is roughly 80% hardware oriented these days, which you have sorely lagged behind on as compared to Apple and Android. Simply putting a new OS on old phones is not going to solve the issues for you. Either you innovate or you die.
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I really think that a lot of the comments here are coming from vultures that couldn’t tell a live animal from a rotting dead one.
RIM is not going anywhere people, they may not be as “trendy” as iPhones and Androids but a company will never be able to satisfy the “i want the the newest of the new” crowd forever, I’m sure a new OS from some upstart will come up and surpass android one day and everyone here will be like “ANDROID IS DEAD”
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IF the guy who wrote the original letter to RIM is in fact a RIM exec, and if he is ever exposed for sending that letter to BGR, he will never work again in tech industry. No matter which camp you belong to (Rim, apple, android etc.), no one likes a snitch. He should of used discretion and not aired RIMs dirty laundry on a public forum like he did.
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