RIM may or may not be in a “death spiral.” CEO Thorsten Heins certainly doesn’t think so. If you were in Thorsten’s shoes, what would you do?
Research in Motion used to be on top of the Smartphone world, with ubiquitous Blackberries in the hands of just about every businessman in North America. These days, they are fighting for survival in a much more competitive marketplace. RIM has had to layoff 5,000 employees, and have had disappointing launches for their Playbook and Blackberry 7 phones. They are now executing a last-ditch push on their BB10 operating system and phones, and are hoping this launch will get them back in the game.
As a Canadian, I like to see Canadian companies succeed. What can I say, I’m prejudiced that way! I think there are a lot of ideas RIM could implement to boost sales in new demographics, such as:
- A new focus on creating tools for aspiring writers, hip-hop artists, and musicians on Blackberries and Playbooks
- Creating Playbooks that can take wear and tear for foremen on construction sites and other tradespeople. Having apps for blueprints, etc.
- Creating apps for Playbooks so they can actually be used as ‘playbooks’ for high school, college, and professional football/basketball/baseball/etc. coaches. The iPad is actually being used this way now
Those are just a few ideas. What would you do if you could take RIM over?
Nobody is voluntarily planning to buy Blackberries, nobody.
Hence, the CEO should do exactly what he is doing, raise the white flag. Don’t even bother to finalize the development of the new OS; save your cash, layoff your staff, and position the company to be bought for its portfolio of patents and existing contracts.
I think that if Blackberry is trying to provide an “answer” to iOS or Android they are facing an uphill battle. Apple’s got the entertainment market on their phones. I am a staunch Apple fan but there isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t miss my Blackberry. That being said, Blackberry needs to focus on this: What is it about companies that originally brought them to RIM? I think about how integrated Microsoft Outlook is into Internet Explorer, Word, Excel, etc. If Blackberry could mirror that in it’s own operating system–flawlessly–then it’d have its revival. You still cant… Read more »
iOS and Android are way too popular now and for all te examples you give, they are already streets ahead. RIM tried to be that little bit too clever i’m afraid, gambled, and it did not pay off.
I think they need to refocus on the business market, they took it for granted and tried to go after the consumer market and stopped innovating on the business side, I think if they can innovate for business, with the blackberry and the playbook they can retake the business market share, business users with iPhones only use them because they look pretty, not because they have useful business tools. Things like connectivity to projectors and other A/V media (apple is terrible at that), office suites that aren’t painful on a touch screen, or other useful day to day business activities.