RIM Offering Free PlayBook Tablets to Android Developers
Personally, I would have gone with the following headline: RIM Offering A Cup Of Shitty, Hot Coffee To Those In Hell.
A Shakeup In Name Only?
Peter Kafka reporting on new RIM CEO Thorsten Heins’ call with analysts this morning:
And the new tech that the company has in the pipeline — a revised version of its PlayBook tablet, and a new operating system due out in the fall — are great. You’ll see: “I don’t think there is a drastic change needed.”
RIM is still awash in revenue, so there is undoubtedly push-back to really shaking stuff up. But this sure sounds like RIM’s new CEO fails to see the writing on the wall, just as his predecessors clearly did.
And that shouldn’t be surprising. As Kafka notes, Heins has been RIM’s COO for the past four years. He’s the guy former co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis were grooming to take their place one day. That day came sooner than they expected, but all parties seem to be failing to acknowledge why.
RIM needs to quit dicking around with the PlayBook and focus on either what they’re good at (enterprise-focused smartphones) or something entirely new that blows away the market the way the first BlackBerrys did. To be honest, they should probably be doing both if they want to exist in 5 years.
The most troubling thing Heins said today:
Q: Please go into detail: What are your priorities for the next 100 days?
Heins: We need to get better at market communications.
Yeah, that’s the ticket.
RIM’s Rumored 10-inch PlayBook: A Bigger Mistake
Great headline by Kevin C. Tofel.
HP killed the TouchPad way too early. RIM will apparently kill the PlayBook far too late. They need to kill it right now and focus. But they won’t.
Q:Do you think that RIM can possibly regain market share in 2012 provided that Blackberry 10 ships? Surely Android and iOS are too far ahead now in terms of adoption rates?
If they change their entire strategy, maybe. But they won’t.
Anything can be turned around (see: Apple, for example), but it takes major changes and time. RIM has neither in them. This stripping the CEOs of the Chairmanship sounds like a joke. It’s putting a paper towel over a head wound. The fact that there are still co-CEOs and co-Chairmans is a joke.
If I were RIM, I would spend all of my R&D figuring out what the next big thing will be after the smartphone — or the next generation smartphone that’s far beyond what we have today. I’d bet it all on that and not look back. They’ve already lost this race, but they don’t realize it yet. That’s the most dangerous position to be in.
Microsoft, Nokia Flirted With Disaster — Er, RIM
No surprise here, except that it could be a joint bid. Can three companies now in different stages of failing in mobile team up to win? Do three wrongs make a right?
My favorite part though:
According to two people close to the company, RIM executives have approached other smart-phone makers, including Samsung Electronics Co. and HTC Corp. about licensing RIM’s new operating system.
That’s a joke, right? Those guys would ditch Android for something much worse with absolutely no app ecosystem? And they’d pay for the privilege?
And people wonder why RIM is failing. If that report is true, it’s clearly being run by people who have completely lost touch with reality. Though I guess that’s been pretty evident the past couple of years…
Apple's iPhone Luring People To Ditch Rival Phones
Again, everyone is so disappointed with the iPhone 4S that they’re ditching their old phones to get it.
I have a number of Android-carrying friends who also made the switch already. With the Nexus Prime due next week, this is going to be really interesting to watch.
Either way, RIM sure seems fucked (just in case that wasn’t already abundantly clear).
Apple Gets Approval for Nortel Bid
Here we go. This bidding war is sure to be fun. Google bidding for the right to protect themselves defensively. Apple bidding for the right to protect themselves offensively. RIM bidding for the right not to die entirely when that other business of their’s goes belly-up.
A PlayBook To Take On Apple?
My review of the BlackBerry PlayBook. It’s all in there, overall a valiant effort. But the key question: does it compare to the iPad?
No.
But I will say this — at least they have a goddamn way to take screenshots right on the device without having to install some SDK bullshit and hook your device to your machine.
You hear that, Android?
RIM, Playbook, And the Microsoft Cleanup
I got to play with a Playbook briefly a couple weeks ago. It looked pretty nice and seemed to run smoothly. But the RIM guy must have said “Flash” 200 times. I simply don’t care if it runs Flash or not.
Others might, but even then, it’s probably item 20 on the list of important things. If that’s going to be their main selling point, they’re in trouble. And when the Flash was shown in action, guess what, it looked jittery. No surprise there.
Speaking of important things on a tablet — number one: apps. Running Android apps might be a good idea — if they weren’t Android 2.3 apps which aren’t tailored for tablets in any way, shape, or form. Literally.
But the most important point is the ending of Krazit’s article.
Perhaps the old-school PC company, Microsoft, is finally ready to make an honest man or woman out of all the rumormongers predicting a Microsoft-RIM merger for years.
Phase one of Microsoft’s catch-up in mobile plan was Windows Phone. Phase two was the Nokia partnership. Phase three may well be an acquisition of RIM.
And Microsoft is actually in a position to do it (from a regulatory perspective) because Apple and Google are utterly dominating the space.
"Guys, you won't be doing this."
Can you imagine if a carrier said that to Apple? Their response would probably be along the lines of: “Go fuck yourselves.”
RIM stock jumps as market eyes revamped BlackBerry | Reuters
Original headline?
RIM seen unveiling “iPhone killer” next week
Yep, we’re still doing those, apparently.
