I’ve always been told that the first step in dealing with an problem is admitting that you have one. Based on Zach Church’s observations at Gartner’s Wireless and Mobile Summit last week, this sounds exactly like what Research in Motion co-CEO Mike Lazaridis needs to do when it comes to all of the BlackBerry outages Research in Motion has been experiencing as of late.
In an hour long presentation last week, Mr. Lazaridis downplayed and brushed off questions about recent BlackBerry outages.
One attendee who ditched out about halfway through the hour long presentation jostled away with his buddies, calling it the stupidest keynote address he had ever seen and for the next few days, just mentioning Lazaridis around the conference brought smirks and eye-rolling.
I know that many feel that I’ve been overly critical of Research in Motion when it comes to BlackBerry outages, however, having run data centers in a previous life, I just can’t give a company with the resources of Research in Motion a pass because “BlackBerrys are reliable most of the time” or because “a few hours without email won’t kill anyone.”
I am not saying that RIM should come out and tell everyone they suck for having downtime, however, at least be a bit contrite about it and acknowledge that you are at least working on trying to resolve the issues. I have no doubt the RIM is doing this, but, they could go a long way to take the bad taste out of IT administrators mouths by not brushing them off.
Way back 5/11/2007 in addition to other comments co-CEO Jim Balsillie made (bet he wishes he didn’t in hind-site) “there is no constraint on budget or resources for this work.” The point is in roughly 9 months time you’d think RIM would be over joyed to show, talk about, and prove what they are doing to make what should be a mission critical system, a mission critical system.
Pride goeth before a fall. Unfortunately, companies that refuse to admit and fix problems usually are in for a rude awakening.
I hope this is just public arrogance, and that behind the scenes RIM is really working to fix these sort of problems.
If RIM doesn’t fix these problems, someone else will come along that will and scoop up the business. That’s the way it’s always been in the market.
It does seem weird to me that they wouldn’t want to qualm BB owner’s fears/concerns about their outages. Brushing them off isn’t going to change the fact that when they happen… it makes the national headlines!
Personally, I don’t have any big issues if they are down for a few hours. There’s always plan B. Companies take their networks down from time to time, and sometimes they go down on their own. I’m not saying that they should be excused, we do pay for a service, but if it’s for an hour or two here or there, I’m not going to be overly critical.
I could be just as critical about the grammar in the article, but choose not to complain. Same goes for the BB outages. Besides, it would take quite a bit for someone to come along and remove RIM from where they sit right now in the corporate world.
Look at Palm. They owned the handheld market, then lost it all because they failed to evolve and respond to changing conditions.
Strong words… I have to admit that I agree. Nothing upsets me more when someone else messes up and acts as though it isn’t a big deal to those that are saying that it is a big deal.
Palm didn’t have a niche though, it was a device. RIM showcases its email and top security. The device happens to run their niche. Palm also never penetrated anything like the government or corporate market like the BB has. I would be hard pressed to see companies spend money and certify the switch to another platform any time soon and kick the BB to the side.
I agree with bluehoseshoe a bit on this one. BlackBerry is so entrenched in the corporate world, it will take an awful more of them before companies would even think of switching platforms.
Businesses would need to see real tangible productivity loss to the point that the pain and cost of changing platforms is worth it to them in the long run.
These BlackBerry outages are annoying, however, not nearly enough that companies are ready to switch.
@ hellno, I mean Bob
Why is it some claim? Do you know of a better platform that is going to pass the scrutiny of security that the government requires? Have you even ever worked for the government? What about the corporate side?
What would you recommend? I think this will show the depth of your knowledge about anything IT.
RIM just upped their guidance for sub adds for the quarter that just ended, so perhaps they are just killing it and see no reason to bother answering these questions. Pretty arrogant, but if they come in with something like 2.2 million new subscriber additions, no one will care much.
Mike is an engineer anyway, so that may be part of the reason he doesn’t care for these types of questions.
I think it does suck the way they stonewall folks on these questions. They should work WITH their partners not anger them.
BB may be entrenched in the corporate world, but not in the consumer market. RIM wants a piece of that. Constant outages will send them running to the iphone, WM or any other platform that is perceived to be more reliable.