I would never expect a corporate executive to paint a bleak picture of the company they represent when doing an interview with a journalist. Eternal optimism is pretty much required both on and off the record. When a company, however, is experiencing tough times, it is always nice when the eternally optimistic views of its executives actually line up with the reality of what the company is going through. Unfortunately, this is not the case when it comes to Mike Kirkup, Research in Motion’s Director of Developer Relations.
In an interview with CIO’s Al Sacco, Mike Kirkup, Research in Motion’s Director of Developer Relations, had this to say when asked about all the negative speculation about Research in Motion and the BlackBerry…
“Nothing has changed” for RIM and BlackBerry
The company still has a very solid foundation built on more than a decade of mobile-device-specific work in the technology industry. RIM is still the security de facto for many governments and other security-conscious organizations. It still has many, many loyal users. And RIM is currently producing and shipping the best products it’s ever offered…
Although these things are true, respectfully Mr. Kirkup, everything has changed for RIM and the BlackBerry. The BlackBerry is loosing market share to Android and the iPhone hand over fist. RIM is in the process of laying off 2000 employees. The BlackBerry has dropped from first place to third in the smartphone industry and RIM sells nothing currently that will even slow the loss of share, let alone turn things around.
You told us what RIM still has, what the BlackBerry still is, and what the BlackBerry still does… I think, however, that you might change some of the negative speculation towards RIM and the BlackBerry if you paint a clear picture for us on what new BlackBerry devices will do, what the BlackBerry will be, and what the BlackBerry will have that can compete with what most people, including most BlackBerry users, want in a smartphone…
[Via CIO]
RIM just doesn’t get it… What they’ve done for the past 10 years doesn’t matter. It’s what they do today that counts. Today, the BlackBerry still sucks. Today, I still wish my contract was up so that I could get an iPhone or Android.
Quit being a cheapskate on go get a damm iPhone loser!
Easy now…now that WebOS is on hold, do you really want to see our choices narrowed down to iOS and Android devices. RIM and Microsoft/Nokia WP7 devices are needed for the obvious reasons.
We don’t WANT RIM to go away, but are afraid that it will…that’s the entire point. I assume that most people that come here have at least a passing interest in how BlackBerry is doing as a brand. My 9700 was a great device, but it feels about 3-4 years behind the technology I could have in other phones. At what seems like almost half the size of a Motorola or HTC phone, it also feels like I’m using a whole different class of “smartphone”, like a “lite” version of a full-featured phone.
I swear… People who work at RIM seriously must walk around their corporate headquarters, see a bunch a folks using BlackBerry devices, and think everything is OK.
Yup BB still sucks…. for kids and less intuitive ppl. I was Palm forever and didn’t succumb to the BB crap till finally iOS came out with iPhone 4. Between Droid and iOS, Windows and BB OS are bugs in a world of giants. I see ppl day in and out dropping their BBs for an iPhone or Droid, don’t get me started on crapbook… CHeers!
They are losing market share because there are more people buying more smartphones. Year over year they continue to sell more phones in more countries around the world. They can continue to be a solid company making solid products for a pretty sizable userbase. Consider if the entire smartphone population reaches 2 billion users, and RIM only captures and maintains 12% of that market then they’re still selling to 240 million users devices and services. Which considering the only products they really develop and sell are smartphones and connectivity, isn’t too shabby.
I agree with you that RIM is selling more devices year over year. The problem with the loss of market share is that the smartphone space is growing at a much faster rate than RIM’s growth. The scenario that you ask us to consider isn’t valid because RIM isn’t maintaining their percentage, which, I believe is greater than 12%, but, still falling becuase the industry is growing…
So your assumption is that it will fall below 12%, and my assumption is that it will eventually stabilize at about 12%
Honestly, the BlackBerry does not lack in any feature I can find on other phones (Android, iPhone) — camera, multimedia, touch, gestures, etc. it’s all there. In fact, from a developer’s perspective, there are A LOT more things possible on a BlackBerry compared to Android and they are a lot easier to implement as well.
I am also a bit sick of the exclusively North-American-centric reporting all day long. Yes, RIM is losing market share in the U.S. but who are they competing with? Apple for one, but LG, Samsung, Motorola, HTC, etc. who previously sold mainly Windows Mobile or Symbian phones and now utilize their whole power in technology expertise and distribution to push their Android devices. It is hardly fair to compare one single device manufacturer (like RIM) to the combination of all Android device manufacturers which are partly ran by super-multi-national conglomerates. I didn’t even mention the hundreds of Chinese phone makers nobody ever heard of before.
In fact, the BlackBerry has gained very significant market share in other regions in the world. I think it was Michael from CB who wrote about BlackBerry in Indonesia for example: “You don’t see no Android phones there…” (loose quote from my memory) and I can personally confirm that. With a population of 237,000,000+ Indonesia is about the same size as the U.S.; in Thailand (population 66M) iPhone and BlackBerry are sharing the smartphone market; again: no Android there. In South Africa (50M+) BlackBerry rocks and people just love the BBM. I could go on and on … and that’s just from the consumer-device standpoint.
From a global perspective RIM is growing their user base. Not as fast as the Android OS in a whole, but definitely faster than the separate device makers.
The already announced and partly already released phones are a big step forward. It has been announced, said and talked about what new features they will come with (i.e. magnetometer, NFC, OpenGL) and why would there be a need to repeat that again?
Finally, I agree with Mike: Nothing has changed for RIM. As before, they need to come up with new devices and they will. I am all “in” BlackBerry; they are strong now and they will be strong in 10 years!
Note: This is my personal view. It is not based on any actual numbers by RIM (which I don’t have access to anyway :))
P.S.: This is not a “hater”/”lover” kind of comment. I simply state the facts and my personal opinion based on multi-platform mobile app development and distribution.
Look, what you’re saying there is factually correct in a lot of ways, and it does aid the discussion to point out that the industry as a whole blew up while RIM’s actual sales numbers stayed roughly the same or went up. But that isn’t the point…
In 2007, when you said “smartphone” in the U.S. (to the extent that term was frequently used), you meant “BlackBerry”. They were the entire freakin’ ballgame. When your product is an industry STANDARD, and you fail to acknowledge an entire new sector of the market (which is a massive CONSUMER demand for touch-screen smartphones with apps), I’m sorry, but that’s a failure. It isn’t enough to simply say “Oh, we’re the BUSINESS smartphone for serious people” and expect that to keep going for another 10 years. Business people are consmers too, and once technology has become popularized enough, they too will want the “cooler” devices that give them more options. The iPhone and iPad are more widespread as commercial accessories than Prada, Gucci, or 4-pound dogs in purses ever were. As the poster said above, BlackBerry never had that vision, and as a result, they stand to lose even their traditional smartphone business to the “cool new kid on the block”
Also, I reject the premise that it’s unfair to compare RIM (as a single manufacturer) to other smartphones. How is Apple any different than RIM, other than that RIM had a 10-year headstart on making handheld devices? And if we’re talking about operating systems, Apple had an OS from DAY ONE that offered more potential than RIM’s retread operating systems ever will. And yes, I write this as a 2-year 9700 owner who actually liked my phone, but can’t see any reason why I should buy it again for another 2 years.
RIM has no vision, that’s it’s problem.
My BlackBerry 9930 came in last Friday and I’ve spent the entire weekend playing with it, so, here is my take.
The BlackBerry Bold 9930 is, by far, the best BlackBerry that I’ve ever used, but, it is kind of like when you get a new work computer that runs the exact same operating system as your old computer did. You can’t really do anything on it that you couldn’t do on your old computer. It is just much more pleasant to use.
I don’t know that the new BlackBerry OS is going to make anyone who wasn’t already going to get a BlackBerry change their mind, but, this device and others running BlackBerry 7 will do pretty well.