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RIM implodes: announces layoffs, 500,000 PlayBooks shipped
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Agreed. RIM and Windows Phone have taken it on the chin with the rise of Apple and Android.
I wish they were able to keep up, because - at least in my opinion - they stand a better chance than a lot of other companies at staying competitive with Apple.
I've always liked that they have stuck to their distinct look, and not started mimicking the look everyone's going for nowadays. You can be a non-tech person, see a Blackberry, and know it's a Blackberry w/o having to see the logo. There are few tech companies out there right now that have done that, Apple being another one that has. They also have solid backend integration that has years of proven stability, which is also unusual.
I hope they can turn this slump around.
I've always liked that they have stuck to their distinct look, and not started mimicking the look everyone's going for nowadays. You can be a non-tech person, see a Blackberry, and know it's a Blackberry w/o having to see the logo. There are few tech companies out there right now that have done that, Apple being another one that has. They also have solid backend integration that has years of proven stability, which is also unusual.
I hope they can turn this slump around.
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We saw the writing on the wall two years ago. When I saw RIM just continue to release boring rehashes of the same button-festooned phones (meanwhile failing so hard on touch), I simply called them toast and moved on. This news is no surprise.
When I saw Jobs demo the iPad it just confirmed it.
We saw the writing on the wall two years ago. When I saw RIM just continue to release boring rehashes of the same button-festooned phones (meanwhile failing so hard on touch), I simply called them toast and moved on. This news is no surprise.
When I saw Jobs demo the iPad it just confirmed it.
Believe it or not, there is still a demand for hardware keyboards. They're faster, and require less attention to use. There's a reason Motorola bothered to make a Droid Pro, etc. The average techie may not care, but for the businessperson who has to send lots of emails (not just read them), a hardware QWERTY has its place. I would agree, however, that stale hardware design and (more importantly) stagnated software are killing RIM. I owned a Blackberry Torch briefly in January just to try it out (it was, in effect, a free demo). The hardware was decent, and BBOS 6 is even OK--but the lousy software support for it makes it totally unattractive to me.
All RIM has left is the corporate market, and with any competition there, they're in big trouble. Exchange support on Android and iOS hurts RIM badly.
BBM is one of RIM's strongest feature. With competition adopting their own between-OS system messaging and the creation of multi-system IMing such as WhatsApp, they are also taking a hit there.
While BBs might not be as innovative and flashy, they are great phones. Unfortunately for them, the market is evolving into something in which the current RIM model does not exist. Someone in there must make a move fast, seeing how fast they are losing market share.
While BBs might not be as innovative and flashy, they are great phones. Unfortunately for them, the market is evolving into something in which the current RIM model does not exist. Someone in there must make a move fast, seeing how fast they are losing market share.
Aside of their product problems, they also have management issues. They have Co-CEOs and 3 COOs. Way too many chiefs.
http://www.rim.com/newsroom/mediaexecutive/
Gruber wrote this, which if true, is a huge problem.
As the technology sector starts having less and less faces, we will begin to be at the mercy of the 1 or 2 companies that will dictate what they want to offer.
I truly believe we will see this with the telco's as ATT and Verizon will rule the roost, slowing down spending on their networks and place more and more restrictions on their subscribers.
I truly believe we will see this with the telco's as ATT and Verizon will rule the roost, slowing down spending on their networks and place more and more restrictions on their subscribers.
Even then they do not have to fire people or lay them off. You have your staff reduced by normal attention. People leave, retire and quite all the time so you can generally just have you staff reduced by that.
All in all I think RIM got trapped as they are the carriers would make it hard for them to get a entirelly new design on the market (QNX) and as soon as that finishes getting threw the pipeline and approved by the carriers they could get some pretty nice stuff. They are right now kind of between produce lines. Everyone knows they are going to move over to QNX it is just a question of when.
They are still growing compared to a year ago and I believe that historiclly there 1Q results are generally lower than the 4Q ones.
RIM is not going to go anywhere and I strongly believe they will recover. They still have some great tech and their hardware keyboards are the gold standard. Plus their phones are tanks.
Don't be ridiculous. You don't tell Wall Street about a reduction in headcount unless you're lopping off hundreds, maybe thousands of jobs. You don't get meaningful headcount reduction through attrition.
No they are not. From the article:
net income for the quarter was $695 million, or $1.33 per share diluted, compared with ...net income of $769 million, or $1.38 per share diluted, in the same quarter last year.
They are hurting big time.
Profits are less than the a year ago but there revenue is up 16% from a year ago. That could be explained by money be poor into developing an entirely new system for their phone and having paralleled development while doing it.
Jav based current phone design and a QNX design in the work.
You've obviously never met an iSheep before.
And someone said previously about a hard keyboard.. I can't agree more. Going from a dumbphone to a WP7, the worst part was losing the physical number pad buttons, and the tactile feedback I got from it. Using the raised bumb in the 5, I could literally text whole messages without looking while driving, I would never dream of doing that with my touchscreen phone now.
I just wish there were more phones like that on the market today.
And how do you reduce head counts? By laying people off. They just like to use terminology that does not have the same negative impact. The bottom line is if you lose your job because of head count reductions, it feels no different then being laid off. You're still on the unemployment line
As for the report - that's really bad. While they are still profitable and have billion of dollars in the bank, its clearly evident that they have to do something to regain the marketshare they're losing.
This is the sort of commentary we'll see as the end draws nearer.
Provided there is no meaningful shift in management (who seem way too delusional to acknowledge reality), they'll either go the way of Palm or attempt to "partner" with a big tech name as a prelude to a buyout.
Their entire lineup is archaic, they lack the kind of ecosystem necessary to compete (they have virtually none, actually), what appears to be their best effort in the tablet market (where Apple has been leading the industry for over a year now) is a disaster, and their CEOs and COOs are too concerned with mouthing off to actually care (quite frankly I don't see Jim Ballsillie really doing anything, which is pretty much what he's been doing for the past three years.)
Sounds promising.
I've worked a lot of places where they simply do attrition of jobs as people retire or quit/get promoted. In fact, that's usually the way most healthy companies reduce head count, rather than using lay offs.
What a shame you can't text and drive any longer.
Ditto...
I am or was a huge Blackberry fan, I've probably had 6-7 different models in the past 3 years. A few HTC's (Yet an Android) and always go back to Blackberry. Next, as my signature says, I am going to try the iPhone for the first time. I think as a toy (Personal) the Blackberry sucks, but when I needed it for work with BES it was outstanding.
~Steven
Yes, I know Maflynn I was being funny. To be honest, I could hardly care less about RIM. Yes, losing jobs is too bad but I'm sure these talented people can find work elsewhere.
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