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RIM implodes: announces layoffs, 500,000 PlayBooks shipped
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Rim sat on their buts too long. The playbook is great but they needed something on the phone side of things. I like the new 9900 but its not going to capture the market. It seems to me that they should have been working on the playbook and a phone at the same time.
I remember when asked about they said they couldn't work on a QNX phone till dual core phones could be made. A week alter the Atrix came out.
I remember when asked about they said they couldn't work on a QNX phone till dual core phones could be made. A week alter the Atrix came out.
Why must all phones be toys? Some people need indestructible phones with slide-out keyboards that just *work* for business.
We're talking the consumer market here. Given what iOS and Android are capable of, including the ocean of apps that let you do everything from VNC to streaming video to photo editing, these toys far outclass any and every RIM product in the consumer market. No question.
As for "business", all you need to do is scrounge around the news sites a bit to see that BB alternatives are gaining some serious traction.
The iPhone does - I see more people in my organization using an iPhone then a blackberry.
I'm sorry to hear about the layoffs, but I'm not terribly surprised. My husband has used BBs for his work phone (that's what his company provides) for years and years, and he and all of his friends there are really unhappy with the build quality and the functionality of their phones. All the execs now are using iPhones ... guess they aren't providing them for the peons yet, though!
Apropos, more sad news.
http://www.bgr.com/2011/06/20/rim-is-black-burying-carriers-with-half-baked-blackberrys/
Beleaguered RIM reportedly strong-arming several carriers to stock half-baked BlackBerries
Launching new products is always difficult,” Jonathan S. Geller reports for BGR. “Launching new products with hundreds of different carriers is exponentially more difficult.”
“Apparently there is an easy way and a hard way to do things, however, and RIM has been making carriers offers they can’t refuse,” Geller reports. “BGR has learned from a trusted source that RIM has been strong-arming several carriers, essentially forcing them to approve devices they normally would not move through the Technical Acceptance phase.”
Geller reports, “We have been informed by a very reliable source at a major carrier that RIM has been putting an enormous amount of pressure on carriers to approve the upcoming BlackBerry smartphones like the BlackBerry Bold 9900 — phones that have to hold RIM over until its next-generation platform launch in 2012 — and that certain carriers will be approving the devices, ‘no matter what — with bugs and problems.’ … It’s one of the reasons some carriers launch devices sooner than others.”
EDIT:
http://www.loopinsight.com/2011/06/20/seesmic-drops-blackberry-support-to-focus-on-ios-android/
Ouch.
http://www.bgr.com/2011/06/20/rim-is-black-burying-carriers-with-half-baked-blackberrys/
Beleaguered RIM reportedly strong-arming several carriers to stock half-baked BlackBerries
Launching new products is always difficult,” Jonathan S. Geller reports for BGR. “Launching new products with hundreds of different carriers is exponentially more difficult.”
“Apparently there is an easy way and a hard way to do things, however, and RIM has been making carriers offers they can’t refuse,” Geller reports. “BGR has learned from a trusted source that RIM has been strong-arming several carriers, essentially forcing them to approve devices they normally would not move through the Technical Acceptance phase.”
Geller reports, “We have been informed by a very reliable source at a major carrier that RIM has been putting an enormous amount of pressure on carriers to approve the upcoming BlackBerry smartphones like the BlackBerry Bold 9900 — phones that have to hold RIM over until its next-generation platform launch in 2012 — and that certain carriers will be approving the devices, ‘no matter what — with bugs and problems.’ … It’s one of the reasons some carriers launch devices sooner than others.”
EDIT:
http://www.loopinsight.com/2011/06/20/seesmic-drops-blackberry-support-to-focus-on-ios-android/
Ouch.
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Yeah I read that article and then shifting threw it there was typical bad headline crap.
RIM unlike everyone else (including Apple) writes their own radio stack for their GSM phones (CDMA phones they license it from Quadcomm) This is part of the reason how they are able to put out such great battery life out of their phones. Problem is the carriers have to approve it and that is hard. Mix that with they changed chipset providers for something with a little more power. Mean they had to re write their antenna stack from scratch but one thing you will always know about Blackberry is they will get really good battery life.
Rogers in Canada is generally a lot easier than AT&T who is unbelievable picky. It is not half back as BGR put it. If you read the entire thing you will find those parts and the stack is good. Problem is getting the carriers to approve the first one after that it is a lot easier to get more out.
That is why on AT&T the bold 9000 was so far behind Rogers but once that was done they were able to get out quite a few other 3G phones with little trouble later on because the they did not make any big changes to the signal stack.
I am glad RIM is putting pressure on carriers to stop blocking them and putting pretty big BS reasons for saying no.
As for Seesmic dropping blackberry sadly not a real loss there Seesmic for blackberry pretty much sucked and honestly in multiple forums it never was one recomended like you will see pop up on other platforms. It sucked big time. The offical Apps from blackberry were a hell of a lot better mix that with multiple other 3rd party. When Twitterdiod drops them then I might be worried but Seesmic is not a loss at all. It was unpopular and not very widely used.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)
I can't help but feel that there is bit of a Blackberry witchhunt going on at the moment. I know the old saying "there's no smoke without fire" but it seems to be the cool thing to do.
Hopefully things pick up for RIM as I've got no reason for animosity towards the company.
I can't help but feel that there is bit of a Blackberry witchhunt going on at the moment. I know the old saying "there's no smoke without fire" but it seems to be the cool thing to do.
Hopefully things pick up for RIM as I've got no reason for animosity towards the company.
Honestly I expect things to get better. Like I said before RIM kind of is stuck between product cycles. Yes they screwed up in 2008 and did not changed direction and now they are working on it but there is some lag there.
RIM is an enterprise company first. These means change is much more slowly as business customers do not changed what they want at the drop of a hat. I think once they get QNX off the ground in phones things will look at a lot better. I believe that is about 1 year away and I am hoping we see something at Mobile World congress.
Apple iPhone on the other hand is a Consumer device first. These means it is going to change much more quickly to those needs. Problem is this also hurts it in the enterprise world. It changes way to quickly for IT and the central management. Mix that with Apple not wanting to give up control.
I think its along the lines that the sharks are smelling blood in the water so they're circling.
RIM has a small window of opportunity to turn things around, so far they've squandered that opportunity. The leadership is promising some much better phones rolling out in late summer/early fall. If its just a variant of the traditional blackberry, screen/keyboard rollerball, It will fail. People want touchscreen phones and while the keyboard has some advantages for emails and typing, it lacks a certain sexiness that sells phones. That is the design is getting old and staid in comparison to what apple, samsung, htc are doing.
The latest in this sad tale:
http://www.bgr.com/2011/06/30/open-...xec-tells-all-as-company-crumbles-around-him/
http://www.bgr.com/2011/06/30/open-...xec-tells-all-as-company-crumbles-around-him/
The latest in this sad saga:
http://www.neowin.net/news/end-of-the-road-for-wi-fi-blackberry-playbook#comments
Now not even RIM is denying it.
I fear it might already be too late for them to even attempt anything else. Of course, we'll see, but don't be surprised if yet another Playbook (a la BlackBerry Storm) fails to really make an impact. They'll need something revolutionary.
This market's looking more and more like an iPod situation by the day. HP seemed to have had the greatest potential. But even with a former Apple brain they couldn't pull it off. In fact, it was a really embarrassing show by Ruby. So he has yet another failure to add to his Palm failure. But the slow death of WebOS is getting off-topic . . . .
http://www.neowin.net/news/end-of-the-road-for-wi-fi-blackberry-playbook#comments
Now not even RIM is denying it.
I fear it might already be too late for them to even attempt anything else. Of course, we'll see, but don't be surprised if yet another Playbook (a la BlackBerry Storm) fails to really make an impact. They'll need something revolutionary.
This market's looking more and more like an iPod situation by the day. HP seemed to have had the greatest potential. But even with a former Apple brain they couldn't pull it off. In fact, it was a really embarrassing show by Ruby. So he has yet another failure to add to his Palm failure. But the slow death of WebOS is getting off-topic . . . .
I suggest you go back and read your link. There is an update and RIM stated they are not stopping production. They called BGR pure fiction.
Does it matter? It's DOA anyway.
So in other words they're continuing with their delusion.
That's even worse. Do they enjoy the abuse?
I *might* believe in them if they do a complete management overhaul, as in sayonara to Ballsilie and Laziridis. They're clearly ill-suited do deal with current market realities.
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I do not think you would believe them no matter what because they do not have an Apple label.
I love how you refuse to admit the story was wrong, correct it and just come out with some other new bashing thing.
You are caught in your own bashing and now you are back pedaling. I though you were all about facts but when the facts turn against you well you just put your head in the sand.
Trust NOTHING coming out of RIM as long as those two delusional suits are running the show.
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