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Is RIM's Centralized Network Model Broken?
wiredmikey writes "Is RIM's centralized network model broken? Andrew Jaquith thinks so, and provides an interesting analysis on why RIM should move to a decentralized model. After two long outages this month, many believe that the end is drawing near for Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry. But is Research In Motion in trouble? Financially, RIM continues to be a healthy company, throwing off billions in profit each year. But if it doesn't 'think different' about its network strategy, its customers may think different about their choice of handset vendor, Jaquith argues. Jaquith says RIM should dismantle its proprietary centralized delivery network, something that has been a key strength for the company. Data plans that provide TCP/IP over wireless carrier networks are now ubiquitous, nullifying a key RIM advantage. Does BlackBerry need to rethink its network model to effectively compete moving forward?"
Given the amount of legacy investment(not just on RIM's part; but on the part of some of their bigger corporate customers) in their proprietary stuff, its relatively good uptime history, and the fact that some people still value its particular set of advantages and disadvantages, it seems insane for RIM to scrap it. Consider, which of the following seems easier and less risky:
1. Scrap proprietary BBM/BIS/etc. and attempt to recreate featureset of the same in midflight with some sort of decentralized setup.
Or:
2. Keep all the various RIM-specific tricks around; and take advantage of the fact that flash is cheap by buying or building an IMAP/Activesync mail client that runs on your handsets(and has a bunch of centralized knobs and switces to keep the BES admins of the world happy). If the customer wants a classic blackberry, turn it off. If they want a decentralized offering, turn it on. If they want both, turn both on.
Centralized computing works fabulously (and inexpensively) if you've got the right infrastructure. Mainframes work.
The trivial and common response to this (and the original post I was going to write) is that it needs to GO because its competitors don't do this and, thus, don't have to worry about losing internet and email service if one cluster of huge servers somewhere in their country goes dark for a bit. Many consumers might have agreed with this school of thought with their wallet and went elsewhere.
The thing to keep in mind, however, is that this centralised model was NEVER meant to "serve" regular home consumer usage patterns. Remember their devices from yesteryear? You know, the business-only, no bullshit phones that would be totally useless for Joe Consumer? That, if anything, showed that their target market was for people who needed really good phone and email device with extra high security, if required. Their centralised model (outages aside) ensures the highest quality for both of these requirements with a battery life that is still unmatched by iOS or Android
The problem is that the market has shown that most people are fine with "good enough," and Blackberry devices are FAR from that. Their Their work phones might still rule with email, but their iPhone or Droid does that and much more satisfactorily enough to meet their needs. It's also cheaper per month and has more "apps." Additionally, they are, slowly but surely, becoming secure enough to be seriously considered for the workplace. Once this happens, Blackberry has no leg to stand on.
I think RIM needs to worry about moving their phones to the 21st century. Outages happen; bad market strategy shouldn't.
There will always be a demand for the Soviet-style centralized IT that RIM's system represents. It's the same old kind of mentality that insists "no personal calls on a business cell phone" or (heaven forbid) browsing the interwebs while on company time.
All the companies I know have either switched away from Blackberry, or at least opened their policies to say "get whatever phone-device you want, here's your budget, and tech-supporting it is your problem". Nobody, given that option, chooses Blackberry.
RIM will continue to be profitable, and actually their service will probably improve as the load on their systems decreases.
-Styopa
What? Where? Who's the carrier offering this? I want what you are talking about!
I don't know where you get that from... but I can tell you for certain that we (Vodafone) charge every mobile network operater a hefty roaming fee whenever their customers cross into any of our extensive data networks - nobody gets a free ride, not even blackberry users. Since RIM have not built an alternative internet, i am pretty certain that, each time you roam, somebody pays. I suspect that what you are considering free email, is probably built into your blackberry package... and since RIM has always prided itself with how little data their devices use, I suspect that the roaming data costs are so small that it does not make for a significant reason to break out the email roaming costs separately.
That's harsh. Just a few months ago, Blackberry's unique social networking features played an important role in facilitating the high profile collaborative activities of many members of the key under-25 demographic!:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/aug/08/london-riots-facebook-twitter-blackberry
RIM is still making money, and the one big factor that everyone seems to forget - BES. Nobody else even comes close to being able to offer companies the level of fine-grained administrative control over their companies devices as to RIM through BES. I work for a public company and whenever the discussion about phones comes up, one of the first questions is how one is supposed to remotely administer, control, and if needed, wipe the phones. The discussion pretty much starts and stops with BES. I'd love nothing more than to use an iPhone, but what am I going to do, install iTunes on every corporate PC? Have each user individually sign up for a 'find my iphone' account? No. With with an OSX Server (running on Apple's official server hardware - a Mac Mini), iPhone control leaves a lot to be desired.
BES is still a HUGE hook for businesses. I know Apple and Google boast that a lot of fortune 500 companies use iPhones/Androids, but until they can demonstrate their business compatibility (ala not having to install iTunes on every corporate machine, being able to centrally restrict apps, etc), RIM is still going to own a huge chunk of the corporate pie.
And when I say I'd love to be using an iPhone (or Android) - I'm serious. I use a new Bold 9900, and I think it's a POS. It can't even smoothly play the HD video that it recorded, despite it's crystal HD engine or whatever they call it. The browser reminds me of IE5. Hotlinks and the ability to click on them is still a fairly new, radical concept.
Almost true. I just got back from a 2 week European trip, and paid about 60 cents a day for 'free' email and roaming. (I have a Blackberry with T-Mobile and activated their international email plan for my stay). This may seem like a lot of pennies, but when you consider that I could email unlimited 1mb pictures back home with no additional charge, this was quite the deal. I have used this service many time over the years, and will probably stay with Blackberry and T-mobile for that reason.
If those IPs were geographically diverse, I would expect a bigger separation between subnets. Splitting one subnet over multiple distant networks would not only be a pain, but make little sense, as it still allows for a single point of failure.
I've just run a traceroute to a selection of those IPs via different continents, and it does seem to suggest those servers are on the same network segment.
> Perfect example of someone thinking he knows better.
Back at'cha!