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CEOs of RIM Step Down
An anonymous reader writes "After two decades of leading the BlackBerry maker, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balisillie are stepping down from their roles as Co-CEOs at Canada's Research In Motion Limited. Thorsten Heins will now lead RIM as it attempts to beat the likes of Apple and Google."
it seem's the decision they made is about a year too late.
It looks like Blackberry is doomed to sink below Windows Phone in terms of popularity and offerings.
They should still have US government customers for a while until the government-approved version of Android is widespread, so maybe a year or two left.
Beyond that, I don't see much of a future.
42
... will now lead the BlackBerry maker as it attempts to beat the likes of Apple and Google
Slow down, slow down, one step at a time. How about we get the company nice and healthy first and work on dominating the industry after that.
"as it attempts to beat the likes of Apple and Google"
A strange choice of words. I think "as it attempts to compete with the likes of..." would be more accurate and desirable - the last thing the technology market needs these days is a single, clearcut winner (at least, if you're a consumer). That aside, as a Canadian I'd like to see RIM survive on its own and if this helps to shake things up then it's a welcome move; I don't fancy the thought of the Samsung chaebol gaining even more power than it already has.
A day late and a dollar short....
...I'd rather see google buy them out and crush the competition. Just sayin...
I'm looking for a good RIM job... do you think being CEO would suffice?
"Top RIM jobs now two for one"
You know your phones are going to burn and die when Windows phones are doing better than yours.
Ouch, a little bit of late night hatin'! When I'm trying to fall asleep, I prefer to think warm fuzzy thoughts. - Sent from my iPad.
Not really... More like ejecting bilge water from a sinking ship. Perhaps since we're talking about smartphones, syncing ship?
Just give this generation of developers a better share on their applications than the competition and see how things shake out.
Classically they might be considered business phones, but snag one exclusive that makes you stand out...
I guess that'll be the end of RIM. Last year it was REM. What's next? RAM? ROM?
Their will be a lot of snarky "too late" comments today for this news, but it's a sad day when you have to step down from the company you worked so hard to build -- a company that must feel an extension of yourself -- and it must have been a really tough decision for these guys. No doubt they still wanted to prove themselves (and who wouldn't, given their situation?). I feel sorry for them. It's easy to be an armchair CEO, especially when you have hindsight.
How many people understand the difference between pull and push email and how it affects them in the pocket? How many developers understand why Neutrino has advantages over iOS?
A serious marketing department would have launched the Playbook by giving them away to every Android developer who cared to ask for one. They would have spent money in product placement, developed a Curve phone optimised to work with the Playbook, and sold them as a single product so that people "got" the Bridge from day 1. Instead, they launched at far too high a price with a corporate advertisement that nobody understood. People saw the lack of native email as a downside, not seeing that with a BB phone you had one mobile connection that worked both devices. It was a classical launch by engineers who assumed that everybody was as clever as they were.
However, unlike HP, the tablet is pretty good, and there is still market share to lose. Their best bet is to spend marketing money outside the US in the emergent markets and Europe, since they cannot compete with Apple.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
So, what makes you think that Google having crushed competition will bring a better overall landscape of smartphones? What could we possibly gain from such a thing?
Write boring code, not shiny code!
...that there's now a high-level RIM-job available?
What could we possibly gain from such a thing?
Depends how much you'd enjoy seeing your telcos bent over and squealing like pigs.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
Although it isn't certain that Elop will manage to save Nokia, he at least understood that painful changes needed to be made. I'm not sure that Heins understands the dangers that RIM finds itself in though..
Never email donotemail@WeAreSpammers.com
We already saw that with the iPhone. But that was Apple. Now, as far as telcos are concerned, I don't think Google has had anything to make them bend over and squeak.
Please try again.
Write boring code, not shiny code!
We already saw that with the iPhone. But that was Apple. Now, as far as telcos are concerned, I don't think Google has had anything to make them bend over and squeak.
Please try again.
Hence the need to first crush the competition.
Y'know, that precondition already mentioned in this thread? You do comprehend what you read, don't you?
...they chose executives that won't chew through their restraints this time. That could be helpful.
Daily read for tech news: Freezenet.ca
At least someone is going to have to start taking responsibility for what's going on over there. QNX is going to be interesting to see on their devices next year. I think the big thing driving smartphone sales right now is price, and RIM hasn't been able to release an appealing device with a price point low enough to drive people away from the alternatives.
But so far, Google is in the game for profits, not for some noble quest against telcos. At least, all pointers seem to indicate that. So having Google crush competition will more likely result in nothing good for the customers - both in the smartphone and the telco arena at least.
Write boring code, not shiny code!
I hope I'm considered for the role. I've always wanted a RIM job.
Those who do not learn from commit history are doomed to regress it.
And the band will keep playing all the way into the vasty deep.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
BB is currently stuck on a legacy platform with, I suspect, vast cruft to support. They are transitioning to a new platform, based on QNX Neutrino, which is potentially a much better phone/tablet OS than either iOS or Android. In effect, they need what Apple got; a genius marketing director who was ruthless about ensuring that products met the needs of the marketing department, coupled with a platform that was good enough to support what he wanted to do. They have the platform. They need a Jobs.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Comment removed based on user account deletion
This is because any market with a complete monopoly means that customers will try to get out of that market altogether. Dell does not really want to be the only PC maker, because then anybody who really hates them will try and find an alternative to PCs, and that alternative may become the new norm. End customers actually need choice, because the perception of competition in the market generates buzz. The mere fact of competition brings the segment to the attention of people who would otherwise not hear of it. It increases the size of the market and enables companies to grow without having to do so at the expense of the competition.
Also, of course, there is no such thing as a "company" in terms of objective; there are people. Even the best CEO (who doesn't know he is going to die or retire before long) is aware that without competition he doesn't have a plan B if things go wrong, and his salary is likely to be lower than it would be if the shareholders think he might jump ship.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
He will lead RIM as it attempts to get bought by someone for the IP and then forgotten like every other IT relic out there.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Ah, a RIMshot ;)
it seem's the decision they made is about a year too late.
Oh sure, take me down with you!
Ironically, I just posted two Blackberry videos onto my YouTube portfolio channel yesterday that I had forgotten about (http://www.youtube.com/user/seanmurphydesign/featured#). I like the vids, but I tell you... my timing sucks! ;-/ If they had held off until I was gainfully employed again, I could at least try to forgive them. RIM was sinking anyways... why not give an old supplier a break, huh?
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. ~~ Hunter S. Thompson
To succeed in this area, they need marketing.
I find it interesting that a number of people responding to my post simply don't understand why marketing is so important. I ask one question: How did Apple survive when it was in the doldrums and the products were pretty crap? Users were made to believe that there was a plan, and made to feel that in some way they had bought into a company that was going places. That was marketing, pure and simple.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
More like a RIMjob.
After these 2 trip into their lifeboats. I'd love to see some life breathed into this great company.
"drink deeply the illusion of your safety"
There was a typesetters' error in the last sentence of today's RIM article. It should have read "Thorsten Heins will now lead RIM as it slogs toward inevitable bankruptcy and asset fire sale to the likes of Apple and Google." We apologize for the error.
0 1 - just my two bits
to trying to sell the company
Yea cause I'd love for a single mammoth ad network to have my (everyones) mobile. You do remember google is an ad network right?
Perhaps you should return to rolling back and forth in the fetal position while muttering 'do no evil', a pro-Microsoft article might be on the way soon.
I don't really see any major problems with RIM. Their target market is businesses who need security and granular manageability. The company I work for happens to require those things. RIM is the best choice I'm aware of to meet those requirements. I will qualify that by saying I am a BES admin so maybe a little blinded by that, which is why I'd like fellow technical people to let me know what the real issues with RIM are and how the competition is superior.
As for devices themselves... I use a Bold 9900 currently and I like it. The touchscreen is great for navigating, though every now and again I have to tap something twice which seems due to slower processor taking a moment. This does not bother me. The built in browser now supports tabbed browsing, a plus but wasn't a big deal for me. The trackball is now a touch sensitive input, like the 9700. Before this phone I thought the 9700 was great with the upgrade from trackball to touch sensor. I disliked the smaller screen and size of the 9700 as I went to that from a 9000.
The Bolt 9900 meets business needs as I see them and as I use my phone. It provides secure email, whole device encryption, excellent remote management, and a functional level of referencing pdf/doc/xls/ppt... As functional as can be on a small screen. Android/iOS devices are marginally better at this due to the larger screen, gained from lack of a physical keyboard, but still not great. For referencing or especially editing those types of documents you're into tablet or notebook territory simply for the larger screen.
The only downside I see to the 9900 for the time I've had it, is battery life sucks. If I use it lightly I can get a day and change out of it. If I use it heavily I have to charge before the day is through. If you plan for it you will pretty much always have access to charge, but it's unacceptable to not make it at least a full day of moderate to heavy use. By that I mean phone calls, email, attachments, corporate IM, light web browsing, etc. Not playing games or watching multimedia all day. The 9900 has a much lower capacity battery than the 9000 did. I believe RIM did this to keep the device thin. Personally I don't care about having a thin device. Give the most MAh you can, to be sure it'll last at least two full days of use between charges, preferably longer. I don't care if it's as thick as an old "dumb phone". It stays on my belt out of the way, along with my personal phone ( a 5 year old dumb phone that can make calls and text), knife, flashlight and wahtever else I may be carrying. Smaller/lighter is nice but not at the detriment of battery life.
So please, /., if I am out of touch with how RIM is not meeting the needs of businesses please let me know. For personal devices, sure, Android and iOS have an edge. What are the real issues with RIM being inadequate for business use, particularly where central manageability and security are critical? To expand on that, if you believe iOS or Android are competitive there, what tools does one use to have easy centralized management and security comparable to BES if managing a few hundred mobile devices?
RIM had and still have a good size install base and it's firmly in the corporate environment. Given that and the history of how Microsoft uses it's profits to purchase market share this seems like another opportunity to pull a Nokia or better. The "better" being a direct purchase.
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
Indeed. That's what I always say: "Free market" is the polar opposite of democracy.
so aptly and clearly put.
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They seem to be having a hard time getting bought, though. The other option might be to slash the staff, slash the product line, and put heavy emphasis on licensing their technology. Think "Windows Phone featuring BlackBerry." If that works out, then I see Microsoft grabbing them in a couple years.
Breakfast served all day!
From my perspective, rich people seem to love Blackberries. Every time I see a post from a celebrity on Twitter, it's from a Blackberry. When pictures from celebrities have EXIF data, it always seems to say it's a Blackberry camera. So if I were trying to save the company, I'd consider making just two phone models. A $500 one and maybe a $5,000 one. The rich people will buy the $5,000 one because they love Blackberries and price doesn't matter. Everybody other potential customer can buy the lower cost one. And each rich person will make up for 10 regular people who didn't buy one.
... if Jim Balsillie spent less time trying to bring an NHL team to Hamilton (wtf?) and more time trying to improve the RIM brand, then maybe BlackBerry would be more relevant in today's smartphone market. Perhaps...