[m2k_mz]

Being the BB fan i am, im always curious as to who else is into BBs. So every place im at i tend to see what type of cell or cells the person near me is using. This has even become like a game with the gf and we each try to spot how many BBs are near us.

This is basically a small summary of what i have noticed in the few countries i have been to.
Paris- Very few people are seen with BBs. Its mainly iphones here. I walked into a mobile shop wanting to buy a simcard with BB service for the short period i was there and this was nearly impossible. At one mobile place i was told that to have the BB service i needed a contract and this was not possible with a pay as you go simcard. Another mobile shop there told me no BB service is available in France. Obviously someone was in the dark here. So if the mobile provider people are not aware of BB service etc how can they inform the clients??
Portugal- Very little people use BBs and although this seems to be increasing, people are not fully aware of BBs. Lack of advertising i would say.

Swaziland, Mozambique, South Africa- BB users are jumping in these countries. Main problems here include sometimes network problems, lack of BB support.
I go around the big malls/ airports in the above countries and i dont see a single BB store. Yet theres an istore, samsung store in most. To buy a BB accessory (case, cover, etc) its nearly impossible. The mobile companies dont have it all. Looked in about 3 mobile shops and none had a cover for my BBPB. Ended up finding this (Jornal Cover) in a computer shop with a price of around $91. Crazy.
I read about exchanging your BBs, promotions etc but in these places that BBs are booming you dont hear about this. So people continue with their old BBs and dont end up migrating to the new ones. What happens then is the day this same user with an old BB sees an android, iphone etc with a better software visual etc they change to it. This without knowing theres a newer BB curve, bold etc with a more recent software than whats on their current cellphone. People end up thinking all curves/ Bolds etc have the same software old or new.

So in my opinion RIM should try analise this by country worldwide and maybe invest a little more in the places where people are BB hungry as compared to places where people are iphone stuffed. Hopefully we can all see the sales move up

[kittencounter]

I think it would be only short terms strategy for RIM. If they want to survive in this business they still have to come up with something new. It's true that ppl in developing countries like to use BlackBerry because of the cost but Nokia also trying to push it very hard with low cost Windows Phones. I still tend to think that RIM loss of market share isn't even their fault. It's just the trend is changing too fast and it must really confusing for them that everyone don't even care about security, efficiency and want more of multimedia, lifestyle.
Maybe everything should be that way. Maybe we shouldn't get too attached to things because everything changing so fast.

[[email protected]]

I still tend to think that RIM loss of market share isn't even their fault. It's just the trend is changing too fast and it must really confusing for them that everyone don't even care about security, efficiency and want more of multimedia, lifestyle.

They never payed attention to consumer sales. They've said this much themselves. They owned enterprise and much of their consumer success was a result of their success in enterprise.

Now it's the other way around for Apple and Android. They're encroaching onto enterprise platforms because of their phenomenal success at the consumer level.

RIM needs to show that they can play in both sandboxes. Or make the decision to only play in one.

They need to get a new phone to the market much sooner than later.

[JNM]

They have been giving up their core customers to get devices into consumers hands. They did this at just the wrong time and haven't been able to offer any significantly advanced smartphones for years. At this point they actually have to win back the business customers they have disappointed and have a device appealing enough to casual users such that they gain mindshare. Basically, their next smartphone needs to be a truly impressive device. If it merely keeps up with the best smartphones on the market it will be seen as a failure.