[Drentz]

I wrote this last week and it rings true, maybe even louder today then back then seeing as how someone in verizon higher ups is seeming to put their chips on win. 7 devices.
Please excuse my lengthy rant.

I was wondering today how can RIM right there ship. It seems to be a uphill battle that has investors and bloggers clamoring for a grand cashout and the sell off of the company with major patens and acquisitions as bait. Kind of reminds me of the movie major league when the owners wanted the team to tank so they can move out of cleaveland. As I came across the story about mobile hot spot feature being blocked by carriers it became even more clear that carriers in the US should shoulder a lot of the blame for RIM's troubles.

Yes Research In Motion seemed to have tunnel vision when it came to the motion of rival handset makers research. Slow incremental changes as competition made leaps and bounds when it came to potent hardware changes. Of course R&D is a tedious task when you are responsible for the hardware, the OS, and even the radio stack but the snails pace adopted by RIM is a deathwish in this day and age as the rate of information doubling is at lightspeed. Not to mention the horrible marketing plan carried out by RIM. Marketing is very much like speaking the language of the common person and convincing them why they absolutely need your product.

Lets not totally ignore the beyond wise acquisitions RIM has made, from QNX to TAT to GIST to countless others. Which came together nicely in my beloved blackberry PlayBook. BUT how many non crackberry members and blackberry blog followers the like really know how awesome the PlayBook actually is? How many playbook owners can say they have 3 friends with playbooks ( aside from the A,B,C&J of podcasts)?
Why is the ipad an ipad and not an apple tablet? And how come when non tablet owners see a tablet in the wild like I have been asked on numerous occasions "is that an ipad?" Kudos to the Steve Jobs machine for being ahead of the pack.

Lets not forget the part that carriers play. It seems to me that RIM is trying to play nice with carriers but the carriers are not giving anything back in return. We heard Mike L talk about bandwidth limits and how BB phones require less bandwidth compared with rivals, a carriers dreams in practical terms. The problem here is carriers are all about the Benjamins, green backs, moola, paper. The carriers don't care about bandwidth it just gives them more to charge for. If the average Joe uses the average android device and pulls down more gigs of data for the same task he can do with his blackberry just fractions of a second slower the carrier can charge them more or force them into a bigger data plan. Its no coincidence that most major carriers are ditching unlimited plans for capped plans. So the benefit that RIM offers is a benefit to the consumer not the carrier, so its not publicized at all.
What about the genius and ingenuity at work when RIM was able to make the PlayBook and BB smartphone work seamlessly. The blackberry bridge is peerless when it comes to an app. Maybe RIM should market it as an app since it is available on app world. Before the tech is copied by apple run an ad asking an iphone user about the lack of connectivity it has with his ipad and ask him is there an app for THAT? Then talk up bridge, don't just show it working. BUT even with the awesomeness of bridge AT&T blocked it. A huge feature that noone else has is blocked by a carrier. The same people you look out for are the ones turning the knife in your back. And why? All because they havent found a way to make people pay twice for service they already pay for.
And while i'm on AT&T why are they intentionally sabotaging RIM by not releasing the 9900? What are they waiting for the iphone 5 to be released. Timing is key in the handset business. This isn't a problem for android phones, there is a new green robot device every 3 months.
What about Verizon? As my fellow big red subscribers know as soon as you walk into a vzw store they quickly usher you to the green robot section. No matter what you are looking for they will throw a droid in your face and mention they have the iphone. And when I say no i'm staying with my blackberry they give me the 'who farted' look. I admit, I played dumb and told the vz worker I had a PlayBook and a BlackBerry 9550. He tried to convince me to upgrade to a droid charge and add a tether plan to my already 'too expensive for the service' plan.
The average consumer trusts these people to help them get the best phone for them not the one that drives cost out of the roof.
And thank you Sprint for being chosen as the first carrier to carry 4G playbooks and then scrapping WiMax. Thanks for the further delay to seeing the on the go benefit to the 7 inch form factor, proving god-jobs wrong.
Carriers have diminished too many OS7 features NFC, Bridge (AT&T), and now mobile hot spot.
Holy Tea Party RIM, the people you are trying to play nice with refuse to play nice to you. This is also about marketing money as well. When AT&T threw money at marketing as to why they are better than Verizon, they show an iphone web browsing while using voice. The average Jane says "wow look what the iphone can do.". Carrier ads and commercials are also product ads and commercials. I have yet to see a carrier ad showing the new os7 devices.



Sent from my BlackBerry PlayBook in portrait orientation
And just think, my keyboarding teacher back in school said there's no future in two finger typing. HA!!!!!!

[waccotobacco]

The data compression is negligible IMO. Doesn't matter if you stream on an iphone/blackberry/android using 3/4g, it'll still use a ton of data. Most tiered data is 200/2048 MB so as long as you just do email/text on any device, you'll most likely just need the 200 plan and vice versa.

I'm on At&t, so I don't know much about the storm releases, but imagine if you were in sales for verizon and you pushed the storm phones only to get yelled at. Why would you push BBs?

[Jake Storm]

Lowell McAdam was mis-quoted. He is not "putting his chips on win.7 devices"
http://crackberry.com/verizon-commun...***-blackberry

[ScoobyDoo555]

The big "data" issue is simple really. Sure, a blackberry might manage the data more efficiently, but you know what?

Most owners of a smart/regular phone don't give a flying fook about data compression. They're not interested. As long as the information they've requested appears on the screen in a shiny format, they're happy.

If the customer hasn't got a big enough data plan, they'll pay for more. Very few will think of this as a consideration when purchasing a new device.

Even more so now that WIFI hotspots are becoming more and more available. Here in the UK, you'll find that a lot of providers have teamed up with a hotspot provider, and provide "free" access to wifi as part of the monthly data plan.
Much faster than 3 or 4g, and doesn't affect your "mobile" data plan.


I can only comment for the UK, but the Blackberry 7 devices are widely advertised, and still widely used.
The younger generation (under 20) are still quite anti-iphone. (I work in post-16 Education, and as a techy-subject, phones are always being discussed. The surprise is that my techy subject is Audio & Music Technology - an area dominated by Apple. Yet only a few of my students have iphones)
Most either have Berry, or Android. Those that have Android also have tablets as well. NOBODY has an iPad (too expensive).
However, the adverts are run on the main tv channels and are frequent - focusing on the 9900 & 9860 (9810 has only just been released)

Even our phone shops (and networks) all happily push the Blackberry as an equal option.

Just a slightly balanced opinion from across the pond, as it sadly does sound like the US has a problem with this. I do think it comes down to commission - perhaps the shops have got better financial incentives to sell Android devices..... I know what I would do, as it's a tough world out there.

[Drentz]

The story in the UK is drastically different than of that in the US. Im ok with that but the mindshare in the US dictates Wall St. and speculative doom is driving down popularity and value of stocks.

How can RIM show great numbers worldwide yet the price of the stock falling.