[CrackedBarry]

It was announced yesterday that Jim Balsilie is leaving RIM. I doubt he'll be missed much, as RIM is in its present condition thanks to his and Mikes mismanagement.

The question is however, was Balsilie pushed out? There has previously been rumours that Lazaridis forced Balsilie to step down earlier this year. But is that also the reason for Jims complete exit?

What do you guys think... What happened here?

[brucep1]

Judging by the state of the company, either he was pushed out or his timing of retiring is VERY coincidental. I think he was pushed out.

[OMGitworks]

Hopefully he was pushed out. Though he was not doubt one of the greatest innovators and businessman in the last few decades, the true depth of his poor decisions and neglect over the last 5 years is now clearly evident. It really is like he/they were just asleep at the wheel and ram RIM off the road and into a very deep ditch.

[olga421]

Or is he seeing the writing on the wall,that Rim will be bought,and or sink in the cold water.Rim better have there new bb10 up and running by summer,or that's it folks.

[DenverRalphy]

Most often, when a high profile figure steps down or retires, the truth is they were "kindly asked to leave" so to speak.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

[wjptam]

Man spent two years fighting Gary Bettman for a hockey team in Hamilton Ontario when he should have been trying to figure out why Apple and Google were about to wipe the floor with RIM.

[Bilaal]

I agree. I have my money on Balsilie being kindly asked to leave.

[dentynefire]

Jim coined the term on-boarding. I'd like to coin a term for a CEO being pushed out,

Off-planking!

Walk the plank Jim all the way to the end har har har...

[purijagmohan]

RIM is now in a very very weak position.

At best BB 10 = as good as IOS and Android

So question is why IOS and Android guys will come to BlackBerry?

Together IOS and Android account for 90% of smartphone sales in US.How much room is there for RIM now, no matter how good BB 10 is?

If only they had delivered BB 10 last year ... But now game is already over and it's a long arduous climb up sadly.

[berklon]

Man spent two years fighting Gary Bettman for a hockey team in Hamilton Ontario when he should have been trying to figure out why Apple and Google were about to wipe the floor with RIM.

He had a lawyer who was doing almost all the work for him. His attempt to acquire a hockey team had nothing to do with RIM resting on their laurels. Give your head a shake.

[Foreverup]

Who cares if he was. He deserved to go.

[Economist101]

Pushed out? I think the more accurate description would be "cost-optimized," as in "Jim was just cost-optimized" or "I really how they don't cost-optimize me" or "No need to worry. They wouldn't give you a raise and then cost-optimize you" or "If you don't step it up I'm going to cost-optimize your a$$."

[_StephenBB81]

RIM is now in a very very weak position.

At best BB 10 = as good as IOS and Android

So question is why IOS and Android guys will come to BlackBerry?

Together IOS and Android account for 90% of smartphone sales in US.How much room is there for RIM now, no matter how good BB 10 is?

If only they had delivered BB 10 last year ... But now game is already over and it's a long arduous climb up sadly.

Together Andorid and iPhone make up 45% of the US Mobile phone market, what room is there for RIM to make any headway? only 55% of the market is left clearly they must fail....

RIGHT?

[berklon]

RIM is now in a very very weak position.

At best BB 10 = as good as IOS and Android

So question is why IOS and Android guys will come to BlackBerry?

Together IOS and Android account for 90% of smartphone sales in US.How much room is there for RIM now, no matter how good BB 10 is?

If only they had delivered BB 10 last year ... But now game is already over and it's a long arduous climb up sadly.

Yep, this is essentially what it comes down to.

There are those on this forum that think when BB10 is released it'll change everything and the company will do a complete turnaround.

Unless the BB10 devices offer something revolutionary, it won't happen.

The best BB10 devices will do (and this is a realistic best case scenario) is stop SOME BB users from jumping ship. It won't get many people to drop their iPhone or Android device to move to BB10, and it won't stop those who seek all the advantages the competitions devices (apps, etc) from jumping ship.

It's all about timing, something that worked against RIM. A BB10 device a year ago... even 6 months ago... even 3 months ago would've made a moderate to substantial difference. BB10 in Q4? Next to impossible to make the difference that RIM needs it to make.

[brucep1]

Together Andorid and iPhone make up 45% of the US Mobile phone market, what room is there for RIM to make any headway? only 65% of the market is left clearly they must fail....

RIGHT?

*55%

But I wonder if those numbers include nonsmartphones as well? I wonder how the percentages change when you factor in phones with a data plan.

[CrackedBarry]

Together Andorid and iPhone make up 45% of the US Mobile phone market, what room is there for RIM to make any headway? only 65% of the market is left clearly they must fail....

RIGHT?

He was talking about SMARTPHONES... Android and Apple might make up 45% of the total number of cellphones sold, but they make up 90% of the smartphone market. And last time I checked, RIM was making smartphones...

[purijagmohan]

Together Andorid and iPhone make up 45% of the US Mobile phone market, what room is there for RIM to make any headway? only 65% of the market is left clearly they must fail....

RIGHT?

As per latest comscore report

"The number of U.S. smartphone subscribers surpassed the 100-million mark in January to 101.3 million subscribers. Google Android ranked as the top smartphone platform with 48.6 percent market share followed by Apple with 29.5 percent market share. RIM ranked third with 15.2 percent share, followed by Microsoft (4.4 percent) and Symbian (1.5 percent)."

That's the installed base.

As per Nielsen report IOS & ANDROID account for 90% of smartphone sales in US ( Pay attention sales not installed base). What about RIM ? A measly 5%.

That's the sales.

So my question is why the new users who are all choosing IOS and ANDROID right now will choose a BB 10? When they are not doing that for Playbook even at a rock bottom prices.

[_StephenBB81]

*55%

But I wonder if those numbers include nonsmartphones as well? I wonder how the percentages change when you factor in phones with a data plan.

YUP! I'm including non smartphones, ALL mobile phones, RIM has 55% chance at still grabbing with BB10 because they are not entrenched in iOS or Android,


you don't need to factor in dataplans, what is nice about RIM's service books is they can limit dataplans to only BBM and facebook for the carriers to sell, and if the users want more, they buy more,
The carriers just haven't taken advantage of that yet, RIM needs to make them, something Thor was hinting to in the call

[_StephenBB81]

As per latest comscore report

"The number of U.S. smartphone subscribers surpassed the 100-million mark in January to 101.3 million subscribers. Google Android ranked as the top smartphone platform with 48.6 percent market share followed by Apple with 29.5 percent market share. RIM ranked third with 15.2 percent share, followed by Microsoft (4.4 percent) and Symbian (1.5 percent)."

That's the installed base.

As per Nielsen report IOS & ANDROID account for 90% of smartphone sales in US ( Pay attention sales not installed base). What about RIM ? A measly 5%.

That's the sales.

So my question is why the new users who are all choosing IOS and ANDROID right now will choose a BB 10? When they are not doing that for Playbook even at a rock bottom prices.

I am running late because of a shipping issue so I can't pull out the stats but isn't is about 50% of mobile subscribers are currently smartphone subscribers, so that means that half the market still hasn't adopted the smartphone, so there is a lot of market to still grab and grow with, which is what RIM needs to be looking at,

don't look only at the ground you've lost, but look to the ground you still have to gain, and hope you can grab some of the lost ground on the way.

the smartphone market is no longer in it's infancy, but it isn't yet close to saturation in the US market, it isn't like Japan yet.

That isn't to say this isn't going to be hard, RIM needs to be very smart with their game plan, and needs to really build relationships, I am hoping the people he plans to bring in are up for that task.

[Economist101]

you don't need to factor in dataplans, what is nice about RIM's service books is they can limit dataplans to only BBM and facebook for the carriers to sell, and if the users want more, they buy more,
The carriers just haven't taken advantage of that yet, RIM needs to make them, something Thor was hinting to in the call

That's like me saying I could opt to make only 80% of my current salary, but I "haven't taken advantage of that yet." The carriers are headed to a single set of data plans for all devices. They have no interest in cutting any set of customers a break, especially if the only benefit they identify would flow completely to another company (RIM).

[anthogag]

Many people will eventually move from feature phones to smart phones and there's a large market there for BB10 phones

Some posters are assuming apple and android will come-out with revolutionary products. It will be more of the same difference. BB10 will at least match these guys on specs. After that it's about UI and ecosystem

[BB10FTW]

Wow you guys are vultures. Give the man some respect. Jim played a huge roll in getting RIM where it is today. RIM makes 20 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR!!! The man deserves respect and credit for his accomplishments. Yes there were some mistakes made but that still gives no one the right to be so heartless towards Jim. Can any of you say that you were involved in taking a company from nothing and skyrocketing it to success? NO!
RIM needed change and both Mike and Jim stepped down and put the right man at the helm. Thorsten is very focused on RIM and can clearly see what went wrong. I believe he can right the ship. Jim and Mike did as much as they could with RIM and now Jim is moving on, they did not fail in what they did. The smartphone market is still extremely young yet everyone makes it sound like Android and iOS will dominate forever. That is simply not the case. RIM has an excellent chance maintaining 3rd place. Thorsten is in the process of trimming the fat and focusing on RIM's core strengths. Mike and Jim picked an excellent man to take over, Thorsten is simply amazing.
All I'm saying is that everyone needs to just relax. Jim Balsillie is gone now and we should thank him for getting the company this far and for realizing that it was time to move on. We shouldn't point out every error imaginable and trample on him for not doing what you all think was the right thing to do.
At the end of the day we are talking about cell phones, don't get so worked up about it. Just take a deep breath and tell yourself that all good things come to those who wait..........and work their asses off.

RIM FTW

[Economist101]

Some posters are assuming apple and android will come-out with revolutionary products.

And you assume that BB10 will be revolutionary. There are assumptions all over.

BB10 will at least match these guys on specs. After that it's about UI and ecosystem

Good point. It worked out well for the PlayBook.

[CrackedBarry]

YUP! I'm including non smartphones, ALL mobile phones, RIM has 55% chance at still grabbing with BB10 because they are not entrenched in iOS or Android,


you don't need to factor in dataplans, what is nice about RIM's service books is they can limit dataplans to only BBM and facebook for the carriers to sell, and if the users want more, they buy more,
The carriers just haven't taken advantage of that yet, RIM needs to make them, something Thor was hinting to in the call

You're assuming that everyone who has a cellphone will get a smartphone. That assumption is wrong. There are plenty of people who neither need or want a smartphone but just want to call somebody every now and then.

[wjptam]

Sure over 50% of NA doesn't have smartphones yet and that's a potential market for RIM but you also have to consider that at this point these later adopters (late majority) are least likely to try something new and experimental like BB10.

These people will naturally gravitate to the brands their friends have or buy on price.

Also the best case scenario is that BB10 will be as good on release as iOS and Android were in their second revisions. At this point I'd count the Playbook OS as a prototype of sorts. The challenge is that Android and iOS are going to be in their 5th or 6th versions by the time BB10 comes out. And not to mention if Microsoft and Nokia ever get their stuff together.

Its going to be a challenging year.