The most authoritative news reporting of what's happened at RIM

[samab]

I think that this Canadian news article is the most authoritative account of what's happened at RIM.

A couple of things that stood out in the article:

Lazaridis is the guy who wanted the Playbook to be more consumer oriented. Balsillie wanted the Playbook as an extension tool for business users. I have always thought the reverse was true --- that Lazaridis (the tech guy) wanted the Playbook to be a business tool and Balsillie (the marketing guy) wanted the Playbook to be more consumer oriented.

Porting of Blackberry java email apps to the Playbook --- RIM found out too late that writing the whole email app in native c is easier than actually porting the java app to the QNX OS.

How management has failed at RIM | CanadianBusiness.com

[buckwylder]

Hmmm, but the PlayBook is both a business tool and a consumer device. So, I don't get it.

They've (RIM) made some mistakes, sure. But failed? It doesn't seem to me as though they've failed at all. Seriously.

Interesting read though. Thanks for posting. Have a good one.

Peace

[dagerlach]

Good article. Thanks for posting.

[samab]

A third important issue was the "lack of accountability" (aka nobody executives ever got fired for missing deadlines as listed in previous "open letters") in that "consensus" decision making means nobody would ever tell the dynamic duo that co-CEO's estimated time line was way off --- even though everybody within RIM knew that the time lines were way off.

[Doc Z]

Of course they failed. Constantly pushing out old tech when iPhone/Android exists, creating false deadlines and never executing properly, lack of organization and accountability within the company itself, and the arrogance to sit through all this garbage and tell shareholders and customers "don't worry, we got this, we're betting on QNX phones to somehow gain marketshare". By the time QNX comes out, Apple/Android competition will be even more fierce.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[sam_b77]

Originally Posted by Doc Z

Of course they failed. Constantly pushing out old tech when iPhone/Android exists, creating false deadlines and never executing properly, lack of organization and accountability within the company itself, and the arrogance to sit through all this garbage and tell shareholders and customers "don't worry, we got this, we're betting on QNX phones to somehow gain marketshare". By the time QNX comes out, Apple/Android competition will be even more fierce.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

How is the PB behind the times? And what great innovations have iOSand Androids brought to the table? Yes they have third part apps, but what have THEY done?

And what will iOS do for you by the time QNX comes? I mean how far ahead do you think iOS will be? Take you to Mars,introduce you to Jesus, bring on world peace? Please quantify your gaseous statement.

[SnoozerBold]

Well my failure, the 9790 works flawlessly for me. No complaints here.

[lak611]

Christensen argues that innovative companies lose their way because they become encumbered by their existing customers. They need to devote so much time to servicing these clients that they’re unable to focus on the next big innovation.

Lazaridis, according to former employees, believes this is essentially what happened to RIM. To help solve the problem, Christensen recommends carving out a team to work on whatever the next innovation will be so it’s not beholden to the same rules and thinking as the rest of the organization. It’s not surprising, then, that the QNX team was a separate entity. But theory and reality are two different things. As pressure mounted and workloads grew, RIM began moving more employees over to QNX. Last year, the software development teams were officially split between those working on QNX and those servicing the existing BlackBerry operating system. Everyone knew the latter system was headed for obsolescence, to be replaced with whatever the QNX team developed. Those working on it wondered why they were wasting time on a dying platform. When some of the developers started leaving the company, Lazaridis put the teams back together in one department, overseen by a single vice-president. It was an unfortunate miscalculation that cost time and resources during a crucial period for RIM.

I wonder how many of the QNX developers left, due to culture clash. That was what killed the Microsoft Kin. The former Danger employees did not fit in with the corporate culture at Microsoft.
Microsoft Pri0 | What the death of Sidekick means for Microsoft and Skype | Seattle Times Newspaper

[grahamf]

Originally Posted by lak611

I wonder how many of the QNX developers left, due to culture clash. That was what killed the Microsoft Kin. The former Danger employees did not fit in with the corporate culture at Microsoft.
Microsoft Pri0 | What the death of Sidekick means for Microsoft and Skype | Seattle Times Newspaper

It didn't help that Microsoft decided to kill off the existing DangerOS and port all of the Danger servers to Windows... Remember the data fiasco?

RIM is still allowing the QNX team to work on their existing products also, and the outcome (like QNX Car 2) actual look pretty enticing.

Kin didn't really have a thought out plan, and it wasn't cheap enough to make it obviously better than a standard Smartphone.

[the_sleuth]

Interesting article, similar to many reports from 2011. Many business leaders that have early success, then fail due to the company growing beyond what they can manage.

Competent operations executive retires, co-founders draw on what's worked in the past and run the organization like a small business. History tends to repeat itself in technology; it is difficult for a tech company to find a second act. Just look at the early success of Atari, Commodore, SEGA, Palm, and others like Apple. Apple's example of reversal and survival is not the norm unfortunately. Tech land is littered with former titans like DEC, Kodak and Xerox.

2012 will be a very interesting year for RIM followers. My opinion is RIM will not be an independent firm in the foreseeable future. It needs bigger partner(s) to survive. (Bezos, if you're reading this, make an offer to RIM again).

Smartphone market is very different today than in 2006 or 2007.

[Doc Z]

Originally Posted by sam_b77

How is the PB behind the times? And what great innovations have iOSand Androids brought to the table? Yes they have third part apps, but what have THEY done?

And what will iOS do for you by the time QNX comes? I mean how far ahead do you think iOS will be? Take you to Mars,introduce you to Jesus, bring on world peace? Please quantify your gaseous statement.

What do you mean what have iOS and Android done? Crushing a once dominant RIM isn't enough for you? My statement wasn't intended to argue for the superiority of one OS over another. Perhaps if you actually read what I said you will see that I am referring to RIM's market mistimings and underestimations as well as the ever growing competition from their rivals, which again, will only become more fierce by the time QNX rolls around.

The playbook was a disaster, BB7 phones are irrelevant in the US and that trend will soon follow in other countries, and RIM is literally betting its entire future on a successful launch of a new OS, which I highly doubt they'll be able to pull off given their chaotic behavior. The promise of another OS and another ecosystem (which they won't have anyway) at a point that's just too late will do it even more damage. Everyone here is really excited for QNX phones, but no one talks about the potentially slow and excruciatingly painful market adoption of these phones. Even given a miraculously successful launch, do you really think QNX phones are gonna be flying off the shelves? The market doesn't need another OS and consumers will likely stick with their Droids and iPhones. This should have been done a long time ago so they could compete, now they're just going to be dead last in market share no matter what they do.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[samab]

Originally Posted by lak611

I wonder how many of the QNX developers left, due to culture clash.[/url]

There is no such thing as culture clash --- the tech community is super small in Ottawa and Waterloo. Basically everybody knows everybody and they all come from University of Waterloo.

If you look at all the hirings and firings, it is the RIM people that got axed --- and QNX people taking over. New hires like RIM's new head of developer relations, Alec Saunders, used to be QNX's head of developer relations 10 years.

Even the news article said that RIM's legacy blackberry team knows that they are headed for obsolescence. It is the RIM java people that are worried about their jobs, not the QNX C developers.

[lak611]

Originally Posted by samab

There is no such thing as culture clash --- the tech community is super small in Ottawa and Waterloo. Basically everybody knows everybody and they all come from University of Waterloo.

Perhaps that is part of the problem. Maybe RIM needs to look for international talent, such as programmers from the US and Asia.

[samab]

Originally Posted by the_sleuth

2012 will be a very interesting year for RIM followers. My opinion is RIM will not be an independent firm in the foreseeable future. It needs bigger partner(s) to survive.

I completely disagree with you.

(1) the dynamic duo are the largest and second largest shareholders
(2) the board is handpicked by these two
(3) the dynamic duo ain't selling the company
(4) the Canadian government will never allow any foreign company to take over RIM in a hostile takeover
(5) RIM is debt free and cash flow positive --- they ain't going to run out of cash like Palm (and needed to sell itself before their cash runs out).

A lot of these talks are idiotic. People like to talk about how RIMM lost 75% of their value. In those idiotic times, both RIMM and AAPL were selling at idiotic 50x p/e ratio. Now AAPL is selling at 10x p/e ratio. AAPL should be a $2 trillion company right now --- and nobody is talking about how AAPL lost $1.6 trillion dollars in market cap.

[samab]

Originally Posted by lak611

Perhaps that is part of the problem. Maybe RIM needs to look for international talent, such as programmers from the US and Asia.

Big melting pot in Canada --- UofWaterloo is basically a big Chinatown.

There is nothing wrong with the engineering people --- the Playbook has the best multi-tasking, the best HTML5 browser scores, the best Adobe flash player... It is the executive decisions that are somewhat flawed.

And then couple with PR problems. Crackberry Kevin is right --- they need a California presence --- just to interact with silicon valley people. Nothing wrong with the codes, they just need better developer relations.