Why do I feel RIM is starting to slip?

[Mr. Marco]

Way back when Palm was the king, their devices were it, when someone mentioned "smartphone" 95% of people would immediately think Palm. fast forward a bit and you see that Palm was crushed under the weight of the "consumer blackberry" explosion and iPhone craze. (Palm is trying to make a comeback with their Web OS.)

Now it gets real interesting with Google entering the war with Android OS. IF there is a company right now that can spank Apple in the smartphone wars I think it's Google. Apple is stuck on one carrier (AT&T) with one device and their OS found on no other devices. Google has their OS spread on basically almost every single major service provider and on multiple devices. Anyone with any business sense could tell you Apple won't stay "champ" much longer on their current smartphone business model/structure.

So this is where RIM comes in. I can't help but to have a gut feeling that RIM is starting to lose their ground a bit. They have made progress in making Blackberry more consumer oriented but after all the hype (e.g. BB Storm) the current devices just doesn't blow people's minds. They keep putting out "better" blackberries but they aren't huge leap forwards, and OS 5.0 at least to me, was a let down because it is once again the same old BB OS, just jazzed up a bit.

The iPhone love it or hate it, can't be denied the fact that it does what it's supposed to do rather quite well and that Apple really changed the landscape of the cell phone industry forever with it. Google now with the Android OS is in my mind doing it right and could even possibly eventually "beat" Apple.

Is RIM going to become the next Palm? Is RIM blind or acting to slow to the market? Why can't RIM wake up and put out an awesome brand spanking new OS with a device that has 2GB of app memory and a 1Ghz processor ready to tear things up!?

[julioangelortiz]

RIM wants to attract the consumer space but is too heavily tied into their corporate roots, with locking down the device, withholding certain APIs from developers, and building their OS on Java. They need to quicken the pace of their development and really innovate their OS, because they are starting to look like they're standing still a bit. Just my $0.02.

[pilsbury]

Dont get me wrong, I love Blackberry and have had almost every model over the last four years. That being said, I agree-they are losing ground somewhat. Its the same old OS just packaged differently. Dont give us a trackpad, give us a new OS and a new browser. Like it or not, the iPhone browser, especially on the 3Gs model is the industry standard. If Apple can do it, so can RIM.

[julioangelortiz]

Originally Posted by pilsbury

Dont give us a trackpad, give us a new OS and a new browser. Like it or not, the iPhone browser, especially on the 3Gs model is the industry standard. If Apple can do it, so can RIM.

You nailed it. RIM has had, what? 2 1/2 years to match up with Safari and has nothing yet? They had to purchase Torch Mobile to do it.

I think this year is going to be a pivotal one for RIM. If they get the new browser out this summer, if it works great, *and* make it available for not just brand new devices but existing ones (OS 4.7 / 5.0) they'll make a lot of people happy. But that's not enough; the Flash support and real improvements to the OS need to take place (the rumored widgets support in OS 5.1).

And don't get me wrong; I love my 9700, and I see that RIM has come a ways, but I see the potential for so much more.

[vincentnyc]

Oh yeah, allow us install 3rd party apps on our sd card, rim!

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[oasissux]

RIM is the undisputed king of the smartphone. They unequivocally dominate the business market and they almost singlehandedly brought the smartphone to the consumer space. Are they seeing more competition? Undoubtedly. Will they rest on their laurels and watch their market share get eaten up by competitors? Doubtful. They clearly have some of the brightest minds working for them and they're well-positioned to continue as the leading smartphone provider. I find it laughable that people think a multi-billion dollar company isn't constantly striving to better their products with the latest and the greatest. I guess time will tell.

[pokerpro]

there coming out with new phones every 3 months don't really think there slipping just yet

[RideMadone]

BB market share goes up every year so I don't know about slipping. Having said that, the browser does SUCK.

[grydlok]

Originally Posted by pokerpro

there coming out with new phones every 3 months don't really think there slipping just yet

But it's the same phone every three months.

[bluzthyname]

Originally Posted by julioangelortiz

You nailed it. RIM has had, what? 2 1/2 years to match up with Safari and has nothing yet? They had to purchase Torch Mobile to do it.

I think this year is going to be a pivotal one for RIM. If they get the new browser out this summer, if it works great, *and* make it available for not just brand new devices but existing ones (OS 4.7 / 5.0) they'll make a lot of people happy. But that's not enough; the Flash support and real improvements to the OS need to take place (the rumored widgets support in OS 5.1).

And don't get me wrong; I love my 9700, and I see that RIM has come a ways, but I see the potential for so much more.

Julio I completely agree with your posts.RIM has come a long way but still needs to travel that extra mile to be on par with the competitors.I am addicted to my BB but sometimes am frustrated at the simple things that BB can't perform.

[andi08]

Good comments. Very interesting views as well. Even though rim bring out new phones out every 3 months , they are virtually the same phones though. I do think they need to bring out something radical out, something completly new. The iphone is a fab phone, the google phones are superb too. Also the new palm is good too, I had a htc magic and loved it. It was just unreliable on emails, if not for that I would have kept it. As my friend said to me, bb is great for emails and texting n but that's it. Her iphone is damn good, the nexus looks gorgeous-even though glitches at the moment. But the storm did-and still does. I hope rim read our views and do something, as I too feel rim is lagging behind. But I do love my 8900.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[abezapata]

I love competition. In the end we the consumers win. Better devices newer technology! Can't go wrong with that.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[BB_Storm4me]

Because of it's business roots, the RIM OS is doomed in the evolving (and demanding) consumer market. It will be very difficult for RIM to compete with Android minus a complete rewrite of their OS. In addition, other OS platforms and software solutions make BES less attractive to the small/mid business user. The large corporations and government will keep RIM afloat for a while.

I also think the quality of RIM hardware is slipping. Despite the fact that all RIM ever does is repackage different combinations and call it new, they can't seem to even keep these phones operating. Most people I know with BlackBerry's have had to return them multiple times for hardware defects/failures.

Add it all up...slow old OS, increased hardware defects/failures (Tour trackball, high return rates) unable to innovate (Storm 2 touch screen is decent, but not revolutionary), TOTAL inability to respond quickly to the problems they shoved out the door (Storm - still waiting for a decent OS, but small memory will always handicap this phone), and slow to market with improvements (Storm 2 and Tour 2 took too long for the incremental improvements)...RIM will be run over in the consumer market by Android and the iPhone 4G if it comes to Verizon.

As Dr. Phil would say..."the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior." RIM has peaked and it's all down hill from here.

[kilofox]

All RIM needs to do is look at Nokia and S60. The E71 was probably the best built phone I have ever owned. But..... S60 even back then was long-in-the-tooth.

If it wasnt for HTC building a shell on top of Winmo, Winmo would be in the same boat.

RIM is heading down the same path with its OS... they need to break out OS sooner than later.

Pretty soon Apple and Android will be able to do everything that RIM can do in the business world, RIM cant match them in the consumer world now. As things are going it appears to me that Apple and Android are closing the gap with RIM in business, and increasing the gap with RIM with consumers.

Not good RIM.

[bigtime2]

Originally Posted by grydlok

But it's the same phone every three months.

That's how they get us addicted to their phones. If they had a new phone once a year, or maybe twice a year, not many people would be buying them.

A lot of people (myself included) buy BlackBerry phones a few times within their two year contracts. RIM wouldn't be making as much money if they released one or two devices every couple of years.