[fjphinney]

As a licensed counselor I work with couples whose relationships have become less than desirable. In my experience and information gathered in my research during graduate studies the issue that many of these relationships have is that the dysfunction arises when the care for one another becomes unbalanced.... simply put the person who cares the least has all the control. It is this control gained by essentially giving up that creates an environment where the other partner tries harder to gain the others love, often to the point the become delusional about the true state of the relationship.

Now why am I posting this here? It is because in this LTO this is exactly the issue with us, the loyal Blackberry users and the could care less makers of our favorite mobile device. They have all the control because on the surface have begun to care less; in reading the forums and reflecting on my own experience, we have reached a stage of denial.

But what the other partner, in this case RIM, never expects is that ultimately this denial fades away and Anger begins to take its place. I have a playbook and in my first month of owning it I was in denial... loved it and saw all the potential, but now I am beginning to get angry. Angry because promises of what is to come or what was suppose to be are met with "just wait for the update" "soon it will be the product you were told about." Well I am frustrated and no longer the happy little geek... either things change or its two fingers to RIM and I am rolling to another device.

As I said this is my opinion... am I the only one waking from the denial that sedated me to the reality that the once great Blackberry is falling apart before our very eyes?

[bb-bandit]

As a licensed counselor I work with couples whose relationships have become less than desirable. In my experience and information gathered in my research during graduate studies the issue that many of these relationships have is that the dysfunction arises when the care for one another becomes unbalanced.... simply put the person who cares the least has all the control. It is this control gained by essentially giving up that creates an environment where the other partner tries harder to gain the others love, often to the point the become delusional about the true state of the relationship.

Now why am I posting this here? It is because in this LTO this is exactly the issue with us, the loyal Blackberry users and the could care less makers of our favorite mobile device. They have all the control because on the surface have begun to care less; in reading the forums and reflecting on my own experience, we have reached a stage of denial.

But what the other partner, in this case RIM, never expects is that ultimately this denial fades away and Anger begins to take its place. I have a playbook and in my first month of owning it I was in denial... loved it and saw all the potential, but now I am beginning to get angry. Angry because promises of what is to come or what was suppose to be are met with "just wait for the update" "soon it will be the product you were told about." Well I am frustrated and no longer the happy little geek... either things change or its two fingers to RIM and I am rolling to another device.

As I said this is my opinion... am I the only one waking from the denial that sedated me to the reality that the once great Blackberry is falling apart before our very eyes?

Well said. You captured my feelings nicely. RIM's empty promises have resulted in them alienating their flock. We have other choices. RIM is going the way of Palm. RIM will be so far behind the herd by the end of the summer. And things will get worse for us as RIM is cost cutting mode now that earnings are so bad...what does that mean? Less investment in new products. So the death spiral begins, less investment, fall further behind, produce lower earnings, more cost cutting, less innovation, further earnings loss...etc.

[bb.pl]

I have a playbook and in my first month of owning it I was in denial... loved it and saw all the potential, but now I am beginning to get angry. Angry because promises of what is to come or what was suppose to be are met with "just wait for the update" "soon it will be the product you were told about." Well I am frustrated and no longer the happy little geek... either things change or its two fingers to RIM and I am rolling to another device.

well said....
now hat happens when all of a sudden you wake up and see the stuff that you were promised...

[shootsscores]

As a licensed counselor I work with couples whose relationships have become less than desirable. In my experience and information gathered in my research during graduate studies the issue that many of these relationships have is that the dysfunction arises when the care for one another becomes unbalanced.... simply put the person who cares the least has all the control. It is this control gained by essentially giving up that creates an environment where the other partner tries harder to gain the others love, often to the point the become delusional about the true state of the relationship.

Now why am I posting this here? It is because in this LTO this is exactly the issue with us, the loyal Blackberry users and the could care less makers of our favorite mobile device. They have all the control because on the surface have begun to care less; in reading the forums and reflecting on my own experience, we have reached a stage of denial.

But what the other partner, in this case RIM, never expects is that ultimately this denial fades away and Anger begins to take its place. I have a playbook and in my first month of owning it I was in denial... loved it and saw all the potential, but now I am beginning to get angry. Angry because promises of what is to come or what was suppose to be are met with "just wait for the update" "soon it will be the product you were told about." Well I am frustrated and no longer the happy little geek... either things change or its two fingers to RIM and I am rolling to another device.

As I said this is my opinion... am I the only one waking from the denial that sedated me to the reality that the once great Blackberry is falling apart before our very eyes?

Loving my PB. Excellent browser. Nifty bridge. Stunning display. Great camera and video for a non-camera. Superb UI. Too many friggin' whiners around here.

Are there teething pains? Yep but I'm not throwing this 8 week old baby with its simply enormous potential out with the bath water just because there's no irritated fowl time waster.

[zoso28]

While I agree with the premise of the OP's statement, the delivery was a little dramatic. I think RIM is in serious trouble, but I don't think the relationship analogy was entirely accurate. They were simply caught off guard, and being such a well established entity in the early smartphone market, they didn't make much of an effort to react. This whole smartphone boom came out of the blue, much to the thanks of [hurl] Apple.

Smartphones were already around, but they were very basic and the app options were complicated and fragmented. Apple brought it all together in one easy to use device that peaked everybody's interest. RIM stood by & assumed it was a trend, which it is, but it just so happened to be the biggest trend ever.. (in tech).

Then the app store came along, and again, RIM barely made an effort to compete. They assumed their loyal customers and corporate customers would stick with them, regardless of the iphone's success. They started making development easier, and compiled a decent app world, but they were already way behind. Then Android came along and blew everybody away (even Apple) with both hardware and software.

Basically, RIM was stuck in it's ways while everyone else surged forward creating new and exciting devices. The playbook & QNX is RIM's first attempt at 'new and exciting', but everyone else has been doing it for a few years now. So despite RIM's seniority, they're playing catch-up. Whether or not they will catch up remains to be seen, but QNX is a great start, and at least they're trying. Now it just comes down to how fast they are able to restructure in order to produce new products that people are compelled to buy.

That's just my opinion, but in the end I'm really hoping they manage to succeed. I love their products, and I think they have it in them to turn out some great stuff, but they need a precise and accurate business model going forward to avoid Palm's fate..

[I am JT]

If your relationship with people can be compared to your relationship to tech then you really have some serious issues that a perfect piece of tech won't remedy. ;-)

[bpdude]

i am still very excited about playbook. The hardware is very solid. Of course I would like updates faster but we are receiving updates. I dont feel I am in denial. Of what? I like what I like. I like my iphone and I like my playbook. I have other tablets in the house with a few hundred dollars worth of apps laying around collecting dust and the playbook is being used non stop by everyone mainly my kids (who are brutal on this thing and its only froze once). I still use a lappy for biz and have no intentions on changeing that. Tomorrows best buy trip will be for a 64 gig pb for me and me only. I have full confidence in RIM and dont believe everything I read in the media. You folk that feel the need to issue ultimatums on this forum are full of it.

I hardly believe an educated counselor would make such silly statements on a forum of this nature. I question your creditials.

[weezul]

fwiw i enjoyed the analogy and also feel it's spot on