Saving RIM from demise

Being a Canadian, I think it is important for RIM to survive. Despite all the nay-sayers out there, I believe it is a very straight forward exercise.

- Focus the smart phone product line to 2 qwerty devices. A high-end version and a lower end version both based on similar design principals of the 9900. Increase the quality of the browser, processor, browsing, etc... Streamline the product line and increase the quality.

- Continue to develop the Playbook

- Stop all work on a pure touch screen smartphone product. RIM cannot compete with Apple or Android-based companies.

- Develop BBM and BB Mail for IOS and Android. License it per device... Managed services is lucrative.

Bottom line: Cut product line to 2 Qwerty smart phone products, Continue with Playbook, Transition to providing a secure services BBM and Mail...

or

Alternatively transition to the IBM model - get out of the consumer product business and focus on being a service provider and license out the BB eco system to other companies who can bring a product to market faster and cheaper. Being a management consultant I have been building a ppt deck in my head to hypothetically pitch Thorsten Heins that outlines this and other strategies.

Personally my opinion, selling RIM is a cop-out. This company can come out of this storm stronger than ever. Thorsten if you read this I am willing to work for free to assist with building the company back to a market leader.

I'm sorry, you're wrong... well sort of.

Yes, the product line-up does need to be reduced, but throwing out the idea of a full touchscreen phone, when that is exactly what so many (if not the vast majority of) people want is corporate suicide.

I also don't want (or think that) RIM should withdraw from the phone business.

Si.

OP,
Did you send these suggestions to RIM? They need to know. Those guys are just heading a billion dollar company and just blundering their way through it. Here's where you can offer to lead them to the promised land : RIM Company - Learn about Research In Motion

repetition repetition repetition repetition
repetition repetition repetition repetition

Originally Posted by kartcdn

Being a Canadian, I think it is important for RIM to survive. Despite all the nay-sayers out there, I believe it is a very straight forward exercise.

- Focus the smart phone product line to 2 qwerty devices. A high-end version and a lower end version both based on similar design principals of the 9900. Increase the quality of the browser, processor, browsing, etc... Streamline the product line and increase the quality.

While RIM needs to simplify its product lines, that would be taking it too far. Look through threads in this forum and you'll find hundreds of messages from people who think RIM is nuts for still building qwerty phones at all. The flip side is that, yes, there still appears to be a small but dedicated group of consumers who are still rabidly loyal to physical keyboards.

Add to that the likelihood that 7.1 phones will remain in production, maybe for a couple of years. These will be Curves, maybe a reboot of something like the Pearl or the Style.

The new chipset for the BB10 phones does help ensure that RIM won't have to produce separate flavors of the same phone (like the 9900/9930, for instance), and that will help.

- Continue to develop the Playbook

Ultimately, you could almost say that the Playbook will be the only device RIM will be building at all. It will come in a few different form-factors, sure, and might have different spec levels, but they'll all be BB10 devices in some shape or form.

- Stop all work on a pure touch screen smartphone product. RIM cannot compete with Apple or Android-based companies.

No. Moving to exclusively qwerty phones is the fastest way for RIM to become a niche player. And who says RIM "cannot compete"? They're competing very well in Asia and Europe. What's hurting BB7 phones isn't that they're that much worse than the competition, it's that perception that if a new platform is coming that the old one ipso facto worthless.

- Develop BBM and BB Mail for IOS and Android. License it per device... Managed services is lucrative.

Agreed on that one. Make a free, limited, ad-supported version and subscription-based full-featured version.

Bottom line: Cut product line to 2 Qwerty smart phone products, Continue with Playbook, Transition to providing a secure services BBM and Mail...

or

Alternatively transition to the IBM model - get out of the consumer product business and focus on being a service provider and license out the BB eco system to other companies who can bring a product to market faster and cheaper. Being a management consultant I have been building a ppt deck in my head to hypothetically pitch Thorsten Heins that outlines this and other strategies.

Personally my opinion, selling RIM is a cop-out. This company can come out of this storm stronger than ever. Thorsten if you read this I am willing to work for free to assist with building the company back to a market leader.

I don't know if that's an either/or proposition. Why can't they do both?

RIM should buy Swype and make it unique to BB10. That would be a huge selling point for them in itself.

Originally Posted by addicted44

RIM should buy Swype and make it unique to BB10. That would be a huge selling point for them in itself.

Swype is owned by Nuance Communications. RIM does not have anywhere near enough money to buy Nuance.

Originally Posted by lak611

Swype is owned by Nuance Communications. RIM does not have anywhere near enough money to buy Nuance.

It's funny Nuance is valued at more than RIM is,

Yet Nuance is trading at a P/E of173.02
While RIM is trading at a P/E of 5.72

everything logical would say RIM should be able to afford Nuance, as really looking at their margins I just can't see why get get such an amazing P/E Ratio, Maybe 30.

Originally Posted by kartcdn

Being a Canadian, I think it is important for RIM to survive. Despite all the nay-sayers out there, I believe it is a very straight forward exercise.

- Focus the smart phone product line to 2 qwerty devices. A high-end version and a lower end version both based on similar design principals of the 9900. Increase the quality of the browser, processor, browsing, etc... Streamline the product line and increase the quality.

- Continue to develop the Playbook

- Stop all work on a pure touch screen smartphone product. RIM cannot compete with Apple or Android-based companies.

- Develop BBM and BB Mail for IOS and Android. License it per device... Managed services is lucrative.

Bottom line: Cut product line to 2 Qwerty smart phone products, Continue with Playbook, Transition to providing a secure services BBM and Mail...

or

Alternatively transition to the IBM model - get out of the consumer product business and focus on being a service provider and license out the BB eco system to other companies who can bring a product to market faster and cheaper. Being a management consultant I have been building a ppt deck in my head to hypothetically pitch Thorsten Heins that outlines this and other strategies.

Personally my opinion, selling RIM is a cop-out. This company can come out of this storm stronger than ever. Thorsten if you read this I am willing to work for free to assist with building the company back to a market leader.

Well, to be honest, I didn't agree with a lot of this post, but the bolded is what I would like to focus upon.

Why do you think this? I mean, sure iOS and Android seem far away, but they're not. They only lead in the applications catalog, something that BlackBerry can catch-up in if they get the key apps first. RIM first real touchscreen-optimized device was the PlayBook. BBOS 5, 6, and 7 aren't and never were optimized for touchscreens, which is why BB7 still feels clunky. They haven't been given a real shot at a killer touchscreen handset. So to say RIM would fail in this sector is baseless, in my opinion. Plus, we don't know what BB10 is going to be like. For all we know, BB10 could be much better than anything on the market (which is a real possibility).

Don't lose faith!

They definitely need to diversify. The one trick pony thing has already showed its weakness and relying on a new super trick to save the business is really expecting too much from a new phone.

Hope I,m wrong.

Originally Posted by FlashFlare11

Well, to be honest, I didn't agree with a lot of this post, but the bolded is what I would like to focus upon.

Why do you think this? I mean, sure iOS and Android seem far away, but they're not. They only lead in the applications catalog, something that BlackBerry can catch-up in if they get the key apps first. RIM first real touchscreen-optimized device was the PlayBook. BBOS 5, 6, and 7 aren't and never were optimized for touchscreens, which is why BB7 still feels clunky. They haven't been given a real shot at a killer touchscreen handset. So to say RIM would fail in this sector is baseless, in my opinion. Plus, we don't know what BB10 is going to be like. For all we know, BB10 could be much better than anything on the market (which is a real possibility).

Don't lose faith!

I agree we will wait for BB10 to be launched with its touch screen and then we will have a phone we can truly compare to Google and Apple's touch screens

Originally Posted by deRusett

It's funny Nuance is valued at more than RIM is,

Yet Nuance is trading at a P/E of173.02
While RIM is trading at a P/E of 5.72

everything logical would say RIM should be able to afford Nuance, as really looking at their margins I just can't see why get get such an amazing P/E Ratio, Maybe 30.

whats P/E?? and how is a smaller number better??

Originally Posted by JAGWIRE

I agree we will wait for BB10 to be launched with its touch screen and then we will have a phone we can truly compare to Google and Apple's touch screens

whats P/E?? and how is a smaller number better??

Price to earning ratio:

Larger number means that people have giant expectations for a company's future prospects, the higher the P/E number, the more faith the market has in your company's value, the lower the P/E number, the less faith the market has.

Lower doesn't mean better, but with such a crazy high P/E on Nuance I would put it as too risky for my licking because it would just take 1 major issue to cause the P/E to crash down, and kill my stock value

Originally Posted by deRusett

Price to earning ratio:

Larger number means that people have giant expectations for a company's future prospects, the higher the P/E number, the more faith the market has in your company's value, the lower the P/E number, the less faith the market has.

Lower doesn't mean better, but with such a crazy high P/E on Nuance I would put it as too risky for my licking because it would just take 1 major issue to cause the P/E to crash down, and kill my stock value

Thanks, as always your a wealth of information :).

I really don't follow Nuance, so I have no idea why its P/E is so high. It sure looks too good to be true to me.

If RIM doesn't have a full touch screen device for bb10 I won't be sticking around. That being said, I probably won't be purchasing a bb10 phone right away anyways. I'll still be on contract with this phone, and I think at this point I'm going to sit back a bit and see how RIM is doing overall before I grab another BlackBerry.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9860, no QWERTY required.