[W Hoa]

Perspective on BB10 from a gamer site:

"... to continue to beat up on RIM for past mistakes, indeed, the mistake of past captains, is lazy journalism. What's more significant is to consider how the company will compete in the smartphone market following the launch of BlackBerry 10.


Of course, with only slim amounts of information publicly currently available about the OS, and practically nothing about devices, this requires some conjecture.

What we have seen of the OS to-date can be gained from various recent enhancements to its precursor - the solid BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet OS - and some sneak peaks from BlackBerry World 2012. These are interesting, but hardly conclusive. What is more positive generally is that the OS is the work of Swedish user experience company The Astonishing Tribe, which RIM bought in late 2010.

One of the best UI and UX companies in the world, personally I don't have much doubt that BlackBerry 10 will impress....."

It's about time

But the fact is, there's a big gap in the smartphone market when it comes to doing something new in terms of mobile interface, and RIM - with its TaT and QNX acquisitions now has two the most impressive outfits when it comes to user experience design and robust real-time operating systems.

So no, I don't think RIM has much to worry about terms of the fundamentals (OS and devices) when it comes to BlackBerry 10. The one thing RIM doesn't have much of is time.

Its share price is nailed to an almost decade-old low, it's now making quarterly losses, it doesn't have much cash ($2.1 billion), and its market cap is pretty much less than the value of the constituent parts.

Best of the bad

There's no question this is a very dangerous situation for CEO Thorstein Heins, which is why he's shedding staff and looking to make $1 billion a year in efficiency savings.

Aside from this, he has to deal with shareholders who would like to break up the company, the consultants he's employing might advise him to break up the company, or RIM might plain run out of cash before it can bring BlackBerry 10 into the 2012 holiday season. These are significant issues.

But the plain truth is that there's nothing else RIM can do.

Its continued strength in terms of enterprise solutions, security and communications (especially in terms of hardware keyboards and BBM), are not enough to keep it afloat longterm. Perhaps it could roll up into a defensive ball, but that's just delaying the inevitable.

Yes, these service are core to RIM's future success but only when combined with new touchscreen form factors, a robust development platform for apps and games, and a secure app store, with operator billing.

RIM has all these pieces in place, although its position in many pockets and handbags as a secondary device (i.e. business device) to a personal device (typically iPhone) is certainly a worry, as is the fact that BlackBerry ownership has been so quickly and heavily reduced in the key North American market. High usage rates in Latin America, the Middle East and India do not compensate.

The up side

Yet for those willing to take the risk, RIM is now classic case of fundamentals investing - buy low, sell high.

The company can't really go any lower in terms of share price, and a successful BlackBerry 10 launch could easily trigger a strong rebound.

Certainly, one way of the other, BlackBerry 10's launch (likely in September) is of fundamental importance.

If the public's reaction is as muted as the launch of Nokia's Windows Phones in 2011, RIM will almost certainly be broken up in 2013.

Yet, unlike Nokia - another one-time leader going through troubled times and which contains multiple divisions: telecom infrastructure, navigation and hardware - RIM still has the potential for massive synergies in terms of its security and infrastructure parts, its messaging and hardware expertise - people do like physical keyboards - as well as the shot of true blood into the system that is the new operating system and development platform.

Talk to any developer who's worked on PlayBook or BB 10, and they may not think RIM is long for this world, but they won't demean the tools or the compliance to standards such as C++ and OpenGL.

The sticking point

To address another point, should game developers support RIM and BlackBerry 10?

Well, that's up to their individual business models. Certainly, no one's going to lead on BB 10, but the ease of porting existing games means Gameloft has committed to 11 launch titles, while EA Mobile has generated multiple millions of dollars of revenue during 2012 from sales of the $10 PlayBook version of Dead Space.

The worst of times, the best of times then.

Is RIM in trouble? Yes. Is RIM dead? No.

Perhaps like Schr�dinger's cat, it currently sits in a state of inbetweeness. Unless the news before BlackBerry 10's is terrible, it seems likely that CEO Heins will be given until the end of 2012 to prove his turnaround plan is working.

After all, the pain for shareholders has already been meted out. For the company and its employees, however, it's now a case of success or bust.



Debate: RIM is still near the rocks, but it's now heading in the right direction | feature | BlackBerry 10 | PocketGamer.biz

[kill_9]

A positive well thought out article. However, my optimism for the success of BlackBerry 10 is fading as the vagueness of "later this year" for a release date seems to be code word for December 2012. The clowns had two years to deliver BlackBerry 10 yet stumbled along like the town drunk. The Summer of 2012 is the time for Research In Motion to boldly "go where no man (or smartphone) has gone before."

[o4liberty]

BB10 in my opinion is Rims last chance to surive as a smart phone provider. With what's out on the market today they need to hit this one out of the park to compete and surive. As long as what we have seen so far holds true at launch I believe BB10 will be a winner!

[hpjrt]

A positive well thought out article. However, my optimism for the success of BlackBerry 10 is fading as the vagueness of "later this year" for a release date seems to be code word for December 2012. The clowns had two years to deliver BlackBerry 10 yet stumbled along like the town drunk. The Summer of 2012 is the time for Research In Motion to boldly "go where no man (or smartphone) has gone before."

Really? Everything I've read since last fall has said "late 2012". I'm not sure why you've suddenly decided that means December.

If RIM has learned nothing else from the last year it's that it shouldn't give definite dates because if it's late by even 1 day the company will be crucified. Can you, therefore, blame them for being "vague"?

[kbz1960]

Not surprising it's taking the time it is. Just look at how long it took the others.

I know I'll hear that was then this now, too late. Bull

[madman0141]

If BB10 fails to be a hit I think that will be it for RIM. I am not worried about the itself I know it will be the same quality device as one can expect from a good company. If they advertise it wrong...what I mean by wrong is all current advertising used for Bold 7, it will be end of days for my favorite wireless manufacturer.

[greatwiseone]

There's been a lot of good articles about RIM on pocketgamer.biz recently....

[sosumi11]

There's been a lot of good articles about RIM on pocketgamer.biz recently....

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
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[ayekon]

If BB10 fails to be a hit I think that will be it for RIM. I am not worried about the itself I know it will be the same quality device as one can expect from a good company. If they advertise it wrong...what I mean by wrong is all current advertising used for Bold 7, it will be end of days for my favorite wireless manufacturer.

My sentiments exactly brother...
Hoping for the best here