Time for Mike and Jim to GO!!!!
After reading yesterday's replies to my rumours around more layoffs at RIM, and reading more about them in the latest blogs...and FULL disclosure of my own dealings with RIM's dev team, it is truly sad to say, they need to step down. Yes there are certainly good reasons to keep them on, they started the company, have been true visionaries as well, however, it is they who've led, or not led the company down its current path. How is it that they could suggest that there were never going to be cameras or mp 3 players?
If they could allow their own massive egos to block out the sun, what will be next? It is they who have caused the massive lack of confidence in the RIM brand, either by hiring the wrong crew, or by supporting the wrong crew. The new devices might stem some of the bleeding, however, they ignored the massive sea shift demands of the consumer. How did they not see this...remember the "Pearl"? This was a silly sop to the consumer, and what did it accomplish? I desparately want to believe they can right the ship, which is not sinking, but listing and rudderless.
My own sense of RIM is that it's still far too rooted in enterprise, where they're dealing with only a relative handful of customers (IT chiefs, mostly) whose needs turn on security and reliability, while the consumer market is all about buzz, faddish features, neat designs (hardware), loads of fun functionality (that is, not spreadsheets but an app that pops up to remind you it's Lady Gaga's birthday). It's just a wildly different market, which is fine, except RIM's culture isn't of a kind to serve it.
Is there a field besides tech where being fast to market is so vital? I still use a Torch, and love my PB, however 500,000 PB users is the reason for the dearth of apps.