After 20 years together at the helm of Research In Motion Ltd., Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, the company's co-chief executives, said they planned to turn over the top job early Monday to a little-known company insider as part of a board and management shuffle.
For months, investors have clamored for a significant strategic overhaul, fresh leadership or a sale of the company as the BlackBerry maker struggled to stay competitive with rivals Apple Inc. and Google Inc. amid operational blunders and a tumbling share price. The surprise exit of Messrs. Balsillie and Lazaridis is… ($ subscription required)
What does this mean?
Right now, I can't say. Was it merely institutional investor pressure? As long as the co-founder/co-CEOs remained in charge -- and they were fully in charge of the company and the board -- the stock was going nowhere.
We don't have enough information yet on how discussions with potential buyers have gone. Certainly, any new buyer would not keep those two men in their current leadership positions.
No doubt, insiders throughout RIM had lost faith in the ability of the co-CEOs to lead the company through this vicious phase of the smartphone wars. Even that new new Blackberry OS won't likely be ready this year. And if it is, it won't be ready.
Shit, at this point, we even have to ask if their abrupt exit makes it easier for the co-CEOs to cash out on what they know is a sinking ship.
We'll have enough information soon enough. Right now, be thankful you are not leading a company into the frontlines of the smartphone wars. Steve Jobs is dead. The RIM co-CEOs are out. Steve Ballmer, despite what others are telling you, will be gone by no later than next year given that he's utterly failed to have his troops ready for battle. Nokia has been reduced to a parasite living off Microsoft's meager Windows Phone ecosystem.
Larry Page misses Google's numbers and despite pouring tens of billions into Android, still has almost nothing to show for it.
This is not a market for the weak or the uncertain or the lost.
UPDATE: From CNBC: http://www.cnbc.com/id/46094976/
Samsung has had success with their own smartphone OS, bada, and appear to be moving toward incorporating bada, parts of MeeGo and the leavings of other smartphone platforms to create an entirely new, fully Samsung-owned, smartphone ecosystem.
Similarly, we've all heard the rumors that RIM is trying to sell all of itself or part of itself or perhaps just license parts of itself to Samsung, which is at least entertaining the notion.
Samsung is not, as most analysts suggest, doing this because Google purchased Motorola. They are not doing this as a hedge against the market power -- still presumed -- that Microsoft and Nokia can bring to the smartphone wars front lines.
They are doing it because they have Apple envy.
Even the Android fanboys know this. It's no longer merely patently obvious, it's become unseemly. It's not just the Samsung smartphones, nor just the tablets, nor just the app store, nor just the accessories that are clear and obvious copies. It's not just their smartphone strategy of building a single brand/platform -- Galaxy -- and trying (though failing) to offer a very small number of models of the Galaxy line to all carriers.
The fact is, even in their latest big smartphone advertising campaign they focus *most of the attention* not on Samsung's own products but on Apple users/fanboys!
The question is why?
The answer is simple: Apple is making all the money. Almost as important, Apple is making all the money while being in control of its destiny. Apple's app store, not Google's. Apple's OS, not Google's. Apple's brand, not "Android".
Check out the latest charts from Nielsen, whch examines the US smartphone market. Yes, Android is beating iOS in terms of market share. But that's all of Android, of which Samsung is merely one of many vendors. Samsung sees that giant Apple market share, sees how much Apple is valued at, believes that they can have the same result as they believe they have the same capabilities.
Samsung believes it is "the next thing". And they are convinced that they get there by following the Apple playbook.
Brian Chen continues to earn his keep for the New York Times. Here he documents what we already knew about Blackberry's one account per one device quandry, which has been beneficial in providing secure information and services but so far falls flat when customers want another device. Say, a Playbook?
Do not expect Blackberry OS 10 devices this year.
Unless RIM execs make the disastrous decision, again, to rush them out before they are ready. The Times:
Given that RIM effectively created the wireless e-mail market with the BlackBerry, there was considerable surprise when the PlayBook appeared last April without e-mail software or software for synching entries from users’ electronic calendars and address books.
RIM has never publicly explained the reason for that omission. But many industry and financial analysts have said the features were absent because the company could not make the device work with its unique global data network. That network connects directly to cellphone companies’ networks. It is a major reason business and government BlackBerry phones have such high e-mail security that it has been a source of contention in nations where law enforcement and security services would like to monitor BlackBerry users’ messages.
For consumers, the RIM network bypasses carriers’ normal text-messaging systems, making BlackBerry Messenger messages less expensive and faster.
But RIM’s network was designed so that only one hand-held device can be used with any particular user’s account, creating problems for people with both a BlackBerry phone and a PlayBook.
From what RIM previewed in Las Vegas last week, it appears that most PlayBooks will rely entirely on Microsoft Exchange Active Sync, the same technology found on phones or tablets that people use on the other common mobile operating systems — Apple’s iOS, Android from Google and Microsoft’s Windows Phone.
Back in the early days of 2011, I confidently predicted that iPad would absolutely crush the tablet market. I know, went out on a limb. I semi-confidently predicted that the Blackberry Playbook would be the only other legit tablet; that all Android tablets would be crap and not worth the money.
Got that half right, I suppose.
We all know the sordid Playbook story. No email, no apps, sloppy response, poor distribution, Android pushed it aside. It was a long, gruesome story.
TechCrunch, however, says the v2.0 software update makes the Playbook a solid tablet and they give it a positive review. They're probably right, though, when they say it may be too late.
When RIM first launched the BlackBerry PlayBook last spring, we were all rather shocked to find that RIM’s stand-out core services — secure messaging and productivity related apps like calendar and contacts — were… absent. The company promised an update to fix it, and after eight months said update has finally been unveiled here at CES.
Truth be told, the new PlayBook OS is much better than expected, but I guess you start to set the bar low when the first time around was so disappointing. We got a chance to go hands-on with the new system here at CES, and recorded a video just for you fine readers.
The only problem is that this is exactly what PlayBook 1.0 should have been.
The co-founder, co-CEO, co-chairmans are close to giving up their board seats. The board, let's be honest, won't make a move without the mutual acquiesence of the founders..
That said, just the news that this may happen has sent the stock on a rare upward trajectory.
Is it enough?
As I write this, $RIMM is $15.12(US), and has a market cap of $7.9 billion.
The company has about $1.3 billion or so in cash on hand. Meaning, all of Blackberry has a value of about $6.6 billion.
Motorola Mobility could have gone to Microsoft, which Google could not allow. Motorola Mobility effectively blackmailed Google by threatening to sue other Google Android handset makers.
Thus, it was not much of a surprise that Google spent $12.5 billion on Motorola Mobility, despite the fact that the company does not make a profit, and despite the fact that the company stood ready to threaten the Android ecosystem. Google badly wanted to get hold of all those Motorola patents.
Seems to me, given the value of Moto's patents, that RIMM, a long-time leader in mobile services and smartphones, is undervalued.
When you consider how desperate giant, wealthy companies are to get real traction in the smartphone market -- the future of personal computing -- companies like Microsoft, Ciscso, HP, Dell and numerous Chinese companies, than it seems easy to imagine a bidding war could ensue.
My bad, I'm the first to admit. I've been meaning to write about Blackberry's possible-likely demise ever since that post I wrote about how they are now worth *less* than *just* Apple's App Store went crazy viral.
But I've been busy, what with all the holiday festivities and such, and now I'm packing, and I'm tired, and, while there's not much wine in these little bottles four of them do add up pretty quickly.
Meaning...you all are the losers in all this, tragically. No brilliance. No cogent analysis. No raw language cum insightful conclusions.
You will not read how the utter collapse of Blackberry is actually shocking. Yes, management are serial fuck-ups. Yes, Google is spending billions in monopoly profits from another market to crush Blackberry and buy up market share for Android.
But the fact is, Blackberry devices are superior to nearly every single Android device. That's right, superior to nearly every single one; maybe every single one. They offer superior build quality. A more stable operating environment. Better keyboard, better texting, better email, better security.
I think the OS is superior. BBM is better than anything Android offers. The cameras are all pretty damn good. It's easy to Twitter or Facebook. Call quality is far superior.
So what gives? I mean, shit, even Microsoft, which doesn't know what to do with all it's cash, passed on buying them.
I know, I know...but Brian, there's like 500,000 apps for Android and only like 50,000 for Blackberry.
How many apps do we need?
Is it the touchscreen?
You have any idea how crappy and poorly responsive most Android touchscreens are?
I think I know the reason:
Blackberry are awesome *work* devices. Only, smartphones have now become our *always* device. The smartphone is the (personal) computer.
No one thinks of Blackberry as the game console, the eReader, the movie screen. We don't actually listen to music on them much because they are work devices. That's how we've always viewed them.
Only, in this new revolution, which is more than just an app revolution or touchscreen evolution, it is the consumer, the user, the individual, that is leading the charge -- and taking their devices inside the company. It is not the company device, such as the PC, that is pushing its way into our homes.
Those days are gone.
So, too, I fear are Blackberrys.
Anyway, that's my very quick analysis. I'm just too tired to offer up anything more right now...
As of this afternoon, RIM (Blackberry) has fallen even lower. It is now worth several hundred millions of dollars less than *just* Apple's App Store. Not Apple Stores. Not iPod. Not iTunes. Just the App Store.
Blackberry is not and was never designed to be an app phone. I can think of no more perfect, if tragic metaphor, than all of Blackberry being worth less than the App Store.
