Blackberry-maker RIM plans new focus amid $125m loss

[Ben]

Blackberry-maker Research in Motion (RIM) has said it plans to refocus its business back onto corporate customers.

The announcement came as RIM reported a quarterly loss, as revenues fell due to sharply lower smartphone sales.

The Canadian company made a net loss for the three months to 3 March of $125m (£78m), compared with a profit of $934m a year earlier.

It has lost ground as its traditional business clients have switched staff to iPhones or Android smartphones.

RIM also announced the resignation of former co-chief executive Jim Balsillie.

Chief technology officer David Yacht will also be standing down.

Shipments of Blackberry smartphones in the quarter fell to 11.1 million, down 21% from the previous three-month period.

Continues: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17557177

Makes sense, no? RIM started out making Blackberry handsets for the corporate world. They became cool in the consumer market as a result. Then RIM chased this consumer market to cash in on the cool and, guess what? Blackberry isn't cool anymore! Far worse, it drew attention to how woefully inadequate the Blackberry is as a consumer device in the face of competing devices running Android and iOS.

Stop making handsets for kids and start making great tools for the enterprise. Oh, what? That's what you're going to do? Fine, carry on.

[solo12002]

Have to say Im disapointed as a Blackberry user it throws open the question of what support service will consumer users get now etc. I think the problem here has been BB has tried to be everything to everybody and made a mess.

Firstly from were I am they released handset after handset and tried to go down the road of mix and match ie handset with keyboard and touch screen and indeed small screens that dint work unlilke the iphone who more or less kepted the same device but upgraded it. Then they issued the playbook, I have one and find its great but, they failed to make it in the same size as the ipad and failed to iincluded email in it, plus missed out on 3g resuling in the need to syn your BB device with it to access email and contacts etc.

Then they talk about BB 10 the same OS as whats on the playbook , but its been delayed time after time and for most BB users on older devices they will not be able to upgrade to it the final nail I think for most users now is the fact that they may split into two models enterprise and consumer this raised two questions for me, will that temp enterprise users to go back to BB from Iphone and what is the risk from windows mobile given a lot of users will have windowns PCs etc secondly for the comsurer user there are now other messagessing services that can be used across platform other that BBM and for most users switching to say apple OS or goggle they will do push email without having to pay BB £5 a month and examlpe of this is were I have the one plane with tottaly unlimted data, however as I love BB I have to pay £5 a month more to do so, question I now face is should I go to google Os and save myself £5 a month . Im sure others feel same?

Finally if kindle ever relase the kindle fire in the UK and that appears to be taking its time, would users be better of with the Fire and a goggle handset for use?

[Hands0n]

I think RIM nee BlackBerry are in dreadful trouble. They have suffered a major loss of way, during which time the other manufacturers have been able to step in, even the late-coming WP7. Enterprise is always slow to move, slow to turn like an oil tanker versus a speedboat, often years behind the consumer market, but move it does and will.

Enterprise has already woken up to the alternatives to BlackBerry devices, with that platform's particular complexities and expense to support. My own enterprise, as are others, is already moving towards iPhone and is seriously looking at the other platforms also. The day of the de facto choice being RIM BlackBerry is long gone. And there is also the growing trend of enterprise allowing staff to use their own devices in the mix, this is very likely to gain strong traction.

Why not RIM anymore?
In two two words, complexity and cost.

Complexity; for a BlackBerry device to work it has to attach to a BIS (BlackBerry Internet Service) or BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Service) server, the latter obviously for enterprises. BES sits alongside the corporate network and it's mail and office automation servers. It is yet another piece of network technology that has to be bought, implemented , managed and maintained. Depending on the size of the enterprise the BES has to be scaled appropriately. Costs multiply by the need for duplication of essential resources such as anti-virus and malware protection - bizarrely each BES needs its own local AV in addition to anything on the enterprise mail servers. For anyone working with this technology, even small scale, it becomes obvious what a kluge BES (and BIS) really are. Yet your BB will not work for data without one of these environments.

Cost; well it is obvious really, given the above. That additional hardware, software and the people to support the larger infrastructure do not come cheap.

The alternatives
Today's smartphones (iOS, Android and WP7) all have native support for Internet, Mail, Contacts and Calendar services built into the OS. They all have support for enterprise services, typically Microsoft Exchange but also others such as Lotus Notes Server and the fairly Internet-standard POP and IMAP services. For the enterprise there is no need for additional servers and software, the smartphone is like any other client application/device and leverages whatever sunk enterprise investment currently exists. Management and security are catered for these days, with lost devices capable of being remote wiped by the centralised server admins.

BYOD
Compelling to the Finance Directorate is the emerging trend of BYOD or Bring Your Own Device. This is where the employee brings in whatever device they want to use and the enterprise accommodate it. Security and protection are often easily complied with by the addition of some corporate protectware, effectively sandboxing the enterprise environment on the staffer's own hardware. Watch this particular space, we are going to see a lot more of it in the near future.

[solo12002]

Very good points there Handon and published far better than I could of done with my little knowledge. Very good point about BYOD which i forgot about as within the NHS they provide what you get you dont have a choice unless you are one of the IT guys or CEO.

It was well worth the read (Ta)

[Ben]

One potential issue is that I can't see how OS 10 is going to save the day now, given that it was developed during the era of strategy that was chasing consumers. If the new OS is geared towards consumers it's surely not going to make for the most appropriate enterprise experience and could need significant re-engineering?