rim RIM CEO says company

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

RIM CEO says company ?seriously? considered switch to Android

RIM (RIMM) CEO Thorsten Heins?s interview with the Telegraph on Thursday made headlines for his admission that the company can?t keep up with Apple (AAPL) and Samsung (005930) without outside help. But there?s another interesting nugget buried within the interview that didn?t get quite as much attention: Heins says that RIM took a long, hard look at migrating to Android before deciding to plow forward with BlackBerry 10.

?We took the conscious decision not to go Android,? Heins told the Telegraph. ?If you look at other suppliers? ability to differentiate, there?s very little wiggle room. We looked at it seriously ? but if you understand what the promise of BlackBerry is to its user base it?s all about getting stuff done. Games, media, we have to be good at it but we have to support those guys who are ahead of the game. Very little time to consume and enjoy content ? if you stay true to that purpose you have to build on that basis. And if we want to serve that segment we can?t do it on a me-too approach.?

Given the current woes of Android vendors such as HTC (2498) and Google?s (GOOG) Motorola, the company?s decision not to go with Android does make a good deal of sense. But now that RIM has decided to go its own way, the company will still need something to differentiate itself from the iPhone and the flood of Android devices released every year.

For Heins, RIM?s ace in the hole is BlackBerry Messenger, which he says delivers mobile messaging capabilities that are unique in the smartphone market.

?[bBM is] what attracts people to BlackBerry,? he said. ?This is our BlackBerry experience we can deliver ? there?s no other system out there where you can read, write, check if you?ve read my message. We want to make it as differentiated as possible. Going cross platform and opening up would be losing that advantage. I think there?s a huge difference between somebody who just provides the phone and the hardware and someone who provides services.?

Source: bgr.com

[Draconian Guppy]

RIM CEO says company ?seriously? considered switch to Android

?[bBM is] what attracts people to BlackBerry,? he said. ?This is our BlackBerry experience we can deliver ? there?s no other system out there where you can read, write, check if you?ve read my message. We want to make it as differentiated as possible. Going cross platform and opening up would be losing that advantage. I think there?s a huge difference between somebody who just provides the phone and the hardware and someone who provides services.?

Source: bgr.com

Uninformed much? in iMessage you can:read, write and check if recipient read my message ( granted it's enabled) then you can do the same in whataspp (though not confirm if read) and countless other alternatives

[cacoe]

They could have simply gone with Android and ported their messaging system over..

[still1]

They could have simply gone with Android and ported their messaging system over..

that would be a good marketing... port all the good things from BB to android and make their handset unique.

[Boz]

we looked 'seriously' at Android, didn't want to join the herd

Oh really?! Well that herd is doing might fine, while you are basically dead as a company and will be remembered as one of the biggest losers in the history of mobile/smartphone industry. The only other company that can say they are more embarrassing than you when they go bankrupt will be Nokia. And they said the similar thing.

It's funny how all of these smartass CEOs who insult Android and wanted to be "original" are now at the brink of the bankruptcy. Funny how that goes.

Just keep blabbing against Android instead of changing your failing businesses. That's CERTAINLY going to help when there are gazillions of consumers using Android. Definitely smart thing to do. /s

[Vice]

Just another company who believe they have more clout than they really do just like Nokia.

[Max Norris]

It's funny how all of these smartass CEOs who insult Android and wanted to be "original" are now at the brink of the bankruptcy. Funny how that goes.

I don't follow market shares and all that crap, but aren't most Android manufacturers losing money? I mean switching from one to another when both are losing money doesn't make much sense, at least by sticking with their own they'll have something to stand out with versus making the "yet another Android" phone.. doesn't sound like that would save them either. Not that I personally prefer their OS, between those two choices I'd take an Android but still, from the money standpoint.

[thealexweb]

The make it seem like me-too thing is all bad, not completely so, there's an increasing chunk of the market that wants an iPhone or an Android and that's it and they're not even willing to consider the alternates.

[evo_spook]

The make it seem like me-too thing is all bad, not completely so, there's an increasing chunk of the market that wants an iPhone or an Android and that's it and they're not even willing to consider the alternates.

Disagree slightly, the problem could have being, not just it wasn't an android or iphone, just that they had stagnated, they never updated the OS for the times.

[Boz]

I don't follow market shares and all that crap, but aren't most Android manufacturers losing money?

For some revenues might be down but considering they made a ton of money a couple of quarters of losing money (again mostly because of Apple's lawsuits and bans and economy itself) are not indicator of them doing bad because they are using Android.

If RIM was so smart they could have been Samsung and make killer profits in enterprise. This is not about every Android manufacturers, some might not be doing so good which is normal and really is less about Android and more about that company and quality they put out in their devices, the point is that they COULD differentiate themselves and make good products.

Hell they even tried to allow Android apps to run on Blackberry later. Just tells you that the claim about differentiation is nonsense. Android is so open they could have done whatever they want to differentiate, i.e. Amazon which is doing pretty damn great for themselves. They are not making money on hardware because of their choice to push their eco-system and not make money on hardware itself but that's a different approach. We are talking differentiation here and it's VERY possible. Possibly more than any other OS.

[techbeck]

The make it seem like me-too thing is all bad, not completely so, there's an increasing chunk of the market that wants an iPhone or an Android and that's it and they're not even willing to consider the alternates.

Right now there are really no alternatives for these people. BB are not even in the game anymore.

[evo_spook]

Right now there are really no alternatives for these people. BB are not even in the game anymore.

Not now, but 2, 3 years ago, when they saw how the market was going with Android and iPhone, they should have reacted, but they didn't, what do we have today? the new super OS put back till 2013.