Ten Reasons Why BlackBerry Is Screwed

[Ironman273]

Ten Reasons Why BlackBerry Is Screwed

Kelly Hodgkins

RIM, the maker of BlackBerry, was absolutely destroyed today in the stock market. But that's just part of the story. RIM is screwed.

1. No new products until the summer

RIM's current lineup of phones is subpar, to say the least. Worse, basically none of the current models will get the marginally newer and better BlackBerry OS 7.0 update. Yet, RIM says there are going to be "delays in new product introductions into the very late part of August." Ugh.

2. Upcoming leaked products are boooooooring

Just look what is coming up next, supposedly: Stuff like the BlackBerry Bold 9900. Sure, it'll run BlackBerry OS 7 and might have a touchscreen! But it's also the same handset RIM has been pumping out for the last five years.

3. The Playbook

RIM's jump into the tablet market has been pretty floppy. The PlayBook is impressive under the hood and we liked it, at first. But the lack of basic features like email?something BlackBerry is very known for!?and a basically deserted app store makes it non-buyable. For basically anyone.

4. Blackberry App World is a ghost town

BlackBerry App World debuted in 2009 and had about 26,000 applications as of April 2011. Android had over 200,000 apps and iOS was pushing 350,000. More importantly, the number of quality apps? A barren wasteland.

5. Developers hate making BlackBerry apps

It's a bad sign when a developer who wants to code for your platform, throws up his hands in exasperation and says "screw it." It's even worse when that letter is posted on the Internet, goes viral and many nod in agreement.

6. Financials are in ruins

RIM's latest quarterly earnings were lower than expected. Terribly so. The expectation for next quarter has been cut 20 percent and serious layoffs loom. Hope you weren't planning on using your RIM stock to fund your retirement.

7. Leadership is struggling

RIM still has two CEOs, neither of which is a bold, innovative leader, even if Mike Lazaridis is an engineering genius. The pair spent a large portion of RIM's recent earnings conference call justifying why this co-leadership is a good thing. How about they just prove it with awesome phones and tons of happy users?

8. Even BlackBerry owners don't want BlackBerrys

A survey from last year suggested more than half of current BlackBerry owners were going to switch to Android or iOS. Enough said.

9. Enterprise interest is falling

This is death. RIM has a stronghold in the corporate world, but its grip is loosening. In the past, everyone from the CEO to the office manager had a BlackBerry on their hip. Slowly but surely, those BlackBerry handsets are being replaced with iPhones and Droids. Even the iPad is gaining ground. Apple's Tim Cook said recently that "more than 80 percent" of Fortune 100 companies are testing out the iPad.

10. Other companies are eating RIM's lunch

RIM's biggest advantage was its push email and BlackBerry Messenger service. Now just about every smartphone platform has push email (in some form) and Apple's new iMessage is gunning for BBM. BlackBerry OS 7 is already behind, and it's not even out yet. Just look at the voice control and navigation built into Android.

Co-CEO Mike Lazardis tried to put a positive spin on the company's "transitional" period when he said, "RIM has taken a unique path, and why we do things might not be obvious from the outside." Someone needs to tell big Mike that it's time to do away with this smokescreen and start releasing quality handsets ASAP. If it doesn't, RIM is going to end up like Palm.

Source: Gizmodo

[PGHammer]

Ten Reasons Why BlackBerry Is Screwed

Kelly Hodgkins

RIM, the maker of BlackBerry, was absolutely destroyed today in the stock market. But that's just part of the story. RIM is screwed.

1. No new products until the summer

RIM's current lineup of phones is subpar, to say the least. Worse, basically none of the current models will get the marginally newer and better BlackBerry OS 7.0 update. Yet, RIM says there are going to be "delays in new product introductions into the very late part of August." Ugh.

2. Upcoming leaked products are boooooooring

Just look what is coming up next, supposedly: Stuff like the BlackBerry Bold 9900. Sure, it'll run BlackBerry OS 7 and might have a touchscreen! But it's also the same handset RIM has been pumping out for the last five years.

3. The Playbook

RIM's jump into the tablet market has been pretty floppy. The PlayBook is impressive under the hood and we liked it, at first. But the lack of basic features like email?something BlackBerry is very known for!?and a basically deserted app store makes it non-buyable. For basically anyone.

4. Blackberry App World is a ghost town

BlackBerry App World debuted in 2009 and had about 26,000 applications as of April 2011. Android had over 200,000 apps and iOS was pushing 350,000. More importantly, the number of quality apps? A barren wasteland.

5. Developers hate making BlackBerry apps

It's a bad sign when a developer who wants to code for your platform, throws up his hands in exasperation and says "screw it." It's even worse when that letter is posted on the Internet, goes viral and many nod in agreement.

6. Financials are in ruins

RIM's latest quarterly earnings were lower than expected. Terribly so. The expectation for next quarter has been cut 20 percent and serious layoffs loom. Hope you weren't planning on using your RIM stock to fund your retirement.

7. Leadership is struggling

RIM still has two CEOs, neither of which is a bold, innovative leader, even if Mike Lazaridis is an engineering genius. The pair spent a large portion of RIM's recent earnings conference call justifying why this co-leadership is a good thing. How about they just prove it with awesome phones and tons of happy users?

8. Even BlackBerry owners don't want BlackBerrys

A survey from last year suggested more than half of current BlackBerry owners were going to switch to Android or iOS. Enough said.

9. Enterprise interest is falling

This is death. RIM has a stronghold in the corporate world, but its grip is loosening. In the past, everyone from the CEO to the office manager had a BlackBerry on their hip. Slowly but surely, those BlackBerry handsets are being replaced with iPhones and Droids. Even the iPad is gaining ground. Apple's Tim Cook said recently that "more than 80 percent" of Fortune 100 companies are testing out the iPad.

10. Other companies are eating RIM's lunch

RIM's biggest advantage was its push email and BlackBerry Messenger service. Now just about every smartphone platform has push email (in some form) and Apple's new iMessage is gunning for BBM. BlackBerry OS 7 is already behind, and it's not even out yet. Just look at the voice control and navigation built into Android.

Co-CEO Mike Lazardis tried to put a positive spin on the company's "transitional" period when he said, "RIM has taken a unique path, and why we do things might not be obvious from the outside." Someone needs to tell big Mike that it's time to do away with this smokescreen and start releasing quality handsets ASAP. If it doesn't, RIM is going to end up like Palm.

Source: Gizmodo

Number's six and eight are primarily due to paranoia (especially outside of North America), because every government wants to snoop into RIM's network (which the company runs itself). In other words, security (in the Middle East and Asia in particular) is a big reason for the declining interest in RIM products - that and high prices compared to similar Android products. Normally, with everything else being equal, security could trump buzz. However, governmental snoopery takes away RIM's security advantage.

[elcoyoteloco]

All I can say is, thank you Google for giving me a viable, maybe even superior, alternative to iOS.

Screw it, it is superior, if only because there's more than one company making the handsets. Lack of choice has always been the main reason I don't live in Apple's world.

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

i have a corporate-supplied Blackberry and i hate the thing. i cant complain b/c it's free and i dont have a cell phone bill. RIM just wont reinvent itself... theyre going to fail b/c they refuse to revolutionize their product line. as mentioned above, the constant clones are boooring. Tiny screens, stupid scroll pad, no apps. it's terrible.

[thealexweb]

My dad has a BB his work gave him and even for free he hates the thing and uses it on a weekly basis.

[capr]

All I can say is, thank you Google for giving me a viable, maybe even superior, alternative to iOS.

Screw it, it is superior, if only because there's more than one company making the handsets. Lack of choice has always been the main reason I don't live in Apple's world.

+1. I am not hating on iOS and have an iphone. iOS does what apple is good at and keeps people interested but the fact that only one company makes the handsets and there is zero customization and choice involved make me hate the phone.

[Nerd Rage]

I work as IT support in a corporate office building and hate the stupid things. Having to use a BES for email is a royal pain, when you can just setup an exchange account in 2 minutes on most other smartphones.

[sc302 Veteran]

There is only one reason that BB will continue on in the Enterprise work place. No one, not a single vendor, has a solution to compete with the blackberry enterprise server.

In case you don't know what the enterprise server is capable of other than to push mail....It offers full monitoring of the bb im service, it offers full monitoring of email, it offers the ablitlity to lock down the device so that only approved apps can be pushed and installed via the admin console, it offers the ability to wipe the phone at a moments notice if it is stolen. There are a ton more features available to admins, this does not exist on any of the other smartphones. Once another smartphone provider comes out with something to compete in this arena it will be the final nail to kill off blackberry. This and this only is the reason that the blackberry mail and text phone will still be around (mail and text phone, because that is all that it is good for).

I work as IT support in a corporate office building and hate the stupid things. Having to use a BES for email is a royal pain, when you can just setup an exchange account in 2 minutes on most other smartphones.

You are doing it wrong then, it takes me 2 min to setup. While the push takes a while to sync, it only takes about 2 min of your time to enter in whatever you need (setup user and enter creds on phone). After I enter my creds I walk away from the phone for 30 min.

[AJerman]

5 more reasons

1. Their phones suck

2. Their phones are crap

3. Their phones are horrible

4. Their phones are junk

and finally, 5. Their phones are pieces of ****

[Nerd Rage]

You are doing it wrong then, it takes me 2 min to setup. While the push takes a while to sync, it only takes about 2 min of your time to enter in whatever you need (setup user and enter creds on phone). After I enter my creds I walk away from the phone for 30 min.

Don't say I'm doing it wrong if you don't know what I am doing. We have a team in another state called our "collaboration team" who manages the BES and users. If I get a new user, I have to submit a ticket to get the collaboration team to setup that user. So for me, it can take up to a day to get a blackberry user online with email while other smartphones take 1-2 minutes. The idea of requiring an additional server to manage email for a specific phone brand, to me, is a very stupid idea which is totally unneeded.

[sc302 Veteran]

I don't know I am typing on my bb now. Internet sux, but the phone is solid and I don't put it on mute if the phone touches my face or hit random keys.

Junk because intenet sux and is just about unusable. But as a phone and a mail device works just fine. Rarely does my bold lock up, I can't recall in the last year it ever did. I drop it constantly and it continues to function.

[Growled Member]

BB makes old fashioned phones, much like Nokia. The world has moved on.

[briangw]

I'm getting a 9800 Torch soon, but once we get Active Sync going on Exchange, we will be switching to the iPhone. Good too because I don't care for Blackberries and am pretty disappointed in the touch screen of my Droid Incredible.

Don't say I'm doing it wrong if you don't know what I am doing. We have a team in another state called our "collaboration team" who manages the BES and users. If I get a new user, I have to submit a ticket to get the collaboration team to setup that user. So for me, it can take up to a day to get a blackberry user online with email while other smartphones take 1-2 minutes. The idea of requiring an additional server to manage email for a specific phone brand, to me, is a very stupid idea which is totally unneeded.

In some reasons, it can be justified. For regulations like PCI-DSS or Sarbanes-Oxley, you pretty much need to segregate your BES server from other servers.

[Unix2]

Even Obama move from BB to Apple. He loves Apple technology now.

[thealexweb]

OS7 is a major problem, it was originally gonna be OS6.1 (only a minor update with virtually nothing new) but was bumped up to 7 purely for PR reasons :/

[Ironman273]

There is only one reason that BB will continue on in the Enterprise work place. No one, not a single vendor, has a solution to compete with the blackberry enterprise server.

In case you don't know what the enterprise server is capable of other than to push mail....It offers full monitoring of the bb im service, it offers full monitoring of email, it offers the ablitlity to lock down the device so that only approved apps can be pushed and installed via the admin console, it offers the ability to wipe the phone at a moments notice if it is stolen. There are a ton more features available to admins, this does not exist on any of the other smartphones. Once another smartphone provider comes out with something to compete in this arena it will be the final nail to kill off blackberry. This and this only is the reason that the blackberry mail and text phone will still be around (mail and text phone, because that is all that it is good for).

You are doing it wrong then, it takes me 2 min to setup. While the push takes a while to sync, it only takes about 2 min of your time to enter in whatever you need (setup user and enter creds on phone). After I enter my creds I walk away from the phone for 30 min.

The problem is that no one is standing still. Yes, BB has that now. http://www.apple.com/support/iphone/enterprise/ I know it still needs work, but it's coming.

[ANON86364]

There is only one reason that BB will continue on in the Enterprise work place. No one, not a single vendor, has a solution to compete with the blackberry enterprise server.

In case you don't know what the enterprise server is capable of other than to push mail....It offers full monitoring of the bb im service, it offers full monitoring of email, it offers the ablitlity to lock down the device so that only approved apps can be pushed and installed via the admin console, it offers the ability to wipe the phone at a moments notice if it is stolen. There are a ton more features available to admins, this does not exist on any of the other smartphones. Once another smartphone provider comes out with something to compete in this arena it will be the final nail to kill off blackberry. This and this only is the reason that the blackberry mail and text phone will still be around (mail and text phone, because that is all that it is good for).

You are doing it wrong then, it takes me 2 min to setup. While the push takes a while to sync, it only takes about 2 min of your time to enter in whatever you need (setup user and enter creds on phone). After I enter my creds I walk away from the phone for 30 min.

ActiveSync is easily competing with those features. Approve and disapprove apps, wipe the device are in ActiveSync now. Also, BES used to be free software with $100 per license, right? Isn't now a very different story? I thought that in order to get full sync of mail with attachments and such you needed some premium version and for one of our clients the cost was going to be like $3000. And for what?

[Charisma Veteran]

Hmm, I must be the only one who still likes them :laugh: my BB Bold is great, and I'm just setting up a couple of new PlayBooks for the higher-ups in the company. The apps aren't so bad--BlackBerry Travel has been invaluable to me, and so far I've always been able to find the apps I need/want. But I suppose there are better things out there--I do love Android.

[firey]

I own a blackberry pearl, 9100 3G. I like it a lot, the size, the functionality, etc is awesome. I will never go to an iPhone, personal choice don't try and change my mind. If I was to switch it would be to either a WP7 or Android phone. However.. BBM is one reason I stick with blackberry. I am not a business man, nor do I use it for work.. it's purely a personal use phone.

[sc302 Veteran]

Don't say I'm doing it wrong if you don't know what I am doing. We have a team in another state called our "collaboration team" who manages the BES and users. If I get a new user, I have to submit a ticket to get the collaboration team to setup that user. So for me, it can take up to a day to get a blackberry user online with email while other smartphones take 1-2 minutes. The idea of requiring an additional server to manage email for a specific phone brand, to me, is a very stupid idea which is totally unneeded.

It takes one or two minutes to setup a user in BES, I do it quite frequently. The reason other smartphones takes so little time is because there is no internal IT group to manage those phones. Just because your process sucks doesn't mean squat as far as actual time it takes to setup a user.

[bjoswald]

Blackberry is still around? I haven't seen anyone using them for a couple years now.

[sc302 Veteran]

ActiveSync is easily competing with those features. Approve and disapprove apps, wipe the device are in ActiveSync now. Also, BES used to be free software with $100 per license, right? Isn't now a very different story? I thought that in order to get full sync of mail with attachments and such you needed some premium version and for one of our clients the cost was going to be like $3000. And for what?

BES is free, now. BES Express look it up, but it doesn't have a lot of the monitoring features in the full blown bes enterprise...that costs just like active sync.

[what]

Ah well, I'm still buying an unlocked 9900 on release day.

I don't quite get the argument that they pump out the same phones every year, all HTC devices look just as similar and all iPhones looked almost identical until iPhone 4.

Blackberry is still around? I haven't seen anyone using them for a couple years now.

Either the market is completely different in the US or you don't get out very much.

[sc302 Veteran]

Hmm, I must be the only one who still likes them :laugh: my BB Bold is great, and I'm just setting up a couple of new PlayBooks for the higher-ups in the company. The apps aren't so bad--BlackBerry Travel has been invaluable to me, and so far I've always been able to find the apps I need/want. But I suppose there are better things out there--I do love Android.

Biggest fail of the playbook...to sync with exchange you need to go through a blackberry device....wtf is that, all others can use active sync.

[Xerax]

My mum just switched her BBTourch to the LG Optimus 7 WP7 device.

BB really are losing the market.