“Research in Motion co-CEO Mike Laziridis can’t understand. He just doesn’t get it,” Mike Schuster writes for Minyanville. “‘Why is it that people don’t appreciate our profits?’ he asked in an interview with The New York Times.”
“Laziridis’ fellow CEO Jim Balsillie echoed his sentiments — specifically underscoring how difficult it’s been for RIM to adjust its mobile platform. ‘No other technology company other than Apple has successfully transitioned their platform. It’s almost never done, and it’s way harder than you realize. This transition is where tech companies go to die,'” Schuster writes. “But in RIM’s case, it’s absolutely necessary.”
Schuster writes, “The BlackBerry Storm bombed, as did the BlackBerry Torch. Lazidiris is pinning his and the company’s hopes on the BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet — launching this month with a new BlackBerry tablet OS, powered by QNX and able to play select Android apps. Of course, going toe-to-toe with the iPad got the best of the Motorola Xoom, and that had a significantly larger marketing push than the PlayBook.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: RIM CEOs. There is no better half.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
I almost feel sorry for RIM
As a Canadian, I have to admire the work RIM did last century.
It’s too bad. It’s looking more and more like RIM had one good idea, and that’s it.
Puts into perspective the significance of what Apple has been able to do.
Yep. I BOMBED! someone was brave enough to publish it.
Um, maybe I’m missing something, but wasn’t RIM’s platform a mobile platform to begin with? What are they transitioning to?
RIM isn’t having trouble “transitioning” to a mobile platform, it’s having trouble developing a successor OS that actually works and isn’t just email-focused. Proving that once again, it’s the OS and user experience that leads the way, not the hardware.
RIM should just be extremely thankful that it had all those corporate accounts locked into its ecosystem before the iPhone came out, otherwise they would have dried up and blown away long ago. At least RIM has a chance to develop a new OS.
I’m sure what he means is the transition from a corporate-exclusive business to a consumer oriented one.
That doesn’t ring true, because Apple didn’t make any such transition. I’d say he’s referring to the transition from the archaic BlackBerry OS to the new QNX kernel that is driving the PlayBook, with phones transitioning slowly over time to QNX. There are substantial parallels to Apple’s transition from MacOS 9 to Mac OS X.
You beat me to it. By about 5 hours.
I think over the next year it’s going to get really bad for RIM. People will ween themselves off BBs in favour of iPhones and flagship Android devices. These platforms are just too far ahead of RIM…
And the PlayBook vs. the iPad 2? Ya, no contest.
RIM is done.
Motorola, RIM, Samsung, Acer, etc. need to stop trying to beat the iPad. Just, for once, create something new or interesting!
Well as another Canadian I can safely say that Blackberry had it’s day. I am so happy with my iPhone that I can not imagine myself owning a Blackberry. After having owned a Blackberry and having had nothing but problems for months on end, ie dropped calls, missed emails, complex email setup, you name it. I have heard other Canadians say that Blackberries are great…they probably work for someone who owns a Blackberry infrastructure and offers them support when things go wrong. So these people are clueless when it comes to managing your own business affairs where simplicity, ease of use and reliability are key to running a business and not losing calls, having to wonder if you have received emails and so on. I can safely say that I will use an iPhone for a very long time.
I used to wonder where Hollywood got their movie ideas.
After seeing Laziridis and Balsillie in action, I know where they got the inspiration for “Dumb and Dumber.”
RIM made a profit? Wow. Awesome.
Rim is lost in transition these days.
I’ll hand it to them that they were the first to reply make a smartphone that worked but times are changing and its yet to be seen how they will move forward.
Best of luck to them!
Lazyitis and Ballsilly? Really.
Balsillie was too pre-occupied trying to get a Canadian hockey team and didn’t pay attention to the fact that Apple and Android picked up the puck and skated away with it.
Dumb dumb dumb…..
I heard that RIM is about to launch their top-secret, sure-fire Apple iPhone killer: the Blackberry Zilch.
Now THAT’s funny!
In all fairness to RIM and MS, what do you expect them to do? They recognize that Apple has moved their cheese, and they are trying to find it again. They have to try to compete in the new post-PC world that Apple has defined. I do feel a bit sorry for them because there are a lot of good people who now find their livelihoods threatened. The products from RIM and MS are weak, and I can’t imagine people buying them, these companies have to try. I give Jim Balsillie credit for at least recognizing that Apple has successfully accomplished a very difficult feat. As far as Mike Laziridis not understanding why RIM’s profits aren’t appreciated, it’s because RIM is on the wrong side of the curve Mike. RIMs best days are behind them unless they can get QNX to do things iOS does not.
The only thing RIM can get QNX to do that iOS can’t is flip burgers at McDonald’s. That’s RIM’s cheese for the next 2 years.
This transition is where tech companies go to die,’” Schuster writes. “But in RIM’s case, it’s absolutely necessary.”
Rim is going to die.
Living in Waterloo and using blackberries for years, I used to love them. “Used to” is the key phrase. I’ve had my 3GS for 2 years now and it’s worked flawlessly. It’s a much more intuitive device and yes, you crackberry’s, you will get over the virtual keyboard. It’s quite natural once used to, no different than the time it took you to get used to the blackberry keyboard.
Ask 100 people in this town that own iphones, who by the way probably have friends that work at RIM, if they would go back to a BB…. 100 will state no way, I love my iphone.
If RIM is to survive, they need the next revolution as they did with the first blackberries.