“Thorsten Heins, the chief executive of Research in Motion, tells his employees, developers and customers that BlackBerry 10, the company’s new phones and the software platform running them, is a very big bet for RIM,” Ian Austen reports for The New York Times. “If it catches on, he has saved the company.”
“In a meeting with New York Times editors and reporters, he expressed his confidence. ‘I don’t expect things to get much worse,’ he said,” Austen reports. “It was clear from the presentation that the final versions of the phone, which will have its debut on Jan. 30, will not introduce any significant hardware innovations. It has the rectangular slab look of smartphones already on the market… According to earlier announcements by Mr. Heins, RIM is also making a model with a physical keyboard.”
Austen reports, “Mr. Heins said that the new phone’s advantages will be so apparent to customers that it will take only ‘a one-minute sales pitch in a shop’ to win them over.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Dude needs to lay off the shrooms.
It all depends on how you define success. You have to hand it to him for trying to radiate positive vibes about it. What hope is there for RIMM if this falls flat?
What do people expect him to say we’re going to fail?
Success is spelled “Golden Parachute”.
Ya just gotta string them along long enough before you BAIL!
“I can see your house from here!”
Actually, BB10 does have some innovative features. Whether it will be successful is another question, but both Microsoft and BB have come up with some integration ideas that I think Apple could take inspiration from.
http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/11/rim-bb10-video-hands-on/
Bad shrooms.
The BB10 will do as well as the Zune does in the MP3 player market.
I love how you used present tense seeing as the Zune was officially discontinued!
Hold your horses! The BB10 is not yet in the grave.
And only six years after the iPhone was first shown publicly . . . From “Research in Motion” to “Copying in Slow Motion.”
Well, at this stage, a 100% growth in sales is success in a headline, but amounts to both of Mr. Heins’ parents buying a new phone.
Have they filed for a name change? I only see them referenced as “Beleaguered RIM”. Anywhere. Ever.
Let’s just shorten that to “BRIM” from now on.
Nice. “Fill it to the rim, with BRIM” (Now I’m dating myself)
You are not alone.
No significant hardware innovations yet in one minute people will be won over? So it’s all software innovation, eh? Hmmmm, that would have to be one spectacular mind blowing OS. Doubtful.
“it will take only ‘a one-minute sales pitch in a shop’ to win them over.”
Yep. “Look how it works just like your Windows RT tablet”. All 5 buyers of the RT tablets will snap up the Blackberry phone, and dutifully have a tattoo placed next to their Zune tattoo.
Delusional at best.
What’s up here, MDN? We’ve been coasting along for months now without much in the way of beleaguered RIM stories. It’s really been a downer without a daily dose of what the half-CEOs have been up to. Sad, really.
I believe the half CEO’s are gone.
I remember Ballmer speaking those can’t miss words, and that venture capitalist who backed, damn I can’t remember the OS HP bought. Oh we’ll, it didn’t last long.
If only when they say something “can’t miss!” was quickly followed by a Soupy Sales sized cream pie right in the kisser with a loud BANG! (We’d be seeing a lot of large cream pie face impacts these days.)
Just like saying “Watch this!” is guaranteed to have whatever follows turn into an epic fail.
Why.
Why do so many Mac users root for the competitions demise?
I just don’t understand it. Fuck Android. Fuck Microsoft. Fuck Rim. Hurray for our side!! It confirms our purchasing decisions!!
It’s like the see-saw effect. If I go up – they go down! It’s the same shit I see day after day in politics. If you’re not for me — you’re against me. There’s no compromise. Apple rules. Fuck everybody else and lets join together and cheer their bad fortune.
I recently went to an ATT store. I played around with a lot of the smartphones. Something that I bet most MDN readers have never done. (iPhone’s rule! This website tells me so everyday!!) Guess what? The competitions caught up — way up. Yes, Apple revolutionized the smart phone – but the game is a lot closer than you may believe. I love Mac. Have 3 iMacs. And, 4 iPhones, 2 iPads and Apple Tv. But – I can’t say this strongly enough – if I wasn’t tied into the ecosystem – I would consider the competition. ‘Consider’ being the operative word. And – would probably still choose Apple. But – many will not.
Yes, you can gather around the MDN daily circlejerk (guilty) and rave about how everybody else is fuckin stupid – but guess what. Dollars count. And most of those dollars are going to Fandroiders. I know Google ain’t making a shitload (or any) money but hey – Apple obviously only cares about profits not market share, but sooner or later that will all come out in the wash.
Rejoice that Apple is the most profitable tech company in the world but at the end of the day — their iOS product is stagnating and being left behind.
Disclosure:
Have owned every single iPhone ever released and stood in line for most.
Death is a cleansing side of life. And a lot of the vitriol here is directed at management folks who are screwing up. If you look at Ballmer’s track record you can’t help but wonder if Microsoft wouldn’t be more of a contender if he weren’t still at the helm. I will wager that a significant percentage of employees at both RIM and Microsoft have been trying to tell management what it’s like in the real world because they, too, visit the stores and check out the competition with open eyes.
Maybe because the competition always bills itself as i Killer amd trashes Apple’s product to get attention?….
Personally, as long as Apple is doing well, I don’t really care about the competition.
Of course, it is fun to laugh at the competition, and MS and RIM have made plenty of blunders at which to laugh. I also find Android fragmentation, the necessary twin of “open” platforms, good for a chuckle. That said, I don’t really hate Google.
“And most of those dollars are going to Fandroiders.”
Uh, that’s not the case. Apple is doing very well in terms of revenue derived directly from their mobile devices.
The competition’s phone hardware is in the same class as Apple’s now, but their user experience is not as good because they lack the vertical integration. I think iOS is a better experience than Android and the integration of iOS into my other devices is seamless. I wouldn’t give that up for the a couple of hardware features that will quickly be overtaken by the next iPhone/iPad iteration. Also, I feel like most Android phones are just going for specs that consumers understand. For example, they may go for megapixels on the camera, while Apple has focused on the whole package – lens, sensor quality, MP, and software.
Bravo to you. You have integrity. I hope that RIM succeeds with this endeavor. They really invented the category and have been taking it on the chin from hacks and phonies for several years now. Fanboys, you will never have 100% market share (why would you want it)?
RIM has served a market for secure communication since its inception. Different technologies for different purposes.
You or your mom might not want a Blackberry. But there are segments who do. They are neither fools nor idiots. So, get your penises out of your hands and get serious.
“Show me someone who isn’t a parasite and I’ll go out and say a prayer for him”
@tbone
Great song! Another part of the lyric captures the recent campaign and, from my perspective, the reason for the sad result:”jewels and binoculars hang from the head of the mule…”
Probably for the same reason I root for the Giants and cheer when the Dodgers fail. It seems to be human nature… Go Team Apple!!!
What you call “stagnating” is Apple’s consistency. Apple designs it right the first time, then refines the design. Because of that consistently high level of user experience, Apple makes the majority of the “dollars” (as profit) in the mobile phone market, and has something like 68% unit share (MUCH higher for profit share) of the tablet market, and grows sales (and market share) for Macs every year.
> Apple obviously only cares about profits not market share
Yes, Apple is a for-profit corporation that makes its profit from selling actual products, not from advertising or collecting user data. So yes, Apple does care about profit margin. That profit goes back into making those products better every year, and creating entirely new product categories.
1) When Apple was in the same trouble everyone treated Apple the way we treat everyone else now.
2) When Apple announced the iPhone, RIM, Microsoft, Nokia, Motorola and the rest ridiculed Apple and the iPhone endlessly.
3) It’s our turn to torment the opposition.
Lad, we’re merely having fun at the opposition’s expense. The opposition does the same.
You assert, at the end of the day, iOS product is stagnating? Yet you love Mac and own all that Apple gear? So sad.
One thing I will be interested is how they design in the ability to go between apps without going back to the home screen. Whoever perfects that will at lest have some improvement over iOS as it stands. Not that that will be enough but some of Apples solutions are by no means perfect for a touch device witch should be more fluid in some basic functions.
iPad: Settings -> General -> Multitasking gestures: On/Off
“Use four or five fingers to:
• Pinch to the Home Screen
• Swipe up to reveal multitasking bar
• Swipe left or right between apps
I love the Apple hardware and iOS but really it’s also about the ecosystem which no one else has not been able to match Apple’s yet.
Why do so many Mac users root for the competitions demise?
There’s a difference between COMPETITION and IMITATION.
I personally root for competition in business and viciously denigrate imitation in business. If you can invent, why are you in tech?
CORRECTION. Please read: “If you CAN’T invent…”
Where’s my coffee?
I just don’t understand it. Fuck Android. Fuck Microsoft. Fuck Rim. Hurray for our side!! It confirms our purchasing decisions!!
Maybe that’s the case for some.
But for me, read the web page linked below for a deep understanding of why:
Apple Death Knell Counter
Today’s most recent update: November 8th, 2012.
And there will be more.
Getting the clue?
“BlackBerry 10 will allow corporations to segregate corporate data and apps from a user’s personal material. As a result, Mr. Heins said, information technology departments will be able to wipe out all of a company’s data on a phone when an employee quits, while leaving the former worker’s data, including photos, untouched.”
How about catering to users efficiencies and needs before they quit…duh
this is news? another trite MDN snipe against RIM? If Apple was to buy out RIM assets, you’d be singing what a great technological coup it was, and how much more valuable Apple would be with the IP under its belt.
No CEO of any company introduces any product with the expectation of failure. And no leader worth a damn plays his cards so safely that failures don’t occur. Risks must be taken to make progress.
Newton?
I want my Newton!
“No CEO of any company introduces any product with the expectation of failure.”
Ballmer does.
There’s a difference between hubris and ignorance. If you’ve ever watched Steve Jobs introduce a new product, you’ll recall it was with great humility, “we hope you like it as much as we do.” In RIM’s case, the track record points to ignorance, not hubris.
“Mr. Heins said that the new phone’s advantages will be so apparent to customers that it will take only ‘a one-minute sales pitch in a shop’ to win them over.”
Is this minute related in any way to the “Hour” in “Amateur Hour is over”?
Sounds like RIM are reading from the Republican playbook – living in la-la-land and talking up their chances… Even if it is a brilliant phone, RIM have already lost their stranglehold on corporate and government and it will have to be a brilliant phone to persuade apple and samsung users to shift allegiance. I predict they will be out of business by June…
Wish we could say the same about the Democrats.
Patience, althegeo, God will not endure that level of evil for ever.
Well, I really don’t want to see a company go down the river. I do hope they survive and BB10 does sell well, hopefully. It will be a tough get, but its not impossible. Hardware wise, here is some advice: don’t release the same product with a different name. Or release a fancy piece of hardware and give it crappy specs.
Anyways, I’m not even going to worry much about them. I’m just interested what Apple intends to do to fix their own situations.
Apple requires competition. Someone has to step up and actually compete with Apple. Why not RIM? It could happen! 😉
Delaying Blackberry 10 was a good idea. Better late than deliver the version they had 6 month ago.
Anyone who has worked in large companies unfortunately realize that IT can easily rule the roost. They just say”Our confidentiality is compromised if we use that device” and the product is killed in that company. RIM needs another TaDa moment like when no one could get through on communications during a natural disaster (can’t remember which one) other than the blackberry. Being able to separate corporate and personal data is important to the roosters, so it might make short term difference until everyone else does it.
As far as apple, I just received my iphone 5 and it’s nice, but revolutionary, not quite. Lot’s of companies are catching up if not already. The eco system is the biggest benefit for me. All my macs, ipad and iphone syncs and works flawlessly… photos, music, emails, contacts, etc… it just works. I was on a business trip last month in France. Took some pics with my iphone, my wife was looking at them minutes later on our ipad using icloud photostream without having to log in to some photo service.
…the final versions of the phone . . . will not introduce any significant hardware innovations
So is amateur hour over yet?
They will survive….