“BlackBerry maker Research In Motion is again bearing fruit,” Priya Ganapati reports for TheStreet.com.
“A positive outlook from its analyst day Monday, the launch of a new consumer-targeted phone called the BlackBerry Curve and signs that the company has more products awaiting launch dates this year seem to have revived investor interest,” Ganapati reports.
Ganapati reports, “There’s also a realization that RIM’s business could remain unaffected by the upcoming release of Apple’s iPhone, whose features are likely to appeal to a different audience from RIM’s, say analysts.”
MacDailyNews Take: Microsoft’s, Nokia’s, RIM’s, Motorola’s et al. talking point #1: “iPhone’s no good for business.” Well, we’ll soon see what really happens, won’t we?
Ganapati continues, “In the last few days, RIM has launched a new phone, a sign that the company isn’t letting up on innovation.”
MacDailyNews Take: That depends on how you define “innovation,” Priya. Are you using Microsoft’s (same as RIM’s) definition or Apple’s?
Ganapati continues, “On May 3, RIM released the BlackBerry 8300 Curve phone, a version that has the multimedia capabilities of the Pearl handset as well as a full keyboard.”
MacDailyNews Take: Microsoft’s, obviously. Microsoft’s, Nokia’s, RIM’s, Motorola’s et al. talking point #2: “iPhone doesn’t have a keyboard.” Good luck with that one, guys.
Ganapati continues, “When Apple announced news of its iPhone in January, many investors believed that it would eat into the market share of cell phone makers Nokia, Motorola and RIM. iPhone, which offers a touch screen instead of a keyboard and combines iPod features with those of a phone, is expected to launch toward the end of June.”
Ganapati reports, “Some analysts believe that it could take up to two years to sort out any kinks in the iPhone and for wide consumer adoption of the device. Also, the iPhone’s multimedia features are likely to appeal more to consumers rather than to business users.”
MacDailyNews Take: Two years to sort out kinks? Puleeze. Who paid for this article? And, again, Ganapati blithely (ignorantly?) reprints Microsoft’s, Nokia’s, RIM’s, Motorola’s et al. talking point #1. (Priya, you forgot to repeat #3: “iPhone’s too expensive.”)
Ganapati continues, “And that could mean that companies such as Motorola and Nokia, which have a greater stake in the consumer market, will feel the effects more than RIM, whose customers are largely businesses.”
Full article here.
Listen, they don’t call it “CrackBerry” for nothing. RIM will hold on longer than most, with that much we agree. RIM has an established market and they make what seems like a fine product until you hold it next to an iPhone. But, the whole “iPhone’s not for business, iPhone’s just for consumers” line is just garbage thrown out by a group of companies that have been badly shown up by Apple.
Plastic keyboards with buttons festooned all over the device whether they’re involved in the device’s use at the moment or not? Two-faced candy bar pieces of junk? User Interfaces designed by colorblind dyslexics with ADD? Microsoft, Nokia, RIM, Motorola et al. have nothing else to offer against iPhone, but FUD.
These things happen when an entire industry has been instantly outclassed and shown to be 5-10 years behind the times, as Apple did to the mobile device biz with their iPhone unveiling. The fact is that business people will decide which device they want to carry and their businesses will adapt to it. Just as businesspeople and businesses did with “Microsoft-incompatible” Research In Motion’s Blackberry. Apple’s iPhone will be a success with business users.
Priya Ganapati should do a better job separating fact from fiction in her reports.
Let’s judge products when they are released.
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The KEY and only KEY to enterprise integration of the iPhone, will be exchange integration. FULL PUSH EMAIL/CALENDER/CONTACTS with microsoft Active sync, or some other ALREADY existing exchange server technology.
This will be the ONLY thing that i NEED in my portable and the one thing the iPhone is lacking…..
Only one way to see how things turn out….
Stop speculating and just wait and see…
Apple, don’t fail me now.
I think they can coexist for awhile.
As far as RIM, Jobs will keep whittling away at their business slowly, while they try to re-gather.
Also, a new episode of Tiki-Bar TV is out today!
Ah, Lala. The only woman that can drive me to drink….and hopefully to her place afterwards!
MW:perhaps……hmmm.
Just another blackberry from a rim job
Gosh, where do these people get these names for their products/companies?
‘User Interfaces designed by colorblind dyslexics with ADD?’
I dot’n apreshite being caleld a……waht were we taklin bout?
I’m not understanding the logic behind the “iphones” is not for business argument. I understand that some phones may be tied to proprietary systems. But even assuming that they’ll never change to adopt the iphone (unlikely) what percentage does that entail.
I know it’s hard to believe, but mobile phones have only existed for the past 15 years. When I was in sales 10 years ago, only the most successful reps had mobile phones (they were expensive). They then slowly filtered down throughout the entire sales force. Only when most of the sales force had a phone did they start to appear in the general public. Businesses and business people have the money to buy new technology if the new technology meets their needs. I would argue that successful business people are going to be the FIRST to acquire the new iphone.
I guess you can’t lick that RIM (said firmly tongue in cheek, of course).
HeHeHe TowerTone said RIM, Jobs!!
MDN Magic Word: behind
HaaaaHaaaaHaaaa!! Man I need to go home!
Hey, some of my best friends are colorblind dyslexics with ADD.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Dang, TT. You beat me to it. (Is that pnik or grene? What? WHAT?)
MDN’s take is right.
The Crackberry will be the last to fall.
Seems to me RIM has built it’s market niche around a single feature, push email. That’s kind of been around a long time, twenty years or so, we used to call them faxes. I had a Duo 230 with internal modem and fax software back in 1993/4.
Really if push email is the big advantage that RIM has sure makes the competition look real dull.
@Falkirk I got my first mobile phone in1986.
Some people confuse Outlook with email.
For those people, email operates via the web and is usually sent to your IP’s Server where it is forwarded to the recients IP’s server.
The receipient and sender will most likely have outlook as their default email program. They configure or have someone configure Outlook to let your IP’s server forward the message to outlook who will then present it to you.
iphone will not need outlook as it will communicate directly with your IP’s server and present your mail via whatever program is available, I believe Yahoo or Google.
So eMax, please learn how these things work before displaying your ignorance. It will help you determine how best to use technology available to you.
So RIM have managed to convinve some investors that they will be immune.
Just you wait until investors lay their hands on the iphone and realise the impact it will have, they will more than likely think short and hard over whether their investment is safe or not in RIM.
Ooff! Watching paint dry has affected my spelling! Sorry everyone!
I’m afraid I have to concur with most all of MDN’s final comebacks on this one. The fact that this technology [RIM] is well established will make for good, and real, competition for the iPhone coming out of the starting gate, but the iPhone simply screams, “…enterprise me baby…!”, while being simply irresistable, functionally AND aesthetically, to us regular consumers. Anyone who tells you otherwise is only twisting in the wind.
Although I’m equally bothered by articles like these, I really don’t think that MDN is being fair about RIM. They’ve produced products that people liked. What other company makes cell phones that you can get “addicted to”, as I’ve heard many describe the blackberry. It’s no iPhone, but that is still admirable. RIM was never the evil that Microsoft is.
When Palm was making good PDAs, it seemed to fit with the “simplicity”, “think different”, and for a short period of time the “elegance” characteristics that we Macheads are so in tune with. That didn’t last very long. RIM started to do the same. It probably will not last very long either. But just because they will soon be directly competing, or trying to compete with Apple, does not mean they are “colorblind dyslexics with ADD”.
Just my 2.5¢
Seriously, I have to admit that there is no passion to take down BlackBerry like there is Microsoft, Real, Creative, Dell, etc..
I hope BlackBerry can change and improve there innovation strategies. Apple is going to change the industry. If there are one or two strong competitors to Apple, it will mean Apple will have to innovate even more.
I suspect there will be some people who will prefer their Blackberry simply for its physical keyboard. Even if the iPhone has spectacular entry there will be some who like to push buttons. For every 1% short of spectacular the iPhone is there will be more who want buttons.
My current cell phone is a piece of junk but thanks to tactile keys I can dial a new number with my thumb and without needing to look at the keyboard. I figure there’s an iphone in my future but I also figure that I’ll miss thumb-dial.
RIM has had it’s day in my opinion.
The iPhone needs to have push email capability for ALL email accounts, just like the Blackberry currently does. Not just for Yahoo email accounts, but for ANY POP or IMAP based email account.
iPhone is FUD-d due to nothing but incremental technology from RIM and the rest.
Analysts in the pocket of these companies see Apple as a pure consumer company, and while the iPhone is likely to be marketed to this market, ATT is targeting it’s business customers – that’s a huge lot of customers for ATT to switch to iPhone, and will likely have a huge success rate.
The analysts seem to say the following:
– iPhone does not connect to other push mail systems than Yahoo! And free Yahoo! is a problem becuase?… Oh yes, it does not fund the pockets of the big carriers. Silly me, I forgot about that.
– iPhone does not read M$ Word documents, therefore it is not a business device. Outright ignorance of FUD, as Steve Jobs, in an interview the day of the iPhone announcement, said it would be able to read Word documents at launch.
– It does not have a great keyboard to email with. Not only will it have an amazing email program in mail to work with, but typing on this keyboard will be amazingly smooth once one gets use to it – this according to several who have used it. Secondly, typing 5 words a minute faster per minute is not crutial in business. The messages are not a disertaion, but quick, cryptic notes to fellow employees or customers. Most just see an email and call back in response. This keyboard stuff is pure FUD.
– Lastly, with Keynote in Apple’s back pocket, one can only assume it will be incorporated into iPhone, and will open PPT documents with ease. It will also contain Preview, which will easily open PDF documents as well. Add in the other features, such as state-of-the-art navigation (great for travel), and the best web browser off the desktop, and it is better than any device for business users on the market – and visual voice mail – perfect for filtering out your buddy vs. business calls.
At least the iPhone has quickly exposed the true analysts vs. the Redmond cash cows…
How this is not the killer mobile business device is stupid is as stupid does.
“So eMax, please learn how these things work before displaying your ignorance. “
RIM is sucessful because of their full integration with Exchange Server email, calendaring and contacts, not because they can read mail from pop/imap servers.
Get with understanding why the Blackberry is so popular before you criticize it or suggest that the iPhone does anything remotely close.