David Shipley blogs for CanadaEast:
From The Globe and Mail’s Technology section (July 16, 2008):
[RIM Co-CEO Jim] Balsillie made it clear that RIM isn’t sweating the iPhone.
“The key thing is just to charge ahead,” he said. “If you look back you lose your forward momentum … the only thing we can control is getting better products out sooner.”
Shipley asks, “I wonder if a deer caught in a transport truck’s headlights sweats before it gets hit?”
“The only thing RIM is charging ahead to is hard times. RIM isn’t going to disappear overnight, but it’s decline will likely mirror that of the once-great Palm. The Blackberry will remain a strong player in the corporate and government sector for some time to come, but it’s about to get smoked in the consumer market. Meanwhile Apple’s iPhone will make slow, steady inroads into the corporate world,” Shipley writes.
“A problem with RIM’s plan of getting better products out sooner is it assumes you can build something better than the iPhone without violating the boatload of patents Apple has on their latest gadget,” Shipley explains. “Apple, having learned some hard lessons from the early days of the OS wars, has prepared thoroughly for the roll out of the iPhone.”
“Another problem is it also assumes Apple isn’t already developing future generations of iPhones that leap even further ahead, making it hard for RIM to match the iPhone, let alone surpass it,” Shipley writes.
“The iPhone isn’t going to crush its smart phone competitors because its hardware is sleeker (although it is) and it’s not going to beat them because its software is more intuitive, powerful and easy-to-use (which, again, it is), the iPhone is going to win the most important technology battle of the 21st century because the iPhone as a platform (hardware, iPhone software, iTunes and the App Store) represents an unbeatable combination,” Shipley writes.
Full article (most of which we’ve excerpted with permission) and other Apple-related articles via CanadaEast.com here.
We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in. – Palm CEO Ed Colligan, commenting on then-rumored Apple iPhone, Nov. 16, 2006
The last we heard, Cooligan (and his company) was lying in a corner somewhere yelling, “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”
Will RIM Co-CEO* Balsillie be next?
*Jimmy needs a helper to do his job.
“Shipley asks, ‘I wonder if a deer caught in a transport truck’s headlights sweats before it gets hit?'”
That’s not sweat.
….not only is that not sweat, but Apple is *not* a transport truck. the good news is that Apple can swerve and leave the deer to die of heart attack.
“‘Another problem is it also assumes Apple isn’t already developing future generations of iPhones that leap even further ahead, making it hard for RIM to match the iPhone, let alone surpass it.'”
That’s the worst news of all for RIM and every other iPhone competitor. They’re aiming at a moving target.
aapl stock is still sucks right now. rimm got downgraded today and its up more the appl. appl is really stinking up the joint! very disappointment in the stock.
@shen
True, Apple is not a truck, but Apple will not swerve around the deer.
Apple leapt over the deer long ago.
The deer are just now finding out they will soon die of loneliness and starvation, and can only wish that they could have even a glimpse of Apple’s long-passed headlights.
Okay, the euphemisms are making even ME a bit nauseous. I’ll stop if you will.
RIM will be Zune more than Palm, bringing out poor imitations of Apple’s last year’s model.
I still maintain that we’re all thinking to much about the phone part of iPhone. I think the thing that is quietly getting an indelible grip on the consumer is the idea of a true hand held a computer – A portable computer that can take over all but the most demanding portable computer tasks (not a PDA, a very personal computer) – A MacBook Air, but in the hand instead of in your lap. I would in fact argue that we essentially have that already with the iPod Touch. I realize that, as it stands there’s a huge performance difference between the Touch and a MacBook Air, but just think for a moment about what you actually do with a MacBook Air… For less than a tenth of the cost you can get the same job done with an iPod Touch. I think the whole business of competing with existing “smartphone” technology is a waste of air, the real question is, would I rather buy a Dell notebook or a 32GB iPod Touch – I know what my answer is.
@Mac,
the slide in Apple’s stock is not Apple’s fault. High US gas prices (triggered by the ridiculous rise in oil prices), the US mortgage crisis, and the banking crisis are killing the stock market in general. Apple is actually doing quite OK considering the circumstances.
By the end of the year the stock will probably be where it’s supposed to be.
RIM will not decline due to iPhone. Blackberry, and Blackberry Enterprise Server, are firmly entrenched in the corporate psyche and it will take more than iPhone 3G to unseat.
Not saying that RIM won’t feel some pain. Just don’t expect them to roll over and show their throat. They have major corporate buy-in. And, unlike Microsoft, they have a good product.
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“Apple leapt over the deer long ago.”
And you’ll find they’ve staggard from the trail fawning over the lost doe if they can’t buck the trend. Business can be hartless.
Mac, “disappointment in the stock”?
Are you kidding me? Are you paying attention to the rest of the economy. You should be thrilled you have aapl stock at least you haven’t lost your a$$ yet and the company has plenty of cash to weather any economic recession or slow down.
You need to sell your stock if you don’t understand it and go to Vegas, you’ll be much happier.
In perspective, Windows didn’t take as much of the Mac’s early market share as it rather expanded the market making the Mac’s share dwindle by comparison.
Business appears to want and need an e-mail device that makes phone calls. Blackberry has that covered. The iPhone won’t take as much away from that niche as it will expand the market leaving Blackberry’s portion decreasing as the pie gets larger.
What do you think?
I never have understood why it has to be one company to rule all of the others. Apple and RIM are both excellent in their own ways. One doesn’t have to die for the other to survive.
The Deer doesn’t sweat because it doesn’t have the ability to understand what is about to happen…
iPod killers unite…form of—a dead skunk in the middle of the road.
MDN Magic Word…”nature”
Over the last month RIM is down 20% and APPL is down 0.5%.
Blackberry’s demise will be long and slow, but demise it will be…
“I never have understood why it has to be one company to rule all of the others. Apple and RIM are both excellent in their own ways. One doesn’t have to die for the other to survive.”
That sounds like the talk of a BlackBerry user.
For all those who, like me, are wondering why AAPL, (in light of the most successful introduction of an electronic device ever) is dragging its feet at the moment, here is an excellent article:-
http://www.zacharybass.com/2008/07/apple-price-manipulation-but-who-and-why.html
The article says, “Another problem is it also assumes Apple isn’t already developing future generations of iPhones that leap even further ahead, making it hard for RIM to match the iPhone, let alone surpass it”
Here we see the reason for Apple’s secrecy. It’s to keep competitors completely in the dark so that they are always competing with yesterday’s product. Case in point: the Zune.
The marketing buzz, the anticipation, and the free publicity are just happy by-products. Why? If there isn’t a commensurately stupendous product behind your marketing hype, no one gives you a second chance.
Remember: TRS-80 Model 1, WordPerfect for Windows, and Welcome to the Social.
“Welcome to the Social” always sounded to me like a bunch of young girls wearing hoop skirts, holding parasols, and eating ice cream with their beaus on the church lawn.
@ Ampar
Excellent… I’m not sure how many readers slowed down enough to notice your 5 spot-on puns, but well done, we need more writers of your elk, uh I mean ilk.
Comedy. Will you guys forget about the top 15% of the mobile phone market and start looking at the next 500 mln units in the middle. That’s where RIm is going to grow. Time will show this.
@Sir Gill Bates says, “I never have understood why it has to be one company to rule all of the others. Apple and RIM are both excellent in their own ways. One doesn’t have to die for the other to survive.”
You’re being ironic, right? MS is the one that set the precedent for corporate do-or-die, and we all helped put him and his company in that position of absolute and total domination. I just hope some of my favorite cliches have some truth in them, like: What goes up must come down; The bigger they are the harder they fall; What goes around comes around; and etc.
As for your final comment, I would argue that for one to survive there must be others – even in the corporate world. If MS actually fails, (and right now things are looking better than ever), it won’t be because of the competition, it will be because of the extreme lack of it for so very long.
RIM’s enterprise base will keep it healthy. RIM’s growth potential was in the consumer field. iPhone is taking that future away.
There is room in the smart phone arena for RIM and Apple. Nokia if they get their OS shit together and Android if Google can even make an OS.
I’m afraid Palm is already dead and Win Mobile has one foot in the grave / circling the bowl as we speak.
iPhone will be the main mobile platform, followed by Google Android.
RIM, Palm & Windows Mobile will all decline in mindshare, as well as marketshare.
the reverse of the famous Ed Colligan line:
Question: “Mr Jobs, how do you deal with forthcoming products from Palm and RIM ?”
Steve Jobs: “How do they deal with us ?!!!”
roflmao