“Let’s rewind a few years. Picture yourself sitting in an executive briefing at Research In Motion. You’d hear Mike Lazaridis unequivocally state time and time again that BlackBerry smartphones would never have MP3 players or cameras in them because it just does not make sense when the company’s primary customers were the government and enterprise,” Jonathan S. Geller reports for BGR. “‘BlackBerry smartphones will never have cameras because the No. 1 customer of ours is the U.S. government,’ Mike Lazaridis would say in meetings. ‘There will never be a BlackBerry with an MP3 player or camera.'”
“The fact is, that RIM didn’t only miss the boat in terms of product features and device trends as we now know, but the underpinnings of the company’s consumer failure began all the way back in 2005 with bold statements like these, combined with a lack of research and development in numerous key areas,” Geller reports. “Mike Lazaridis would say that the most ridiculous idea was to name a phone with a marketing-derived name, like the Motorola RAZR. ‘BlackBerry will never do that, it will always be a model number,’ he said to executives. ‘A BlackBerry with a name is ridiculous.'”
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‘Here we are, as young, brazen people, and we’re just like, ‘Mike, you’re missing out. There’s a trend here; it’s a social and collaborative scene in certain media circles,” one former executive said, describing the general feeling among other executives at the company,” Geller reports. “‘Now look at what’s happened 4 or 5 years later — an MP3 player, camera, name, all done reluctantly.'”
“‘Mike Lazaridis couldn’t imagine that consumers would be spending hours watching and streaming video to their devices, he couldn’t understand it,’ the former exec continued,” Geller reports. “This is why we don’t see RIM excelling in spaces like camera technology, or displays — because the company never even attempted to anticipate the smartphone trends we’re seeing today. ‘RIM is a reactionary company.'”
Geller reports, “RIM seems to be doing damage control in a bunch of areas right now. One such area is the PlayBook and trying to mitigate the negative response to that product, and I was told the company is even going so far as to selectively block different media and even social networking sites from being accessed by employees.”
Full article including half-CEOs screaming at each other in the halls and in restaurants, hockey team obsessions, and much more – highly recommended – here.
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