Beleaguered RIM’s long, slow death spiral

“The long, slow death spiral for Research In Motion Ltd. has begun,” Therese Poletti writes for MarketWatch.

“It may take awhile, but RIM seems to be clearly headed in the same direction as Palm Inc., towards eventual extinction, unless its board of directors does something soon to change its direction,” Poletti writes. “At this point, it seems that would have to entail getting rid of one or both of its co-chief executives, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis.”

Poletti writes, “These leaders dilly dallied while the iPhone changed the face of the smartphone market, and now may have squandered any hopes for a rebound with the launch of a new operating system for a next generation of devices they have called ‘superphones.'”

“Those ‘superphones’ may not look so super when they finally hit the market in the latter part of 2012. At that point, they will be going up squarely against an inevitable iPhone 5 from Apple Inc.,” Poletti writes. “At that point, analysts concede that even Microsoft MSFT +1.06% may be in a better position.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: DCW.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]

29 Comments

  1. Calling your vapor ware Superphones is the height of arrogance. And, calling the same apps you get on an android, an iPhone or win phone , Super apps on the Blackberry phone is ridiculous.

  2. Kudos to Zaky for charting RIMM’s demise on a BRNT graph a year ago. A year from now, you’d almost certainly have to use a POLTRY chart to express the same residual assets, which is pretty sad!

  3. What’s that other super icon that tried a millenial comeback only to realize…..screw it let me get to the point…..SUPERMAN….where the hell’s he these days. I guess Super ain’t so super anymore

  4. Balsille on a 2010 earnings call:

    “So, I think the PlayBook clearly sets the bar WAY higher on performance, and you’re going to see more. I think the enterprise stuff, we’re seriously extending. I think the BlackBerry is still number one in social collaboration. And I think with the PlayBook and that environment we’re going to set the new standard on performance and tools, very powerful tools. And we’re growing very very fast. So, that’s a lot.”

    Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/rim-ceo-quotes-2011-9?op=1#ixzz1h62KoNjx

  5. RIM just dropped the ball here. They didn’t innovate and gave the customers what they wanted and not what they could of had. This is a bigger problem with companies today in general….the lack of innovation. Apple leads in this field and other struggle to keep up or change anything. Look at companies like Nokia, Microsoft, Dell and Palm there lack of innovation has hurt them on so many levels. I’m a big believer that if Apple didn’t create the iPhone smartphones today would not be where they are. These companies produces tons of subpare products and not a few good ones. Now many of them are just trying to play catch up with the leaders Apple & Google. Companies now just produce a cash cow and hope it lasts for a while. That worked in the past….but nows it a thing of the past. Innovate or get out of the way.

    1. If you look at asymco, he shows that RIM’s biggest problem was that they continued to be fairly profitable and hold on to their marketshare for the first few years after the intro of the iPHone. That gave them the illusion that everything was alright.

  6. Let’s be clear here: It would be better if RIM were actually competing with Apple with matching or superior technology. They are not. Therefore, it is always good to watch the best technology winning in the marketplace while the lousier technology dies away.

    And no, the above is not always inevitable or fast. If a lousy company has lots of money they can spiral around the drain for ages. Witness Microsoft. 😛

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