“Gartner is set to recommend that all BlackBerry enterprise customers find alternatives to the struggling vendor’s smartphones and enterprise management software over the next six months,” Matt Hamblen reports for Computerworld. “Garner’s advice to users comes after BlackBerry today confirmed that it expects to lose $965 million in the second quarter amid slow sales of its Z10 smartphone since its unveiling in March.”
“On Monday, BlackBerry had announced plans to sell the company to Fairfax Financial Holdings of Toronto for $4.7 billion. That came just days after BlackBerry disclosed plans to lay off some 4,500 of its 12,500 workers,” Hamblen reports. “‘Gartner recommends that our [BlackBerry enterprise] clients take no more than six months to consider and implement alternatives to BlackBerry,’said Gartner analyst Bill Menezes in an email interview on Friday. ‘We’re emphasizing that all clients should immediately ensure they have backup mobile data management plans and are at least testing alternative devices to BlackBerry.'”
“Many large companies, including some U.S. government agencies, have already replaced BlackBerry devices with Apple iPhones and iPads or Android smartphones,” Hamblen reports. “For all the second quarter, BlackBerry sold just 5.9 million smartphones, the company said Friday. Meanwhile, Apple on Monday reported that 9 million iPhones were sold over just three days after the new iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C went on sale last Friday. ‘BlackBerry totally whiffed on the smartphone and consumerization of IT trends that Apple hit out of the park and that Android successfully has exploited,” Menezes said on Friday. ‘BlackBerry failed to make timely moves and product introductions to keep itself in the consideration set for consumers who in the age of BYOD increasingly are shaping enterprise device and platform choices. Once it became clear to IT that iOS was a viable choice, it was game over for BlackBerry.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Gartner is much better at stating the blatantly obvious than they are are envisioning future outcomes (see related article below).
RIM. Dead Company Walking. – MacDailyNews, August 5, 2010
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “James Wigg” for the heads up.]
Related article:
Gartner: Microsoft Windows Phone market share to surpass Apple’s iOS in 2015 – April 7, 2011
