Hello World 5.0: Blackberry is Still BYOD and Well

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Posted on May 8, 2012 by Chris Lau Posted as Blogosphere Discussion Bring Your Own Device

Welcome, new competitors, former champions and alumni, and readers on the 5th year of blogging idol. A shout-out goes out to Dave and the IT team of blogging idol for the re-design.

On BYOD:

Research in Motion’s decline is not a new story. It is in fact an old one that was a point of discussion in the first year of blogging idol. When RIM released the Torch, it was clear that the company viewed itself as capable of coming back. RIM failed to recognize the rapid growth of Apple, mobile applications, and tablets.

Apple blind-sighted  the traditional mobile device market by extending smart phones as being beyond emails, weakening RIM in the process. By the end of 2011, Apple’s iPad was the tablet market.

While it is believed that Apple decimated its competition, Android will prove to be the superior ecosystem. Google’s Android is lowering the price point across many channels. Once Android figures out how to get its updates to devices more quickly (“Ice Cream Sandwich” 4.0 is available but not widely installed), Apple will find it more difficult to dominate.  As Android and Apple battle, where does this leave RIM?

RIM allowed its competition to entrench on its turf for three reasons:

1. Weak browser

2. Few applications

3. Weak tablet offering

BB Jam 2012 addresses RIM’s issues. Delivery for BB 10 remains the biggest risk for RIM, along with an iPhone 5 release concurrent to RIM’s release date.

The upside from the BB Jam  event was:

1. Entrenching development around BBM – Blackberry Messenger – Integration

2. Allocating $100 million to attract developers

3. Building development tools that plagued past challenges of building on Blackberry

4. Ensuring hardware is on-par or ahead of consumer demands

With sufficient cash, stable tablet sales, and steady smart phone sales overseas, RIM’s transition to a more functional BB10 system means RIM can still prove why it was once a leader, and why it can become one again a year or two again in the future.

Chris Lau Chris Lau (79 Posts)


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  • Bruce Stewart

    I couldn’t agree more with your list of reasons why RIM let the market get away. I’d add one more: the apps that were available (for a long time) tended to be very expensive relative to their equivalents on other platforms. But that, along with #1 and #2, is what drove me to iPhone personally.

    Why they don’t make it possible for Android Marketplace apps to run on the BB platform is beyond me. It should be a technological slam dunk.

    Their big problem now is developer attention. Ask mobile developers: iOS first, Android second, then a long pause. Sometimes a pause between iOS and Android, due to the fragmentation in that market. A BB-first developer has an uphill battle, now, because of the share drop.

  • http://www.concon.com/ Don Sheppard

    Hi Chris….
    Great thoughts.
    Standing back a second, it does seem like BYOD will never go back to a completely dominant single device (remember the IBM3270?)….however, the horses in the race may compete for their places and for recognition.  But new horses may also appear, perhaps in the form of specialty devices.
    RIM cannot be counted out, but it’s no longer the gorilla of the market – its too easy to switch horses (except for the hundreds of apps I have on my iphone :-) )

    • Bruce Stewart

      Funny about those apps … I recently looked very long and hard at going Android, but my prior investment in apps pulled me back to yet another iPhone. (Not that I was unhappy with the device, I was just thinking it would be good to check out the competition for a while.)

      That, though, is RIM’s weak spot. The typical BlackBerry user doesn’t have an app investment of any size to hold onto. Much easier to let it go.