I've said on here before that I feel like RIM is lost in the current smartphone market and they don't seem to have a cohesive plan with what to do with Blackberry in the age of the iPhone and Android. Unfortunately for them, it seems to be getting worse. RIM shares recently hit a 5-year low and their co-CEOs seem to negate that there's a problem--and that seems to intensify the problem to outsiders. With the Playbook essentially a flop and all of their iPhone/touchscreen devices being the same, they're stuck with essentially the same kind of phone (keyboard candy-bar style) and the same kind of client (corporate) that they've always had. And with many companies now allowing their employees to choose their phone, this client is no longer a given. To make matters worse, one of the new features of iOS5 will be iMessage--Apple's version of BBM. Essentially the only "killer app" Blackberry has.
In an industry as rapidly evolving as mobile phones and tablets, RIM is showing how lack of innovation can lead to just as rapid of a downfall. In another year, I see them in the same spot Nokia is now and Palm was before them...owned by someone else.
If you want to see some industry discussion on this, a couple of the editors over at CrunchGear have a video discussion of the topic up here.
About the author:
Dr. Riley Alexander is a pathology resident at Indiana University School of Medicine, blog "addict" and avid follower of technology. His primary interests revolve around how technology, especially mobile, will create increased efficiency, enhanced physician education and better delivery of care in the medical field. Dr. Alexander is a graduate of Indiana University School of Medicine with a combined MD/MBA, in partnership with IU's Kelley School of Business. Due to this, he is also very interested in management, healthcare policy and non-clinical aspects of the medical field and enjoys exploring non-clinical opportunities for medical students, residents and physicians. He completed his undergraduate education at IU-Bloomington.
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