Blackberry 10 is the parachute that will save RIM from becoming another Nortel
Once the #1 smartphone in the world, RIM is now in a free fall that brings Nortel to mind. They are asking us to believe that they will avoid crashing because they have a parachute called Blackberry 10.
I’m sad to admit that after 15 years as a diehard Blackberry user, if Blackberry 10 is not a game changer, I’ll be buying an iPhone in March. I’m holding out because I believe that RIM has the capacity to reinvent itself just like we’re seeing right now with Ford.
Ford is in the midst of one of the biggest comebacks we’ve ever seen. They are achieving this with some incredible innovation and the help of a government safety net.
Should there be safety net for RIM? Definitely. I’m sure the thousands of people that were laid off would agree.
Is RIM another Nortel? No way. With 2 billion cash on hand, a user base of 80 million and growing, and an army of dedicated developers, RIM is in a much better position than Nortel was before its demise.
RIM already changed the world but bringing us the first phones with email and BBM. I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us next.
What Will It Take for Blackberry 10 to Take Off?
Blackberry 10 is going to need some mind-blowing technology to overcome the weight of being at least two years behind its competitors. Not only does it have to be better than the iPhone or the Galaxy, it needs to have something that people can’t get in the top phones.
Nine crazy fantasy features that could save RIM and bring back the jobs….
These aren’t part of BB10 as far as we know. But maybe on future versions…
- Movie/Slideshow Projector: Imagine if I could pull out my phone at a client meeting and project a movie or a slideshow on the wall.
- Air keyboard: I hate typing on little keyboards and squinting at tiny screens. What if my phone could project a text editor and a full-size keyboard in the air in front of me.
- Self-charging battery: Imagine if your phone charged itself just by your movements as you carried it around throughout the day.
- Holographic video conferencing: It would be awesome to be able to conduct remote job interviews and meetings with live holographic images of the participants projected from the phone (think Star Wars).
- Free Internet: A phone that would be continuously connected to Internet by satellite for free.
- Photocopier/Scanner/Fax App: Have you ever tried to use the phone on your camera to take a phone of a hardcopy document when you didn’t have access to a photocopier? It doesn’t work so well. It would be great to have an app that could change my phone camera into a photocopier for documents.
- Universal Video Game Controller: Now you can jump into the game with your phone.
- mCommerce: Compatible with Square.
- Beam Me Up Scotty. Okay, now I’m just being ridiculous. Or am I?
Who builds apps like that?
Talented developers and engineers like the ones working around the world and around the clock right now, perfecting Blackberry 10 and developing BB10 apps.
RIM just finished Blackberry Jam sessions in 30 countries around the world. They are listening to what developers want. Crackberry.com just posted Developers have 10,000 reasons to believe in BlackBerry
Key takeaways from Blackberry Jam
Video Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDPCdonwuy4&feature=plcp
RIM’s survival is a matter of human resources
RIM’s ability to change the world all depends on the people that work for them. Starting at the top with Thorsten Heins who is inspiring thousands of team leaders and developers to continue to give RIM their best work.
The world is watching. RIM has our attention want to see them back on top.
We want to be amazed by BB10 and see RIM saved along with the jobs of thousands of Canadians and RIM employees all over the world.
What do you think? Is RIM another Nortel? Or will RIM rise back up like Ford?
As a Laurier grad and former resident of Waterloo – I so badly want to see them make a comeback. However, I do have to wonder if we as consumers are setting RIM up for failure? Consumers are focused on the latest and greatest – that BB10 has to be out of this world or it is quite possible the end (5 million of us bought new iPhones.. essentially because our friends did and they weighed less). We want what is in – what is hot – what is now. Right now that is Apple – and I’m not sure if we are leaving enough room for BB to join.
BB10 has been hyped up for a while now. When the big reveal finally happens, we actually do expect our BB to be able to beam us up if we are going to go rogue and switch back.
I quite like your suggestions for what you would like to see on the BB10 – as these are things that would make me jump back to owning a BB. With all my heart – I hope that they implement something creative like these ideas, as I agree – it’s a make it or break it time.
They may not win back customers initially, but they at least need to maintain the customers that RIM has. It will be an interesting spring in the smart phone world.
Buying a device “because your friends did” brings out the isheep mentality. I have a 2 year old touchscreen BB9800, and the iphone friend thought it was mainly “for business” and didn’t even know it played music and videos! Iphone friends are clueless! Heck, my previous BB8130 (which came out before the iphone), had music, video, gps, voice recording, internet, 32GB sd card storage, and a whole lot more! The iphone is just a repackage ipod touch with cellular, that about it, and it hasn’t changed much since 2007!
Iphone definately has alot of gaming and multimedia features. But for a pure business phone I still believe the BB is the way to go. Hoping for a great BB10
Blackberrys are business phones. All they have to do is be a better business phone than the competition. There are no physical keyboard iPhones or Samsungs to compete in the business world with the security RIM brings.
Make it faster, easier and focused on business functionality.
Personally, I am looking for the light saber phone feature that can slice and dice….
RIM is a business phone. My understanding is there be a way to seperate your business use from your personal use easily on BB10.
I love the idea of the light saber!
Blackberrys are business phones. All they have to do is be a better business phone than the competition. There are no physical keyboard iPhones or Samsungs to compete in the business world with the security RIM brings.
Make it faster, easier and focused on business functionality.
Personally, I am looking for the light saber phone feature that can slice and dice….
Make it faster, easier and focused on business functionality. Personally, I am looking for the light saber phone feature that can slice and dice….
I’m confident Blackberry and RIM can, and will make a come back. Maybe not to number 1 or 2 right away, but with 80 million user and probably a large number of them waiting as I am that should help them get up off the mat and get them rolling again. I have a 9860 and I’ve loved it for the most part. Could it be better sure but at the end of the day it’s a phone. I have no need or even want to join the iclan. I have friends and family who have gone to the iphone and they admit it’s not the end all and be all of phones. My thinking is there’s enough people out there that would and will comeback to Blackberry.. But what seems to always blow my mind is that RIM is more then just Blackberry. They’ve snapped up a number of companies including QNX which is in cars, planes etc etc.. BB10 will be more then just a phone platform and as BB10 continues to evolve it will feature more then just platform specific applications. The future is flexibility, function and power and I believe BB10 will bring all that to the table. I know delays aren’t usually good and I’d rather already be using my BB10 phone, I’m glad they delayed it so that they could make sure that when I do finally wake it up for the first time it’s going to blow me away. Kind of like moving the head phone connector to the bottom, if you know what I mean…. LOL Because of the extra time it will feature the apps that I need and others that people want. BB10Believe! I do…
QNX has alot more value than many people realize. The key will be integrating BB10 with cars and planes etc.
I’m not a developer, of course, so I can’t really appreciate it, but from what I’ve heard, QNX is a very versatile platform to build on.
I remember speaking to a developer who said it would be “future-proof.”
It’s also interesting now that all the major mobile platforms (except Windows) will now be based on UNIX or Linux.
The Linux and Unix should help in building more robust applications. QNX could be RIM’s silver bullet. I think the integration has not happened as quickly or smoothly as they thought.Alas we we wait in anticipation for the BB10
I have high hopes for BB10! Even iPhone and Android users have to recognize that RIM is an excellent Canadian company that has employed 10 of thousands of Canadians. RIM was once an innovator and I hope to seem them rise from the ashes again like Ford!
(I currently use both iPhone4G and BB9900)
Thanks for the comment Ryan. Lets hope the years of development for the BB10 will pay off and keep one of Canada;s biggest business success strories going
“Ford is in the midst of one of the biggest comebacks we’ve ever seen. They are achieving this with some incredible innovation and the help of a government safety net.”
What government safety net? Ford never received any auto industry bail out money from the government. That was GM and Chrysler.
Thanks for the correction. Ford only recieved a 5.9B loan but did not take the bailout money as you have correctly pointed out. Needed to check my facts a little better. We both agree they have done very well in their comeback which is even more impressive since you have corrected me. Thanks for reading the blog.
Good article. I’m holding onto my beatten-up nearly dead BB until they release teh new one in Jan/Feb.
They have spent alot of time developing and planning. initial customer response to ANYTHING that RIM produces will probably be medeocre to poor because people won’t ‘get it’ yet. Hopefully the BB10 isn’t too ahead of everyone else…
I love my BB and I promise to help the comeback.
AK
Hi Albert,
Thanks for the comment. I am holding on and hoping as well.
Yes, they do have an uphill battle. But the good news is that people are still paying attention to BB10 development and they seem to care a lot about what happens to RIM.
I know a lot of people that love the push email on Blackberry and they have not been able to find that on any other system. I think people will be ready to give Blackberry another try after using inferior email systems on other smartphones.
Can’t wait to see them make a big comeback!
A feature I would like to see is for BB10 to act as a distributed enterprise server hosting SAP enterprise/ Oracle database. It would use its wifi hosting to connect all employees though a mesh network and replicate the database across all BB10s so you could still keep working during a network outage and then sync-up again later. Yes, BB10 is that powerful!.
I would also like to see FFC (far field communication) as an enhancement to NFC, FFC is definitely the way of the future and RIM can get a jump on the competition here.
Great comment – You are obviously quite a bit more technical than I am:) Being able to work during an outage would be huge. Good to hear your optimism on BB 10. Some people think I am showing blind faith in a failing product but I am excited to see what a great technology company can come up with!