What happened to Research In Motion and where are they going?
I want to start this off by saying I have nothing but love for RIM the company. Probably my favorite tech corporation in the world, they’ve created an incredibly unique product that practically replaces the need for drugs for most people. What’s even more fascinating, however, is how RIM (to the pleasant surprise of a lot of us early users) has managed to take a corporate-focused product and service and blow down doors in the consumer world. From the BlackBerry 7100, the first consumer-oriented device, to the eye-catching BlackBerry Tour (it’s business through and through, yet it will be an incredibly popular consumer phone on Verizon and Sprint), it’s clear that RIM has done everything right to this day.
So, what’s the problem you’re asking? They have probably the best back-end infrastructure for mobile communication on the planet, awesome phones that can go head-to-head with high-end smartphones, consumer marketing, a huge consumer fanbase, and practically every businessman (or woman) has one on their hip. One word is where RIM fails so miserably it isn’t even imaginable: software.
You have to look at the big picture here… for what RIM is working with (an incredibly miserable Java OS with so much security and encryption and smoke-blowing APIs) they’ve hit the jackpot. Their OS architecture is fantastic, their use of security is what makes them so trustworthy. But, as each handset release comes closer and closer, people start to see the bigger picture. And that’s the fact that RIM’s OS is more than antiquated, it’s borderline laughable. But it works, you’re thinking, so what’s wrong? I’ve been saying this for years, but it wasn’t designed to do anything the BlackBerry does now. Imagine scotch taping car parts to a 200hp engine and see how far that gets you. Obviously, it’s just a viciously rough metaphor, but we believe a correct one.
There’s so many limitations to RIM’s OS, and even RIM’s data network that it offsets all the wonderful things they’ve managed to accomplish. Remember when people were so excited over leaked shots of OS 4.6 and I said somewhere it was just a theme? Well, was I wrong? Oh, look! OS 5.0! What changed? 99% nothing. Some functionality is added here and there, but the mobile phone landscape has changed so drastically in the last two years, that RIM, admittedly known to planning “three years out” looks to be unable to see the proper direction to head.
You can throw $1,000,000,000 at developers but you won’t get any if your OS, tools, and documentation are so bad, and that’s really in the end a lot of what I’m getting at. I was laying in bed at around 3AM early one morning recently, looking through the iPhone App Store and I came across EA’s Tiger Woods Golf. $6.99, why not? Wait, it’s 150MB? Wow, it must be good. I clicked purchase and literally 4 minutes later, Tiger Woods was installed and up on my screen. Granted I was on a high-speed Wi-Fi connection, but it made me realize more than ever that RIM has the most uphill battle of their lifetimes. When a BlackBerry application over 500k is considered “large”, something’s wrong. When TweetGenius is one of the first BlackBerry applications to do fun, unique things like transparent overlays, consistent shortcuts, and a straight forward UI, something is wrong.
The reason why this is so frustrating to me and I’m guessing many is because RIM literally almost has it all. They’ve got it! They are 90% there but that last 10% has become the most important. If you take Apple for example, and see their shortcomings, and then what they’ve done to fix them, it’s remarkable. It’s a completely different DNA than RIM’s but it’s working. In two years Apple has practically matched Research In Motion in almost every consumer area while having the most advanced mobile operating system with the most advanced mobile SDK on the planet. If Apple can do this in just two years and RIM has stood still, no one thinks that’s a problem?
The reason RIM works is because it’s the entire package, if you will. Hardware, software, infrastructure, corporate integration, security, etc. People want simplicity, ease of use, but more than ever they want more than they need. Stupider people are smarter and expect more, smarter people are stupider and expect more. RIM delivers the same tired package in new hardware and people are starting to catch on. App World? Seriously? From every single developer I’ve spoke to, it’s a non-starter. It basically doesn’t exist to them in terms of a sales channel — it’s practically like 1% if that.
What consumers don’t do is look forward. They look at what’s put in front of them. It’s the exact opposite for the manufacturer and thus why it’s so difficult. Look back two or three years and the Bold and Storm might seem incredibly innovative, consumer-focused, and sure to be hot sellers. And they were and are, but look ahead three years and tell me point blank you have confidence that RIM knows how to steer this ship. I don’t, and that’s being incredibly honest. It’s not me being negative, it’s objectively looking at the landscape and evaluating things. I want RIM to succeed, I want RIM to make kick ass products. I’m just frustrated that RIM is going through hardware like it’s nobody’s business yet fails to deliver on the things that everyone wants. Screw business people, screw consumers, everyone wants a WebKit-based browser. It’s inexcusable RIM doesn’t get it. It’s inexcusable that people put up with a 2003 operating system with so many limitations and restrictions it would make Ahmadinejad jealous. I don’t think RIM is going anywhere, they as a company are incredibly successful, but once they start to lose the consumer market which they worked so hard to get, it’s a downward shift.
Here’s a list of RIM’s models followed by Apple’s in the last 3 years:
RIM: 8110, 8120, 8130, 8800, 8820, 8830, 8300, 8310, 8320, 8330, 8220, 8230, 8900, 9000, 9500, 9530, 9630.
Apple: iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS.
There’s a good and bad part with knowing things in advance. For instance, people might hold off on purchasing a new BlackBerry if they know a newer and better one is being released in a couple months, and this hurts a company’s current product cycle. On the other hand, if someone on Verizon sees a Tour being released two months from now, they might rethink jumping ship or switching to a different device on Verizon. And the cycle continues. Looking at RIM’s upcoming products for the next 6-12 months is simply a rehash of current limitations and shortcoming in smaller and sexier packages. The BlackBerry 9020? It’s a Bold in a smaller, sexier package. Nothing else is different. The BlackBerry Storm 2? It’s the same device with maybe improved screen tech. The BlackBerry Magnum? As hot as a hybrid touch screen/QWERTY device would be, it’s still a BlackBerry that can’t pull up a webpage to save its life or play a real game or have any sort of desktop-class application running.
These things won’t change, the core OS hasn’t changed, and RIM has had no reason to change it. Why mess with success, right? Well, if you happen to be Research In Motion, you might have to start changing things up or newer and better operating systems like the iPhone, webOS, and Android are going to eat their lunch and their applications, too.
I’m fortunate enough to be able to have every phone I want on every carrier and that gives a person an incredible amount of clarity when picking the superior products. I use an iPhone 3GS and a BlackBerry Bold everyday, both on AT&T. But to tell you the truth, in the past when people ask me what device would I choose if I had to only pick one, it would hurt my brain. There was just no way to choose. But unfortunately or fortunately, that decision has become clearer and clearer. I don’t think I’ll ever give up my BlackBerry, I’m pretty sure you’ll always find one on my hip in an OEM RIM leather holster, (yes, holsters are cool as shit) but when me of all people starts truly questioning how a company as successful and brilliant as RIM is going to keep up with the next 2-3 years, you’ve got a big, big issue.
I’ll close by saying that the market is still wide open and this doesn’t mean RIM is or ever will go anywhere. It’s just something to keep an eye on and see how the best to ever do it will react to competitors’ advances, innovations, and of course, their software.
Well said.
“They have to change their OS now”
What you mean is they have to change their “user interface” (UI).
The UI is not the OS. There’s not much wrong with the OS. It’s multi-tasking, secure, capable of providing low level API’s to virtually all phone features.
The UI on the other hand is hopeless. I have to say I’m baffled that something that might take a couple of developers two or three weeks to develop has been given little if any attention by RIM.
They just don’t help developers enough (but apparently are working on it), and there are some minor issue with file access etc.
RIM’s problems are:
1. they haven’t anywhere near the same size of developer community as Apple.
2. for some reason they haven’t bothered to provide components that provide a sexy UI (they seem to think developers should do that).
3. their non-research departments are absolutely abyssmal.
4. they don’t pay reviewers enough.
Having said that you are still hard pressed to find any device as technically advanced as RIM’s.
It’s true, they don’t have enough games and time killers that might be useful if you’re sat bored in Starbucks.
But when you need to call for help in a disaster I’d rather have a BlackBerry than an iPhone.
“Sure I can’t have several apps open at once, but I’m sure that will be addressed soon enough.”
Now that WOULD require a substantial upgrade to the iPhone OS. Don’t hold your breath.
The article makes many excellent points, and I agree with most of them. However, it is an incomplete assessment of the situation, in that it presented one (albeit critical) side of the argument. There are also many important arguments in favor of Blackberry over iPhone. Don’t get me wrong – I love all of these products: iPhone, Blackberry, Palm Pre and Google/Android. I believe that they will all be very successful in converting the world’s simple dumb-phones into handheld computers. Anyway, just to keep things in perspective, I can come up with 23 reasons Blackberry has advantages over iPhone:
1. Blackberry is a fully encrypted military-grade secure platform, with 100% market share at FBI, CIA, White House, Congress, Department of Defense, major consultancies and major investment banks. There has never been a virus or security breach on a Blackberry. iPhone is filled with security vulnerabilities. For details, see the footnote at the bottom of the page.
2. Blackberry can be used on almost every carrier in the world (over 475 of them). In the US, the iPhone is available on AT&T only.
3. Blackberry is available in multiple form factors – small keyboard, large keyboard, no keyboard, flip phone, candybar.
4. Most Blackberries have keyboards, so you can actually type fast and with no errors. Helps while driving, walking – all the time. iPhone: well…
5. Blackberry uses standardized (=inexpensive and available everywhere) MicroUSB connector for synchronization/charging. iPhone has a much larger proprietary connector.
6. Some carriers such as AT&T and T-Mobile USA offer unlimited international roaming Blackberry packet-switched services for $20/month. iPhone does not. This could save you $100 per day when abroad.
7. If your Blackberry on T-Mobile USA, it also offers unlimited WiFi calling from anywhere in the world. This is with your existing number – in and out – so no new special number, etc. iPhone cannot do this (because it is only on AT&T; only T-Mobile USA offers this), and it can save you well over $100 per day when you’re abroad. Think $1 per minute savings, and you’re on the phone two hours per day. That’s $120/day.
8. Blackberry has expandable memory. iPhone is fixed and sold at 8, 16 or 32 gig only.
9. Blackberry has removable and expandable battery. iPhone is fixed.
10. Blackberry allows programs to multitask. iPhone has limited multitasking.
11. The newest Blackberry screen resolution is 480×360. iPhone is 480×320.
12. Blackberry allows communicating peer-to-peer via PIN identifier, circumventing the email system. No such iPhone equivalent.
13. Blackberry can be synchronized to multiple computers simultaneously, if you have multiple computers.
14. Multiple Blackberries can receive the same email feeds simultaneously, if you have multiple Blackberries.
15. Blackberry can sort the address book entries by company name, so you can scroll down a long list of names you don’t remember, but you just want to see who works for which company. Aside from sorting, the iPhone can take several seconds to search your address book, particularly if you have several thousand address book entries.
16. Blackberry hyperlinks phone numbers, so that you can just click on a number (which may include a conference call code) and the Blackberry dials from within an email or any other message. With iPhone, you have to find a way to get this number into the dialer, which probably involves stopping the car, grabbing a pen and a piece of paper, etc.
17. All major instant messengers are available on Blackberry.
18. Blackberry is available with multiple browsers from multiple suppliers. iPhone is available only with its standard browser, which is superior today, but locks you in.
19. Blackberry synchronizes with iTunes – and everything else.
20. Blackberry models with 480 pixel resolution and WiFi offer PrimeTime2Go, an $8/month TV service that works as a DVR.
21. Blackberry fits as many emails in the inbox as there is memory available (typically many tens of thousands). iPhone is limited to 200 emails. Yes, iPhone has a remote look-up capability, but that doesn’t do you any good when you’re on an airplane or are otherwise out of coverage.
22. Price: Unlimited service, including unlimited SMS, is $150/month on the iPhone. Blackberry can be had for much less. For example, unlimited Blackberry service is offered on Sprint for $100/month, T-Mobile USA $85-$140/month, MetroPCS $50/month, and AT&T/Verizon at $150/month.
23. Prepaid flexibility: AT&T offers “contract-free” iPhone if you pay close to $899 up-front for the iPhone itself. In contrast, you can get prepaid Blackberry service on any old or new T-Mobile USA Blackberry handset for $65 month (600 minutes, unlimited Blackberry/Internet, but no SMS), or you can get truly unlimited-everything prepaid $55/month service from MetroPCS, if its handset selection and coverage areas are acceptable to you.
Footnote: Please see this document for details as to how the Blackberry is 100% secure and therefore the only platform approved for use in our national security agencies. It compares against the iPhone and Microsoft Mobile platforms: http://web.mac.com/mardelibre/Lopez_Research/Research/Entries/2009/5/25_Mobile_security_files/Final%20Mobile%20Deployments%20Require%20Robust%20Security%20May%2009.pdf
I completely agree with this article. It’s exactly what I have been thinking. What is taking RIM so long to come out with a better OS,more storage space like the iphone,and a browser that can actually load pages. I have to use Opera for Blackberry to get some pages to load and yes I have tried making settings changes and emulation changes and I work on BBs everyday. I love my Blackberry but recently looked at other phones that my be a bit more fun. The only problem is I REALLY love the overall functionality of my Blackberry for daily use.hummm decisions .. decisions..
Your comment has been the most helpful here
Anton Wahlman
I agree with most of what this article says….but….when you talk about RIM not changinging anything with their phones, just putting it in a smaller sexier package, it makes me think. Ever since the iphone came out, all the newer versions have ben very similar. The 3g to 3GS transition to me looks like a joke. I think the onlyreason they released this latest model was to remail relevant and hav a new device out this year. I think the fact that RIM has so many phones available to the consumer just means that they care about the consumer. They have a phone for everyone. Not just one phone that has to be for everyone. Some people want smaller some people want bigger some people want 3G some people dont. But the iphone is just black or white. I think apple has done great things to make the smartphone sleeker and cooler, but better than the rest….I prefer blackberries over apples anyday.
I agree with Anton too. I’m on for the Onyx!
^+1 Anton
The BB is a Tool
The Iphone is for tools.
AMEN!!!
I agree with much of this, but I don’t think apps have to be big. I head the Kommander project which uses Qt on Linux/KDE and uses a graphically drawn XML UI so that only the program logic is coded. I have written a complete CRM and an internal database application that manages manufacturing, distribution and sales of our products. Both apps are no more than 20 MB each.
I’m just getting Eclipse set up to start programming on BlackBerry. I agree that the total package can’t be beat and I have a new 8900 and a Wimax portable hotspot. (I’m in Portland) So I have a 4G BlackBerry. The idea of having to deal with interface primitives in code seems barbaric to me.
I think RIM should go with technology and start making phones with more memory. It would be possible to use a Linux OS with Java and utilize much of what is being done now as well as integrate GUI components and guidelines. I’m a big fan of Qt personally. Those guys built a toolkit when others thought it was a pointless exercise and sold it 11 years later to Nokia for 100M Euros. The point is, having a really nice well documented one stop UI and services toolkit makes programming fun and you don’t to be a guru to make a nice application.
I’m pretty happy with my 8900 and Documents to Go is an amazing example of what can be done. Let’s hope RIM isn’t sleeping. I think they are a smart bunch, but with phones that can play HD video through HDMI coming out it’s a new game and time to get with it.
Rim should embrace android or Die.
There is no problem with the OS in general. I believe the frustration is around how developer tools are and API to be able to quickly build applications. The OS is by far the best in the industry. Do not forget that RIM os was the first multi-tasking OS in mobile device. Even the IPhone does not have the capability to switch between running applications.
I’m not sure how I feel about this article. I’m always in favor of seeing RIM’s devices and software improve. I am a die hard BB user, but I do peruse other high end devices that incur a lot of buzz. I like to stay current. No matter how many phones I have tried, I still have not been able to find a phone that is as intuitive, productive, and reliable as my BB Bold. Yes, there are OSs that provide more eye candy. There are phones that provide more features. And there are phones that may be slightly faster. However, total package – I haven’t seen a smartphone that can touch it. I believe BB owners become impatient because other smartphone manufacturers are releasing new devices with new features and OSs looks. That is the natural progression of things. Sometimes you are the most innovative and sometimes you are playing catchup. Look at Apple. Two years ago, they had the most innovative device known to man. Three handsets later, the iphone looks virtually the same. And lets be honest, the improvements were features that should have been on the original iphone. Palm fell off the map for about a year, but look at them now. Trust me when I say, BB will come out with something innovative soon. The company has all the tools and money to do so. Let’s be patient and enjoy the fact that we have the overall best devices.
Just about last here…
From a company owner that uses both an iPhone and a BB Storm, there’s a lot of good points on both sides that I agree with – the BB UI needs help yesterday. The Storm’s not a great indicator of how to use a BB, and I know that. The BIS system’s failings of late are really starting to piss me off – an email from a client from three days ago showed up this morning on my BB, and another important message sent today still hasn’t arrived – but the iPhone picked them both right on time. I’ve got friends with Storms and other BBs with large firms all on BES – and I’m envious, it’s a slick set up, but I’m running a small company and can’t afford to run BES (though I’ll be looking at a hosted solution shortly as an option). I’m seeing Palm’s devices as a competitor to RIM’s devices – the first decent, well-built Palm on VZW may get me and my company away from BBs once and for all…
Now, I’m a construction engineer with a few degrees. Remember the jokes about pocket protectors and the like years ago? I’m looking at BB users with holsters and thinking the same thing now – yikes! You’ll understand in about 4-9 years…
Ah, “Bonesby,” bringing up the rear with the anecdotal evidence.
My experience vis-à-vis emails and BlackBerrys is entirely different than yours. Not a single time have I failed to get an email on account of my BlackBerry. Five years (yeah, I’m new to these).
As the King of Siam once remarked, “I tell you that so you’ll remember *that*.”
No, no typo; that’s what he said.
Man, what a great post… I have a BlackBerry Bold, and I love it.. but.. it isn’t anywhere near as “fun” or “cool” as an iPhone. I was in a Wash DC mall last night at 8pm and there was a line 20 deep waiting to get inside the Apple store to get new iPhones.. That won’t EVER happen with a RIM product. Get on the stick RIM..
Its interesting reading the posts as it looks like many are suffering an acute case of iPhone envy. RIM must rebuild its SDK and there must be tools available so that BB developers have no compromises vs the iPhone SDK. This is the minimum bar to set but of course the objective should be to innovate. The App Store will be viewed as one of the most catalytic events in this major product cycle transition between the PC and the smartphone. It makes perfect sense for the entire industry to replicate the simple-but-elegant approach of building a native app to install apps. But the key for the App World was to innovate in a way to leverage the NOC architecture. Lets see how it goes from here. BB devs today must spin software apps several times to make them work on the flip vs bold vs storm. Its a challenge but somehow RIM has to invert this to their advantage. BTW good article but at least 3 months overdue. It was evident from the dev release of 3.0 that Apple was delivering a body blow to the industry in a way and extending their innovation leadership in software. One thing to consider. You say RIM is not doing a helluva lot in their hardware product cycle over near term. Well if you ask me thats a helluva time to spend more bandwidth on the software innovation side of things….
Tour this, tour that, what does it do that my 8330 can’t? I don’t see why there’s all the hype over it. Only reason most bb owners( not you bigwig corporate execs) have bb’s is due to the fact that your not on, or will not port to at&t.
“Now that WOULD require a substantial upgrade to the iPhone OS. Don’t hold your breath.”
are you f’in joking? The iPhone os is built from os X which is built from BSD. It can easily multi task and does so right now. Mail,phone,push safari all run in the back ground. Also if you jail break your iPhone you can run backgrounder that will run ANY app in the background. The only thing limiting this ia apple. They won’t let any 3 party app run in the background as a poilcy because they feel the user experaince would suffer. Hopefully they will change this in the future.
Anton, you must work for RIM…
The blackberry browser is the worst out there. The IPhone browser is very smooth and much easier to use.
The memory being expandable is useless if you have to do a battery pull almost everyday to regain the very little application memory you have, other wise the Storm for example will crash. You don’t have that problem with the Iphone.
The UI is sluggish at best, choppy and poorly designed. The IPhone UI is very smooth and fast.
Your statement of Iphone only being available on AT&T is incorrect, you talk about BB being available world wide, so is the Iphone. Oh and AT&T is nation wide.
I would like to see how many apps you can run at the same time without your memory being drained down on your BB Storm to the point you end up crashing.
Oh and guess what, I own a BB Storm. I like it but the issues I mention above make me regret the purchase, I have two years left on my contract.
I started to worry about RIM when other smartphones, especially the iPhone, began to support Exchange/ActiveSync.
Take away RIM’s added security – a sideshow for consumers and SMEs – and their whole business model, with the high cost of BES and the associated ridiculous fees charged by carriers to provision it – goes out the window.
Rim – how about rather than keep bootstrapping incremental updates to the house of cards that is the UiApplication architecture you create a third option, a new application framework based around OpenGL ES…
That way developers could use Midlet, UiApplication or OpenGLApplicaion – a new UI pattern with no dependencies or legacy hangups.
that’d be too sensible and dynamic i guess, we have a 682mhz processor but no way to play with it. Even Android now offers a way to code lower level in c (the NDK) so we should start to see powerful applications like on iPhone (softsynths for example, have you seen the incredible audio apps on iPhone?), at the moment you’d be crazy to attempt any extensive FFT or synthesis on BlackBerry – and look at how quickly Google managed to develop and bring the NDK to Android – that’s dynamic.
Why is Rim incapable of maneuvering in such a way? The company culture is incredibly dated.
@Eric Laffoon
whooooooo!! You think you’re cool because you know alot of computer lingo? I bet you get all the chicks.
I agree with some points and disagree with other, but just wanted to say, this is easily one of the worst-written articles I’ve read in a long time.
“One word is where RIM fails so miserably it isn’t even imaginable: software.”
What does that mean? It’s not even a proper sentence.
“You can throw $1,000,000,000 at developers but you won’t get any if your OS, tools, and documentation are so bad, and that’s really in the end a lot of what I’m getting at.”
Won’t get any WHAT? It’s not even proper English! THIS MAKES NO SENSE.
Obviously, it’s just a viciously rough metaphor, but we believe a correct one.
Oh, so now it’s “we”, but the article starts off with “I” “I” and “my”.
I could go on, but it’s just too painful to read. Please, for the love of syntax, get an editor or at least buy a copy of Elements of Style before you try to write something like this again. Apparently, the only thing worse than RIM’s software is your grammar.