Why is RIM being idiotic?
Usual preamble; this is just my opinion. I like to think there is some educated thinking that went into this, but that doesn't guarantee anything.
Anyway, RIM is set to unleash BB10 in a couple of days. One of the ways they have considered for addressing their financial issues is to license the OS to others. This sounds like their first line of defense as it is the option I've heard numerous times and in quotes directly from different people at RIM and at different times.
So why do I think that this is idiotic? Well first, simply the fact that they mentioning this publicly (and repeatedly) tells me that even inside of RIM they have started to accept the fact that they may be making their comeback too late or perhaps not quite bringing enough to the table. But what they are doing flies in the face of all logic.
Let me start by saying, Black Berry has iconic hardware. Their software is what has become the joke of late. People actually like their full QWERTY keyboards. And the people who like BlackBerry touch devices even like the touch screens (I personally don't like how they did touch historically, but always did like the keyboards). They are actually not half bad as a hardware manufacturer. Where the problem is, and has been since they tried launching that idiotic tablet has been their software. But these back-up plans bet the farm on their software, which from the consumer perspective is where they have consistently failed.
I'm not saying BB10 is bad. From what I've seen it doesn't appeal to me, but that means less than nothing. What does mean something is that they are throwing their weight behind an OS which isn't even in the market yet. BB10 is the first real step away from the BBOS of old. It is a whole new animal, targeted at a new generation of smartphones and it has zero market adoption rate at the moment and RIM has a history of failing to deliver polished new OS's lately.
The reality is this is not all that dissimilar to Google buying Motorola. At least in the sense that they are planning on licensing their OS and being a manufacturer at the same time. This gives you a competitive edge which OEM's don't like. This is what makes it all the more baffling. In very recent history this prompted Samsung, easily the largest and most successful Android partner to publicly announce plans to start investigating other options to Android simply because Google now owned a competing OEM.
RIM's situation IS different than Google's. But every single way in which I can think that RIM is different just makes the scenario drastically worse for them. Firstly, if they are trying to monetize the OS, it means that BB10 would cost money for 3rd parties, whereas Android is free. Secondly, Android has a much larger market, so companies have reason to continue gambling even with Google in there as competition. Thirdly, by the time Google entered the game, most of these players had already invested time/money/advertising into the Android platform and so there was still a sense of something to lose if they pulled out whereas with BB10 no one has anything to lose by not adopting the OS.
And lets not forget, in addition to the hurdle above, moving to a licensed OS means competing directly against a much more seasoned opponent. Microsoft. Both may have pathetic shares of the market today, but Windows Phone market share is currently growing and BBOS is declining. If I were an OEM looking to license another OS as a way of keeping my options open, I would take that one built upon an existing platform (WP7, 2+ years old now) and which is currently picking up momentum in the right direction over the OS which is untested in the market and whose existing OS line is in steady decline.
Basically, it boils down to me sounding like a broken record. If RIM thinks it needs to gamble on part of its business or another, it should gamble on the hardware. They should license an OS where they still have a chance to differentiate their hardware (Windows Phone *nudge nudge*) and split their software resources between getting the enterprise support on that platform up to speed and trying to monetize their apps across multiple platforms. I still think people would pay for BBM on non-RIM phones. And I'll wager most people would be willing to part with quite a bit to do so.
Anyway, RIM is set to unleash BB10 in a couple of days. One of the ways they have considered for addressing their financial issues is to license the OS to others. This sounds like their first line of defense as it is the option I've heard numerous times and in quotes directly from different people at RIM and at different times.
So why do I think that this is idiotic? Well first, simply the fact that they mentioning this publicly (and repeatedly) tells me that even inside of RIM they have started to accept the fact that they may be making their comeback too late or perhaps not quite bringing enough to the table. But what they are doing flies in the face of all logic.
Let me start by saying, Black Berry has iconic hardware. Their software is what has become the joke of late. People actually like their full QWERTY keyboards. And the people who like BlackBerry touch devices even like the touch screens (I personally don't like how they did touch historically, but always did like the keyboards). They are actually not half bad as a hardware manufacturer. Where the problem is, and has been since they tried launching that idiotic tablet has been their software. But these back-up plans bet the farm on their software, which from the consumer perspective is where they have consistently failed.
I'm not saying BB10 is bad. From what I've seen it doesn't appeal to me, but that means less than nothing. What does mean something is that they are throwing their weight behind an OS which isn't even in the market yet. BB10 is the first real step away from the BBOS of old. It is a whole new animal, targeted at a new generation of smartphones and it has zero market adoption rate at the moment and RIM has a history of failing to deliver polished new OS's lately.
The reality is this is not all that dissimilar to Google buying Motorola. At least in the sense that they are planning on licensing their OS and being a manufacturer at the same time. This gives you a competitive edge which OEM's don't like. This is what makes it all the more baffling. In very recent history this prompted Samsung, easily the largest and most successful Android partner to publicly announce plans to start investigating other options to Android simply because Google now owned a competing OEM.
RIM's situation IS different than Google's. But every single way in which I can think that RIM is different just makes the scenario drastically worse for them. Firstly, if they are trying to monetize the OS, it means that BB10 would cost money for 3rd parties, whereas Android is free. Secondly, Android has a much larger market, so companies have reason to continue gambling even with Google in there as competition. Thirdly, by the time Google entered the game, most of these players had already invested time/money/advertising into the Android platform and so there was still a sense of something to lose if they pulled out whereas with BB10 no one has anything to lose by not adopting the OS.
And lets not forget, in addition to the hurdle above, moving to a licensed OS means competing directly against a much more seasoned opponent. Microsoft. Both may have pathetic shares of the market today, but Windows Phone market share is currently growing and BBOS is declining. If I were an OEM looking to license another OS as a way of keeping my options open, I would take that one built upon an existing platform (WP7, 2+ years old now) and which is currently picking up momentum in the right direction over the OS which is untested in the market and whose existing OS line is in steady decline.
Basically, it boils down to me sounding like a broken record. If RIM thinks it needs to gamble on part of its business or another, it should gamble on the hardware. They should license an OS where they still have a chance to differentiate their hardware (Windows Phone *nudge nudge*) and split their software resources between getting the enterprise support on that platform up to speed and trying to monetize their apps across multiple platforms. I still think people would pay for BBM on non-RIM phones. And I'll wager most people would be willing to part with quite a bit to do so.
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