It's sad to see people lose their jobs but it's a fact of life and something we all face from time to time. They're all well-educated intelligent people and no doubt some of them will take the opportunity to start their own successful businesses. It's also hard for top management but they are extremely well compensated and frankly it's their fucking job to observe the way the world rotates and have the courage to pivot in time. The "innovator's dilemma" is such a common pattern that it's almost a cliché. They've been teaching it at Harvard for years. I have very little sympathy for them.
Not a fan of his. But, with his billions, he needs no sympathy from anyone. I have a small degree of admiration because he sure does not need to continue in his pressure cooker of a job. Why not retire like his brother Bob M. at Apple?
At this stage RIM would have to pay me $500 to even touch a Playbook.
What nobody seems to talk about is how the BES value proposition eroded. At first everybody was like, oh, can't use iPhone, corporate email security is lousy. Then, a few years ago, the wheels totally came off the BES stuff, suddenly iPhone was everywhere in corporate.
Why has RIM not addressed this fundamental issue?
Research in Motion hasn't addressed the fundamental issue because they are a one trick pony. One heck of a trick but once another pony learned the trick the trick was unimpressive especially since the other pony had dozens of tricks.
Beyond that, there just isn't a significant list of features and functions that Apple iPhone can't provide from secure emails and messaging to enterprise device management without an expensive infrastructure.
It's sad to see people lose their jobs but it's a fact of life and something we all face from time to time. They're all well-educated intelligent people and no doubt some of them will take the opportunity to start their own successful businesses. It's also hard for top management but they are extremely well compensated and frankly it's their fucking job to observe the way the world rotates and have the courage to pivot in time. The "innovator's dilemma" is such a common pattern that it's almost a cliché. They've been teaching it at Harvard for years. I have very little sympathy for them.
And these people of who teach it, the likes of Clay Christensen, how many wildly successful and innovative companies have they spearheaded?
I saw a guy in a suit on the train with a BB. My ^sstard elitism aside, I did feel sadness for him. Like I do for Bill Gates now. At least in the tech world, it is sad to see a giant like that now be so, so very lost.
In the case of RIM, it is game over. Steve came on a conference call, a very rare thing, I think in 2009/2010 or something, and said that they just "passed BlackBerry", and that "they would never catch up". I remember exactly where I was when listening to the audio stream.
I honestly at that point thought it was trash talk by Steve. But, well... Vindication is a dish best served with soufflé. [Yes I'm pushing my vindication theme here]
I've learned in hindsight that Steve Jobs was incredibly prescient about technology. He sees where things are going and he got very good at betting on where the "ball" was going to be in 5+ years. Go back and watch the videos of Steve talking about technology to Walt Mossberg at D from years past. And he was willing to make a bet on which technologies would be legacy and when, and he was willing to risk being wrong about it. Usually he was right. The decline of Flash, The ascent of HTML5. The success of the tablet. He predicted that Mac Finder would be just an app for pros, but that it would someday not be the "face" of Mac OS. iOS Springboard is already a step in that direction. His description of cloud computing back in 1997 WWDC seems to foretell iCloud a decade later. The average person would probably misunderstand him.
RIM's cash will keep it on life support until it's sold - by the end of this year. from the buyer's point of view, the fewer RIM employees, the better. bye-bye, folks.
Isn't cutting your workforce counter-productive? )
Not always.
When you get into a financial crisis like this, you re-evaluate all of your options and then focus solely on the things which will contribute to survival. A lot of 'nice to have' things go away. For example, if you have multiple product lines or multiple markets, you might drop a a product line or market if it is not generating cash or have the potential to do so soon. In that case, cutting dead wood can be positive. Simply telling the people in that department to work harder may slow the bleeding, but won't stop it.
Of course, I have no idea if RIM is making sensible cuts or not.
Blackberry 10 delayed until Q1 of 2013. Might as well close the doors now and at least walk away with 'some' pride. Nothing like continuing to stay at the blackjack table after you've had 10 losing hands and starting to pull out the credit card.
RIM's cash will keep it on life support until it's sold - by the end of this year. from the buyer's point of view, the fewer RIM employees, the better. bye-bye, folks.
the auction has already started.
And who would want to buy RIM? Microsoft? RIM could not release WP8 phones for at least another six months (look how long it took Nokia after their announcements). And would RIM WP8 phones really so much better than Nokia WP8 phones? Would that justify it for Microsoft to keep RIM afloat while their BB OS phone sales collapsed even faster (just see Symbian sales at Nokia)?
Feel sadness for Bill Gates? The work he is doing well may be the greatest humanitarian work ever done. We should feel proud of him, not sad for him. And I don't think Gates is lost in any sense of the word.
Correct.
If history repeats itself, Bill Gates' lasting impact on society will be his humanitarian and charitable work. Whether it be someone like Andrew Carnegie or Albert Nobel, they are not best known for how they got their riches, but what they did with that money.
Bill Gates was a ruthless businessman, a trust fund baby that didn't languish on polo fields, but used his combativeness (uh, as well as some excellent family connections that come from being born to a privileged pedigree) to built a Fortune 500 software giant.
However, what he's doing with his money is today is from efforts planted in him by his mother and creating his own vision of a better world.
RIMM is selling at a 52-week low of $7.50 with a market cap of $3.6 Billion.
I can't find what RIMM payed for QNX!
But here's the thought: Both MS and Google seem to be PORPing -- Piss On youRPartners, of late.
What if some profitable, but estranged Partner were to:
1) Buy QNX from RIMM
2) License use of QNX back to RIMM (free for products in development)
3) Build their [the former MS or Google Partner's] own hardware, going forward based on the QNX OS.
Done right, it could provide opportunities for RIMM and the estranged Partner:
1) Rim could service near term, have the option to continue forward with hardware and possibly transform itself into a services company
2) The Partner could have a powerful in-house OS going forward with no dependencies/fees/competition to Google or MS.
As I understand it, QNX has already demonstrated the capability to run Android apps -- so either the users could install them from whatever source... Or, developers could be offered an additional marketplace (by the Partner) for Android/QNX apps... and an incentive to offer native QNX apps.
<p>
RIM are a bunch of fools. When the iPhone first got released, they were in complete denial and they thought that Apple was lying, because RIM saw the iPhone as being impossible. Since then it has only gone one way for them, and the way is not up.</p>
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<p> RIM thought Apple was lying on iPhone in 2007</p>
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<p> RIM had a complete internal panic when Apple unveiled the iPhone in 2007, a former employee <a href="http://macnn.com/rd/187933==http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=24854573#itemanchor_24854573" rel="nofollow">revealed</a> this weekend. The BlackBerry maker is now known to have held multiple all-hands meetings on January 10 that year, a day after the iPhone was on stage, and to have made outlandish claims about its features. Apple was effectively accused of lying as it was supposedly impossible that a device could have such a large touchscreen but still get a usable lifespan away from a power outlet.</p>
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<span><a href="http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/12/27/rim.thought.apple.was.lying.on.iphone.in.2007/#ixzz1zCnvV15C" style="color: rgb(0, 51, 153); ">http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/12/27/rim.thought.apple.was.lying.on.iphone.in.2007/#ixzz1zCnvV15C</a></span></p>;
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If history repeats itself, Bill Gates' lasting impact on society will be his humanitarian and charitable work. Whether it be someone like Andrew Carnegie or Albert Nobel, they are not best known for how they got their riches, but what they did with that money.
Bill Gates was a ruthless businessman, a trust fund baby that didn't languish on polo fields, but used his combativeness (uh, as well as some excellent family connections that come from being born to a privileged pedigree) to built a Fortune 500 software giant.
However, what he's doing with his money is today is from efforts planted in him by his mother and creating his own vision of a better world.
What they should do is give an in-house 3 weeks training, for lets say 500 developers. Charge $1000, run it for 3 months and bam you have 2 million in cash. I'm willing to pay a thousand if i can get to play with that device for awhile. Of course that won't save them, but it increases the user bases of developers.
the biggest thing killing RIM is BYOD. use to be any place you needed a smart phone, they handed you a BB.
Not sure I agree completely. The problem, IMHO, is that they realized too late that a true smartphone was a computer. The leadership there simply could not design a computer, particularly the software. QNX was a really good software outfit. It's shocking that they can't have BB10 working by now.
Comments
It's sad to see people lose their jobs but it's a fact of life and something we all face from time to time. They're all well-educated intelligent people and no doubt some of them will take the opportunity to start their own successful businesses. It's also hard for top management but they are extremely well compensated and frankly it's their fucking job to observe the way the world rotates and have the courage to pivot in time. The "innovator's dilemma" is such a common pattern that it's almost a cliché. They've been teaching it at Harvard for years. I have very little sympathy for them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheOtherGeoff
Ballmer on the other hand....
Not a fan of his. But, with his billions, he needs no sympathy from anyone. I have a small degree of admiration because he sure does not need to continue in his pressure cooker of a job. Why not retire like his brother Bob M. at Apple?
Research in Motion hasn't addressed the fundamental issue because they are a one trick pony. One heck of a trick but once another pony learned the trick the trick was unimpressive especially since the other pony had dozens of tricks.
Beyond that, there just isn't a significant list of features and functions that Apple iPhone can't provide from secure emails and messaging to enterprise device management without an expensive infrastructure.
Quote:
Originally Posted by vinney57
It's sad to see people lose their jobs but it's a fact of life and something we all face from time to time. They're all well-educated intelligent people and no doubt some of them will take the opportunity to start their own successful businesses. It's also hard for top management but they are extremely well compensated and frankly it's their fucking job to observe the way the world rotates and have the courage to pivot in time. The "innovator's dilemma" is such a common pattern that it's almost a cliché. They've been teaching it at Harvard for years. I have very little sympathy for them.
And these people of who teach it, the likes of Clay Christensen, how many wildly successful and innovative companies have they spearheaded?
I've learned in hindsight that Steve Jobs was incredibly prescient about technology. He sees where things are going and he got very good at betting on where the "ball" was going to be in 5+ years. Go back and watch the videos of Steve talking about technology to Walt Mossberg at D from years past. And he was willing to make a bet on which technologies would be legacy and when, and he was willing to risk being wrong about it. Usually he was right. The decline of Flash, The ascent of HTML5. The success of the tablet. He predicted that Mac Finder would be just an app for pros, but that it would someday not be the "face" of Mac OS. iOS Springboard is already a step in that direction. His description of cloud computing back in 1997 WWDC seems to foretell iCloud a decade later. The average person would probably misunderstand him.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum
Mmmm... Maybe MS has another VP that they want to outsource ala Elop.
I suspect that Sinofsky might be a prime candidate!
I like how Sinofsky skipped across the stage to fetch another Surface when the first one froze. Very reminiscent of Floop from Spy Kids.
RIM's cash will keep it on life support until it's sold - by the end of this year. from the buyer's point of view, the fewer RIM employees, the better. bye-bye, folks.
the auction has already started.
Not always.
When you get into a financial crisis like this, you re-evaluate all of your options and then focus solely on the things which will contribute to survival. A lot of 'nice to have' things go away. For example, if you have multiple product lines or multiple markets, you might drop a a product line or market if it is not generating cash or have the potential to do so soon. In that case, cutting dead wood can be positive. Simply telling the people in that department to work harder may slow the bleeding, but won't stop it.
Of course, I have no idea if RIM is making sensible cuts or not.
Blackberry 10 delayed until Q1 of 2013. Might as well close the doors now and at least walk away with 'some' pride. Nothing like continuing to stay at the blackjack table after you've had 10 losing hands and starting to pull out the credit card.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alfiejr
RIM's cash will keep it on life support until it's sold - by the end of this year. from the buyer's point of view, the fewer RIM employees, the better. bye-bye, folks.
the auction has already started.
And who would want to buy RIM? Microsoft? RIM could not release WP8 phones for at least another six months (look how long it took Nokia after their announcements). And would RIM WP8 phones really so much better than Nokia WP8 phones? Would that justify it for Microsoft to keep RIM afloat while their BB OS phone sales collapsed even faster (just see Symbian sales at Nokia)?
Quote:
Originally Posted by ankleskater
Feel sadness for Bill Gates? The work he is doing well may be the greatest humanitarian work ever done. We should feel proud of him, not sad for him. And I don't think Gates is lost in any sense of the word.
Correct.
If history repeats itself, Bill Gates' lasting impact on society will be his humanitarian and charitable work. Whether it be someone like Andrew Carnegie or Albert Nobel, they are not best known for how they got their riches, but what they did with that money.
Bill Gates was a ruthless businessman, a trust fund baby that didn't languish on polo fields, but used his combativeness (uh, as well as some excellent family connections that come from being born to a privileged pedigree) to built a Fortune 500 software giant.
However, what he's doing with his money is today is from efforts planted in him by his mother and creating his own vision of a better world.
Thinking out loud, here...
RIMM is selling at a 52-week low of $7.50 with a market cap of $3.6 Billion.
I can't find what RIMM payed for QNX!
But here's the thought: Both MS and Google seem to be PORPing -- Piss On youR Partners, of late.
What if some profitable, but estranged Partner were to:
1) Buy QNX from RIMM
2) License use of QNX back to RIMM (free for products in development)
3) Build their [the former MS or Google Partner's] own hardware, going forward based on the QNX OS.
Done right, it could provide opportunities for RIMM and the estranged Partner:
1) Rim could service near term, have the option to continue forward with hardware and possibly transform itself into a services company
2) The Partner could have a powerful in-house OS going forward with no dependencies/fees/competition to Google or MS.
As I understand it, QNX has already demonstrated the capability to run Android apps -- so either the users could install them from whatever source... Or, developers could be offered an additional marketplace (by the Partner) for Android/QNX apps... and an incentive to offer native QNX apps.
How much would a deal like that be worth?
Thoughts?
RIM are a bunch of fools. When the iPhone first got released, they were in complete denial and they thought that Apple was lying, because RIM saw the iPhone as being impossible. Since then it has only gone one way for them, and the way is not up.</p>
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</p>
<p>
RIM thought Apple was lying on iPhone in 2007</p>
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</p>
<p>
RIM had a complete internal panic when Apple unveiled the iPhone in 2007, a former employee <a href="http://macnn.com/rd/187933==http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=24854573#itemanchor_24854573" rel="nofollow">revealed</a> this weekend. The BlackBerry maker is now known to have held multiple all-hands meetings on January 10 that year, a day after the iPhone was on stage, and to have made outlandish claims about its features. Apple was effectively accused of lying as it was supposedly impossible that a device could have such a large touchscreen but still get a usable lifespan away from a power outlet.</p>
<p>
<br />
<span><a href="http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/12/27/rim.thought.apple.was.lying.on.iphone.in.2007/#ixzz1zCnvV15C" style="color: rgb(0, 51, 153); ">http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/12/27/rim.thought.apple.was.lying.on.iphone.in.2007/#ixzz1zCnvV15C</a></span></p>;
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ankleskater
And these people of who teach it, the likes of Clay Christensen, how many wildly successful and innovative companies have they spearheaded?
How many eggs have you laid before criticizing an omelette?
Quote:
Originally Posted by cvaldes1831
Correct.
If history repeats itself, Bill Gates' lasting impact on society will be his humanitarian and charitable work. Whether it be someone like Andrew Carnegie or Albert Nobel, they are not best known for how they got their riches, but what they did with that money.
Bill Gates was a ruthless businessman, a trust fund baby that didn't languish on polo fields, but used his combativeness (uh, as well as some excellent family connections that come from being born to a privileged pedigree) to built a Fortune 500 software giant.
However, what he's doing with his money is today is from efforts planted in him by his mother and creating his own vision of a better world.
Steel, Dynamite, Complete lack of ethics...
Some would say that they're all Robber Barons!
What they should do is give an in-house 3 weeks training, for lets say 500 developers. Charge $1000, run it for 3 months and bam you have 2 million in cash. I'm willing to pay a thousand if i can get to play with that device for awhile. Of course that won't save them, but it increases the user bases of developers.
the biggest thing killing RIM is BYOD. use to be any place you needed a smart phone, they handed you a BB.
Quote:
Originally Posted by anantksundaram
How many eggs have you laid before criticizing an omelette?
I've never criticized an omelette, to its face or behind its back. Sorry, but you laid an egg with that analogy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by s4mb4
the biggest thing killing RIM is BYOD. use to be any place you needed a smart phone, they handed you a BB.
Not sure I agree completely. The problem, IMHO, is that they realized too late that a true smartphone was a computer. The leadership there simply could not design a computer, particularly the software. QNX was a really good software outfit. It's shocking that they can't have BB10 working by now.