CEOs of RIM Step Down

An anonymous reader writes "After two decades of leading the BlackBerry maker, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balisillie are stepping down from their roles as Co-CEOs at Canada's Research In Motion Limited. Thorsten Heins will now lead RIM as it attempts to beat the likes of Apple and Google."

Sinking below Windows Phone

[thesuperbigfrog]

It looks like Blackberry is doomed to sink below Windows Phone in terms of popularity and offerings.

They should still have US government customers for a while until the government-approved version of Android is widespread, so maybe a year or two left.

Beyond that, I don't see much of a future.

Re:Beat?

[Anonymous Coward]

Indeed. That's what I always say: "Free market" is the polar opposite of democracy.
It is the perfection of the law of the jungle.
Yes, primitive animals might work like that.
But we humans found out, that working together brings a huge evolutionary advantage.
If only me and some single other guy are left, fighting over the last piece of bread that has enough energy to allow only one of us to get to that spaceship, on a otherwise dead planet, then I can start thinking about beating him.

But in a business, in a OK country, every dollar I pay my employees, is a dollar they will spend on the economy, including me. Every client I treat nicely and don't betray or disappoint, will be a friend that's there for me. (Unless he's such a "free market" dick.)
And with the competition: Hey, if they actually make better products, they deserve to succeed. Not "win". Succeed. Since one succeeding doesn't mean the other must die off.

I guess what I want to say is: I want some people to make business with, that are not dicks, but that I can trust to treat others right, so that I can treat them right too, and know I'm not gonna be the idiot in the long run.

The only groups I found that offer anything like that, are:
- The Pirate Party - Simply because they dare to say that they are only humans, imperfect, biased, emotional, normal human beings, but with the same dreams that I have. (Not sure they'll survive intensive lobbying though. :/ But I'll say they will!)
- Those guys: http://en.gandi.net/no-bullshit [gandi.net]
Honorable mentions:
- Fair Trade and similar efforts
- Frosta, Frozen fast food that doesn't disappoint when you open the pack, because they use actual normal ingredients you'd buy from a farmer too, instead of industrial crap. But I wish they would be a bit more open about how they treat their employees. (Not saying they treat them badly. Just saying that I don't have enough information to truly add them to the list.)
- Perhaps this guy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konosuke_Matsushita [wikipedia.org]

Feel free to add yours to the list. (They should be friendly to their employees, clients and competitors, as far as you know.)

Re:Too late?

[Mockylock]

You're absolutely right. They did nothing to react to the rest of the smartphone devices when they were pulling in money. It seemed as if years went by and their devices were exactly the same, as well as the same interface and services... all while the rest of the world was changing on a daily basis. That money should have been tossed in R&D while they had it, and now it's too late. With the interaction you can get from other solutions (exchange/web/etc) and better phones, they're way too late on switching out leaders. I don't believe they have enough revenue coming in to catch up. I'm guessing when stock drops more, a company such as Microsoft will gobble them up, considering MS is looking for a business platform for Windows Phone and has enough money to turn it around.

Far from insightful

[Kupfernigk]

That is just tired, neocon Randian fluff. And there are still some economists and consultants who will tell you so. In a free market, the ultimate objective of many intelligent company managements is to identify a profitable niche and fill it.

This is because any market with a complete monopoly means that customers will try to get out of that market altogether. Dell does not really want to be the only PC maker, because then anybody who really hates them will try and find an alternative to PCs, and that alternative may become the new norm. End customers actually need choice, because the perception of competition in the market generates buzz. The mere fact of competition brings the segment to the attention of people who would otherwise not hear of it. It increases the size of the market and enables companies to grow without having to do so at the expense of the competition.

Also, of course, there is no such thing as a "company" in terms of objective; there are people. Even the best CEO (who doesn't know he is going to die or retire before long) is aware that without competition he doesn't have a plan B if things go wrong, and his salary is likely to be lower than it would be if the shareholders think he might jump ship.

Re:I don't see the problem, enlighten me?

[Ubergrendle]

You are not out of touch. RIM is still profitable and has a large entrenched market share. They are actually growing in BRIC countries, where the better battery life + lower cost + combined e-mail/internet/phone footprint makes alot of sense. Not everyone needs $0.99 fart apps, or can afford $0.99 USD songs for their ipod replacement.

RIM is in trouble, but not disasterously so. Their market share decline isn't an absolute decline; its that the iphone and android market has grown so large due to their consumer focus. The consumer market is bigger than the business/professional market...always has been, always will be.

RIM offers a reliable delivery network not dependent upon a pastiche of ISPs/phone carriers. The central management is a huge advantage for enterprises. And the device itself is more secure and reliable than any of the other whiz-bang devices.

My corporation just completed a 1000 user trial of iphone replacement for BB. The program was cancelled 1 month into the 3 month pilot; the BB's reliability and keyboard (and calendaring) was irreplaceable.

RIM"s biggest challenge at this point is they lack growth (a big no-no in our 'quarterly results' driven culture)... their primary business is replacement sales -- steady revenue. They've missed consumer growth opportunities ... I had a pearl, it was awful. D