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With RIM on the ropes and its market share tumbling, things obviously look bleak (and bleak sells newspapers). But with a war chest larger than most global leaders and unheralded growth in international markets (not to mention legions of touchscreen haters), the circling vultures may have a long wait yet.
We asked two industry observers –Brent Pulford and Brendan Howley – to pick a side and make the call on RIM’s chances for recovery. We also asked them to comment on each other’s arguments, which you can read by clicking on the footnotes within each argument.
To read Brent Pulford’s side of the debate, click here.
Plenty of Fight Left Yet
By Brendan Howley, former CBC investigative journalist and content marketing consultant
Is RIM dead? Was Apple when Steve Jobs reclaimed his throne back in 1996?[1]
No and no. We’re mid-story: RIM has indeed mucked up in a ruthless marketplace since the Torch failed to catch fire and that “Hail Mary” release of a Playbook with no e-mail. Moreover, the adoption rate of Android—especially among PC-based enterprise users—shows no signs of abating. Silicon Alley Insider stats show it’s the Samsungs and HTCs of this world who’re taking a (big) bite out of the Blackberry—not Apple.[2]
But that’s all I’m giving up in this set-to. I know early adopters and late adopters and women over 50 and women under 25 who simply won’t use an iPhone. Or hate theirs after switching from Pearls or Bolds.[3]
I’ve had multiple friends shatter iPhone glass cases (most recently, last week, on chi-chi marble countertop: dead-o) and my hardcore Silicon Valley pals routinely bitch about receptivity. They hate ’em. There’s an opportunity for smart RIM marketing, right there.
Me, I don’t hate iPhones; I think the iPhone’s a lovely media device, if you want your life ruled by apps. I don’t. I want a business communications device. That my hefty Torch gives me. In spades. I’ll trade an HD camera to have multiple programs open at once: big timesaver for me. And my Torch tethers like a dream to my laptop.
I laptop-watch movies and TV relentlessly (the iPad has no DVD drive—lost me there, Steve). I loathe the iPhone interface, pecking away at what looks like a cash register with misspells makes me mental. I never sweat battery life, call quality or device durability. I’ve dropped Blackberrys and they’ve never hiccupped.
Communications-wise, I love the multiple message streams and, yes, my trendy 21 year-old über-fashionista daughter tried both platforms and, with zero input from dad, went BB (as do most of her trendy urban friends). We message with BBM routinely. Fast, clean and you know when the message’s been read. Clear sell there, too.
I live in RIM country; I hear stories about good-old-boy engineers who couldn’t market their way out of a paper bag and QNX and other hush-hush technologies that’ll set fire to the foreign markets blissfully unaware of Blackberry’s gyrations here.[4]
Myopic Wall Street has handed Lazaridis and Balsillie their jockstraps (ignoring the impressive Nortel patent deal) but the rest of the world is still buying. By the containerful. Se habla español? RIM does.
There’s a ton of hot-stuff Blackberry technology that demands big-time socialization. RIM is learning (the hard way, as did Apple pre-Jobs II) that your technology may be wonderful, but it’s how you socialize the story around the technology that counts. RIM’s marketers (tweet me, guys) should think Marshall McLuhan meets FedEx—the medium is the message, yes. And forget lifestyle: show an entrepreneurial planet Blackberry means business.
Brent Pulford begs to differ…
1. And who, exactly, is waiting in the wings to rescue RIM? [Back]
2. The iPhone was the game-changer and remains the market leader. The gathering jackals only proves that the carcass still has a little meat on its bones. For the record: 1. Apple 2. Samsung 3. Nokia 4. RIM [Back]
3. August 3, 2011, BusinessInsider.com: “Apple Could Sell 30 Million iPhones In Q4.” Guess you can’t please everybody so the vast majority will have to do. [Back]
4. The new phones that RIM promised for later this month will be obsolete when QNX debuts just a few months later. They run on BB’s soon-to-be-discarded OS 7. [Back]
To read Brent Pulford’s side of the debate, click here.
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