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RIM's Fuzzy Strategy
By Mark Evans | February 11, 2005
Not sure if Research in Motion is too pleased with a column I wrote in today's National Post about some confusion I have over their licensing and messaging strategies. During interviews with co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, I attempted to get them to explain the economics of RIM's software licensing program where the company will let other device makers such as Nokia and Motorola use its popular e-mail software. The idea is you get a smaller piece of a much larger pie rather than a large piece of a small pie. Lazaridis dismissed this suggestion as “naive analysis”, which made little sense to me given Microsoft has made billions of dollars from using this approach with Windows.
RIM also took some offense with the notion it's an e-mail device and software maker. Instead, it's a “wireless platform developer”, which means the Blackberry or Blackberry-enabled device can be used to access other applications. While this approach makes sense from a long-term perspective, I was confused by RIM's uneasiness about fully embracing e-mail as its golden goose.
My take is that Balsillie and Lazaridis, who have been discovered by international media in the past year, have adopted Andy Grove's “only the paranoid survive” mantra. My take is they're reluctant to be seen as a one-trick pony in the fear that another wireless e-mail solution could come out of nowhere to steal their thunder. By protraying themselves as a wireless platform developer, they are trying to give the impression the threat of an e-mail competitor is already being addressed.
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February 11th, 2005 at 3:30 pm
Hey Mark,
Spoke with Balsillie this morning. He is a little pissed.
February 15th, 2005 at 11:32 am
RIM's stratagey has always seemed a little murky to me as well. In the end I think RIM may be a small niche player, and may retain as much as 6-8% of the total market. Their high TCO and LOW ROI make them a very UNATTRRACTIVE solution for many companies.
Other Vendors have more scaleable solutions.
You really should research other options. iAnywhere, Intellisync, Good, Visto and SEVEN.
With the emergence of lower priced MS PPC and SmartPhone devices, the Treo650, the popularity of the Sony/Ericsson 900/910, as well as lowend Symbian/Brew/J2ME handsets, RIM has been forced to take the licenseing route.
I predict that in 24-36 months RIM will be HISTORY. They will lose the patent suit with NTP, and other vendors will displace them in the MOBILE EMAIL SPACE.
If you own any stock you would do well to divest soon (TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN), you know that may be RIM's ultimate strategy as well. I think they know their model is outdated and needs major redesign, but I don't think they have the resource or will to do so!
February 17th, 2005 at 5:41 pm
RIM is actually a service delivery platform over an underlying network. Email might be their initial “pony”.
Since they have devices that run on so many wirelelss networks, plus now the WiFi device supporting SIP, I would imagine they are well positioned to be offering 3G services from an applications perspective in the IMS model (which was the buzz at 3GSM I'm told).
This means their service platform, coupled with their terminals and devices have a very exciting future as IMS will dominate core network evolution in both 3GPP and 3GPP2 camps…
my opinion…. i work in the industry…