Is RIM Under Siege?
It seems like there are announcements on a daily basis about another mobile e-mail agreement. Yesterday, Yahoo and Sprint launched a new service to provide e-mail to consumers - powered by software from Seven Networks - that will see. Sprint will sell mobile e-mail for $2.99 a month plus air time. “What you're getting is a Blackberry-like experience at $2.99 a month” said Bill Nguyen, Seven's co-CEO. I'm not sure anyone is quite prepared to compare the reliability and security of Blackberry service with Seven's offering but there is no doubt competition in the mobile e-mail market is mounting. The key question is whether RIM can stay out of the competitive battle by serving high-margin corporate clients, who are willing to pay for an enterprise solution. Meanwhile, Seven and rivals such as Visto will fight it out in the mass, high-volume market. It's a nice scenario - and one most analysts want to believe for the time being - but I think RIM will likely see more comeptition in the corporate market. It's just too big and lucrative for rivals to ignore. What RIM really needs to do is diversify beyond its e-mail roots. It's pretty much a one-trick pony right now, which is why management talks about RIM evolving into a “wireless application platform”. What they're really saying is competition is getting fierce, and they need to move on. Perhaps this means buying PalmSource so RIM can increase its software library and development community. Maybe it means coming out with even more consumer-friendly Blackberries - cheaper units with MP3 players, cameras, etc. However, you want to read it, the mobile e-mail space is becoming a very interesting patch.
June 9th, 2005 at 10:43 am
Corporations are not going to be setting up gateways to multiple mobile email systems. RIM has first mover advantage and it will be hard to take the thrown away from them when it comes to that market, which is where the higher margins likely are.