I guess the mobile market is large enough to warrant a ton of competition, but I just don't see what RIM can offer that will steer people away from existing, well-established platforms (Windows Phone 7 isn't quite there, but people love to talk about it).
Their glory days are over, but they can probably do well enough to continue to exist. I sure don't know anyone that cares about RIM or the Blackberry brand anymore, though. All I see (and hear) are iPhones all day long.
And it's not even close to market yet. Catch up 3 years after losing 75% of their smart phone market is a bit weak..
Only reason they exist, is corporate higher ups know the name and continue to budget for them.. And we all know how impossible it is to steer the higher-ups..
Corporate 'higher-ups' know Blackberry is the easiest mobile product to manage, especially when you have hundreds of devices.
There is nothing else from any other competitor.
Also, corporate 'higher-ups' give a shit or two about security, stability and application control. Things zit-poppers on AT won't understand or care about.
And I have to handle Blackberry devices amongst many other things (like PCs, storage, backups, exchange, etc).
Not a VP or an owner or anything like that. But I have the common sense to know what makes sense to a business, instead of whining about it like a Jersey Shore fan.
And no, I don't own RIM shares (or any other stock FWIW).
I just find the fancy with shiny gadgets a little ridiculous, for sometimes the non-shiny ones work well in other environments.
Um, remote management is about more than connecting your device to Wi-fi or accessing email.
Ask your IT department how they would make changes to 100, or 1000+ mobile devices if needed.
Also, how would you handle an employee you fired who hasn't turned in his phone (and has all kinds of sensitive data) on it?
Or how you would make specific policies for various devices? eg this class of users browse using WAP, prohibit certain class from installing apps, etc.
Oh, and do all of the above to hundreds of devices. Let me know when your iPhone has an app for that.
None of those are native to the OEM (so why would a decision-maker risk a migration?). And they cost the same (if not MORE) than BES.
And most of them have nowhere near the functionality of BES - the best of the bunch is boxtone (they've been doing it for a while), but even Boxtone falls way short of BES.
There's a reason companies aren't falling over themselves to get rid of BES.
The one thing still that none of these still address is PIM experience (email, contacts, calendar, notes, etc) is far superior on Blackberry for the Enterprise. WP7 comes close but the efficiency is terribly lacking.
Excuse me, but you made of list of things that you claimed only BES was capable of, and I gave you a list of products that are capable of each and every one of those 'BES only' features.
I've been working with BES since 2000, and am well aware of its' strengths and weaknesses. Please don't try to BS me on how great BES is. It's not. It was simply the only product that did what it did up until recently. Now it looks as old as BB OS 7.
The thing I struggle with is the cost of using a platform other than BB. We pay nothing for management software as we are not quite at the user limit for BES Express. Changing to another platform we suddenly have considerable costs for mobileiron or similar plus ongoing licensing.
The other thing rarely mentioned is BB is natively compressed the others are not. Mobile data, particularly roaming, is insanely expensive. If we are paying $100K per year now for mobile data and we need to expect that to increase to $150K as a result of a platform change that is significant.
I can't see the huge cost justified so users can brag about having a flashy iPhone or similar.
I am not anti iPhone I am trialling both an iPhone and a Nokia Lumina at the moment. I dislike the fact BB has lagged behind but the platform is still saving us money. Users are primarily pushing for change for the bells and whistles not for being further enabled in their jobs.
Microsoft's mobile device management is next to non-existent. And you have to buy their System Center and a plethora of license. And you have to configure it. BES for majority of companies can be a 4 hour or less deployment. Not so much for these "competitors".
Microsoft wouldn't even recommend using their own Windows Phone in an Exchange environment for our company. lol They basically admitted it wasn't ready for large Enterprises
This has been the other platforms' biggest shortfall. The reality of it is iOS and Android haven't established themselves as strong contenders for the enterprise space. I realize "BYOD" is on everyone's lips right now, but the solutions for IT shops are hardly concrete, and BlackBerry still offers one product that none of the other platforms can: central management.
I was really hoping Microsoft would step up and build WP7 as the new enterprise platform of choice; however, MS still clings to the notion that WP7 is a consumer platform. While they have some really good functionality in their web and cloud services, I'm not sure how those services are applicable inside a company, and they still haven't incorporated native ADDS integration to give IT a way to manage the devices.
I'm not saying RIM is slated for some kind of massive comeback. They've really damaged themselves over the past year or so. However, no one really stepped in to take their spot in their absence, so their chances of returning in force and reclaiming their enterprise niche is far greater than 0%.
And Google seems keen to avoid integrating enterprise services into Android, perhaps because in their ideal environment everyone uses Google Apps. I agree that it's surprising Microsoft didn't make a push for better Enterprise support, but then again they didn't see such a platform being a big success story for RIM in today's consumer motivated market. The efforts particular OEMs have made on Android (Samsung and Motorola, notably) haven't had great success, and the hooks available in iOS are excellent but insufficient. And this is what RIM can still leverage. If their appeal to the consumer space improves they could reinvigorate their enterprise sales. But with 50% of the US cellular market now held by smartphones, and only a fraction of that belonging to the enterprise space, there's not much value to it. Better virtualization could be the solution, providing a secure solution that provides no risk if a device is lost or stolen. Citrix solutions are easily the dominant force here, and their leveraging of encryption protocols on each platform makes these very comfortable solutions for companies. Only company that could disrupt this? Microsoft. Windows Phone Apollo is a mystery to us right now, and even Windows 8's Enterprise hooks haven't been fleshed out quite yet. Could a Metro-driven virtualization solution be the killer app that wins Windows Phone popularity in the enterprise space?
The camera rewind and the keyboard look great. The sliding multitasking also looks good. I think they may have something with the OS, but the problem is still developers. But they do have an incentive for that too. I hope for some new blood on the mobile front, hate RIM or not more competition keeps everyone on their toes.
Today, the companies driving smartphone technology are amongst the worlds biggest software development shops. It has become a software business. The hardware shops (Palm, Nokia, RIM) have been very slow to realize this and adapt. RIM is still in denial mode. That is RIM's short term problem. RIM's long term problem is even bigger... they are now competing with the world's tech-giants. MS and Google can easily survive for years without earning a dime off their efforts, all the while investing billions of dollars in R&D. In the long term, RIM has no hope of competing with them, even if they could cut all of their losses now.
RIM won't be gone tomorrow, but they do need adapt. The sooner the better. Unfortunately, it looks like the market will need to force their hand, as they seem too inflexible to do it themselves.
You need to do some deeper digging here than just commenting on the article.
RIM is quite aware of their long term position. The first time in their history where they probably are. It's also, I believe, one of the reasons they are waiting on showing off their new OS fully. They know it has to be fully baked right from the release date. They don't have the 4-5 years that iOS and Android have had to get up to speed -- they have to compete from day one.
They aren't out of the dog house, but I think they fully understand where they stand, and are making huge strides to compensate for it.
Apparently Balsille had plans/ideas for massive changes, but got shutdown by the board and that's when the departure happened. Not sure how much blame was to be passed onto Lazaridis (the Newt-looking guy).
Ok - I've been out of the corporate IT world for quite a few years now so I can't comment on how easy BES is ... but I do use a personal BIS solution and I love the phone. A Bold 9700 it's getting onto nearly antique now.
Shopping for a phone as a consumer, I have a choice to wait for BB's next big thing, go for a Bold 9900 or something "smexy" from the 'droid side. It's a tough call to make, but if BB don't announce something soon (within the month) I can almost guarantee I'll get a 'droid. The One XL looks like a decent phone, my data usage will actually put me on a cheaper plan than I'm paying for BIS with the 9700 now and installing Swype should get me close to the email speed I reach on the Bold. All I'm asking BB is - show me some hardware that will be released SOON and give me a date.
For me, the reason to get a new phone is my 9700's battery is starting to show "the signs" and I had my first power out just yesterday after only 2 days (standard usage pattern for me is 3 days). That's what I'm saying and other consumers are probably saying something similar (those who have used a decent BB from the past 3 generations, too much budget crud in the OS4 generation and older probably hurt). I need a phone BB, I'm not sold by the 9900 as nice as it is. Granted - having said I'm down to just 2 days useful battery life is probably a slap in the face to all those iOS and 'droid users out there charging daily (on older phones).
One last plea ... give me something soon Blackberry, please!
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chucknelson - Wednesday, May 2, 2012 - link
I guess the mobile market is large enough to warrant a ton of competition, but I just don't see what RIM can offer that will steer people away from existing, well-established platforms (Windows Phone 7 isn't quite there, but people love to talk about it).Their glory days are over, but they can probably do well enough to continue to exist. I sure don't know anyone that cares about RIM or the Blackberry brand anymore, though. All I see (and hear) are iPhones all day long.
BSMonitor - Wednesday, May 2, 2012 - link
And it's not even close to market yet. Catch up 3 years after losing 75% of their smart phone market is a bit weak..Only reason they exist, is corporate higher ups know the name and continue to budget for them.. And we all know how impossible it is to steer the higher-ups..
DukeN - Wednesday, May 2, 2012 - link
This is complete horseshit.Corporate 'higher-ups' know Blackberry is the easiest mobile product to manage, especially when you have hundreds of devices.
There is nothing else from any other competitor.
Also, corporate 'higher-ups' give a shit or two about security, stability and application control. Things zit-poppers on AT won't understand or care about.
Makaveli - Wednesday, May 2, 2012 - link
Agree Duken,BS monitor doesn't know what he is talking about!
DigitalFreak - Wednesday, May 2, 2012 - link
Spoken like a true corporate "higher-up" or RIM shareholder.DukeN - Wednesday, May 2, 2012 - link
Um, I'm at IT pro like a lot of people here.And I have to handle Blackberry devices amongst many other things (like PCs, storage, backups, exchange, etc).
Not a VP or an owner or anything like that. But I have the common sense to know what makes sense to a business, instead of whining about it like a Jersey Shore fan.
And no, I don't own RIM shares (or any other stock FWIW).
I just find the fancy with shiny gadgets a little ridiculous, for sometimes the non-shiny ones work well in other environments.
steven75 - Wednesday, May 2, 2012 - link
I just installed a provisioning profile on my iPhone today to connect to the secured WiFi at my 10,000+ employee company.You were saying?
DukeN - Wednesday, May 2, 2012 - link
Um, remote management is about more than connecting your device to Wi-fi or accessing email.Ask your IT department how they would make changes to 100, or 1000+ mobile devices if needed.
Also, how would you handle an employee you fired who hasn't turned in his phone (and has all kinds of sensitive data) on it?
Or how you would make specific policies for various devices? eg this class of users browse using WAP, prohibit certain class from installing apps, etc.
Oh, and do all of the above to hundreds of devices. Let me know when your iPhone has an app for that.
Lifted - Wednesday, May 2, 2012 - link
"Let me know when your iPhone has an app for that. "Now you know.
www.mobileiron.com
www.zenprise.com
boxtone.com
You were saying?
DukeN - Thursday, May 3, 2012 - link
None of those are native to the OEM (so why would a decision-maker risk a migration?). And they cost the same (if not MORE) than BES.And most of them have nowhere near the functionality of BES - the best of the bunch is boxtone (they've been doing it for a while), but even Boxtone falls way short of BES.
There's a reason companies aren't falling over themselves to get rid of BES.
The one thing still that none of these still address is PIM experience (email, contacts, calendar, notes, etc) is far superior on Blackberry for the Enterprise. WP7 comes close but the efficiency is terribly lacking.
Lifted - Thursday, May 3, 2012 - link
Excuse me, but you made of list of things that you claimed only BES was capable of, and I gave you a list of products that are capable of each and every one of those 'BES only' features.I've been working with BES since 2000, and am well aware of its' strengths and weaknesses. Please don't try to BS me on how great BES is. It's not. It was simply the only product that did what it did up until recently. Now it looks as old as BB OS 7.
postop - Friday, May 4, 2012 - link
The thing I struggle with is the cost of using a platform other than BB. We pay nothing for management software as we are not quite at the user limit for BES Express. Changing to another platform we suddenly have considerable costs for mobileiron or similar plus ongoing licensing.The other thing rarely mentioned is BB is natively compressed the others are not. Mobile data, particularly roaming, is insanely expensive. If we are paying $100K per year now for mobile data and we need to expect that to increase to $150K as a result of a platform change that is significant.
I can't see the huge cost justified so users can brag about having a flashy iPhone or similar.
I am not anti iPhone I am trialling both an iPhone and a Nokia Lumina at the moment. I dislike the fact BB has lagged behind but the platform is still saving us money. Users are primarily pushing for change for the bells and whistles not for being further enabled in their jobs.
damianrobertjones - Thursday, May 3, 2012 - link
Blackberry: Rim server, exchange, configuration, devices.Windows: Exchange server, already configured, devices.
Which is easier again?
(We actually have both for some stupid reason)
DukeN - Thursday, May 3, 2012 - link
Microsoft's mobile device management is next to non-existent. And you have to buy their System Center and a plethora of license. And you have to configure it. BES for majority of companies can be a 4 hour or less deployment. Not so much for these "competitors".SandmanWN - Thursday, May 3, 2012 - link
Microsoft wouldn't even recommend using their own Windows Phone in an Exchange environment for our company. lolThey basically admitted it wasn't ready for large Enterprises
farsawoos - Wednesday, May 2, 2012 - link
This has been the other platforms' biggest shortfall. The reality of it is iOS and Android haven't established themselves as strong contenders for the enterprise space. I realize "BYOD" is on everyone's lips right now, but the solutions for IT shops are hardly concrete, and BlackBerry still offers one product that none of the other platforms can: central management.I was really hoping Microsoft would step up and build WP7 as the new enterprise platform of choice; however, MS still clings to the notion that WP7 is a consumer platform. While they have some really good functionality in their web and cloud services, I'm not sure how those services are applicable inside a company, and they still haven't incorporated native ADDS integration to give IT a way to manage the devices.
I'm not saying RIM is slated for some kind of massive comeback. They've really damaged themselves over the past year or so. However, no one really stepped in to take their spot in their absence, so their chances of returning in force and reclaiming their enterprise niche is far greater than 0%.
Just my $.02.
JasonInofuentes - Wednesday, May 2, 2012 - link
And Google seems keen to avoid integrating enterprise services into Android, perhaps because in their ideal environment everyone uses Google Apps. I agree that it's surprising Microsoft didn't make a push for better Enterprise support, but then again they didn't see such a platform being a big success story for RIM in today's consumer motivated market. The efforts particular OEMs have made on Android (Samsung and Motorola, notably) haven't had great success, and the hooks available in iOS are excellent but insufficient.And this is what RIM can still leverage. If their appeal to the consumer space improves they could reinvigorate their enterprise sales. But with 50% of the US cellular market now held by smartphones, and only a fraction of that belonging to the enterprise space, there's not much value to it. Better virtualization could be the solution, providing a secure solution that provides no risk if a device is lost or stolen. Citrix solutions are easily the dominant force here, and their leveraging of encryption protocols on each platform makes these very comfortable solutions for companies. Only company that could disrupt this? Microsoft. Windows Phone Apollo is a mystery to us right now, and even Windows 8's Enterprise hooks haven't been fleshed out quite yet. Could a Metro-driven virtualization solution be the killer app that wins Windows Phone popularity in the enterprise space?
DukeN - Wednesday, May 2, 2012 - link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedd...Look forward to having this, looks like I'll always have (atleast) a blackberry.
tipoo - Wednesday, May 2, 2012 - link
The camera rewind and the keyboard look great. The sliding multitasking also looks good. I think they may have something with the OS, but the problem is still developers. But they do have an incentive for that too. I hope for some new blood on the mobile front, hate RIM or not more competition keeps everyone on their toes.DukeN - Wednesday, May 2, 2012 - link
Doubt they have a chance of making a splash in the consumer market.They might stop the slide but don't think they're going to acquire back some of the market share they lose to iOS/Android.
a5cent - Wednesday, May 2, 2012 - link
Today, the companies driving smartphone technology are amongst the worlds biggest software development shops. It has become a software business. The hardware shops (Palm, Nokia, RIM) have been very slow to realize this and adapt. RIM is still in denial mode. That is RIM's short term problem. RIM's long term problem is even bigger... they are now competing with the world's tech-giants. MS and Google can easily survive for years without earning a dime off their efforts, all the while investing billions of dollars in R&D. In the long term, RIM has no hope of competing with them, even if they could cut all of their losses now.RIM won't be gone tomorrow, but they do need adapt. The sooner the better. Unfortunately, it looks like the market will need to force their hand, as they seem too inflexible to do it themselves.
kae - Wednesday, May 2, 2012 - link
You need to do some deeper digging here than just commenting on the article.RIM is quite aware of their long term position. The first time in their history where they probably are. It's also, I believe, one of the reasons they are waiting on showing off their new OS fully. They know it has to be fully baked right from the release date. They don't have the 4-5 years that iOS and Android have had to get up to speed -- they have to compete from day one.
They aren't out of the dog house, but I think they fully understand where they stand, and are making huge strides to compensate for it.
DukeN - Thursday, May 3, 2012 - link
Apparently Balsille had plans/ideas for massive changes, but got shutdown by the board and that's when the departure happened. Not sure how much blame was to be passed onto Lazaridis (the Newt-looking guy).flipper74 - Wednesday, May 30, 2012 - link
Ok - I've been out of the corporate IT world for quite a few years now so I can't comment on how easy BES is ... but I do use a personal BIS solution and I love the phone. A Bold 9700 it's getting onto nearly antique now.Shopping for a phone as a consumer, I have a choice to wait for BB's next big thing, go for a Bold 9900 or something "smexy" from the 'droid side. It's a tough call to make, but if BB don't announce something soon (within the month) I can almost guarantee I'll get a 'droid. The One XL looks like a decent phone, my data usage will actually put me on a cheaper plan than I'm paying for BIS with the 9700 now and installing Swype should get me close to the email speed I reach on the Bold. All I'm asking BB is - show me some hardware that will be released SOON and give me a date.
For me, the reason to get a new phone is my 9700's battery is starting to show "the signs" and I had my first power out just yesterday after only 2 days (standard usage pattern for me is 3 days). That's what I'm saying and other consumers are probably saying something similar (those who have used a decent BB from the past 3 generations, too much budget crud in the OS4 generation and older probably hurt). I need a phone BB, I'm not sold by the 9900 as nice as it is. Granted - having said I'm down to just 2 days useful battery life is probably a slap in the face to all those iOS and 'droid users out there charging daily (on older phones).
One last plea ... give me something soon Blackberry, please!