Interesting times over at Research In Motion... The past few quarters have brought about change at the helm. Lazaridis and Balsillie, co-founders/co-CEOs seen as the authors of RIMs downfall, replaced by Thorsten Heins. Heins' task, steady the ship which looks now more destined to sink so choices are imminent on what to save, put in a lifeboat or cast straight into the sea with sharks circling.
The much talked about Blackberry 10 OS, set to save the company, won't see daylight till Q1 2013. This further reduced investor confidence, giving way to poor quarterly results and it's rumored has tasked it's bankers to find suitors for the company's assets. The usual suspects are mentioned with buying power, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, my guess is as good as yours.
RIM is having trouble churning out devices that have people sleeping on the streets or sending preorders through the roof. People in the markets that matter have simply switched their attention elsewhere. Their stranglehold on enterprise is soon to come under threat from Apple, who want to make the iPhone a true business smartphone; Google, continuously improving Android, and of course Microsoft, who have a lot of catch up to do but are seemly focused. RIM must decide which pieces are worth holding on to. Licensing their prized patents is a gamble worth taking and I think they should shed the hardware side of the business. Tough, but true. If they can get it right, BB10 could last the test of time.
Question now is, who would be interested in getting BB10 and putting it on their smartphones. Apple and Motorola, never. The former, cozy with iOS while the later was bought off by Google and is simply off limits. HTC is gun for hire running almost every major mobile OS out there, so maybe. Nokia just might be interested after they see if their marriage to Microsoft bears any profits to put them in the black with Windows Phone 8. Then there's Samsung, another gun for hire of sorts and the difficult Sony.
Samsung has been flirting with the idea of ditching android apparently and promote its Tizen/Bada combination. Much is to be seen of Tizen, many promising OSs have come and gone so it wouldn't be the first nor the last. Bada is no real android killer and google has its hooks deep into Samsung, their Galaxy range is major success because of android. Would ditch a sure winner? Samsung doesn't care much about Windows phone, they aren't as focused as on android so for them to take on a RIM license of BB10, highly unlikely.
Sony, fixated on android despite their devices not being the best out there. They have shunned windows phone all together putting their eggs in the android desert basket but maybe buying RIM all together could be sweeter.
Decision time for Thorsten...job cuts, top execs leaving are all tips of the iceberg. Come Q2 2013, there better be awesome BB10 handsets floating around and more playbooks or that could be the last year of RIM being one piece.
All my opinion, not the gospel truth.
Disclaimer:
I'm not a BB basher, I think BB OSs are cool and neat, devices don't make my palms shake when I see em. And the playbook, sweet little thing with arguably the best multitasking I've handled.
So I'm simply an industry observer giving his take on what's what.
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