Where RIM currently stands would at least
seem to be on firmer ground, as opposed to spiralling wildly out of control,
but getting there wasn’t without some painful decisions. After the Q1 results,
and that huge half a billion dollar loss, analysts were predicting imminent
death-throes if the Waterloo, Ontario based firm didn’t break up or put itself
up for sale. However, RIM instead went about closing manufacturing sites and
cutting 5,000 global jobs. While on a human scale such decisions are are always
detestable and saddening for those involved, as a business move RIM thought it
had no choice. Cut the costs and believe in the products was the message.
A statement in September by PR manager
Morgan Evans, sent to website The Inquirer read, “Our financial target is to
drive at least $1 billion in savings by the end of fiscal 2013, based on our Q4
2012 run rate, and headcount reductions are part of this initiative. RIM has
reduced some positions as part of this programme and may continue to do so as
the company methodically works through a review of the business.”
Such business speak overlooks the impact of
that on livelihoods and families, but come the Q2 2013 results, it seemed those
hard decisions had some positive company impact.
Dusting Off
The Q2 2013 fiscal results showed that
things had somewhat improved. Revenue was up $2.8m to $2.9 billion, and losses
down from $518m to $235 million. Obviously, to continually operate at a loss
just isn’t sustainable, but to cut losses in half in one quarter isn’t a bad
step in the right direction.
HP’s
TouchPad showed how demanding the mobile market has become
RIM allowed itself a bit of optimism but
had to recognize its position. With Windows 8 and the Windows Phone 8
ecosystems on the horizon, it had a direct challenger in being the third option
(or choice, perhaps) for end-users. Quietly confident about BlackBerry 10 and
potential licensing opportunities, RIM would need to not only battle against
Microsoft’s Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 but provide a viable alternative to
Apple and Android (or Android and Apple, based on global market-share). More
than that, it would need to convince hardware manufacturers of the attraction
of its coming release to a global audience – hardware manufacturers that have
already signed up to produce devices for other ecosystems.
For its part, RIM seems to have been doing
some legwork to ensure 10 gets as good a start in the market as it can.
Although it’s now likely to be a March rather than January 2013 launch, RIM has
declared it’s received good feedback from developers and has also managed to
sign up TomTom for its navigation know-how and respected mobile games developer
Gameloft. Gameloft is responsible for Android titles The Amazing Spiderman and
The Dark Knight Rises, and Apple titles Wild Blood and NFL PRO 2013.
“During the past couple of years RIM seems
to have lost its edge”
It’s not a bad start, particularly as 11
Gameloft titles will be available on launch, but when Microsoft has the backing
of Electronic Arts and a four-month headstart, it’s not enough on its own.
Equally, not all developers seem impressed with RIM’s ambitions. Paragon
Software’s PR director, Katia Shabanova, recently told our sister title, Know
Your Mobile, “As a multi-platform software developer, we no longer develop for
BB, and don’t even consider developing for this platform anymore. We don’t have
faith in RIM.”
Smarten Up
Some might take convincing, yet generally
specific responses to BlackBerry 10 have been pretty positive. A video of a
live demo from this year’s BlackBerry Jam Americas Keynote shows some
interesting strengths of the new operating system, strengths that could be key
to reinvigorating RIM’s smartphone and tablet fortunes.
Demoed by Vivek Bhardwaj of the BlackBerry
10 product team, a Dev Alpha B device is used in the video to show the critical
importance of single touch gestures using what BlackBerry is calling
‘BlackBerry Peek’. Peek allows users to, at all times, peek at notifications
from things like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and then have instant access to
the ‘BlackBerry Hub’, which is the integrated home of messages and events. Of
even more use for business (or just busy) users is the way that events provide
details of others who are attending the meeting, right in the hub - their
details, but also details of your previous and future activities, in one place.
The
BlackBerry 10 product team
Perhaps even more impressive is the
BlackBerry 10 approach to text and messaging. Not only do 10 have predictive
text and predictive phrases based on your use - suggested words appear on the
keyboard as you type - but it also caters for multilingual messaging for
BlackBerry’s 30% of users who message in more than one language. So if you’re
writing in English and switch to another language halfway through the message,
BlackBerry 10 knows. However, quite how many languages are catered for we don’t
yet know.
Another feature called BlackBerry Balance
allows the neat separation of work and personal use. A dragged ‘pull down’
gesture from the top of a multi-touch device will allow users to choose between
personal or work very simply. BlackBerry 10 is multi-threaded so has separate
and secure parameters for personal and professional identities, and a company
can even allow only certain access to App World in the ‘work’ identity. If you
leave the company and keep the phone, then that part of the OS can be wiped
clean.
A New Frontier
Tellingly, CEO Thorsten Heins is convinced
that the ‘application grid’ experience is getting old. Multi-tasking is
BlackBerry’s focus here in its ‘multi-tasking space’, allowing users to move
seamlessly from one application to another. What you don’t have to do is to
come out of one application, go back to the application grid and then go into
another like you would with Android or iPhone devices. This, combined with the
BlackBerry Hub, which takes Windows Phone 7’s people and personal tiles and
runs and jumps with them (and then throws in an integrated calendar), should be
attractive to anyone who craves a neat and tidy mind and device.
The
BlackBerry Bold: struggling to thrive in the smartphone space
It all sounds very impressive. In the last
year the BlackBerry brand has anecdotally fallen out of favor in global
markets. However, RIM has continued to support its tablet and smartphone users
and points firmly to an 80 million strong – and growing - user-base. That,
combined with the belief that it is the quality of its BlackBerry 10 operating
system that people will be happy to wait for, is what is keeping RIM’s candle
burning bright, even as Android and iOS updates appear and Windows Phone 8
establishes a strong hold in the market.
RIM’s future market impact will certainly
be interesting. What it comes down to for the market is that more choice for
users is always good and that RIM is looking to deliver a mobile ecosystem that
is as slick as it is useful. Having counted some heavy losses and having had to
make some tough decisions over the last year, RIM is looking forward to 2013 as
its time to regain a place of respect in the mobile market. Recent financial
results have shown an upturn in fortunes, and if the feedback from BlackBerry
10 continues to be positive, it might only take the platform’s release and the
deliverance on promises to return the company to favor. And if that happens,
RIM may redefine the mobile experience and once again establish itself as a
serious contender.
