New Delays at RIM to Be Questioned by Shareholders | Hacker News Reader

New Delays at RIM to Be Questioned by Shareholders

nytimes.com

The delay is not good but these shareholders have to understand this is RIM's last shot. Rushing something out before it's finished isn't going to save them.

Absolutely. They need to get this right: they can't afford a traditional "v1.0" release when they are up against very mature competitors (iOS; Android; WP7/8). The Playbook was an example of their rushing to market, and the device lacked email, calendaring (basic features; especially for RIM) and relied on a BlackBerry for a full feature-set.

The shareholders are no doubt frustrated at RIM's financial performance over the last several quarters, but things will only get worse if they put out an unfinished product. As they say: short term pains, (hopefully) long term gains.

I'm using WP7.5 at the moment on a Lumia 800, my previous phone being a Bold 9700. I don't think of Windows Phone as mature... Next one will be a Bold 9900, I was waiting for BB10, but I think their current models are excellent.

Are you outside North America Belgica? The reason I ask, is I'm Canadian, but have been living in South America and now Australia for almost a year. I'm amazed at how many Blackberry users I still see. I keep hearing all this talk about the ship going down, and I think to myself that the Blackberries I'm seeing are no more than 9 months old on average. How can things be so bad?

At the same time, there is a serious perception in North America that iPhone is the only phone, and is trumping everybody.

It's amazing how perception is such a big part of this market.

I've got an iPhone, an android (Sony Experia S) and a Windows (Samsung Focus), and I think the iPhone is way behind both the experience on Android and iPhone. But it all just goes to show the market is big enough for multiple players.

> "How can things be so bad?"

It's not so simple.

Blackberries expanded aggressively into developing markets, as well as low-end markets in developed countries, by offering lower rate plans compared to traditional smartphones.

This created a temporary lull where the gigantic market share losses being taken in North America and Europe were being absorbed by sales increases in developing markets - lower-margin sales, mind you, on products targeted at the lowest end of the segment as opposed to BB's upmarket positioning during its heyday.

So, to recap: high-margin, high-end sales being completely decimated everywhere, but countered by expansion into low-margin, low-end markets at high-volume.

And now, of course, the low-margin, low-end markets are being eaten alive by Android. So BlackBerry's time is truly up. This is reflected now in RIM's publicly available finances - the fiscal reality simply lagged behind market sentiment by a couple of years, that's all.

I will make a wager: in 3 years you should go back to South America and Australia - I'm willing to bet that RIM's market share in those countries will resemble Blackberry's market share in North America today.

I hate RIM because they represent everything that is wrong with the Canadian software scene in my mind. At the same time, they've put Canada on the map for technology, and done a ton of good for the community (the Accelerator Centre, donations to the university, etc), so it's sad to see that they've turned into such an abject failure. My thoughts (a rant in five parts):

1. RIM is a Canadian company, and from my experience (as a Canadian who went to school in Waterloo), Canadian companies like management - they are incredibly top heavy. This is especially true in the case of RIM - my friends there tell horror stories of how hard it is to make changes or even coordinate between teams. In contrast, I've found American companies err almost too far on the other side - not enough management to give some structure. So you have a lot of people who delegate, and not many people to actually do things, and nobody to organize the mess. Three bosses? I think yes.

2. They also don't pay very well. Out of school, my offer from RIM as a software developer was just over half of the offers I got from Microsoft, Amazon and co. So they're not getting the A team, or the B team, or really even the C team. To be fair, Waterloo is not nearly as expensive as Seattle or San Francisco, but still, as a whole they end up with the developers who are either unambitious (this is the best case, because many of these people are very smart), or just not very hard working. There are a lot of "retirees" too - people who want the 9-5 to raise a family (which is not itself bad, but you can't have an entire company made up of people like that). So basically, a whole lot of apathy.

3. There's a culture there of yes men. Look at how Laz ran the show - basically, it was a culture of denial that the iPhone even existed (look up some quotes from him about the iPhone from 2007 - 2009). Their product cycle has always been twice as long as the rest of the industry (and when they do, it's often incredibly half baked). While I think that Heins is really smart, and I certainly wouldn't want his job, he's stepped into a really broken culture. Their heads have been in the sand for ages.

4. If their public APIs/development chain are indicative of their internal workings, it's a mess over there - no wonder they can't ship anything. No documentation, poorly build APIs, and an awful, awful simulator (although to be fair, the last time I worked with BlackBerry's APIs was right after the iPhone came out, so they may have improved). It's a mess.

5. The ship is sinking! Anyone who can get a job elsewhere is going to get out as soon as they can. And why would people crunch to get the project out the door, if they think that they are going to get laid off anyway in six months? Nobody's getting raises, nobody's getting bonuses.

I would love for RIM to succeed, but it's much more than the market that is holding them back.

Everything wrong with the Canadian tech scene probably begins and ends with #2.

Here is an email I received not-too-long-ago from a tech recruiter in Canada to someone who has 7 or 8 years of experience as a project manager and coder.

The selected individual will be expected to have a detailed understanding of more than one of C/C++, C#, Java & Objective-C programming languages and will have previously developed or ported applications/games on either the Android, iPhone or Windows Phone 7 platforms.

We are looking for someone from a Mobile Porting/Development background to join our team and hit the ground running in this challenging role. Confidence and enthusiasm are essential for this position in our busy and exciting company, as are team leadership qualities.

Degree (or equivalent qualification) in computer science, plus minimum of 3+ years software development experience gained in a Business / Corporate / Government environment. Experience gained as a hobby or school/university will not be considered.

If you were offered an interview and job offer, how soon could you do both (Please put this info in your reply)?

Pay – (Up to $18 or $20 per hour) Depends on Experience

Competitive Benefits Package

Up to 1 year assignment with strong possibility of Direct Hire

---------

It is so insulting that the recruiter included this note:

--- (If at some point of contact, you feel the Pay Rate is to low or your skill set doesn’t match, please accept this apology in Advance)

RIM is simply one of many companies that just got utterly smoked by the iPhone, and I wish people would stop equating its failure with the intrinsic problems of the Canadian software industry - which are real and numerous (and your point #2 is bang on) but I feel are their own separate issue.

I don't think that's true. They certainly knew about the iPhone before the public did, and so they had a ton of time and money to position themselves for it. Certainly the iPhone was a game changer, but there is absolutely no reason that a better managed RIM shouldn't have come out ahead. Look up some of the stuff that Lazaridis said about the iPhone.

I mean, read this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jun/29/rim-chiefs-... . The iPhone didn't kill RIM, it was hubris and complacency.

Hubris and complacency wasn't limited to RIM. The iPhone smoked Nokia, Palm, Sony's cell phone division, Microsoft, etc. To look at RIM's failure as symptomatic of the Canadian tech sector is inaccurate.

As someone who also went to Waterloo, and worked for RIM on co-op term, I agree with most everything you've said. But I feel that applies to RIM of old.

It seems that Thorsten has really cleaned house and is well on his way to turning RIM into a much leaner machine.

The legacy BBOS APIs and simulators have improved a bit, but still suck in comparison to Android's dev environment. However, the new BlackBerry 10 APIs and simulators, while still in their infancy, are nicer and easier to work with than Android's SDK.

Message me on twitter (@xitijpatel), and I'll walk you through some of the new tools. Give it a try and see if it won't change your opinion.

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