RIM hopes new year will bring success after string of failures

Uko Abara

The year 2011 proved to be the straw that broke the camel’s back – the camel being Waterloo, Ontario-based Research in Motion (RIM).

For years now, news from the Canadian company has been steadily descending into a grim state but has managed to pass under the collective radar. The internet is riddled with complaints from former employees who lament about technological stagnation and ignorance within the company.

The past year finally brought RIM’s shortcomings to light. Co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis were recently named the Canadian Press business newsmakers of 2011, and for all the wrong reasons.

In the first quarter of 2011, RIM suffered dismal sales and product delays – so much so that, in the summer, they announced the lay-offs of several thousand employees worldwide.

Things were looking so poor that companies including Amazon, Microsoft, and Nokia juggled the idea of buying RIM out, but reconsidered.

During this time, RIM also came under fire for the fact that their messaging service, BBM, was the standard for communication used by many people involved in UK riots.

Although new products were released by the end of the season, they were either not well-publicized, were incomplete, or did not present a viable alternative to anything already on the market.

October presented RIM with service outages across the world and reminded subscribers about their landlines, desktops, and options. The fall also brought legal troubles involving the name of their upcoming operating system Blackberry 10, formerly BBX, as well as their instant messaging service.

By the wintertime, RIM was knee-deep in crises involving delivery thefts, failed product launches overseas, and poorly-behaved employees.

RIM has started off the year in a struggle, re-pricing the Playbook tablet once again, delaying the release of the Playbook OS 2.0 and of their new Blackberry 10 operating system, and consequently pushing back any new phones until the third quarter of 2012.

The truth is, however, that RIM is still in the game due to their international consumer and subscriber base. Although the stock value has dropped about 70% in Canada, the company is otherwise profitable. There has been recent talk of stripping the current co-CEOs of their chairman roles and bringing in new blood to fill the position. Such discussion has brought a degree of confidence to shareholders and prospective buyers.

However, a change in governance would come with no guarantee. The company is at a seven-year financial low and people are weaning off the effects of their “Crackberries” quite easily. These days, it is common to hear people talking about abandoning their Blackberry for other devices.

Experts say that for RIM to begin digging itself out of the chasm, the company needs to make sure that their releases are complete and on schedule, and that they present something new to the ever-increasing tech-savvy population.

Photo by RIM

Tags: blackberry, business, featured, rim

Category: News