[kwlug-disc] Just Asking

[John Kerr]

Hi

I think that your opinion on RIM is the reality of the situation, well said.

John Kerr

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Fewer things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example. - Mark Twain------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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John Eddie Kerr | Guelph, Ontario 
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--- On Fri, 6/24/11, unsolicited <unsolicited at swiz.ca> wrote:

From: unsolicited <unsolicited at swiz.ca>
Subject: Re: [kwlug-disc] Just Asking
To: "KWLUG discussion" <kwlug-disc at kwlug.org>
Date: Friday, June 24, 2011, 6:01 AM

I wish everyone (pundits) would get off this, and give RIM a break / a bit of time.

A CBC news bit where Amanda Lang (^%$#^%#) came to Waterloo to do a news story on RIM, showed discussions with Larry Smith (IIRC), a UofW prof (of the RIM founders) wherein he was saying they (the founders) need to come out fighting (again) - given that they have repeatedly and successfully done so in the past, will likely do so again. To not do so would be out of character for them / a change in approach from anything they've done in the past. [I do wonder though, if there comes a time when one realizes one no longer have the energy for the coming effort. If there is a lack of energy, certainly there should be no lack of personal wealth, maybe it's time to retire to a beach, or other interests. Apparently it's more likely, though, that the energy is still there, the challenge is still motivating, and great things are still to come - when the due diligence and execution is complete.]

- my own take in this / here, is that RIM has lost the consumer / retail battle. At least for the moment - either they will leave it be and get on with it, or retrench, rethink, and re-attack. [The lack of RIM software / ecosystem has been true, and a problem, for what, 10 years - none of this is new, or news. Just like it's easier for manufacturers to continue selling to the U.S. rather than pursue emerging markets, it was easier to get blackberries out to emerging markets than attempt new product lines in North America.]
  - if you think of the paradigm change that Android and iPhone have brought (app stores / cross-'device' ecosystem), if one wants to re-enter that market with the next bigger and better thing, at the moment just what a bigger and better thing is is unclear. Give them time to figure that out. Otherwise, they're just re-entering the fray on the already entrenched home turf of the opponents. Given the hardware and software requirements of whatever that is, it takes time to develop and figure out the manufacturing / distribution / delivery of all whatever that is.
- which is all, and only, to say that the huge growth areas are gone, and RIM will settle down, at least for the moment, to continued, solid, presence. I think -that- is what all the naysaying is about, that the huge jumps in growth are gone. Not that there's anything wrong with the core of RIM, just that large growth is scaled back for the moment. Emerging markets and the playbook mean that solid and respectable growth will continue for some time to come - just that we, North America, might not be so immediately and fascinatingly impacted in our daily lives, to the same new extent, for a while.

- RIM owns the corporate market. Corporate control and containment of its own data is, and will always be, important to them. Nothing is going to change that, for the larger corporations, any time soon. [And, if they have truly permeated that, is also an indicator that the huge growth spurts are done. Doesn't mean that solid and continued sales and profitability have gone away. Lack of growth does not mean losses. And lack of growth doesn't immediately scream immediate takeover target. Surely the world has learned from HP - be it Digital, Compaq, or Palm.]
- given the ownership of the corporate market, and the playbook, it seems to me that 'huge' verticals are possible, and likely to be pursued. Rather than a single paradigm-changing entire market solution, many individual vertical solutions owning their markets.
  - it boggles my mind thinking of the playbook possibilities in the health field. You can carry a laptop, a (PC) tablet, an iPad, or slip a playbook into your pocket. And given the focus of data security, control, and confidentiality, I don't expect RIM to be on the losing end in any such corporate area. Every health employee picks up their security badge, their scrubs, their walkie talkie, and their playbook, on the way in. Drops them all off on their way out.

- I don't expect RIM is a takeover target any time soon. OTOH, I didn't think Nortel was, either.

These are all merely my impressions, FWIW. I would be pleased to be disabused of them.

Eric Gerlach wrote, On 06/23/2011 5:51 PM:
> Microsoft is much more likely to buy Nokia than RIM.  A MSFT purchase
> of RIM would be hostile, a purchase of Nokia not as much (the current
> CEO came from MSFT).
> 
> On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 4:59 PM, Kiwi Ssennyonjo <kiwi at ssenn.com> wrote:
>> http://goo.gl/8VV4K
>> 
>> On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 16:54, Khalid Baheyeldin <kb at 2bits.com> wrote:
>>> Where is the link to what you read?
>>> 
>>> On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 4:45 PM, Kiwi Ssennyonjo <kiwi at ssenn.com> wrote:
>>>> I am just shocked to hear it.
>>>> I have been reading for the past couple of hours.
>>>> You have more information than I do.
>>>> Is it possible? Microsoft buying RIM?
>>>> Kiwi
>>>> On 2011-06-23, at 16:41, Khalid Baheyeldin <kb at 2bits.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> There was speculation on acquisition after the stock slump last week.
>>>> 
>>>> Did you hear something specific that MSFT is the one acquiring it, or
>>>> is that further speculation?
>>>> 
>>>> On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 4:35 PM, Kiwi Ssennyonjo <kiwi at ssenn.com> wrote:
>>>>> Could it be true?
>>>>> Our beloved RIM be acquired in the near future by Microsoft?


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