Have you ever paused to wonder what it would be like to browse the Internet effortlessly on your smartphone? To not have to worry that you forgot to recharge it the night before? Or better yet, what it would be like never have to take out the battery to reset it?
If you have, it’s probably because you own a BlackBerry.
As a long-time BlackBerry owner, I used to passionately defend Canada’s high-tech darling Research in Motion, claiming it was the best smartphone on the market, because of its QWERTY keyboard, BlackBerry messenger service and its commitment to protecting my information.
But as a conscious consumer I am throwing in the towel, fed up with its lousy interface, poor performance and, dare I say it, unreliability.
In a sorry attempt to convince consumers and weary stock holders that the troubled technology giant was prepared to shake things up, Mike Lazaridis and James Balsillie, RIM co-founders and CEOs, resigned in late January, appointing insider Thorsten Heins as the company’s new boss.
Unfortunately appointing a new CEO is merely a smokescreen for the BlackBerry-maker’s real problem – its state of denial.
The fact RIM believes it can turn things around by spending a few more dollars on advertising and appointing a man who was RIM’s former chief technology officer points to its own delusion.
After consistently poor performance reviews in 2011, RIM saw its U.S. market share drop from 23 per cent to six per cent and watched as its share price tumbled from a 52-week-high of $70.54 to below $16.
It is time RIM recognizes the writing on the wall and sells its BlackBerry handset division while it is still profitable.
Then RIM would be able to focus on becoming a software company rather than a telecommunications provider.
Even with $1.5 billion in cash, zero debt and revenues expected to reach $19 billion in the fiscal year that ends on Feb. 29, the fact is RIM has lost all momentum going forward by relying solely on the success of its new QNX operating system, which is expected to improve the capabilities of the BlackBerry 10.
However, it is not expected to be released until late 2012.
Furthermore, RIM adamantly refuses to acknowledge its problems are far greater than just its leadership and cannot seem to recognize it can no longer compete with the technology of Apple’s iPhone 4S, and Google’s Android platform.
Take, for example, Apple’s most recent smartphone the 4S which boasts the speed of a dual-core A5 chip –the same processor found in the Ipad 2 – and has an outstanding battery life along with a high-quality megapixel camera.
In comparison, RIM’s newest device, the BlackBerry Torch 9810, comes with a single 1.2GHz processor, a 5 megapixel camera and is one of the only smartphones that does not come with a video-calling feature.
To make matters worse, RIM’s insistence that it is the sole smartphone-maker that uses secure encryption to protect user’s information only counts when the email service is working, as 70 million subscribers found out last October when RIM suffered an intermittent worldwide outage that lasted for three days.
When you add it all up it isn’t surprising that customers are voting with their money and moving to other smartphone devices.
What is surprising, however, is RIM’s determination to “stay the course” under new leadership – because clearly RIM is well off course.