It’s this part of the year yet again: a stupid, boring New Year’s eve party straight ahead, and loads and loads of thoughts rotting in the brain of yours truly. As usual, this is the time for our “New Year’s eve” post series – what has happened in the industry this year?
Looking at the market in general, we see little except for stagnation: except for Palm, nobody really did anything of significance this year.
This situation has helped RIM – while traditionally strong in the email business, their devices still lack the “cool appeal” seen on devices from other manufacturers. Their roots are enterprise, and they feel like it.
Half-assed attempts like the Storm might please stock analysts, but didn’t do too much on the market – the company was not able to shake off its enterprise-styled way of thinking and think like a consumer product house.
Things being as they are, this manifests in the form of carriers being unwilling to endorse the Storm 2 – too little new, too “dusty” a box. On the other hand, the new QWERTY devices have been announced by carriers long before they actually get them.
For me, RIM has to make a significant decision: do they want to stay in the email business where they are strong, or do they want to make a significant investment in order to get into a different market segment?
Neither of the two options is safe: while #1 allows for short-time safety, it is not clear how the market will evolve. #2, on the other hand, involves huge efforts – and nobody knows about the ROI…
P.S. If you are interested in other platforms, hit the links below – our sister sites contain similar editorials:
2009@TamsPalm – from a Palm head’s point of view
2009@TamsPPC – Microsoft, what were you doing?
2009@TamsS60 – will openness prevail?
2009@TamsIJungle – in an Apple’s peel
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