RIM CEO: We want to be the number three platform on the market

RIM is spending a lot of time designing an OS that will appeal to everyone. I think they are going to find its going to be used by no one.<p>Even here in Canada they are losing core enterprise customers left and right. Without these core supporters, RIM isn't long for this world.<p>And while I've got the conch, what kind of strategy is "We want to be #3"? I've written about RIM's bad strategy extensively on my blog, and this feels like just another in a series of mis-steps. None of their staff are going to be inspired by Thorsten's lack of conviction and worse, its going to spook whatever remaining customers and developers they have. No one wants to be on a sinking platform, and shooting for number 3 isn't going to give anyone any confidence that RIM will be around in a year.<p>My vote still goes to RIM getting out of the OS business, becoming an Android licensee, designing some killer handsets that focus on enterprise customers and separately, spinning Blackberry Mail and Messenger into standalone apps that put RIM onto as many handsets as possible.<p>This will never happen of course. RIM, as I understand it, is still organized around carrier sales. They don't have a user focus, and it would be hard for this leopard to change its spots and get out of the business of catering to carriers. (IMO, this is the real magic of the Apple story - getting a user-centric handset into the market in a real way without pandering to the carriers.)

If he had said "we're aiming to be #1 in 2 years", he'd look completely out-of-touch with reality - employees deflate due to a clearly unattainable goal, investors get concerned about an unrealistic strategy, etc etc.<p>Picking an achievable goal vs. promising an unachievable one is better for morale of everyone involved IMO.

&#62; <i>Android powered 68% of the phones that shipped that quarter. Apple’s iOS platform ran on 17%. Those two numbers add up to 85%, so setting your goal to become the “number three platform” means you’re targeting 15% of the market.</i><p>That's... not true. Trying to be #3 doesn't mean you say "OK, we won't get any customers from the first two, so all we have left are that 15%" it just means you don't think you can take enough of their customers to overtake them.<p>And to people saying it's bad for company moral... it really isn't. Very few companies can be #1 or #2 in their industry, and for everyone to think otherwise is more often than not just delusional.

The difference between the Blackberry my work gives me and my personal iPod touch is staggering.<p><pre><code> * Web browser is pathetic. * Pandora and Tunein apps are wonky. They stall for no reason, and turn on after you pause them. * Kindle app is a pale imitation. * Facebook app is so bad, you're better off using the mobile facebook on the web browser. </code></pre> The only thing I _like_ about my Blackberry is the physical keyboard and the email/text/bbm environment. It's clean, functional, and the best of breed... for 2005.<p>RIM might be a big player on the international scene for a cheap smartphone (especially if they do i18n right) but they're not going to recapture the iPhone/Droid market without a major overhaul.

Is there anyone else that thinks that RIM could be the number one Andriod seller if they incorporated their security and track pad in to a phone which otherwise looks like a Galaxy?<p>I would buy that in a heart beat, and many corporations which haven't opened up their security for iProducts would find their employees extremely receptive to that device. They could be the #1 Andriod seller which would be quit a nice position for them compared to today.

Unfortunate the way it was said. Jobs said something similar but it sounds so different:<p>"Apple's market share is bigger than BMW's or Mercedes's or Porsche's in the automotive market. What's wrong with being BMW or Mercedes?"<p>Where the BMW/Mercedes could have been RIM's analogy to something in the enterprise world.

In which case they need to have launched this product yesterday. Really they should have a product on the market now considering Windows Phone 8 has had their couple of years in the troff where they've been building the product, the app ecosystem and carrier deals (As Android had to do) and are now really pushing the OS with carriers like HTC and Nokia bringing out great hardware.<p>If they want to compete, sometime next year is not good enough in my opinion. If they can build something compelling they'll be 4th if they just kept their current customers on board with a new OS.<p>Blackberry already has touchscreen phones and the people using Blackberry's seem to avoid them because they want to stay in that age with the physical keyboards and classic handsets, if they do switch to QNX will people switch to iOS or Android?

If iOS has 17% of the market, having 12-15% is not something to be ashamed of. It still represents billions upon billions of business every year.<p>Sometimes its better to set realistic but achievable goals than to aim for the sky and flop.

Good luck to them but I just can't see this happening.<p>1) I worked with their app store previously. It was a nightmare so I see hurdles building this asset.<p>2) The mobile environment is being increasing linked to the desktop/home environments and other on cloud services for the best experience and they don't have a great foothold here.<p>3) The business sector has largely let them go now. A few years back they could have used this as a strong launching platform but this advantage has gone.<p>On the other hand the interface looked cool and they could trump everything if this is coupled with reasonable hardware.

RIM's management fails to see they don't sell phones. They sell enterprise communication. Or they used to, before BYOD happened.<p>Never confuse the boxes being moved with your business.<p>Either they embrace BYOD and convert themselves into mostly a software/services company (maybe with a full-stack hardware/sopftware option), or they risk becoming a cautionary tale.

Nothing gets a team motivated like aspiring to be the #3 player in a market, right? Pragmatic perhaps but this messaging would seem to be pretty demotivating.

RIM still has quite a bit in cash reserves. Traditionally the haven't listened to their users since they've been on top. They had the rug pulled out beneath them and hopefully are starting to listen. I'm interested to see if BB10 can really make a splash. I think aiming for #3 is a achievable goal. If they become a true #3, I wouldn't be surprised if some loyal customers coming back if BB10 works.

Reach for the stars, RIM. Reach for the stars!

RIM need to go open and utilise the crowd if they have any chance of keeping up with Google and Apple.

"Guys? Guys?! Hey...c'mon, I was just kidding ... #9 is totally cool too! ... .. . Guys?"

I keep expecting Dell or HP to buy RIM and merge with Yahoo and Opera.

RIM is already #3 in US from a platform standpoint. All they need to do is stay there. Also, the BYOD trend may be strong, but RIM made some interesting enterprise features for BB10 that the others don't have. Unless the others quickly replicate those, I could see RIM have a shot in enterprise at least, again.

Why not number one?

I'm rooting for either one of BlackberryOS, FirefoxOS, Jolla or Tizen to be the #3 mobile ecosystem.