Do not ask for whom the bell tolls, RIM. It tolls for thee. The death knell has been struck. And unless RIM makes some dramatic changes, the BlackBerry is going to be relegated to an “also ran” device. There are five areas that Research In Motion needs to address quickly before losing the battle entirely to Apple.
Ask almost any Joe or Josephine Random in the IT sector this question “Who is Steve Jobs?” and you’re almost guaranteed a 100% correct response worldwide. Depending on what side of the Holy War you ask, you might also get a mixture of “saviour”, “miracle worker”, “satan in the flesh”, or “the personification of evil”. Now, ask the same sampling of people “What does Jim Balsillie do?” and you’ll mostly get blank stares outside of the US and Canada. You’re may possibly going to get an earful, from the American hockey supporters, about Jim’s attempt to take over the Phoenix Coyotes. RIM needs a public face, an image to connect to. A very quick search on Google doesn’t seem to show any international whistle-stop tours by either of RIM’s top-dogs, Jim Balsillie or Mike Lazaridis, nor does any such information appear on RIM’s news or press release pages. Either Jim and Mike are afraid of flying, or their feet are nailed to the floor. Or is it just a lack of regard for the international marketplace.
In fact, I would tend to believe that it is this last factor, a lack of regard for the international marketplace, is the core cultural issue that RIM needs to address. On April 1st, almost 5 months ago, the BlackBerry App World was released to the world of BlackBerry users. Well, no, not really. Only if you are lucky enough to live in the US, Canada and the UK. The App “World” was recently extended to some more European countries,