Alex Knight:
I have spoken friends of mine who have been long-time Blackberry fans, and they aren’t holding their breath for any miraculous event where the company will suddenly bounce back.
This is a key point. Not even RIM’s loyal followers believe there is a chance in hell the company can recover from its embarrassing missteps over the last few years. Even at its worst times, Apple’s core customers believed in the company.
Not even sure why anyone (Besides the inflated egos at RIM) compare the two companies at all. They are not in the same ballpark, they don’t even play the same sport. It’s like comparing a Ringette team to the entire NHL. One is a small Nokia-like company that makes handsets (and tried to make a tablet, but ended up just making a less functional handset), the other is a razor focused consumer electronics juggernaut, one of the most valuable companies in the world.
I know a lot of government folks switched from BlackBerry to iPhone after seeing RIM’s progress (or lack of) in the past few years.
I can tell you that maybe idiotic Apple fans didn’t lose faith in the company — but Steve Jobs certainly did in 2002/2003.
Steve Jobs GAVE UP more than $10 billions of Apple stock options in 2002-2003.