BlackBerry

How BlackBerry fell

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Vauhini Vara for The New Yorker:

“In terms of a sort of a sea change for BlackBerry,” the company’s co-C.E.O Jim Balsillie said at the time, referring to the iPhone’s impact on the industry, “I would think that’s overstating it.”

To me, the reason that BlackBerry fell is the attitude of it’s co-CEOs at the time. That was the company’s downfall and it went on so long, they may never be able to recover.

More layoffs at BlackBerry

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Not a big surprise, but I always feel bad for the workers. I hate seeing anyone lose their job, especially when it’s because a company is being mismanaged.

BlackBerry set to cut more jobs

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As part of its restructuring, the company is planning to cut more jobs across middle management in the sales and support divisions, say people familiar with the matter, on top of the 5,000 layoffs last fiscal year.

Part of the latest cuts included Richard Piasentin, the company’s vice president for sales in the U.S., who was fired last month, these people said.

At some point there will be no more fat to cut from the company. I doubt it’s the sales teams fault—It sounds more like people just don’t want the product.

What. The. Fuck.

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BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins:

“In five years I don’t think there’ll be a reason to have a tablet anymore,” Heins said in an interview yesterday at the Milken Institute conference in Los Angeles. “Maybe a big screen in your workspace, but not a tablet as such. Tablets themselves are not a good business model.”

The PlayBook may not be a good model, but the iPad is doing just fine.

Eulogy for BlackBerry

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Kevin Roose on his using his BlackBerry Z10 review unit:

But then you died. After four days of trying you out, for no reason at all, you simply refused to turn on. I removed and replaced your battery, tried to manually reset you, and even connected you to my laptop to see if I could revive you that way. But you stayed there, motionless and dark, the lifeblood drained from your mini-USB port.

Hey, what’s that noise? BlackBerry circling the drain.

No more BlackBerry in Japan

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BlackBerry will stop selling smartphones in Japan, partly because the company cannot justify the cost of modifying its operating system to accommodate the Japanese language.

Lucky Japanese.

BlackBerry asshats

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BlackBerry’s CEO said handsets in the UK were selling out, but retailers say they aren’t sold out at all.

Oopsie.

And then BlackBerry takes a page from Amazon with this statement:

“In Canada, yesterday was the best day ever for the first day of a launch of a new BlackBerry smartphone. In fact, it was more than 50% better than any other launch day in our history in Canada.

No numbers — 50% more than what? Did you sell six BlackBerry’s?

A kick in the balls for RIM

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Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer:

We literally are moving the company from BlackBerrys to smartphones. One of the really important things for Yahoo’s strategy moving forward is mobile.

Sweet Jesus, what else can happen to RIM. Seriously.

Nothing, absolutely nothing goes right for RIM

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BlackBerry or iPhone? It’s been a battle for years, but Apple’s smartphone offering may be the healthier pick for anyone with allergies, according to new research from the U.S.Nickel used in the production of the Canadian Research In Motion product has been found on the device’s buttons and keyboards, where it could cause an allergic reaction such as dry, itchy skin, says a study presented at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI).

What happens next, you touch a BlackBerry and puppies cry out in pain?

BlackBerry 10 likely dead on arrival

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“We believe BB10 is likely to be DOA,” James Faucette, a Pacific Crest analyst in Portland, Oregon, said in a report. He has the equivalent of a sell rating on the shares. “We expect the new OS to be met with a lukewarm response at best and ultimately likely to fail.”

Well, RIM has its patents.

Federal agency dumps RIM for iPhone

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The agency said it has relied on RIM for eight years, but the company “can no longer meet the mobile technology needs of the agency.”It also said it analyzed Apple’s iOS-based devices and Google Inc’s Android operating system and concluded that, for the near term, Apple’s iPhone services offer the best technology for the agency because of Apple’s tight controls of the hardware platform and operating system.

Seriously, who’s surprised? They could have gone with Android, but it leaks passwords like a sieve.

Being ashamed of your BlackBerry

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“I’m ashamed of it,” said Ms. Crosby, a Los Angeles sales representative who said she had stopped pulling out her BlackBerry at cocktail parties and conferences. In meetings, she says she hides her BlackBerry beneath her iPad for fear clients will see it and judge her.

They’ve fallen so far.

BlackBerry 10 delayed until March

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Research In Motion is not likely to launch the much-anticipated BlackBerry 10 operating system software until March 2013, Jefferies analyst Peter Misek asserts in a research note. To date, the company has only said it expects to debut the first BB 10 devices in the calendar first quarter.

Not a single thing is going right at RIM.