RIP RIM

With the release of Apple's Iphone 5 I foundly remember the once dominate Blackberry.

Research in Motion (RIM) at one point was the leader in the smartphone world. From the mid 2000's through 2010 Blackberry phones were seen as upscale and necessary devices. This was especially true for the professional on the move. However I believe it was this tight relationship with that "professional" that began to stagnate inovation with the Blackberry itself. You could see this with their limited development of apps (applications).

What RIM lost sight of in my opnion was that most people expect their smartphone to be "all things for all occasions". This simply means that the smartphone today needs to keep you connected to work with the ability to easily access files as well as keeping you in constant contact with your co-workers and clients. Now this is where RIM dropped the ball and continues to fumble. Most users of smartphones only carry one, both for work and personal use. The world we live in today is connected and fast. Because of this smartphone users also expect access to services like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube as well as countless other consumer services. Consumers expect all of these services to be available at the same time, on the same device. I am not sure that RIM every truly understood the importance of this.

Today as Apple and Android battle it out for dominace in mobile technology (smartphones and tablets) RIM as been forced to the sideline. I believe RIM only recently realized that they were in serious trouble. In an effort to remain relevent RIM released their own tablet, "The Blackberry Playbook" in 2010. This device failed to make a dent in IPAD or even Android tablet sales. Once again RIM missed the boat on current technology trends. The "Blackberry Playbook" had limited apps available and proved basicly to be a larger version of the Blackberry smartphone.

The largest customer base for RIM at this time is state and federal government. Government is usually taking up the rear in technology trends but even this last customer base is beginning to erode. As Apple and Android continue to challenge each other with innovating new mobile technologies this last customer base will continue to drindle. When that happens, probably within the next year, RIM will probably finally rest in peace.