Yesterday RIM stock fell to a four-year low, because — and I put this in quotes because it’s ridiculous — “observers weighed-in on the impact of Apple’s iMessage, the just-announced iOS 5 instant-messaging app that could steal (yet again) RIM’s thunder.” That’s a quote from a Cult of Mac article titled, Wall Street Agrees: Apple’s iMessage Will Kill Blackberry. Talk about a doozy.
Listen, I get that everyone’s really jacked up about WWDC and the announcements that were made on Monday, but to claim that a messaging application is going to kill off a phone company like RIM entirely is a little bit absurd. Sure, Research in Motion (RIM) is in a heap of trouble, but let’s not pretend that iMessage is the root cause for that destruction. RIM’s management and RIM’s recent stupid decisions are to blame, not iMessages.
iMessages is great, and the fact that it works seamlessly with SMS, 3G, and Wi-Fi is great. I’m not sure it’s going to be as successful as these Wall St. geniuses think it may be, but that’s an article for another day. RIM was in trouble before iMessage, and they’ll continue to be in trouble well into the future unless they get their stuff together in the short term.
People sold off their RIM stock because of RIM’s failure to keep up, and Apple’s, as well as others’, innovation in the sector. iMessages, which hasn’t even shipped to the public yet, may be the final straw that breaks the camel’s back, but rest assured, that camel was old and busted to begin with. That, and that alone, is why RIM is struggling at the stock exchange — failure after failure, not iMessages.
Article Via Cult of Mac
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Here's another security breach at a bank - and the attacks will only increase - esp. with "...more consumers use devices such as iPhones, iPads, and Android-enabled phones for financial services, the more enticing mobile devices become for cybercriminals." Check out link below:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304778304576375911873193624.html
This is why RIM mobile security is both such an advantage and requirement in the enterprise sector - and perhaps why RIM has had to do a little less innovation than it otherwise would in order to maintain the high-level security value proposition. Think of Citi's replacement costs just for new cards - at 20$ a piece, that's a 4 million dollar cost, not including the millions more for security investigations, dealing with litigation and/or customer complaints, loss of goodwill, etc.
Just some thoughts...
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LikeIncidentally, a 17-year-old kid from turkey hacked the iOS5 only one day after its intro. That is the one issue with Apple: it is not secure enough to fend off what it needs to in order to remove RIM from the table.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/06/gizmodo-claims-ios-5-hacked-one-day-after-being-announced.html
Security is not Apple's raison d'etre, as it were, but it is a cornerstone of RIM's value proposition. Apple needs to work in this area.
thx
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LikeApple copies BBM off of RIM, and you call this innovation?
Apple innovates plenty, but iMessage is not up there. RIM innovates, but have not successfully grabbed the consumer space since they lack the eco-system of Apple and the diversity and flexibility of Android's platform.
They are a pretty large company to compare to PALM (who never made a profit in any quarter) so the "kill" headlines are premature.
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LikeI heard it was due to the ability to italicize in iOS 5 Mail. People have been waiting for that for years! ;-)
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LikeItalics really does bring a whole new level of sexiness to a mobile device.
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