Skip to main content

RIM keeps falling

Looks like there's no floor for RIM.

With the departure of their CEOs, the company doesn't seem to be having any luck regaining market confidence.

Some interesting stories broke on RIM that paint a gloomy future:

VW agrees to kick the "Crackberry" habit

RIM’s BlackBerry loses ground to Apple, Android in the U.S. federal government

RIM falls on report big customer also buying iPhones

On a positive note (or at least what passes for a positive note on RIM) photos have leaked of BB10.

Leaked BlackBerry 10 Pics Reveal Slick New Interface


To be honest, it doesn't blow my socks off. It basically looks like the Android system.


RIM's stock hit $14.55 today, when I called $15 bucks a share six months ago I thought that was a brazen call, turns out it wasn't brazen enough.

I continue to argue that RIM's problem is less on the technology and apps side and more on the marketing side. No one knows what RIM is about anymore and more importantly who they will be in the future.

I'm enjoying my Google Nexus phone, but I have to admit, there have been times when I've though a blackberry would have been better. The value of the Nexus is definitely the apps story, but at the same time, just how many apps are any good on a smartphone? I'd argue very few. There are maybe six apps that I actually care about on my Nexus, all of which are available on a blackberry.

The real problem is that buying a RIM is now associated with buying an inferior product. It's purely a brand problem and one that doesn't seem to be going away.

Could RIM hit $10 a share? What about five bucks a share?

What worries me about RIM is the thought of what will happen to the company if we have another economic crash (which is in the cards if you ask me). What would a good 30-40 percent stock market crash do to the stock? In such an event it's not impossible that RIM could crash down to the five dollar range or lower.

If there was a rabbit RIM was going to pull out of their hat they would have done it by now. Unfortunately I think we are watching a slow and painful death.

From a PR perspective there's not much left for them to do. Flashy commercials won't generate consumer interest at this point, more news releases won't help much either. One of the worst moments for a PR person is the moment when they realize that there's nothing left to do, that the game has been played out and there's nothing left to do now but manage the decline in as graceful a way as possible.

RIM needs to redefine its vision and give the company a total face lift when it comes to its marketing and PR... but without that vision redefined any marketing / PR efforts will be tantamount to pushing on string.

If they had the ability to redefine their vision they would have by now.

Alas, it's time to bid RIM good night on the PR front, it was a good run while it lasted.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Morgan Freeman Botches Reddit IAmA - Black Eye on PR

For those not familiar with Reddit it's basically a forum where people post interesting things on a wide variety of subjects. Postings gain popularity when people 'up vote' them and become more visible in their particular subreddit (a subreddit is simply a subject category, like politics or videos). One of Reddit's most popular subreddits is the IAmA subreddit - which allows reddit users to ask questions of various people. Over three million people subscribe to IAmA, which is also widely used by celebrities. An IAmA can last a couple hours during which Redditors (the term Reddit users call themselves) can ask the person doing the IAmA questions. The term "IAmA" comes from the concept of "I Am A doctor, ask me anything", "I Am A movie star, ask me anything" - you get the drift. IAmA's are not just for celebrities, lots of common folks do them as well. Recently Morgan Freeman did an IAmA  and it turned into a PR mess. To make a lo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mainstream versus Alternate Media - Where is the news now-a-days?

It's well known that CNN has been suffering an exodus of viewers, losing over half their viewership over the past couple of years. Yet Fox News has not lost viewers, but has increased its viewership slightly. It's an odd phenomena given that Fox news is clearly biased in their coverage. Mind you, so is CNN according to many. But I'd suggest it comes down to something much more simple.  While Fox may be holding its ground, the rise of alternative media is taking off where CNN left off - a focus on hard news. For those of the under 40 crowd, that's what they are looking for, NEWS. The simplest way to highlight the difference between mainstream media and alternative media is to take a look at their homepages and the stories they highlight. It becomes very clear why people are turning away from CNN and turning to alternative media. Let's look at five media sites and their homepage (click on pictures to enlarge): CNN Feature stories: CNN heroes Top t...
Post a Comment
Read more

E-cigarettes: A PR battle Health Canada cannot win?

So I've now been using an e-cigarette (e-cig) for two months and thought I'd talk a bit about how I see the upcoming battle between Health Canada and e-cigs going. First though, let's do a quick overview of what exactly an e-cig is. Basically an e-cig vaporizes liquid that contains nicotine. The vapor is then inhaled. People who use e-cigs are called vapers (not smokers). Because the liquid is atomized (ie. vaporized), not burned the way tobacco is, vapers do not consider themselves 'smokers' in anyway. An e-cig is comprised of basically three components: The tank - this is the component that holds the juice (sometimes referred to as e-juice or e-liquid). The atomizer - this a coil and wick unit that atomizes the juice. When the coil is heated (from the battery) it atomizes the juice that has soaked into the wick. The battery - batteries for e-cigs come in various capacities (some last 8 hours, others 40+ hours, depending on their size).  The ba...
3 comments
Read more