So I had a chance to listen to RIM's AGM meeting today and I've got to say, all in all, it was a let down. Overall investors were mostly upset with the board and applauded when one investor suggested the board who has overseen RIM's fall should be tossed to the curb.
I say this was a let down though for a different reason. One of the questions, and unfortunately I can't remember how it was worded precisely, was an inquiry in to BB10's feature set. Basically, what's coming in BB10.
Heins responded that, once again I can't remember the exact words (btw, that's always a sign of weak messaging, when people can't remember your response a few hours later), RIM must remain tight lipped about these things for competitive reasons.
With all due respect to RIM.... bullshit.
I'll tell you why it was a lame response. The notion that competitors don't know what RIM has cooking in BB10 is ridiculous.
The reason is very simple and straight forward and it occurs in every single tech company out there.
RIM does business with a variety of huge customers, primarily carriers, but also CIO/CTO's at large corporations. The primary contact with those customers is the RIM sales guy / account manager. The RIM sales guy has to keep those customers on the hook as they wait for BB10. The way they do this is by telling them what is coming in BB10 (off the record of course).
Now these same customers also have relationships with Google and Apple (via their respective sales folks).
I can guarantee you, across hundreds, perhaps thousands of customers who are being given the inside scoop on BB10 at least one of them (if not dozens or hundreds) are leaking that information to their contacts at Apple and Google. They aren't doing this to hurt RIM, it's just the reality of human relationships.
If RIM has some magical applications or user experience on BB10, I guarantee that their large customers know about it and by association so do Apple and Google.
So this line about needing to be 'tight lipped' for competitive reasons is simply not true in my opinion.
The reason they don't want to talk about the feature set is because I don't think they know what it will be yet. Which casts doubt on whether Heins is being honest when he says that BB10 is essentially finished, but they had issues with perfecting the polish on it (putting all the pieces together in a seamless fashion) and he won't release a product that is not of the highest quality.
If what Heins is saying was true, then they should know exactly what BB10's feature set is. Yes, there may be work to do having all these features integrated in to a seamless OS, but the capabilities of BB10 should be a known at this point.
The only reason not to discuss more openly BB10's feature set is if there is a marketing plan where in such activity is already timelined.
Which brings us to another item. RIM is now saying that BB10 will be released in January (provided all goes according to plan).
Really RIM? You've gone from the non-specific calendar Q1 2013, to the first month? Have we not seen this story before and does it not always lead to missing deadlines? But I guess when BB10 doesn't come out in January they will be able to say 'Q1 has always been our hard target though, January was merely a hope we had'.
Anyway, I'm still holding the stock simply because I think it's an interesting play over the next few months, and I still believe a speculative trend regarding RIM will unfold over the coming month. That said, I was dumb not to sell the other day when I had a 12 per cent profit locked in and then I would have bought back in today at depressed prices.
All said and done though, RIM sure isn't helping things by remaining 'tight lipped' over the product upon which its very survival rests.
At the very least they should rip down the Blackberry homepage and put up an exciting splash landing page that is all about BB10 (let's face it, if RIM's future depends wholly on BB10, then you might as well embrace that reality now). You don't have to give a ton of details, but you have to exhibit something that gets people buzzing about the new OS.
January is only six months off. If they want any kind of buzz to exist come January, the need to start marketing BB10 now, even if that is only through low-cost mechanisms such as their Web site and social media outlets.
If they wait until January to even talk about BB10's value in the market then the are cutting their own throats, because six months of silence from RIM will deflate the interest in any marketing campaign they run in January.
But who knows, maybe RIM is looking really long term, as Heins keeps mentioning this is about making RIM strong for the next 10 years. But realistically, they have 6-12 months to turn the ship around and everything hinges on BB10. Failure to do so and there will not be 10 more years left in RIM.
I say this was a let down though for a different reason. One of the questions, and unfortunately I can't remember how it was worded precisely, was an inquiry in to BB10's feature set. Basically, what's coming in BB10.
With all due respect to RIM.... bullshit.
I'll tell you why it was a lame response. The notion that competitors don't know what RIM has cooking in BB10 is ridiculous.
The reason is very simple and straight forward and it occurs in every single tech company out there.
RIM does business with a variety of huge customers, primarily carriers, but also CIO/CTO's at large corporations. The primary contact with those customers is the RIM sales guy / account manager. The RIM sales guy has to keep those customers on the hook as they wait for BB10. The way they do this is by telling them what is coming in BB10 (off the record of course).
Now these same customers also have relationships with Google and Apple (via their respective sales folks).
I can guarantee you, across hundreds, perhaps thousands of customers who are being given the inside scoop on BB10 at least one of them (if not dozens or hundreds) are leaking that information to their contacts at Apple and Google. They aren't doing this to hurt RIM, it's just the reality of human relationships.
If RIM has some magical applications or user experience on BB10, I guarantee that their large customers know about it and by association so do Apple and Google.
So this line about needing to be 'tight lipped' for competitive reasons is simply not true in my opinion.
The reason they don't want to talk about the feature set is because I don't think they know what it will be yet. Which casts doubt on whether Heins is being honest when he says that BB10 is essentially finished, but they had issues with perfecting the polish on it (putting all the pieces together in a seamless fashion) and he won't release a product that is not of the highest quality.
If what Heins is saying was true, then they should know exactly what BB10's feature set is. Yes, there may be work to do having all these features integrated in to a seamless OS, but the capabilities of BB10 should be a known at this point.
The only reason not to discuss more openly BB10's feature set is if there is a marketing plan where in such activity is already timelined.
Which brings us to another item. RIM is now saying that BB10 will be released in January (provided all goes according to plan).
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| BB10 now coming in January? |
Anyway, I'm still holding the stock simply because I think it's an interesting play over the next few months, and I still believe a speculative trend regarding RIM will unfold over the coming month. That said, I was dumb not to sell the other day when I had a 12 per cent profit locked in and then I would have bought back in today at depressed prices.
All said and done though, RIM sure isn't helping things by remaining 'tight lipped' over the product upon which its very survival rests.
At the very least they should rip down the Blackberry homepage and put up an exciting splash landing page that is all about BB10 (let's face it, if RIM's future depends wholly on BB10, then you might as well embrace that reality now). You don't have to give a ton of details, but you have to exhibit something that gets people buzzing about the new OS.
January is only six months off. If they want any kind of buzz to exist come January, the need to start marketing BB10 now, even if that is only through low-cost mechanisms such as their Web site and social media outlets.
If they wait until January to even talk about BB10's value in the market then the are cutting their own throats, because six months of silence from RIM will deflate the interest in any marketing campaign they run in January.
But who knows, maybe RIM is looking really long term, as Heins keeps mentioning this is about making RIM strong for the next 10 years. But realistically, they have 6-12 months to turn the ship around and everything hinges on BB10. Failure to do so and there will not be 10 more years left in RIM.
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