Research In Motion Reports Desaster

by Volker Weber

Excerpt:

  • Revenue of $2.8 billion in Q1, down 33% from $4.2 billion in the prior quarter
  • GAAP net loss in Q1 of $518 million or $0.99 per share diluted; adjusted net loss of $192 million or $0.37 per share diluted
  • Shipments of BlackBerry smartphones were 7.8 million and shipments of BlackBerry PlayBook tablets were approximately 260,000
  • BlackBerry 10 smartphone launch now scheduled for Q1 of calendar 2013

The company will let 5000 people go. No BlackBerry 10 devices this year. The slide is going to continue.

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Comments

Great time to buy new BlackBerries for the enterprise - they'll might come rather cheap...

Peter Meuser, 2012-06-29

@Peter those (cheap) BlackBerrys are useless without RIM's infrastructure ...

Jan-Piet Mens, 2012-06-29

The infrastructure makes a profit. It will survive.

Volker Weber, 2012-06-29

There is still nothing at the bottom end of the smartphone market that matches a Blackberry. The numbers here don't lie: we have around 80 non-Blackberry smartphones (mostly iPhones) deployed versus almost 400 Blackberries. The BBs are small, have great battery life, and are still brilliant at doing one thing well (email). They're also liked for low data usage and better security in comparison to smartphones. And of course, they're cheaper - ¢150 for a base model Curve. Certainly important to us when an iPhone costs almost 3 times that. Our Blackberry estate has increased by around 10% this year.

Alan Head, 2012-06-29

Alan, why are there non-BlackBerry smartphones in your IT sphere? Private-owned devices? Need for more than email? ...

Peter Meuser, 2012-06-29

We talked about this topic sometime last year on this site, the Blackberry infastructure is useless for the majority of small to medium businesses that use Exchange 2010 , Domino 8.5.2., Gmail. Assuming you have IT tech that can set up a reverse proxy, not sure why you need someone else to route your mobile email that now has a blured line between desktop and mobile in terms of speed and power. You can use active-sync over SSL with client certificates and that is a good secure solution for most companies. ( if you need more security then that you definitely should have someone who can handle routing your email securely for mobile and desktops. ) Add any number of third party management platforms for device management and you have a solution that is a fraction of a Blackbery Enterprise Server with your mail staying in your country.

There is no reason for push email and never quite figured out why someone even cared, the speed at which an iphone or android logs in and retrieves email is faster then the time ti takes to enter the password on the device, that even a blackbery should have a device password now days.

Just saying, I told you so just some how does not cover it well enough.

Rich Hunter, 2012-07-02

One customer of mine: all board level communication is Notes-encrypted. Firewall blocks all inbound connections. Three digit number of BlackBerrys. Draw a plan without them.

Volker Weber, 2012-07-02

@Alan

"Our Blackberry estate has increased by around 10% this year."

What about your non-Blackberry estate? If that has grown less you are certainly the exception to the rule.

Paul Mooney, 2012-07-02

@Rich, nothing, I repeat NOTHING, is easier to set up and better integrated than a BES, particularly compared to the bundle of moving parts (reverse proxy, active-sync over SSL, client certificates) you're proposing.

It's been a while since I last checked, but I believe small businesses still get a BES with a limited number of CALs free of charge, and you don't need any number of third party management platforms for device management. Larger organizations often get BES CALs at for a pittance from their mobile telco.

From a security standpoint, it's hard to beat a Blackberry Enterprise Server setup: outgoing connections only, end-to-end encyryption, and built-in device management, are some of the more important features for a number of organizations.

Jan-Piet Mens, 2012-07-03

@ Jan-Piet

1) As I stated , IT professionals should have no issue with a reverse proxy, Netscaler, or F5 setup which is common place for large Corps. The small to medium businesses is where I was saying that a reverse proxy will do them a good service assuming they already have webmail, iNotes, Outlook Web Access, or Gmail.

2) The Cals are not going to be subsidised by the Telco's any more since they are not making the profits on the overpriced Blackberry's they once did. In fact it looks like they can't even give them away free, nobody wants them. ( check out what a new Blackberry goes for compared to a new Android or iPhone).

3) Security, I do not work for the CIA, yeah my work product is important and should be private, I think that it will be harder to show someone's active sync connection being hacked verses the internal email server on the local LAN.

@Volker

You are telling me you have customers that have no DMZ without any two way communications, do they have port 25 open for SMTP traffic? Do they have port 80 or 443 or 8080 open for web services? If not they are running out of the cloud and have someone else hosting their assets and just don't realize it or they are not doing any collaboration which is what we really should be talking about and not email.

Just saying

Rich Hunter, 2012-07-05

Do they have port 80 or 443 or 8080 open for web services

No. And you will have to leave your mobile phone at the front desk. Even if it's a RAZR. Your turn.

Volker Weber, 2012-07-05

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