Analyst: BlackBerry use at work facing new low
updated 11:30 am EDT, Tue September 7, 2010
Goldman urges RIM sell in face of Android, iPhone
BlackBerry adoption at work is dropping fast, Goldman Sachs analyst Simona Jankowski warned on Tuesday. In a study tracking corporate plans for the next six months, plans to shrink their BlackBerry use grew from just four percent last October to 21 percent in August. Meanwhile, those who wanted to expand BlackBerry use dropped to 54 percent, down from 68 percent a year earlier.
Much more doubt also exists, the study pointed out: uncertainty about BlackBerry plans reached a new high of 13 percent where it had been just two percent in the previous study.
Jankowski reiterated her call to sell RIM stock and attributed the lack of confidence in the BlackBerry to corporate buyers veering away from the phone for their workers. Many are now at least considering Android or iPhone, either to avoid being overly dependent on one company or to satisfy staff that had been demanding they use their own phones. Some companies have been adding options or, less commonly, switching entirely to another platform.
Some of the objection has been RIM's insistence on conservative devices like the Curve 3G and only reluctantly exploring touchscreens like the Torch.
RIM might not have room to afford such a leap. It has lost smartphone share even as it gained absolute cellphone share, since many smartphone rivals might be smaller but are gaining at much faster rates. [via Barron's]
TAGS :
iPhone, Investor, industry, Google, Android, BlackBerry, Research in Motion, mobile phones, Apple, Goldman Sachs
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Oct 2004
RIM doesn't understand the market
They understand perhaps where they can optimize profits for next quarter - but that's why they will fail.
They need to have a flagship phone. Introducing BB OS 6 with the torch - a low end phone, at a high price, on an at&t exclusive, is just bizarre. But they made that type of bizarre mistake, because they are looking at their internals, and not, understanding the wider marketplace.
Meanwhile MS is staging their comeback into smartphones with a dual 1.5ghz processor, 1GB of RAM, dual camera, 4g, 4.5" super AMOLED touchscreen phone (HTC HD3) among other phones - doing what you need to do to stage a comeback, create buzz around a flagship phone that truly impresses. Yes, MS has a partner in HTC, but if RIM is going it alone, they need to make similar decisions.
That's the problem with RIM, and eventually the weakness of Apple too. They look at their internal data and maximize profits, try to avoid 'cannibalizing' sales - meanwhile in the Android space its a free for all, and yes, cannibalizing market segments is a good thing - for the consumer.
The 'inefficiency' of a free market system always wins over the smart decision making of central planners. RIM is doomed first. After that Apple is going to be moved into a high end niche.
Google with Android and, a resurgent Microsoft, will be the major players.