Amidst an abysmal quarterly earnings report, which saw former CEO and Chairman Jim Balsillie tender his resignation from the company, one thing became painfully clear: Blackberry 10 is not going to save RIM. Unless RIM unveils a completely revamped strategy alongside Blackberry 10, RIM’s attempt to get back on top of the smartphone market will fall far short.
Speculation arose out of RIM’s earnings call yesterday that the company would exit the consumer market altogether and focus efforts on wooing back enterprise customers, many of which have already defected to Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android platforms for their tablet and smartphone needs. Such a move would make sense for RIM, as even with the above-mentioned strategy overhaul RIM’s chances of success in the market appear rather grim.
It seems RIM is not ready to give up the consumer market fight just yet. RIM’s MD of Global Sales and Regional marketing Patrick Spense issued a statement addressing the issue.
We remain committed to all of our Customers (consumer & enterprise) and are enhancing our support/solutions for enterprise…[our] goal is to help our enterprise customers capitalise [sic] on the opportunities presented by consumerization while minimizing risks.
While not abandoning the consumer ship altogether, RIM’s focus will clearly been on bolstering their enterprise offerings, which helped make the company a runaway success before that pesky suave new kid from Cupertino came around to spoil the fun. Perhaps with this increased focus, they can end a 5 year period of stagnation and truly find ways to innovate once more.
