On Thursday RIM's CEO Thorsten Heins will be releasing RIM's fourth-quarter results to the public, and his first as RIM's new CEO. As analysts and investors hurry to write off another poor quarter there are other things that need to be considered before this one is counted as a loss. RIM's marketing and financial dismay has been a hot topic on Wall Street over past year.
The cry for change by some may have been answered earlier this year when RIM's then Co-CEO's
Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis stepped down. The replacement Chief Operating Officer Thorsten Heins, vowed to improve the current situation by increasing market value, but still embraced the philosophy of his predecessors of "not sacrificing long-term value for short-term gain".
Whether or not that philosophy is key to RIM's success will be determined over the next few quarters, but not this one. The bottom line is that Mr. Heins's simply has not had adequate time to turn a large company like RIM around.
Impractical Expectations
Unrealistic expectations fuel most of the impracticable views of RIM. There are two views that shape RIM, and they are from two completely different spectrum's. The two views can be further broken down into two groups The BlackBerry Community, and Financial Investors, the latter of the two being the driving force behind RIM's public image. The fact is that investors simply look at where the dollar is today they don't care about hopes and dreams or what could happen they care about whats going on in Wall Street right now with the dollar.
The BlackBerry community on the other hand looks beyond the financial circumstances and are more concerned about what a device can offer them. Apps, games, utilities, social connections, and functionality mold the opinions of this group. Although the cost of devices does factor in at times, it's not necessarily the underlying factor of their perception of a company.
The problem is the expectations and opinions of investors and bankers trump those of the BlackBerry community, but isn't that the way its supposed to be. Not necessarily there was a time were the BlackBerry community was larger than it is today, and had a much bigger impact on how the public viewed RIM. The larger the community the better chance of survival devices have of succeeding.
The Doom And Gloom Blues
Let's just forget about the doom and gloom blues for a second and focus back on the bigger picture. Change takes time, and before people start writing RIM off they need to remember the old cliché " Rome was not built in a day" neither was RIM. The fact is, changes on this level take days, months, and sometimes even years.
Yes, we all know that RIM delayed the BlackBerry 10 devices. Let RIM take their time releasing a superior device to the masses that will blow out the competition. Let developers take their time reviewing and analyzing the device so they can create high quality apps and get familiar with a new UI.
We already know that
RIM is giving BlackBerry 10 Jam attendees a prototype device. In addition, the BB 10 Native SDK, WebWorks SDK, Adobe Air SDK, and Android SDK will also be available. So what does this mean. It means that developers only have a few months to get familiar with BB 10. Considering we are expected to see a BB 10 device later in the year, is it really enough time for developers to get familiar with BB 10?
A New Start
RIM has a new start, and it began at the top, and they need time to get off the ground. That new start is BB 10, the excitement and the interest from the public is there once again. BB 10 is chance for RIM to really take advantage of the public's interest. Maybe RIM instead of releasing just one super phone release two, and leave us wanting more, perhaps even announce a series.
Gaining momentum and rolling with it will be key for RIM to bounce back. Yes, RIM will most likely announce some missed targets, but it's still early for the new team at RIM.
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