Blackberry Rant, or open letter to new RIM CEO
Dear Thorsten Heins:
It looks like under your leadership the company is trying to go back in time. Tell you what: It is impossible - the past does not exist anymore. People are not getting phones from their companies. People are companies - small businesses where just a handful of founders work. Of course it would be very lucrative to focus on big-quantity, prices-do-not-matter sales like governments, banks, corporations. But it is wrong way - even though those sales make complete sense (high margin, high volume, low support.) I would outline weaknesses of Blackberry, strength of Blackberry, and throw in few ideas. I am forty-one. I grew up in Soviet Union, moved to U.S. (through Ottawa) in 1996, worked for enterprises, startups, consulted, started my company. I now live in Ukraine and travel about 12 times a year. I keep two Blackberries (one for U.S. and one for Ukraine.) I love them. And I hate them. I tried three different Android models, many Nokias, and of course iPhone. I keep coming back. I would tell you why. But first, some recollection of the past. I got my first blackberry (the one with simplified keyboard and roller on right hand side) in 2004 (GSM model from T-mobile US.) SInce then, I got same from Verizon, full-keyboard GSM (Curve) from T-mobile, another one from T-mobile (Bold), and Storm2 I use overseas. Why I became fan of RIM products? Because it was popular, because data plan was unlimited and cheap (like $30), but the most important ---
Because it worked, flawlessly. My Blackberry was like that Kalashnikov gun I learned to disassemble in university. It never failed. It lasted long on single charge. Emails arrived in one second. You can drop it and it survived. I can use buttons to invoke menu commands. Everything was integrated - my hardware, OS, applications, email server. It was flawless. This was until 2008 or so.
Then I noticed something. I moved to Europe, travelled, and found many less people using Blackberries (I except UK - wasn't there.) Why? Fewer corporations, data plans more expensive, devices hard to import. I don't know. I know one thing: RIM failed at global branding.
There is also too much choice of devices -- and there is a compromises to be made. Look at Apple - I would repeat this later, for different reasons - they offer one device model each year or so with only difference in memory size, body color, and network capabilities (CDMA vs GSM, but only recently.)
In comparison, my trip to blackberry.com shows me 21 recent models - with no way to even hide those which use CDMA or GSM. I was looking for something to replace my aging Storm2 - a modern pure touch-screen device. I wrote off Torch series as 9810 is hybrid (slider keyboard) and 9860/9850 looked like Android to me (can't tell why - maybe it is green color? screen proportions?)
I found nothing on US site, then I found Curve model 9380 on Canadian site which had almost same selection of devices - and was considering buying it when careful look at specs showed it lacks micro-SD card slot and has meager 512M of internal flash memory.
This is the general problem with RIM offerings - every time new set of devices comes, each of them is lacking: memory, CPU, OS version support, or GSM vs. CDMA. Too much choice is not good, and I keep wondering why Bold and Curve lines exist separately, or why foldable Style only has CDMA version, or why Storm2 (or any other device which runs only version 4) have not got an update. Oh well.
Now some reminder of what happened recently (last five years or so.)
iPhone appeared and everybody realized touch screen was way to go. But Blackberry resisted, and when Storm appeared it failed. (Altough I use Storm2 and I actually like its press screen to type feature, I must be in minority.) Lesson: slow to adopt, and finding your own way to do common things. Two mistakes -- and they have one name: NIH (Not Invented Here.)
I continued to try devices while keeping my U.S. device for trips. I realized that I cannot swap SIM card and have the internet just work. Lesson: Blackberry does not allow one to self-configure Internet (like iPhone, Android, or even Nokia can do - a special configuration message arrives when I insert freshly-bought SIM, I click Accept, and my phone can get cheap local data and voice calls.
You should allow people to take their device everywhere, and keep contacts and calendar synced to your servers. Of course, there is Google sync - but why I can't I use trusted RIM? You talk about corporate market -- but you can treat all of your BIS users as employees of one giant corporation, where they pay to you. How? Apple charges for iCloud storage (ok, over some limit.) Do the same.
Back then, desktop app sucked royally, and there was not one for Mac. This is fixed now, but you should continue to work on this. And make it work over cloud, just like iOS 5 does. Backup to servers, not to user's PC - this would fit your corporate strategy.
It would give me this warm fuzzy feeling that I know that if I lose my device, I can go, buy new one (older or newer model - does not matter), insert (different) SIM card, login to Blackberry (you already have this account system, Blackberry ID) -- and everything's back.
So what is good about those blackberries.
Integration of all messaging types. Context-sensitive apps (see phone number - email person who has it.) Battery life (although this may have changed.) UI niceties (dimming screen on standby). Construction (not flimsy.) Camera stabilizer. Keyboard (of course - but some models are better than others.) Dedicated call/end buttons (always.) Balance of cost and functionality, used models perform pretty well. Swappable batteries. Easy migration between devices. Alarm clock (can wake everybody early enough for this most important meeting.) All boring - but all working. In fact, I would make "It just works. Always." a new company slogan unless it is taken already.
Some More Ideas
Go direct. Carriers don't know how to sell. Open retail store in Canada. Then in U.S. Look at Apple. Allow people to buy unlocked, unbranded by carrier devices from you. There are data plans there already. Make brand more visible. Sell at full price, with warranty.
Rename company to Blackberry Inc. This shows focus. Or maybe spin-off retails sales as Blackberry Inc, keeping RIM name for holding company. This would allow for better accountability as well.
Make older devices support OS 6, and ideally OS 7. Apple customers love that their 3GS models can run latest 5.1 OS, three years after hardware release, and that they become faster with it. Do the same -- perhaps doing market study of which models are most popular in the field. One thing that people hate is being stuck with same for long. Give them this option.
Make OS faster. This goes together with previous point -- there is certain lag in operation. Maybe it is because of Java virtual machine. Get some quality official skunkworks team and task them with doubling the speed of booting, launching applications, everything. Look at what Google did - each newer OS is better in performance.
Keep system open -- one of strength of device for personal users like me is that I can copy my photos and music back and forth without launching equivalent of iTunes. Keep it like this.
Consider opening platform specs to external developers somewhat. And make external developers happy - I heard their program sucks royally, hard to get in, tools are nowhere as slick as those for OS X or Android, and it takes long time to get applications approved.
Make it cool. This takes PR work, but also asking top influencers in each of your markets (corporate, youth, travellers, and self-employed) to tell *you* what *they* like and hate about your device. Listen, analyze, respond. Make a privileged circle of early adopters - like one thousand people to be kept in the loop and be given new devices one month before release with NDA. Watch the leaks creating buzz about your product. Keep silent yourself, and create culture of secrecy and anticipation. This is from Jobs' book. Steal this idea.
Please, make the company shine again. Don't retreat. Be smart. Make people switch from Android. You can do it. You should!
Good luck,
your faithful customer of seven years.
