UPDATED 08:38 EDT / JANUARY 04 2012

A Horrid New Year For RIM and Little Hope for Change

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion suffered a lot of drawbacks in 2011.  For starters, when they launched the BlackBerry Playbook many had high hopes for the tablet, but with no e-mail, calendar and other native apps, people started to think twice about purchasing the device.  Aside from that, OS updates for BlackBerry devices were slower than Android updates.  Also, the gap between product launches were so wide that people started to lose interest as more smartphones suited for business people came out.  But one of the greatest hiccups RIM suffered in 2011 was the service outage that lasted for almost a week, angering a lot of BlackBerry users in the US.

Their only hope for a comeback is the BlackBerry 10, their soon-to-be-launched OS, and a new line of devices running it, which they deem as a major game-changer for the Canadian company.  But RIM already stated that it wont be until the latter part of 2012 that they’ll release a new line of devices, making BB10 just another glitch in their system.

“RIM made a strategic decision to launch BlackBerry 10 devices with a new, LTE-based dual core chipset architecture,” the company said, referring to a chip that supports a high-speed wireless service known as LTE that is now available in some parts of the United States. “As explained on our earnings call, the broad engineering impact of this decision and certain other factors significantly influenced the anticipated timing for the BlackBerry 10 devices.”

But it seems like 2012 will not be kind to RIM either, as rumors started spreading last year that some major companies are eyeing them for a buyout, added to the fact that they just cut the price of the PlayBook: all versions of the tablet now priced at $299.  The move is seen as a desperate plea to up their sales, especially with more powerful tablets coming out this year from Android and Apple.

Demand for change

RIM investors are seeing the unusual company structure as the reason behind the company’s demise.  If you aren’t aware, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie are both co-CEOs and co-chairmen, making investors think that it’s time for the company to have a more structured chain-of-command.  Jaguar Financial Corporation, which speaks for 12 of RIM’s 20 largest shareholders and 8% of its stockholders, has been calling for some months for boardroom change, including the splitting of the CEO and chairman roles.

Aside from Jaguar,  Northwest & Ethical Investments is also demanding RIM to name an independent chairman and CEO.  Northwest was promised a role in studying leadership changes in exchange for withdrawing a proposal to split the chairman and CEO roles in June but Robert Walker, Northwest’s vice-president of ethical funds stated that a review hasn’t been made.  If nothing happens until January 31, Walker will push for an investor vote to split the roles of CEO and chairmanship.

According to some sources, “Barbara Stymiest, an independent member of RIM’s board, is leading the race to replace the co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie in the chairmanship.”


A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Your vote of support is important to us and it helps us keep the content FREE.

One click below supports our mission to provide free, deep, and relevant content.  

Join our community on YouTube

Join the community that includes more than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many more luminaries and experts.

“TheCUBE is an important partner to the industry. You guys really are a part of our events and we really appreciate you coming and I know people appreciate the content you create as well” – Andy Jassy

THANK YOU