RIM CEO: We want to be the number three platform on the market
androidauthority.comRIM is spending a lot of time designing an OS that will appeal to everyone. I think they are going to find its going to be used by no one.
Even here in Canada they are losing core enterprise customers left and right. Without these core supporters, RIM isn't long for this world.
And while I've got the conch, what kind of strategy is "We want to be #3"? I've written about RIM's bad strategy extensively on my blog, and this feels like just another in a series of mis-steps. None of their staff are going to be inspired by Thorsten's lack of conviction and worse, its going to spook whatever remaining customers and developers they have. No one wants to be on a sinking platform, and shooting for number 3 isn't going to give anyone any confidence that RIM will be around in a year.
My vote still goes to RIM getting out of the OS business, becoming an Android licensee, designing some killer handsets that focus on enterprise customers and separately, spinning Blackberry Mail and Messenger into standalone apps that put RIM onto as many handsets as possible.
This will never happen of course. RIM, as I understand it, is still organized around carrier sales. They don't have a user focus, and it would be hard for this leopard to change its spots and get out of the business of catering to carriers. (IMO, this is the real magic of the Apple story - getting a user-centric handset into the market in a real way without pandering to the carriers.)
what kind of strategy is "We want to be #3"?
It is not a strategy. It is a futile attempt to make it sound like they have a strategy. In most businesses, there is a natural market for #2. Somebody, somewhere, wants to be different. Somebody, somewhere, is offended by #1's size. Somebody, somewhere, finds #1's product too bland and watered-down for the masses. There will always be a Pepsi for every Coke.
The trouble with trying to be #3 is that even in saying it, you're talking about going after #1's market. And you will lose to #1 and #2 so huge that you'll be bankrupt.
The right way to be #3 in smartphones is to be #1 in education, or #1 in the 10-12 adolescent market, or #1 in the handheld gaming market, or #1 in the dweebs-who-use-Linux-on-their-phones market, or what-have-you.
This was detailed decades ago in Reis & Trout's "Marketing Warfare" book. There are four strategies:
- Defence (#1 in the market)
- Offence (#2 in the market)
- Flanking (Disrupt the market through an indirect approach)
- Guerilla (Dominate a niche market)
Nowhere in this list do you find "Lose the major market to the Offence and Defensive players."
"RIM is spending a lot of time designing an OS that will appeal to everyone. I think they are going to find its going to be used by no one."
Absolutely.
They should not be chasing the consumer, iOS-esque market. Some would say they've lost it, but I'd actually challenge that they never had it. Blackberry has always been an enterprise and small business solution. Historically, unless my numbers are way off, most consumers didn't own smartphones in the Blackberry Era. By and large, those who owned Blackberries were either using company-issued Blackberries, or had used company-issued Blackberries and purchased personal ones on the side. Kids and casual consumers had Motorola RAZRs and other non-smart phones.
The critical implication here is that the Blackberry did not open the floodgates of mass, consumer smartphone adoption. The iPhone did (and lately, the iPhone and Android have been).
In the years of Blackberry's dominance over the smartphone market, the smartphone market was comparatively small and concentrated. And, very important, it was use-case-specific (email). This was differentiated from the predominant mass-consumer use case (SMS). So there was a clear and safe divide between the two segments.
RIM was making a fortune in those days, but then it assumed that it needed to follow suit when the iPhone launched. And it's been all downhill from there.
Meanwhile, there are still a fair number of enterprise and small business owners and CTOs who prefer Blackberry to iOS/Android for business, and who buy Blackberry for their businesses. That number is dwindling rapidly, as you point out, the more Blackberries start to resemble half-hearted iPhones. But it's still a very lucrative niche that RIM can purpose-build for. I would bet, however, as you seem to, that RIM fails to capture it.
So what can RIM do to stay relevant in enterprise? For one thing, don't shy away from the keyboard. Embrace it. It's a point of clear differentiation, and though the cool kids will scoff at it, many business executives still prefer it for email. They might always prefer it. Second, develop more robust enterprise software. Blackberry should be able to handle spreadsheets, Powerpoint, word processing, data visualization(!!!), cross-device integration (printers, etc.), and other key enterprise solutions in a way that iPhone and Android don't.
This is not going to be easy. And it'll be especially difficult, in as much as many of the standard enterprise software solutions are offered by Microsoft, a competitor. Nobody's going to use a RIM-only spreadsheet program that doesn't integrate with Excel, for instance.
The problem though, is that owning the consumer market gives iOS and Android a tremendous advantage in terms of revenue, app selection and mindshare. That robust enterprise software is, in many cases, already there for iOS with apps such as iWork.
There will always be a market for keyboard devices or other niches, but I don't think that market is anywhere big enough to sustain RIM at its present size. I think sales of Android devices with keyboards show that.
You're probably right, and if I were a betting man, I'd throw my chips on your side of the fence here. That said, doubling down on enterprise certainly seems like a better path forward for RIM than being a mass market iOS also-ran.
The other big issue RIM has -- and it may be a fatal issue -- is that Blackberry is just a device; it's not a platform. Not really. The big names (and startups/indies) in enterprise solutions aren't designing for it, or at least not exclusively. There isn't a total RIM solution that includes the Blackberry ecosystem as a unifying hub. Instead, there's just the Blackberry device itself, and the device is currently in a sorry state.
Microsoft should have bought RIM years ago and bundled their sharp enterprise focus into their Windows Phone strategy. Together they might have had a shot at being the bronze medal winners. Separately, they're on the way to winning the wooden spoon jointly with Bada and Maemo.
Very well said.
If he had said "we're aiming to be #1 in 2 years", he'd look completely out-of-touch with reality - employees deflate due to a clearly unattainable goal, investors get concerned about an unrealistic strategy, etc etc.
Picking an achievable goal vs. promising an unachievable one is better for morale of everyone involved IMO.
Problem is were are they now and I take it he means globaly. It is not about volume but more so about margins, both is nice. Over the years RIM's margins have got smaller and smaller and it is that which has help maintain its overall market share with regards to number of devices sold. So when a CEO makes a albeit pragmatic statement about acheiving a goal of being number 3, then you have to look at were they are now and that is 3rd from what I can tell. Though it does vary survey to survey and which market you look at as well, so not that easy to get a true picture. Also the margins in profit per device is a bigger issue that tends not to factor in alot of surveys and then RIM's margin is not just on the device but the onrunning use of its services indirectly via a telco on way or another.
But just keeping the footing they have now, is not a bad plan of attack. But as you say, he is being realistic and that is something refreshing and reasuring for a CEO and in that I wish them well.
Agreed. Still, it might have been stronger to frame the conversation in terms of resegementation. "For users who want X we will have the best phone, and this will mean that we can grow and build as the third largest platform."
Good point about re-segmentation. They have to define the category in which they compete such that they are #1 (classic '22 Immutable Laws of Marketing').
Part of the problem in the "we're aiming for #3" statement is that it's not clear what is being measured. Profits/margin? Product leadership? Handsets shipped?
He needed to reframe the discussion -- he was controlling the discussion, and was completely at liberty to define success however he pleased. He could've said, as others have pointed out, we're going to be #1 at X, where X is some subset of the market.
When you can't win the game, change the game to one you can win. The trick is making sure it's still one worth playing.
He should have worded it better - "aiming to provide the best, trying hard for a comeback, want #1 though in this competitive market may have to settle for #2 or #3 in sales"
Or phrased it differently to take into account their target market: "We want to be #1 in the business smartphone market and provide the best integrated mobile solution for enterprise customers."
Realistic, ambitious, and entirely positive.
Indeed. :)
> Android powered 68% of the phones that shipped that quarter. Apple’s iOS platform ran on 17%. Those two numbers add up to 85%, so setting your goal to become the “number three platform” means you’re targeting 15% of the market.
That's... not true. Trying to be #3 doesn't mean you say "OK, we won't get any customers from the first two, so all we have left are that 15%" it just means you don't think you can take enough of their customers to overtake them.
And to people saying it's bad for company moral... it really isn't. Very few companies can be #1 or #2 in their industry, and for everyone to think otherwise is more often than not just delusional.
> Very few companies can be #1 or #2 in their industry
Most industries aren't in winner-take-all markets with huge network effects.
> winner-take-all markets with huge network effects
I'm not sure what that statement means. It is not winner takes all, with your logic there is only room for 1? Mobile is a growing market, if you think there is no room for competition your betting either Apple or Android will be the only platform.
He means the network effects (in this case, the App stores) create a situation of huge dominance of one player over the others. Apple was headed to that position, but what happened was a whole new market of low-end smartphones opened up, witch Android ate up. So you can think of it as a winner-takes-all in the high end and another in the low. Of course competition should and will happen (I have hopes on FirefoxOS), but in these markets the new player usually storms in with domino network effects and pulls dominance to his side. Technology is either you're rocketing up or dying a painful death, it's rarely a healthy sustained competition.
Plus, they only need 8% of the market to be #3, not the whole 15%.
The difference between the Blackberry my work gives me and my personal iPod touch is staggering.
* Web browser is pathetic.
* Pandora and Tunein apps are wonky. They stall for no reason, and turn on after you pause them.
* Kindle app is a pale imitation.
* Facebook app is so bad, you're better off using the mobile facebook on the web browser.
RIM might be a big player on the international scene for a cheap smartphone (especially if they do i18n right) but they're not going to recapture the iPhone/Droid market without a major overhaul.
The RIM service/backbone is as you say there email/bbm enviroment and why they have not tried pushing those services out onto other platforms like iOS and Android and WM7-8 is too me one of the biggest mistakes RIM has made in the past 6 years. Competing is after all more than about going head on upon all fronts, especialy when there skills and niche were in area's were they could of competed per service upon those platforms and be earning alot more on the service front than they are now and have kept the company at the forfront of peoples minds publicly as well as fiscaly. They could of also made more money by selling dedicated box's for corporate companies instead of offering software than ran upon others as the only option, a whole area of expansion they missed out upon and another area were they could of made great grounds and added another foothold into company affairs. I do wonder that if RIM had released nothing new over the past 6 years if they would be any worse of than they are now and that in itself is perhaps the most worrying aspect about were they are now. Maybe now they plan to attain a position which is were they already currently are from what I can tell, then perhaps things can start looking up. They will survive, but in what form over time is upto them. They may start becoming a cheap option for Facebook to move into other mobile revenues and that in itself for most Blackberry users would probably be recieved by mixed feelings.
In a World were a qwerty keyboard is needed RIM do the job, but we live in a World that has moved on from the calculator device mentality and today a pocket calculator has to make phone clalls organise the shopping and take the picture for the front cover of Times magazine and if it does not then the fact that it can still add and subtract and the like is completely ignored. But RIM had and still have the opertunity to move there great email system as a application onto other platforms and flourish nomater how well there handsets sell and how small there margins upon those handsets get. There reliance upon there own handsets to sell there services is one they need to break away from and whilst it is late in the day they still have that opertunity, how much of a risk would it be for them to take it.
Which Blackberry did your company give you? Starting with BB6 the in house browser was replaced with one based upon WebKit. If you have an earlier device you got the one made in Java that was made in house that wasn't as good.
Is there anyone else that thinks that RIM could be the number one Andriod seller if they incorporated their security and track pad in to a phone which otherwise looks like a Galaxy?
I would buy that in a heart beat, and many corporations which haven't opened up their security for iProducts would find their employees extremely receptive to that device. They could be the #1 Andriod seller which would be quit a nice position for them compared to today.
Unfortunate the way it was said. Jobs said something similar but it sounds so different:
"Apple's market share is bigger than BMW's or Mercedes's or Porsche's in the automotive market. What's wrong with being BMW or Mercedes?"
Where the BMW/Mercedes could have been RIM's analogy to something in the enterprise world.
In which case they need to have launched this product yesterday. Really they should have a product on the market now considering Windows Phone 8 has had their couple of years in the troff where they've been building the product, the app ecosystem and carrier deals (As Android had to do) and are now really pushing the OS with carriers like HTC and Nokia bringing out great hardware.
If they want to compete, sometime next year is not good enough in my opinion. If they can build something compelling they'll be 4th if they just kept their current customers on board with a new OS.
Blackberry already has touchscreen phones and the people using Blackberry's seem to avoid them because they want to stay in that age with the physical keyboards and classic handsets, if they do switch to QNX will people switch to iOS or Android?
That's an interesting perspective, but I don't think windowsphone (any incarnation of it) has enough going for it to make number 3.
If iOS has 17% of the market, having 12-15% is not something to be ashamed of. It still represents billions upon billions of business every year.
Sometimes its better to set realistic but achievable goals than to aim for the sky and flop.
Good luck to them but I just can't see this happening.
1) I worked with their app store previously. It was a nightmare so I see hurdles building this asset.
2) The mobile environment is being increasing linked to the desktop/home environments and other on cloud services for the best experience and they don't have a great foothold here.
3) The business sector has largely let them go now. A few years back they could have used this as a strong launching platform but this advantage has gone.
On the other hand the interface looked cool and they could trump everything if this is coupled with reasonable hardware.
>I worked with their app store previously. It was a nightmare so I see hurdles building this asse
We've published an app on the Playbook market and the experience was on par with anything else out there.
RIM's management fails to see they don't sell phones. They sell enterprise communication. Or they used to, before BYOD happened.
Never confuse the boxes being moved with your business.
Either they embrace BYOD and convert themselves into mostly a software/services company (maybe with a full-stack hardware/sopftware option), or they risk becoming a cautionary tale.
Nothing gets a team motivated like aspiring to be the #3 player in a market, right? Pragmatic perhaps but this messaging would seem to be pretty demotivating.
I wonder if it's a culture thing. I had an American boss a few years ago who loved to call meetings and give 'inspiring' speeches a long the lines of: "Who here wants to be bigger than Microsoft? Who here wants to beat Microsoft? If we really work on hard this we can take on Microsoft at their own game! And Win! So Go Team Go And Let's Kick Ass!!!"
The end result was a room full of people scratching their heads and thinking "wow that was stupid", and being generally demotivated because they'd just been set and obviously impossible task by a boss who obviously had no clue. Had he given a speech along the lines of "we have a really unique and interesting product here with strong potential of craving out a significant piece of the market in a small but growing niche" people would probably have left the meeting thinking "yea, we can really make that happen" and been much more inspired.
RIM still has quite a bit in cash reserves. Traditionally the haven't listened to their users since they've been on top. They had the rug pulled out beneath them and hopefully are starting to listen. I'm interested to see if BB10 can really make a splash. I think aiming for #3 is a achievable goal. If they become a true #3, I wouldn't be surprised if some loyal customers coming back if BB10 works.
Reach for the stars, RIM. Reach for the stars!
"We're number three! We're number three!"
Try for the moon, reach the stars?
RIM need to go open and utilise the crowd if they have any chance of keeping up with Google and Apple.
"Guys? Guys?! Hey...c'mon, I was just kidding ... #9 is totally cool too! ... .. . Guys?"
I keep expecting Dell or HP to buy RIM and merge with Yahoo and Opera.
RIM is already #3 in US from a platform standpoint. All they need to do is stay there. Also, the BYOD trend may be strong, but RIM made some interesting enterprise features for BB10 that the others don't have. Unless the others quickly replicate those, I could see RIM have a shot in enterprise at least, again.
Those who migrated from RIM waited a few years for RIM to catch up, how long do you think they will wait for there new choice to catch up.
RIM realy needed/needs to get a application version of its email service out on androids/iOS as it is there services/key elements that make there platform and if they do that then they will still make money nomater what platform there services are run upon. Devices and services are two seperate markets that intertwine and they need to embrace the competition and leverage what they do best and upon those platforms before it is too late.
Why not number one?
Why not number one plus? http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20065265-17.html
Number one is an obviously unrealistic goal at this point. They probably believe that setting attainable goals lead to higher motivation among their staff. If asked to do something difficult, but that you believe to be possible, you work harder. If asked to do something you 'know' is impossible you throw up your hands in exasperation and do nothing.
Because in Canada it's impolite to be number one :)
I'm rooting for either one of BlackberryOS, FirefoxOS, Jolla or Tizen to be the #3 mobile ecosystem.