A new start for RIM?

RIM is enjoying some quality time in Orlando (what was wrong with Ottawa?). Too late? Possible resurrection? Underdog ready to pounce? 

RIM has held developer conferences since 2008 in various locations such as Santa Clara, San Francisco and this year in Orlando. (I did a quick internet search to find this information).

They are still headquartered in Waterloo Ontario, Canada.

Here is some recent news about RIM that may inform you as to whether they are underdogs and what not:

"Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM-T11.91-0.72-5.70%)'s stock has dropped roughly 15 per cent since the unveiling of its crucial BlackBerry 10 software on Tuesday, and hit an eight-year low Thursday on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

I think RIM has far less chance for surviving than the Windows Phone does, and Microsoft is going to fight a very tough uphill battle. I think it's a bit more than just being "late". I'm not sure RIM would have had a shot if they'd produced this the day after the iPhone was announced years ago.

"RIM's stock dropped roughly 6 per cent that date, and kept falling as the conference continued"

Lolz. That Futurama popped into my head...when Fry was on stage talking in the stock exchange, and the stock would go up if he said something intelligent, and down if he said something dumb.

When your flagship product sinks it's over. This is just another Canadian Nortel waiting to happen.

This morning I tried super hard to click on the "complete order" button of Nokia ADR shares at a 52 week low, and my brain's reality check meter just wouldn't let me complete the order.

I went to Amazon and saw all the great reviews on the Nokia Lumia 900 from just about everyone that bought it, but some background process that is constantly analyzing says no. It's the same thing that happened with RIM and Palm. Granted Nokia has a much larger market cap to blow through before they hit rock bottom, but no matter how good the product or the marketing plan, you can't stop a falling dagger without getting seriously cut up. The larger market sentiment always wins, and no clever genius can overcome it.

RIM should be getting bailed out by the Federal and Ontario government and the tax payers with a bailout. It was already heavily tax payer subsidized with EDC and other agencies. It's over for RIM. It may not be over for Nokia, but I think you'd have to be a fool at this point to bet any money on them.

Maybe after Facebook goes public, they could purchase RIM and faten-up their stack. What ever happend with that Facebook phone anyways? RIM wants to go consumer and FB wants more business acumen. Who knows? Regardless, I don't think it would go over so well with the overlords in Redmond.

If you could port Android to C#, then maybe it's possible to port QNX to PHP.

-Josh

@JoshRoss:

January 2011

http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/htc-to-unveil-two-facebook-branded-android-phones-next-month-20110126/

HTC is about to release the co-branded phones

April 2012

http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/25/the-facebook-phone-rumor-is-back/

HTC is about to release the co-branded phones

Do you see a trend here?

If they indeed have been working on this Android ROM for 2 years, do you really think they're going to buy RIM?

Guess who's in charge of all of that?

http://www.linkedin.com/in/lennpryor

Facebook Mobile, Device Partnerships

Why it's Channel 9 founder Lenn Pryor.

2 years is a long time to hold back a ROM that was ready in late 2010.

What is the HTC Facebook Android phone?

It's a ROM with Facebook pre-installed and a blue case that says Facebook on it. With the 250M MSFT investment at 1% a few years ago and the Bing integration, I am betting they're waiting for a payout by Microsoft to drop the Android ROM threat and go with a WP7.

They know Facebook isn't a strong enough brand to sell a phone and that the phones are going to look cheesy as hell and end up in the bargain bin along with hello kitty and southpark cases.

RIM should be getting bailed out by the Federal and Ontario government and the tax payers with a bailout.

RIM has $2.1 Billion cash and a debt free balance sheet.

@Proton2:

http://www.google.com/finance?q=TSE:RIM&fstype=ii

The net income last quarter is red and the trend is going down.

Nokia's trend is even sharper

http://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE:NOK&fstype=ii

I think Palm did the right thing by winding down their SLAs and assets before it was too late. If RIM still has money, they should pack it up and go now. 

 If RIM still has money, they should pack it up and go now.

Here is some sage advice from the past:

Steve Jobs Should Quit Apple and Head Disney

by James R. Stoup May 30, 2006

 http://www.applematters.com/article/steve-jobs-should-quit-apple/

 --------------

 Gartner: Apple should quit hardware business

 http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/emerging-tech/2006/10/18/gartner-apple-should-quit-hardware-business-39284186/

 ----------------

RIM has been developing their BB10 for a while now. Why would it be a good idea to abandon all that work as well as their portfolio of patents?