Basket
Hmm, that’s definitely less than encouraging, innit? Just about everyone has expounded, sometimes at great length, about what the future of RIM, erstwhile makers of Blackberry phones (you may have noticed I use that phrase a lot… I just like the word “erstwhile”), might be, and now we have an opinion from an analyst at Barclays Capital. According to All Things D, his name is Jeff Kvaal, and he sums up the situation as “Grim And Getting Grimmer.”
Well, that’s pretty categorical, isn’t it? It’s one thing for plebs like me to whinge about RIM, but when someone from a global investment bank says it, serious-minded business-type people sit up and take notice. And they have expensive suits, and Rolex watches, so you know they’re serious…
Yes, alright, sorry, I’m a child of the 80s, that image just popped into my head, alright? Anyway, back to the point: why is Kvaal saying that’s the case? Well, in his own words, he says, “Our checks indicate that current demand is poor: BlackBerry 7 devices are now close to six months old, and our checks suggest that the initial enthusiasm post launch has tailed off. [...] BlackBerry 7 devices remain expensive comparatively and the once popular 8520 is going end of life.”
So, basically, in short, old phones that no-one wants. There’s really no excuse for that, either; consider that the Samsung Galaxy S II is actually older than a lot of current Blackberry phones, but people still love it.
I suspect the issue is not just old phones, then, but chronically dull phones…
I have to agree with Kvaal, here, though; things are only going to get worse for RIM over the next few months. They’re not slated to release a Blackberry 10 phone until the end of this year, and there’s two superstar phones due out in the next couple of months alone (the ungodly powerful HTC One X and the inevitable Samsung Galaxy S III), and you know there’ll be another iPhone this year, too.
So, basically, RIM need to sort themselves out, sharpish…
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