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BlackBerry 10 is coming
RICHARD WEINER
Technology for Lawyers
Published: January 18, 2013
Maybe Research in Motion isn’t dead yet.
RIM is set to introduce the new BlackBerry 10 on January 30th. It will arrive with the best web browser of any mobile device—recently rated better than even some desktop browsers. To this extent, it looks like the folks at RIM are getting the message that mobile devices need to provide far more than secure email.
BlackBerry’s 79 million subscribers still have the most secure mobile system extant. It is likely because of this that BlackBerrys are popular with the U.S. government (particularly the Defense Department), and corporate accounts. Even so, BlackBerry now only holds about 5 percent of the smartphone market, a figure that is expected to decline in the next few years.
But even if the BB10 turns out to be the greatest phone ever, RIM is still going to take a profit hit.
Currently, the purchase of a BlackBerry device requires a user to subscribe to their proprietary network, which is the primary reason that the phones are the most secure available.
With the introduction of the BB10, however, all of RIM’s system will become unbundled, and subscribers can connect with any, all or none of the system.
This means that RIM will probably take an enormous income hit, as subscribers disconnect from some of the aspects of the proprietary system, or obtain new devices and don’t subscribe to the whole RIM environment.
RIM brings in over $2.5 billion per quarter in subscriber fees, which is what floats the company. A large ding in that amount will affect the company in ways yet to be determined.
And it remains to be seen whether or not RIM can move beyond enterprise and government work and infiltrate the popular market.
The company estimates that it will take about 18 months for the system to transition from the current BB7 to BB10.
About 60 percent of developers contacted are interested in working with the new system, and it is being tested by over 60 Fortune 500 companies and other potential customers.
To this point, though, investors are not convinced that RIM is a good play, as the stock has spiraled downward recently, and RIM is estimating more losses in the short term.
But this is really it for the company that started the smartphone platform. Either BB10 saves the company, or Research in Motion will go the way of the Whigs.