Q2 results from Blackberry-makers RIM were even worse than expected, and underline once again the downward spiral of this once market-leading business. The company made an operating loss and smartphone shipments slumped further. But the news from the Ontario-based company gets even worse. It says its Blackberry 10 operating system will be delayed until Q1 of 2013 and it needs a further 5,000 lay-offs.
We’ve commented time and again on the rapidly deteriorating fortunes of RIM/Blackberry (and Nokia), and the stark contrast with rivals like Apple and Samsung (see, for example, How the mighty have fallen). All of which underlines the unprecedented speed of change in personal device markets. Let’s not forget that the genuinely revolutionary ipad has been available for only a little over two years (it first shipped in late April 2010), and that’s it’s taken only a bit longer than that for RIM to go from smartphone market hero to, practically, zero.
That speed of change is a challenge not only for device manufacturers and resellers but increasingly for IT departments too. Many are moving to BYOT (bring your own technology) models that mean they need to support a range of employee-owned devices. That creates new requirements for flexibility in terms of technologies and support skills, in order to manage changing consumer buying habits and the rapid advance of mobile device technlogy. As Google’s tablet announcements this week (see Google for gadget lovers) and Microsoft’s overdue conversion to mobility suggest, even Apple will not have things all its own way. Device - and platform - diversity is, thankfully, here to stay.