Comment by blinkingled | Hacker News Reader

Comment by blinkingled | Hacker News Reader

The interview showed glimpses of desperation, edginess and plain frustration which speak volumes about RIM's approach to handling the drastically altered smart phone market.

Lazaridis kept using the words "singled out" - his reasoning behind it was because they were so successful. He was trying to convince that the carpet has not been pulled from below RIM's feet.

It showed that RIM doesn't really "get" it. They think the world is being unfair to them - they think that as a problem - not the facts that they couldn't get decent, modern smartphone hardware with a competent OS (for the market) out in years. They are just like Nokia - except they believe they have no problems.

Sure Blackberry has the best security architecture, it has never had security issues until they started using WebKit, lots of people still use it. There is no denying that. What is problematic is that those things do not matter in the battle that RIM is fighting against Android and iOS. No sane Joe with a dumb phone is going to find BB compelling for his smart phone upgrade. It's just not cool.

What RIM needs is a dual OS/dual hardware strategy - let the BB folks keep doing "Pro" phones like they do today with BB OS. Let a fresh hardware and software team look at producing great consumer phones with a consumer OS. The OS part of it is a big problem - I am sure RIM could put together a great phone after trying - not so sure about the OS part. They could be better off taking Android and making it better and distinct.

The issue that the interviewer was asking about has nothing to do with smartphones. It's about governments wanting more access to Blackberry's records (from what I understand.)

Yes, they haven't had a good response to iOS or Android but that's completely irrelevant to the article at hand.

an interview is an interview, he didn't need the outburst. if he'd have skipped past it straight to the "we were singled out, we're used by..." part - I'm sure we wouldn't all be discussing it.

It's not completely irrelevant. Having "security issues" is bad news for market share. The question wasn't asked in an isolated context - it was in the context of "bad news for market share". That's exactly why Lazaridis got emotional about it.

Mike's point was there are no security issues with the Blackberry. The issue is that there's too much security than what some governments can tolerate. The question puts the CEO right into a paradox that nobody can possibly answer, so it was fair for him to end the interview (or maybe he could say, a lot of this is under negotiation so he can discuss it).

He can't be critical of the governments demands because they are in negotiations with them. He can't say they will weaken security, because that's not what enterprises want.

Either way, you have to be proud of a company for taking a stand and developing secure products that could help protect civilians from terrible governments.

Oddly, Blackberry is insanely cool amoung the teen crowd in the UK (well, London anyway).

Not sure why, since they have no need for business class email. BBM seems to be the main driver, even though there are plenty of altenatives on other platforms.

I have always been fascinated by BBM's popularity. Whenever somebody told me that BBM was their reason for buying a Blackberry, I always countered with text messaging is available on ALL phones. They counter with that you have to pay for text messaging and my final counter is that you already have a $60/month plan to support your Blackberry, why didn't you ask your phone company to throw in free text-messaging? They usually lower their head and buy an iPhone within three months.

People who use BB for BBM do not get $60 plans.. they get $25 plans that have unlimited bis traffic and very low normal data traffic. Not to mention you can pump media through it for free

Every iPhone tariff in the UK has unlimited texts. Most non-iPhone tariffs as well...

Lucky you, here they skin you alive with the fees

It's not so much that BBM is cheaper than texting, but rather that BBM is the best messaging client I've used. Sure, there are alternatives, but they don't work as well. Yes, BBM is the reason I stay with blackberry, and unless my friends ditch it, I will continue to use it.

>Blackberry is insanely cool amoung the teen crowd in the UK

It's definitely a London thing. They became hugely popular in the summer of 2009, rapidly making their way into the constantly shifting memepool that is the grime scene.

Witness "Maxwell D - Blackberry Hype": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qtShEs5LQs

Believe it or not this isn't paid product placement. Hence he lists RIM's competitors in the intro. They probably still sent maxwell some units though.

EDIT: BBM was also heavily used as a way of sending shouts to pirate radio stations. You couldn't really ask for better marketing. It's very much waned now though.

Kiss 100's breakfast show in London is sponsored by RIM - and they give out their BBM PIN as a way of contacting the studio.

Other stations I've heard, outside London, also give out BBM PINs - Radio City 96.7's dance music programming in Liverpool is one I've noticed.

Those of us outside the UK can't see the video above, so here is another version of it on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8OhnyziTPE

If you've not seen it, it really is an example of how deep the Blackberry runs in street culture - both back home in the UK and even here in the US (take a trip through Daly City or East Bay and check out the BB's).

That one doesnt work either (at least in denmark)

Here's a link to just the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFIgs8WkTSY

There was another tune called "Blackberry Swipe" about mugging people for their mobile phones. Can't remember who did it though. The grime scene really is like a musical version of 4chan when it comes to memetics.

They take it seriously too, people have been hospitalised over meme ownership: http://njaithewriter.wordpress.com/2009/04/15/itsalot-gate-g...

It is definitely not just a London thing. I was on a flight from Seattle to Los Angeles and the guy next (mid-20s) to me was using an old iPhone to play games. His phone was a blackberry. I found it really strange, but he told me that all of his friends were using BBM and he felt like he was left out, so he went back to BlackBerry.

In Canada the Blackberry outsells Android in the teen crowd according to a report in the Globe and Mail a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I can't find the article now.

I can say the same is in Istanbul and Baku, iPhones are used for games only, its nice to have an iPhone but its percieved as really cool to use Blackberry as a phone for daily use.

It's not just London or not just UK either, the teens love Blackberry where I live too

I see plenty of teens in San Francisco using Blackberries. From what I understand, the Blackberry hardware keyboard and scrollwheel are popular with speed texters.

> even though there are plenty of altenatives on other platforms.

I would argue that this is a problem, not a solution. Plenty of alternatives, all incompatible, none of which are bundled with any phone, and none of which work (or work well) on Blackberry.

cheap phones and plans which are good for messaging each other.

I've seen a similar phenomenon in Canada. My sister (who is 17 now) and many of her friends traded in their iPhones two years ago for a Blackberry and you could not pay her enough money to switch back to an iPhone. I think it's a combination of the keyboard + BBM...

I am amused by this general punditry about a dual OS/dual hardware strategy. Yeah, that has just about worked out for everyone who has tried it.

OS doesn't matter. Apps matter. Hardware - lots of successful companies have range of hardware, nothing new there.

What you are missing is the rumored ability of QNX to be able to run Android apps. RIM may already have the dual strategy in place - they might run BB on Pro phones which can run Android apps and they can run QNX on Consumer phones which can also run Android apps. For the user - it's Android, not QNX or BB.

As I found out on my recent trip, Blackberry is wildly popular in India. iPhone, not as much.

On my trip before, there was no Blackberry in the market. Zero.

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