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Comment by cshenoy | Hacker News Reader

Serious question: What viable options do they have besides being acquired?

The time for small course corrections has long since passed.

The main option for them is to become smaller, and to do one thing well. Their perceived strengths are mobile messaging (BBM) and "security". If they became a software only company then they would be at the mercy of their (fickle) partners to get it deployed. When they are playing the hardware game then there is ferocious competition and you have to do a full software stack (proprietary or adapting Android/WinMo).

In their position I would do exactly one hardware device that is a best of breed, adapt Android for it and have a layer of BBM/security on top. I'd try to get the BBM/security licensed by as many manufacturers as possible and use the own hardware as a showcase. Eventually the hope would be to get out of the hardware business - it exists purely to ensure there is at least one way to market.

There is so much to be done on the communication side with lots of half assed solutions. On the security side consider running an IT department or being a consumer and a device is stolen. Now list what sensitive information was on the device.

This. Android is posing a serious problem for businesses as people demand to BYO with phones that are a huge melting pot of unknown versions, vulnerabilities, levels of support for exchange, etc. They need to provide their stack as a virtualized system that can work on any Android handset and then have their own analogue of Google "experience" devices where they do the whole thing. They can make some serious hay out of guaranteeing updates, security and support which the Android vendors largely are either ignoring or failing at.

Yes. RIM still has a huge installed base, enterprise sales force, and is still the de-facto "secure" solution. If they could co-opt Android's app ecosystem and build a high-quality, secure Android, they could make a huge dent in the business market.

I proposed this to a RIM BD exec about 2 years ago, but he insisted it would be throwing away way too much of RIM's investment in secure kernels.

But in my mind, the battle was already lost: even most biz users aren't choosing a device based on the nth degree of security. If anything, they love the keyboard.

And for the small niche that truly needs security, RIM could keep one or two BBOS models alive.

Maybe they could still pull off such a strategy?

I see tons of BlackBerries in Mexico, when three years ago there were none. They have become an affordable phone here that works just fine for Facebook, email and chatting.

In a certain sense they are the old reliable Nokias of yesteryear.

I don't pretend to play analyst, but I think there's a huge market in producing affordable and sturdy smartphones for third world countries. To many it's their only way to get online.

I absolutely agree that there's a huge market for smartphones in the third world, but I don't see how RIM can successfully take on Huawei, ZTE and the lesser-known, even lower-cost OEMs that are already there.

Same with kids in the developed world - the uk riots were organized by BBM last summer.

They have $4.2 billion in revenue per quarter, that's huge, and they still have a lot of users. They could easily scale back their ambitions and become very profitable, abandon the playbook, reduce their workforce, move focus to East Asia, and keep milking every cent out of the old-fashioned phones they kept pumping out long after Apple ate their lunch.

Dying a long, painful and drawn-out death.

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