Monday, April 18, 2011

How did Research in Motion lose its way?

From: BlackBerry Playbook: How did Research in Motion lose its way? - By Farhad Manjoo - Slate Magazine

What's going on—how did BlackBerry, a brand that was the ne plus ultra of the mobile world just a few years ago, fall so swiftly? Although RIM is still selling lots of phones, several of its latest products have been panned, and its share of the smartphone market has been slipping. More importantly, the company's leaders—it has two CEOs, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis—have been comically incoherent about their plans for the future.
I can tell you why I ditched my last crackberry (the Curve 8530, best goddamn phone I have ever owned) for an android phone: the blackberry tax.

It doesn't matter who provides your phone service, if you use a blackberry, you are going to pay the blackberry tax. This is because all data for the blackberry is piped through RIM's servers, and that of course costs money. Even prepaid carriers like Virgin Mobile have to pay for that, but a $10 fee tacked on a $25 bill is significant. These $10 over two years more than pay for my current Android handset.

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