Nowhere do legendary brands arise...and depart...like in the tech
world.
�Go big or go home�?
That was invented here.
And go
home means go home and turn the lights off.
So how does
Research in Motion avoid sitting in the dark?
I�m Brian Cooley with the Top 5 things Blackberry must do in
2012 to stay relevant.
#5 Ignite developer support.
You gotta get devs excited.
Welcome whatever app they write, even if its stupid.
Assign an
army to support them.
Give them great tools.
Feed them.
Whatever it takes, but users increasingly see a phone as the
apps it runs and a lot of them don�t even know BlackBerry�s have
apps.
#4 Get BB 10 out the door.
The next BB OS will be based on
QNX which is a serious OS - we�ve seen it on the PlayBook and
it smokes.
But BB 10 was recently bumped to second half of
2012.
That means iPhone 5 and 378 new Android phones will
have come out by then, sporting relentlessly updated software.
BB may be forgotten by then.
#3 Whittle down the product line.
We basically need a Curve for
the cheapskates...A Bold for Bob Business...and something cool
for the rest of us which you don�t make yet.
And anything with a
4 digit number as part of its model name is a red flag that the
engineers are still making the product people their bitch.
#2 Get your message clear.
With iOS and Android the
established momentum leaders, you have to drop back and
narrow your focus to cut through their noise.
Email, security and
keyboard used to be it.
But horizons have broadened and all
that�s now just a feature set, not a company.
IT departments are
increasingly letting us use our iPhone or Android to connect to
company resources so the vaunted BB back end needs to take
its place alongside a broader set of goodies..
Before we get to #1, someone needs to get to Thorsten Heins
and give him meth.
The new CEO of RIM too calmly explains
that RIM just needs a nip & tuck here & there.
That�s like saying
Keith Richards looks pretty good, just needs a little powder.
We
need some frenetic urgency up in Waterloo.
#1 Sell lust.
RIM should have made Hannibal Lecter CEO.
He
had it right when he said �We cover what we see, Clarice.� Much
consumer lust for smartphones still starts with the actual phone,
even before the OS, apps and carrier support come to mind.
There has to be something shiny & cool the rest of the industry
hasn�t thought of.
No, you can�t hire Jonathan Ive away from
Apple...but maybe you can kidnap him?
For a full list of 10 things RIM needs to do in 2012, check our
Maggie�s piece at CNET News
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-57364084-266/ten-things-rims-new-
ceo-must-do-right-away/?tag=mncol;topStories
I�m B.C., thanks for watching.
