
Open letter to BlackBerry bosses: Senior RIM exec tells all as company crumbles - zacharye
http://www.bgr.com/2011/06/30/open-letter-to-blackberry-bosses-senior-rim-exec-tells-all-as-company-crumbles-around-him/
======
tmountain
As someone who did Blackberry development professionally for the better part
of a year, the sentiments on developer friendliness really resonate with me.
Working alongside iPhone and Android developers, I truly felt like I'd been
relegated to working with stone tools.

As a prime example, making a network connection is a black art using their
SDK, and every developer ends up rolling their own connection manager to do
so. If you join the Blackberry Internet Alliance (~$1,200 a year IIRC),
they'll make this easy on you by letting you use BIS (Blackberry Internet
Service). This is ridiculously constraining when it comes to creating useful
apps.

Another major point of pain is their code signing tool. To produce a build
that's deployable to a device, you have to sign the COD file using their
remote code signing server. The server was down almost daily leaving me dead
in the water during critical testing periods.

Lastly, if you decided to make use of certain API facilities like persistent
storage, a device reboot was required after every deployment. Given a five
minute reboot time on many devices, this could consume an hour or more each
day of my dev time.

I'm not sure what RIM's future plans are, but making things easier on
developers would definitely be a step in the right direction if they want to
remain viable.

~~~
tici_88
I have been developing for the BlackBerry platform for years and have found it
very very good. Some things like the signing server can be annoying at times.
There are many great things however. RIM provides all kinds of simulators that
make it really easy to test out your apps on _all_ devices. So you don't have
to even purchase separate devices for testing like on Android or the iPhone. I
only do final sanity tests on physical devices.

Your connection information about 2-3 years out of date. That was the old
days. They have a transparent connection factory now which makes opening
connections pretty easy. You can even transparently route over WiFi, etc.

I think that in the focus to make the newest, shiniest app many people in the
developer community are overlooking a key thing. BlackBerry brings you users
with a LOT of software purchasing power. Not just people but whole
organizations. That crowd is used to spending big $$$ on software. And if it
means waiting a little for the code signing server to come back up or schedule
my builds outside of regular office hours, this is a sacrifice that I would
gladly make. It pays off, quite literally.

~~~
tmountain
Ah yes, I'm well acquainted with the simulator. Unfortunately, the reboot time
was on par with that of a physical device which lead me to the drastic measure
of snapshotting a running simulator inside of virtual box since I could boot
virtual box in 20% of the time it took to start a fresh simulator.

The simulator is also throttled to a paltry 10k/sec when performing network
access (why?!), and the app I was working on was for music streaming which
forced me to do most of my testing on physical devices.

Regarding the connection factory, I was aware of it; however, given the market
share of older devices, it makes sense to support them. If you're going to do
so, you're going to have to roll your own connection code since older devices
can't use newer OS versions. I'm not talking about ancient devices either. The
Curve 8900 shipped with the 4.6 which doesn't support the connection factory.

In our case, it didn't make sense to have two builds (legacy and modern) since
we'd have to support legacy anyway. I suspect this will improve as the older
devices disappear by way of attrition, but it made things difficult at the
time.

Regarding the people willing to spend money on software, we never applied to
get into the marketplace; however, all of RIM's competitors have similar
offerings, so I see no advantage here.

~~~
tici_88
The simulator has had the ability to reload an edited and recompiled app
without needing to do a full reboot. This feature has been there for about 1.5
years (if you count the beta period).

Good points on the older OS 4.6 devices. Right now we have something like 95%
of all app purchases done from OS 5 and OS 6 devices, so going back to OS 4.6
has not been considered worth it for many developers for some time now. I do
it just to be nice to my users but I get less than 2% OS 4.6ers coming in.

In general RIM has been really good at pushing users to upgrade their devices
so in practice you would see most 8900 buyers come out with OS 5 on their
device.

------
OmarIsmail
This exec is completely off the mark as there's actually no hope for RIM in
the current game. Current game being the key phrase here. They are going up
against Microsoft, Apple and Google the three largest tech companies in the
world that are treating mobile at near top strategic priority. This means
they're able to leverage their resources from other profitable divisions to
aid in the development efforts. For a company like RIM that only has mobile
they'll get further and further pushed to the sidelines.

So RIM has one of two choices. They can either do a Nintendo and follow a Blue
Ocean Strategy and just completely change the game, and change the market. Or
they can do a Sega and go 3rd party - meaning not developing the end to end
solution and instead providing hardware and software for one of the other main
players.

Based on SEGA and Nintendo's experiences, the Blue Ocean Strategy is preferred
- but you better be sure you can pull it off. Changing the wireless game is a
big bet... though if you saw the OnLive CEO's talk posted on Engadget
yesterday you'll see that there is the potential for some revolution in the
wireless game. If RIM were to buy OnLive or exclusively license their new
wireless tech, that would be the kind of game changing thing that would not
only give them a fighting chance, but take the lead.

To conclude - if RIM tries to fight Google, Apple and MS in classic metrics
such as the OS, features, hardware and services - they will lose and die. RIM
has to change the rules of the game, and one way is to buy Rearden Company's
new wireless technology (if it works as stated).

~~~
Splines
_though if you saw the OnLive CEO's talk posted on Engadget yesterday you'll
see that there is the potential for some revolution in the wireless game_

For anyone curious, here's the article (includes a video):

[http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/29/onlive-ceo-reveals-
entire...](http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/29/onlive-ceo-reveals-entirely-new-
approach-to-wireless-credits/)

~~~
Apocryphon
Their company is named Rearden? Ayn Rand must be smiling in her grave.

------
run4yourlives
I actually think this strategy is a bad one for RIM. You aren't going to beat
Apple at its own game (UX/consumer market), you need to change the dynamics of
the engagement.

One area that RIM/Blackberry is still king is the enterprise. Apple hasn't
even attempted to enter this market, for good reason.

I think a viable - although controversial - strategy would be to simplify the
offering and the company into a provider of enterprise communications devices.
Beef up BES based on customer feedback, pull all blackberries from consumer
shelves (i.e. Joe public can't buy one), focus on owning the market for
devices with large organizations that provide phones to their staff as a cost
of business. Expand into high security, high risk areas like the military and
government (Obama doesn't have an iPhone, does he?).

This would also have the effect making owning a blackberry a sign that you are
an "elite member of a large group that can afford them", like it was in the
later 90's. Owning a blackberry has no cache anymore, because any 16 year old
can go buy a pink curve and look as cool as you do.

This is the exact opposite of what this exec is looking for, but in the end
will make for a stronger (although smaller) RIM, I believe.

The strategy suggested by the exec is a recipe for disaster.

~~~
elehack
Focusing on professional-only also has substantial difficulties. Will
employees want to carry 2 phones, or will they want to be able to use their
consumer smartphone for business as well? If they had and learned an iPhone or
Android device, will they want to learn a new platform for their business
phone, or will they prefer to use one like they already know?

~~~
ebiester
The target market wants one phone. However, the target market doesn't care
about the same things that the iPhone or Android delivers. They may want a
game or three, but the emphasis is not the same. People attracted to
blackberries are not the type of people that are going to care about having
the latest graphics.

Long battery life, a good web experience, and a good enterprise experience is
something nobody else is doing. Mind you, RIM could build on android and
provide the same thing...

~~~
ugh
A good web experience?!

~~~
ebiester
I was unclear. I'm talking about combining the three. Blackberry doesn't
currently have a good web experience,

------
lambersley
During my 3-year at RIM, one of the first things I noticed was point #6.
Anyone (almost) who had been at RIM for 5 years were likely to be Managers,
7-8 years, Directors, 10+, VPs. This was true regardless of competence. It
came as a result of hyper-growth but it was never corrected once things began
to slow down. If you started at RIM in mid-late 90s as an Analyst, you would
proress to Intermediate 6 months later, then Senior within another 8-12
months. Within 2 years, you were a Supervisor/Team Lead and on and on it went.
Very few talented people wanted to live or commute to Waterloo during that
time. RIM hired who they could, gave away stock options, made employees
wealthy and continued to promote them.As a result, the company is now top-
heavy (VPs are almost numberless) primarily with people who had grown up in
the system and have little external perspective.

~~~
Apocryphon
It sounds like companies in trouble is always because of too many managers.
Were there any high-profile company failures that were caused by too many
engineers, and not enough managers? I don't mean lack of management from
managers, I mean literally there weren't enough leaders, administrators,
overseers.

------
Shenglong
To add to this, RIM also takes -forever- to make some decisions. I don't
believe I'm able to disclose specifics for legal reasons, but even though RIM
was a partner for years, they took months and months to respond to an offer
that other mobile companies JUMPED at (for good reason). There is -definitely-
something wrong at their senior level, and the majority of BlackBerry users I
know are only holding on out of ignorance ("it has business features"), or
because of BBM (which will soon change due to Apple's messenger). There has
been zero intelligent innovation out of this company for years, and my friend
at RIM makes money shorting their stock. The entire culture is out of whack,
and I doubt they can restructure this by themselves.

I remember an article here a few days ago, about how Silverlake (I think it
was Silverlake) did some crazy restructuring. RIM is dying. Their best hope is
for an external firm to step in and overhaul things completely.

~~~
corin_
First, while I can't speak for all BB users, I have stayed loyal to this brand
because I love the devices and the software. I know the flaws, I notice lack
of innovation, and I don't even use BBM.

Second, shorting the stock of your own company, are there no legal issues
there?

~~~
tptacek
What does that question have to do with his point? I'll answer: nothing.

------
nookiemonster
Platforms that tightly coordinate with carriers were highly successful in the
previous mobile cycle (prior to wm 6.1- so anything before 2008 really).

The model has changed, however. Today, it's android & iphone that are driving
the industry forward. These are platforms that don't coordinate as tightly
with carriers.

Frankly, RIM's problem is that their leadership is stuck in the old model.
There was a generation of senior executives in the mobile industry who truly
knew better than the nerds: Regardless of your passion for development &
openness, it was the carriers who make or break you. RIM's risk now is to
replace one extreme attitude with another extreme (too open, too independent)
and then completely self-destruct.

IMO, the key to success is not anything listed in this letter. They need to
reboot their leadership structure with folks who understand that a good
relationship with carriers is critical, but you don't cling to them for
survival. Android & iPhone are vulnerable in this space. They're spending too
much time giving carriers the finger.

IMO, the only company that really has a shot at relevance is Microsoft:
They're still playing nice with carriers & they have an incredibly easy
development environment, but they're also exploring territory that hasn't been
authorized by the carriers.

In the sense that they're 'failing', they're failing because they're not
nurturing the development ecosystem with funding. If Microsoft set aside 50
million dollars or so for investing in INTERESTING mobile application
developers, they could solve their appstore app quality problem and really
make a move on the industry. Microsoft should take advantage of the fact that
the carriers aren't thrilled with Apple or Google. They're really well
positioned to strike, if they can just get the app quality problem solved.

~~~
127001brewer
_... They're really well positioned to strike, if they can just get the app
quality problem solved._

How are they well positioned to strike if retailers are actively discouraging
customers not to buy Win7 Phones?[1]

What does "app quality problem" mean? Is this the fault of developers? Or the
Microsoft's fault for not providing the tools, etc? (Since I'm not a mobile
developer, this is the first I've heard of app problems on Win7 Phones.)

1\. [http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20071051-71/site-fights-
re...](http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20071051-71/site-fights-retail-bias-
against-windows-phone-7/)

~~~
nookiemonster
Well positioned: 1) They have a constrained ecosystem which could insure that
the quality experience for apps is better than the current average in android
apps

2) I haven't owned a wp7 device for over a year, so I don't know where things
are now, but for the months following launch, the apps were a crapshoot &
expensive. There were no angry birds, no hipstamatics, etc. Twitter, Facebook
& that's about it.

So the quality problem I am referring to is akin to the choice between walking
into a flea market (Android), a Nordstrom (iPhone) or a jc penny (windows
phone 7).

------
Joeri
Ouch. Imagine you're working at RIM and then try reading that letter. How
insulting it must be to be a senior developer at RIM and to read that you're
just not good enough.

IMHO, RIM's leadership is focused on the past, and on the wrong market
segment. They're desperately trying to win over business users, while not
realizing that they've already lost that market and will never get it back. At
the same time they're largely ignoring the feature phone segment which is
going to upgrade to a smartphone in the coming years, and who could be easily
lured in by the current BB products, if they just make them a little bit more
user-friendly.

My wife thinks her BB curve is a better phone than my samsung galaxy s2. On
paper, that's a ridiculous comparison (the curve isn't even 3g). In reality,
she only uses it for calling, texting, e-mail and facebook, and it's not
inferior at all for those things. She doesn't want a touchscreen, she doesn't
want tons of apps, and there are a lot of people like her.

~~~
runjake
> there are a lot of people like her

But not enough to sustain RIM as a viable player, which is the core of their
problem.

~~~
izend
And the profit margin will be a lot smaller on "dumb phones".

------
pkteison
Solutions seem impractical. Hire proven world class managers? Recruit better
developers? You can't do these things when already in a floundering position,
because why would the best people in the world want to move to come work for
the loser? It's key little details like this that make or break a plan; if
step 1 is disregard reality, it's just dreaming and whining, not real
constructive feedback.

------
hello_moto
I'm not sure how bad is BB user-interface. Case and point: in Indonesia, BB is
probably the hottest phone on the market. These people aren't the same like
those in Silicon Valley echo chamber.

Point #2, #3, #6 are roughly focusing on the same principals: RIM needs smart,
innovative leaders that get things done and deliver with less
processes/bureaucracies. A friend of mine worked there and he said his group
(including the director) complained about the internal process with respect to
shipping out software: they can't just ship software, there are a few hoops
they have to go through and that takes toll on their time to be productive.

Point #5 is valid. RIM insider told me that they have tons of features way
before Apple or MS. Unfortunately they don't have Steve Jobs that always
depict everything like the next best thing since the slice of bread.

Sometime the media and the analysts are just that: media and analysts. They
need stories. They need something to focus on whether it's bad or good. To
them, there's no difference between bad publicity and good publicity.

For example: I subscribe to InformationWeek and eWeek. They always sing the
same song in the enterprise (for quite sometime until I get bored and thinking
to unsubscribe): "Your CEO wants to use iPhone or iPad but your CIO blocked
them with tons of reasons and instead ask you to stick with BlackBerry". I've
got to ask iWeek and eWeek to do an unbiased poll or survey: how many
companies do actually want this? Or are these companies that tell you the
stories are the minorities? At the end of the day: which one is more cost-
effective in terms of enterprise-wide deployment.

------
JL2010
As someone who interned twice at RIM during their peak (Van Halen concert
peak), I got the feeling my second time around that their best people had
already left after making millions off of their stock options. Some of them to
start up their own projects. I'd like to see it turn around, it was a great
environment when I was there, I was able to get the bulk of my experience at
RIM. Sort of feels like your old elementary school is closing down :(

------
grannyg00se
A lot of good points are brought up here. But the writer is calling for an
overhaul of the entire company culture, focus, and business priority. I'd like
to see a resonse from a similarly positioned employee to get a feel for how
difficult or damaging some of the suggestions may be.

------
winternett
The devices are great for the price you pay, but there should be a much better
selection of apps and features among the product line. I was holding the torch
the other day and its practically my dream phone right now, even compared to
the iPhone because I know I won't need a new one every 6 months. I love having
a keyboard instead of touching a screen, i love being able to tether it, I
love not having to worry about using a RIM computer to properly develop for or
update my device///

I also use the Blackberry SDK, specifically the Widget SDK, I love being able
to use simple HTML/CSS/and Java Script to develop apps. The code signing tool
can take a long walk off a short cliff though, and there are tons of bugs with
even using simple black backgrounds in applications... The SDK does need to be
fixed. A company with RIM's resources should dedicate lots of resources into
empowering their developers, and also policing the apps in the app store more
to make sure that apps don't link to shady web sites.

The devices also need 3D engines in them, Phones should have rich multimedia
and game apps. The copy of Angry Birds you can play in HTML5 should work in BB
browsers and more of these popular games should be solicited on the BB (phone)
platform.

I realize security is an issue as well, I actually like the idea of the
playbook, but phone makers have been losing sight of hand held phones over
tablets. People are following Apple's lead instead of innovating where they
fall short. Make your system more open, use better components like cameras,
and make your screens larger and clearer. The 9800 model should be retired,
the screen is too tiny.

~~~
a3camero
FYI and despite what the URL indicates, the Widgets SDK is now called
"BlackBerry WebWorks":
[http://docs.blackberry.com/en/developers/deliverables/30182/...](http://docs.blackberry.com/en/developers/deliverables/30182/BlackBerry_Widget_applications_834632_11.jsp).
Same name for Playbook and phones.

------
kees
The Blackberry is a pure communication device. Actually, it is only about
communicating. Teenage girls use it, but also my professors. Lately, the
technological gap between all the android generics and iphones is increasing,
but easily resolvable. Increase the processor speed, the screen resolution and
use a better camera. Also they should make the OS smoother.

People do not care as long as they do not have the feeling they are missing
something.

Make the BB easy for developers that popular apps are also available for the
BB, but this will not gain you any new customers, it will only avoid that you
are loosing customers.

Blackberry should focus on the productivity of their customers. I want a phone
dead simple but 100% perfect for communicating, 100% secure and 100% trust-
able. Blackberry should offer cloud services so that people are locked-in. I
use my Blackberry as I used my Nokia, most people do that.

They should leverage their BBM into a social network. They should upgrade
their java, so that android developers can easily develop for BB as well. They
should create an opportunity whereby carriers can earn more money, carriers
are loosing ground everywhere. They do not earn money on the whole internet
thing on phones nowadays. Create great utilities, some usable office software.
Offer a cloud service in which you can store every message and any file you
ever had on your phone. Comparable with my gmail account. So that i ve a BB
archive. Focus on privacy. There's a huge chance there will be a backslash on
privacy in the next 5 years. I do not trust android or iphone phones. With the
first a feel too much attached too google with the second I'm Apple's
prisoner. Focus on openness. I would like to connect my BB to any system
available. I want to install every program I want to use. Make it a great
calculation device. Do you remember the HP 12c calculator. I should have the
same kind of feeling with my BB somehow. Not by replicating the calculators
functions, but by somehow making it a swiss knive.

------
wmat
OK, nice letter, but. Why would RIM spend a boatload of money investing in QNX
going forward? They already wasted enough buying it.

Why not bite the bullet and adopt Android across the board? Instant developer
network, Google support, huge non-North American user base, etc, etc.?

I'd buy a BlackBerry and a Playbook running Android tomorrow if they existed.

~~~
hello_moto
That's like telling Microsoft to bite the bullet and use Android.

These are big companies with tons at stake. They don't want to outsource their
core competencies to competing companies.

One solution is to create virtualization on top of the current solution: call
it Android Player or Flash Player or something. You'll get the developers and
the apps for your platform and slowly guide these developers to use your
native SDK and eventually kill the portability layers.

After all things said and done, there are many ways to go to Rome but one
thing for sure: can't sacrifice your core competencies otherwise you'll be
like any other mobile manufacturers (Samsung, HTC, etc) and compete on price
for hardware because the software makes you irrelevant.

And you know US/Canada won't win when it comes to price of hardware. Broadcom
is getting a lot of heat from Taiwanese/Chinese manufacturers.

~~~
wmat
I'd heard that RIM was in the process of building an Android Player for the
Playbook. I highly doubt though that it will result in the guidance of
developers toward the native SDK. Those developers are Android developers, NOT
Android Player for BB developers, so why would they even look at the native
SDK? The only reason I can see is if their App suddenly sky rockets in
popularity on the BB. I see that being a rare corner case rather than the
norm.

~~~
edw
Android player…yes, one of the CEOs, during an interview said something like:
You want apps? We're making an Android player thing… That'll give the Playbook
"app tonnage," if that's your thing.

The "app tonnage" comment was the dumbest thing I had heard in a long time —
breathtakingly dumb. It betrayed a profound apathy towards apps beyond the
most crude quantitative perspective.

~~~
wmat
Ouch. That is dumb.

------
pwpwp
To all RIM naysayers: use a Blackberry and be delighted. Yes the web
experience kinda sucks, but other than that Blackberries are all around fine
phones with months of uptime without a single malfunction. I still wait to see
that from any other vendor.

~~~
edw
While I enjoy uptime measured in years as much as the next Unix user, but I
think the value of one month phone uptime (a rough estimate of mean time
between iPhone reboots) vs. six month phone uptime is pretty meaningless to
most people. They're both "pretty much never."

~~~
rbarooah
Where does this 'mean time between iPhone reboots' come from? Has someone done
a study - and are you talking about stock or jailbroken?

I ask because I occasionally had to reboot my original iPhone, and 3GS, but I
simply haven't thought about rebooting my iPhone 4 running IOS4.

~~~
albedoa
He calls it a rough estimate right in his post, but even if it's much longer
than one month, the point still stands that it's "pretty much never". That
metric means nothing at this point.

But yeah, I'm with you that I rarely think about rebooting my iPhone 4.

------
bhousel
So in summary:

    
    
        1) Focus on the End User experience
        2) Recruit Senior SW Leaders & enable decision-making
        3) Cut projects to the bone.
        4) Developers, not Carriers can now make or break us
        5) Need for serious marketing punch to create end user desire
        6) No Accountability - Canadians are too nice
        7) The press and analysts are pissing you off. Don’t snap. 
           Now is the time for humility with a dash of paranoia.
        8) Democratise. Engage and interact with your employees.
    

What happens if they do all of these things? They basically turn RIM into Palm
circa 2009-2010. My take, it's over.

~~~
nl
Except they have a lot of money in the bank, and better distribution.

Palm might have worked out better if they'd had those things too.

------
patternexon
Blackberry does not have the same end user as the iPhone. Blackberry's end
users are corporations - its the default device that is shelled out to every
single employee of large banks and consultancies. The 'Enterprise End User'
thats what BB has to retain and capitalize on. RIM should look for synergies
with other enterprise application providers. A cool looking twitter
application is not the answer to their woes. Its seamless integration of a
enterprise Yammer with the BB mailbox or an application that makes it easier
to navigate ugly sharepoint sites.

------
cwilson
The author talks a lot about their developer centric culture and what needs to
change within it. What he totally misses on, especially when comparing to
Apple, is that there is a serious lack of design centric culture. Yes he says
they should focus on the customer and user experience but I don't think he
fully understands that an almost cult-like passion for design is why Apple
wins in this area.

I do not see RIM suddenly gaining in this area and being known as the place
really good designers go.

------
suprgeek
If it is real, the letter is an impressive piece of soul searching at RIM. It
bodes well for the company that within its ranks, a senior person is willing
to put these thoughts to paper in the hopes of steering a change. How much
follow-up will happen is anybody's guess. The whole Co-CEO deal is pretty
strange to begin with...kinda defeats the "buck stops here" position of the
Chief. Imagine two US presidents trying to run the country...

~~~
jsnell
If it's real, it doesn't bode well that they think the only way to try to
steer the company is by anonymously airing the dirty laundry on a tech rumor
blog. Can't get much more dysfunctional than that.

~~~
zipdog
The letter reminds me of larger companies I've worked for, where it felt clear
to us in the lower levels some of what needed to be done, that moral was
sliding, and that plenty of people with ideas and talents were not being
utilized. Its really hard to build a corporate culture that has really good
feedback and involvement among the staff. My bosses in those companies would
have found it equally difficult to really let all of these sentiments out, so
I don't think its particularly unusual to feel the only recourse is anonymous
airing on a tech blog.

~~~
suprgeek
Unfortunately I still remember being in the exact same position in days long
past.. I had hoped that there could be a senior person who would come out and
say this exact fact. There was none and soon after, said BigCo went under and
laid-off everybody.

------
VladRussian
"How long do you give him?...About a week!" (Jerry Maguire)

except for still having such naive execs around, the situation sounds typical
for an, astronomically speaking, burn-out, starting to collapse, company, a
glowing star of yesterday. Who've been at Sun, Siebel, Compaq, Palm, etc...
know the feeling. The situation at Nokia, btw, sounds the same...

------
afterburner
"Canadians are too nice"

Come on, as if the practice of holding on to people isn't widespread. It's
called "office culture".

------
hammock
People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it (it's cliche but it's
true).

------
westajay
It's sad when you can't be candid in a company and have to resort to sending
an external letter to get through to management.

I think lack of candour when problems abound is the kiss of death for many
companies.

------
yellowredblack
Eddie Murphy said it best: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpPdgrr5diM>

------
shawndumas
All that and no mention of iMessage...

------
siculars
RIM == Yahoo!

