RIM servers do house-of-cards impression

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RIM servers do house-of-cards impression

Collapse of its email service could not have come at a worse time for RIM

By MATT LEWIS

Published: 13 October, 2011

READ MORE: Research In Motion | BlackBerry

Meltdown of the BlackBerry service entered its third day with outages that have plagued the service since Monday hitting North American users, having affected those in Europe, Africa and the Middle East earlier in the week. Some have speculated that the outage was triggered by the spirit of Steve Jobs, hammering the final nail into the BlackBerry coffin as he departs this world. Others were surprised to hear that people still used BlackBerrys, having assumed that the retro mobile phones, which used cute plastic keys instead of a touchscreen, had gone the way of Pan Am.

However, the shutdown has certainly been noticed in financial centres by the multitude of parishioners who worship at the BlackBerry alter. One New York-based banker, who had the traumatic experience of being unable to send emails, told Reuters "It's one of those things -- you don't realize how important it is to breathe, until you can't do it," suggesting that bankers need to first suffocate in order to appreciate the usefulness of oxygen. Suddenly the global economic crisis makes a lot more sense.

Collapse of its email service could not have come at a worse time for RIM. Having gambled that its customers wouldn't notice that email on a phone is no longer considered cutting-edge, the company has been slow to adopt features like touchscreens, multitasking and aesthetic design. RIM is now being forced to play catch-up with it competitors while its market share tanks. Tablets were supposed to be the Canadian company's saving grace, but its Playbook tablet has sold poorly, probably because the device does not natively support email. That's right! The BlackBerry tablet doesn't do email - an idea which will probably sit alongside "Hey, let's merge with AOL" as one of the worst corporate decisions of all time.

Many faithful BlackBerry users are increasingly suffering from app envy (Angry Birds anyone?) and more banks and law firms are starting to use rival iPhone and Android-based devices. According to Reuters, Law firm DLA Piper, which has 4,200 lawyers worldwide, is accelerating discussions about making a switch to iPhones and Android. Already, Credit Suisse has started allowing employees to use their iPhone and Android devices on the company network and Standard Chartered switched from BlackBerry to iPhones for many users several months ago.

Shareholder pressure is now mounting on RIM to do something - anything! - to stop its share price from nose diving. Yesterday we reported that Jaguar Financial, a key RIM shareholder, has led the call for the BlackBerry maker to be sold or broken up, and claims more investors are supporting its campaign. With Google's $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola still fresh in investors' minds, a sale is seen as the most attractive option. Vic Alboini, Jaguar's CEO, said in an interview that its push was now supported by the owners of 8% of RIM's shares (up from less than 5% last month), and it was working on increasing that figure to 12%.

Perhaps it's too early to write RIM's obituary. With its new QNX operating system, the company may still have an ace to play, but if its BlackBerry servers continue toppling over it may never get the chance to play its hand.