RIM and the undead tablet

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day about the Blackberry Playbook and I realised that we’re talking about the walking dead.

At least HP had the foresight to take their tablet out behind the woodshed and put a bullet into its head.

RIM on the other hand are just watching this thing slowly turn into the living dead while the eternal optimists deny that something as unbelievable as a zombie tablet could exist, coming up with kinds of bizarre theories as to why this couldn’t be.

Let’s look at the facts. RIM aren’t shipping a whole lot of these things to anyone. Their share price is tanking. The only people that use Blackberry’s now are those that are stuck with them and can’t wait to get to another, more flexible platform and the fanboys who just can’t bring themselves to accept that they may have backed the wrong horse.

The fanboy sites are using the most fantastic theories to suggest that this zombie tablet is actually alive and kicking, despite the manufacturer scaling back their manufacturing lines for the Deadbook.

Unless…maybe…this is some new secret manufacturing/marketing strategy where you scale back the line to lull your opposition into a false sense of security before you spend more money with the manufacturer ramping up the manufacturing line again, and rehiring the laid off staff from that line to beat the crap out of your, now, unsuspecting opposition.

Yeah. Somehow I don’t think that’s the plan no matter how many ways you count downloads of a free application as a way of estimating device sales.

The truth is, if this thing was selling RIM would be trumpeting it from way up on high. They’re not. That means its not.

Given market sentiment on RIM at the moment if the Deadbook had a sell through rate that was even approaching acceptable Mike and Jim would be telling the planet every way they can.

Unless RIM can pull off a spectacular turnaround with the Deadbook and upcoming Blackberry devices they’re on the long slow road to oblivion.

Even in emerging markets Blackberry’s are starting to slowly lose ground to iOS and Android devices based on the handsets I’m seeing people using on the street throughout the Asia Pacific region.

Blackberry to offer price cuts on the Deadbook

According to this report Jim Balsille said that Blackberry is planning to reduce the price of the Deadbook to get those sales numbers moving.

Might I suggest $99.

It seemed to work for HP.

Can RIM pull of a Lazarus like resurrection?

Boy Genius Report recently had a piece on RIM and whether Blackberrys with the QNX Operating System will turn their fortunes around.

I’m not going to regurgitate the article here, but, I’m not so sure.

While I have a soft spot for Blackberry and their platform I don’t think that some new, well built hardware and a new OS is going to change the tide for them. Neither is an ‘Android layer’ that lets a Blackberry run Android apps.

Here are some of the practicalities, that I think, get in the way of a resurrected RIM.

The Cool Factor.

The Blackberry isn’t cool any more. I don’t hear of executives lining up at the door to their IT department demanding a Blackberry. An iPhone or an Android phone, yes, but a Blackberry, not so much.

The BES

More and more of the functionality that required a BES is now being found as native features in a wider and wider range of handsets. So why need a BES? If you don’t need a BES what’s the compelling story for a Blackberry over something else?

Blackberry Messenger

This was an awesome tool. Its becoming replicated functionality in other handsets. iOS is looking like its going to have something like it and you can bet that Android and WinMoPho devices will have something very similar as well.

I suppose the question is “if there was no real difference in features and functionality would you buy a Blackberry if you could choose from all the other smartphones out there”?

Sadly, I don’t think I would and I’m not so sure that I’m alone in that thinking.