Years ago, their phones were known as Crackberry because people were so addicted to the devices. Now, you can barely see one. Today, the company formerly known as RIM (Research in Motion) has given up on the hardware end of things.
Is this surprising? No. The people at RIM and Nokia both laughed at Apple's iPhone, considering it less than even minimal competition.
While both companies made some attempt at fighting Apple, it didn't work. Nokia had already had the Symbian operating system, which was supposedly so much more but obviously, wasn't enough. (It always looked to me as though Nokia had young children creating their icons. I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out my Nokia flip phone before looking at the manual.)
RIM bought QNX, a real-time operating system from the early days of the IBM PC. They shaped it into a mobile operating system but as their hardware sales dwindled, it didn't make enough of a reputation to get important applications written for it. Microsoft is still struggling with this problem, even though it's quite well known.
In any case, that famous BlackBerry keyboard may be no more.
Showing posts with label RIM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RIM. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Monday, November 4, 2013
Android usage shows upgrades, switch; BlackBerry on the ropes
I noticed that this chart still shows quite a few Android users in versions 2.3.3 - 2.3.7 (API 10, was it?) but 2.3 - 2.3.2 are gone.
Just to see the progress, here is the final calendar quarter of 2013.
It makes me think that the LG Optimus One and Optimus 2 are still around in many variants since those had so little storage that they couldn't be updated. They were also not very powerful, but they were inexpensive and people who could only afford a feature phone could suddenly afford a smart phone.
Notice that Honeycomb, version 3.2 is still there. Apparently, there were quite a few US$100 tablets that couldn't be upgraded but are still in use.
Update 2013.11.27: I've read recently that they re-worked Kit Kat to be less demanding of resources, i.e. to get rid of the reason phones are still using Gingerbread/version 2.3.x. It isn't likely to put Kit Kat on LG Optimus One variants but possibly the Optimus 2, which is still being sold.
I also saw today where the deal for BlackBerry/RIM fell apart and there doesn't seem to be a saviour of the company. That drove a sell-off of the stock, sending the price down about 20% lower. They also replaced the CEO. (I suspect that they'll be saying that choosing him was an error in Heinsight. Yes, that's mine, and stop groaning.)
I would think that Apple, Google, and Microsoft are looking to buy the remains of the company when it's too far gone to save.
Google doesn't care about real-time execution since it chose a Java-related runtime architecture, but Apple could really use something a bit better and BlackBerry owns the QNX operating system, which was always quite a stunner with its fast (operating system) message passing system. Anything to fix the performance issues in the Darwin/(Mac) OS X kernel would be good. (Sure, it's easy to make the slop less apparent with faster processing but it's still sloppy.)
Apparently, the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) has been downloaded quite a lot, but people don't know what to do with it once they have it. Duh. You should be able to contact someone on CNBC as they're saying that "You'll have to pry it from my cold, dead hands." That's CrackBerry, and most of the users have been gone since about 2009 when they realized there were alternatives.
It'll be sad to see them gone from the market. I wish they had taken Apple's entry into the mobile phone space seriously. Obviously, Nokia had a similar take on being unbeatable and it cost them plenty.
Just to see the progress, here is the final calendar quarter of 2013.
It makes me think that the LG Optimus One and Optimus 2 are still around in many variants since those had so little storage that they couldn't be updated. They were also not very powerful, but they were inexpensive and people who could only afford a feature phone could suddenly afford a smart phone.
Notice that Honeycomb, version 3.2 is still there. Apparently, there were quite a few US$100 tablets that couldn't be upgraded but are still in use.
Update 2013.11.27: I've read recently that they re-worked Kit Kat to be less demanding of resources, i.e. to get rid of the reason phones are still using Gingerbread/version 2.3.x. It isn't likely to put Kit Kat on LG Optimus One variants but possibly the Optimus 2, which is still being sold.
I also saw today where the deal for BlackBerry/RIM fell apart and there doesn't seem to be a saviour of the company. That drove a sell-off of the stock, sending the price down about 20% lower. They also replaced the CEO. (I suspect that they'll be saying that choosing him was an error in Heinsight. Yes, that's mine, and stop groaning.)
I would think that Apple, Google, and Microsoft are looking to buy the remains of the company when it's too far gone to save.
Google doesn't care about real-time execution since it chose a Java-related runtime architecture, but Apple could really use something a bit better and BlackBerry owns the QNX operating system, which was always quite a stunner with its fast (operating system) message passing system. Anything to fix the performance issues in the Darwin/(Mac) OS X kernel would be good. (Sure, it's easy to make the slop less apparent with faster processing but it's still sloppy.)
Apparently, the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) has been downloaded quite a lot, but people don't know what to do with it once they have it. Duh. You should be able to contact someone on CNBC as they're saying that "You'll have to pry it from my cold, dead hands." That's CrackBerry, and most of the users have been gone since about 2009 when they realized there were alternatives.
It'll be sad to see them gone from the market. I wish they had taken Apple's entry into the mobile phone space seriously. Obviously, Nokia had a similar take on being unbeatable and it cost them plenty.
Monday, September 2, 2013
The other Microsoft/Nokia shoe has been dropped
Microsoft has completed a deal to acquire Nokia.
Who wasn't expecting this since ex-Microsoft employee Steven Elop took the reins at Nokia?
It all dates back to 2007 when people at Nokia and Research in Motion/BlackBerry laughed at Apple entering the mobile phone space, and not being prepared for something different.
Sure, Nokia had phones like the N95, but they didn't have a clue to making a smooth user experience. All the internal elegance is lost on non-technical users. RIM practically made the smart phone work for the business user and virtually made addicts of its users. When services were down, CrackBerry users were lost.
Apple changed the game, putting Windows Mobile, Symbian, and BlackBerry to minimal market share. Of course, time has passed, Windows Mobile was trashed and poor, little Zune became the base for Windows Phone. RIM/BlackBerry has been re-invented with the injection of the QNX operating system that ran on the IBM PC in the early 1980s. Symbian has been pushed from the high end devices to some middle ground, and Windows Phone took over at Nokia.
After the Android operating system arrived, Nokia and BlackBerry were pushed down further.
Do I feel bad for Nokia? I suppose so. They were a great success story, even more than Japanese companies' success. Given that Finland is probably the least understood European nation, it makes me smile that success came from a country with a most interesting language. Finnish, like Estonian and Hungarian are in a different world. Finland has a Swedish population but it's not big enough to change everyone from Finnish.
Will Nokia die?
Given the odd life of Windows Mobile (Pocket PC, etc.) and what Microsoft did to Danger and its Sidekick devices and how they approached and discarded Kin devices, I have my doubts about success for Windows Phone and Nokia devices.
They have the opportunity to really integrate legally (not that they weren't doing that already with their earlier deal--it will be above boards now) and show the world how good Windows Phone can be. However, this deal should kill any remaining devices from HTC et al. They weren't too happy to do them anyway, but at this point, the lack of sales will translate to Microsoft/Nokia devices only.
The good thing about this is that Nokia employees will be more secure. Microsoft has deep pockets and can lose money and not care.
I recently noticed that Microsoft has an interest in Pandora, as well. A "former" Microsoft executive is taking the CEO position at Pandora now. Microsoft has a deal to provide radio services to Windows Phone, but I wonder if they're being groomed for integration with Microsoft.
Update 2013.12.06: It looks as though the authorities in the U.S.A. are okay with Nokia becoming part of Microsoft.
Update 2014.10.28: The other day I saw a photo of a Nokia phone with Microsoft branding, instead of Nokia. I'm sure the people in Finland (half-)expected this but it is tough pill to swallow.
I'm still wondering if Pandora, the music service, is going this way since they signed a big deal with Microsoft a while back. It seems to me that a Microsoft executive hired on there, as similarly as Steven Elop did at Nokia, to bring them into the fold.
Who wasn't expecting this since ex-Microsoft employee Steven Elop took the reins at Nokia?
It all dates back to 2007 when people at Nokia and Research in Motion/BlackBerry laughed at Apple entering the mobile phone space, and not being prepared for something different.
Sure, Nokia had phones like the N95, but they didn't have a clue to making a smooth user experience. All the internal elegance is lost on non-technical users. RIM practically made the smart phone work for the business user and virtually made addicts of its users. When services were down, CrackBerry users were lost.
Apple changed the game, putting Windows Mobile, Symbian, and BlackBerry to minimal market share. Of course, time has passed, Windows Mobile was trashed and poor, little Zune became the base for Windows Phone. RIM/BlackBerry has been re-invented with the injection of the QNX operating system that ran on the IBM PC in the early 1980s. Symbian has been pushed from the high end devices to some middle ground, and Windows Phone took over at Nokia.
After the Android operating system arrived, Nokia and BlackBerry were pushed down further.
Do I feel bad for Nokia? I suppose so. They were a great success story, even more than Japanese companies' success. Given that Finland is probably the least understood European nation, it makes me smile that success came from a country with a most interesting language. Finnish, like Estonian and Hungarian are in a different world. Finland has a Swedish population but it's not big enough to change everyone from Finnish.
Will Nokia die?
Given the odd life of Windows Mobile (Pocket PC, etc.) and what Microsoft did to Danger and its Sidekick devices and how they approached and discarded Kin devices, I have my doubts about success for Windows Phone and Nokia devices.
They have the opportunity to really integrate legally (not that they weren't doing that already with their earlier deal--it will be above boards now) and show the world how good Windows Phone can be. However, this deal should kill any remaining devices from HTC et al. They weren't too happy to do them anyway, but at this point, the lack of sales will translate to Microsoft/Nokia devices only.
The good thing about this is that Nokia employees will be more secure. Microsoft has deep pockets and can lose money and not care.
I recently noticed that Microsoft has an interest in Pandora, as well. A "former" Microsoft executive is taking the CEO position at Pandora now. Microsoft has a deal to provide radio services to Windows Phone, but I wonder if they're being groomed for integration with Microsoft.
Update 2013.12.06: It looks as though the authorities in the U.S.A. are okay with Nokia becoming part of Microsoft.
Update 2014.10.28: The other day I saw a photo of a Nokia phone with Microsoft branding, instead of Nokia. I'm sure the people in Finland (half-)expected this but it is tough pill to swallow.
I'm still wondering if Pandora, the music service, is going this way since they signed a big deal with Microsoft a while back. It seems to me that a Microsoft executive hired on there, as similarly as Steven Elop did at Nokia, to bring them into the fold.
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