Friday 01 July 2011

Open Letter To RIM: Part III    [ 01-07-2011 16:57 ]

Author: Ivanov Konstantin   Source: BGR     Translation by: Paul Smith     

So we've seen the open letter to RIM, but what has RIM to say about it all? Well you might expect that they would ignore such a letter, but no, they have in fact issued a statement replying to it.

Let's take a look at RIM's response first:

An “Open Letter” to RIM’s senior management was published anonymously on the web today and it was attributed to an unnamed person described as a ‘high level employee”. It is obviously difficult to address anonymous commentary and it is particularly difficult to believe that a “high level employee” in good standing with the company would choose to anonymously publish a letter on the web rather than engage their fellow executives in a constructive manner, but regardless of whether the letter is real, fake, exaggerated or written with ulterior motivations, it is fair to say that the senior management team at RIM is nonetheless fully aware of and aggressively addressing both the company’s challenges and its opportunities.

RIM recently confirmed that it is nearing the end of a major business and technology transition. Although this transition has taken longer than anticipated, there is much excitement and optimism within the company about the new products that are lined up for the coming months. There is a fundamental business reality however that following an extended period of hyper growth (during which RIM nearly quadrupled in size over the past 5 years alone), it has become necessary for the company to streamline its operations in order to allow it to grow its business profitably while pursuing newer strategic opportunities. Again, RIM’s management team takes these challenges seriously and is actively addressing the situation. The company is thankfully in a solid business and financial position to tackle the opportunities ahead with a solid balance sheet (nearly $3 billion in cash and no debt), strong profitability (RIM’s net income last quarter was $695 million) and substantial international growth (international revenue in Q1 grew 67% over the same quarter last year). In fact, while growth has slowed in the US, RIM still shipped 13.2 million BlackBerry smartphones last quarter (which is about 100 smartphones per minute, 24 hours per day) and RIM is more committed than ever to serving its loyal customers and partners around the world.

The response can be divided into two sections, neither of which really say anything at all. The first questions to the authenticity of the open letter and that is basically all it does. BGR, for their part, say that "... we assure you, it is indeed genuine and its author has been vetted ...".

The second half of RIM's response is, in a nutshell, just corporate speak that tells us little of any interest. It recounts RIM's financial position, a topic that hadn't been raised in the open letter, and makes the predictable statements of RIM being committed to working with partners etc.

In short the 'response' from RIM is nothing of the kind. It doesn't address any of the points raised in the open letter and one has to wonder why RIM choose to issue it in the first place. Granted that it was extremely unlikely RIM was ever going to get into a public debate over the issues raised in the open letter, but then why choose to issue this statement at all? If the intention was to downplay the open letter then I have to say this response is a failure because it simply leaves questions unanswered, indeed it raises more questions itself.

In the end this response does little more than reinforce the picture of the corporate culture at RIM set out in the original open letter.

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Open Letter To RIM: Part II    [ 01-07-2011 16:47 ]

Author: Ivanov Konstantin   Source: BGR     Translation by:     

Before reading on you may like to read over the full open letter an anonymous RIM executive is alleged to have posted to the company. In this post I'll be providing some commentary on the letter.

The letter sets out eight points for change. That seems like a good starting place so let's go through them one by one.

The opening section of the letter is a good place to begin because it contains some interesting points itself. For starters the letter claims that the letter "... reflects the feeling across a huge percentage of your employee base". Obviously we can't verify that, but if true then the contents of the letter become all the more important for RIM.

Another interesting pointraised here concerns the nature of the letter itself and why the author chooses to remain anonymous and indeed alludes to his reasons for posting the lette ron the web rather than raising his concerns internally. The author states "... unfortunaely the culture at RIM does not allow us to speak openly without having to worry about the career-limiting effects".

The User Experience

Here the author talks about RIM's strategy and how it is basically centred around relationships with networks or even legal advice rather thn on what is best for the end user. This is a pretty big criticism, but the author backs it up by saying that RIM's bigwigs should try using the likes of Android handsets or iPhone for a week to see why it is their customers are abandoning them for those devices.

He also says that RIM is too focused on achieving 'feature parity' with other platforms rather than looking to launch unique features or experiences of its own. In other words he is saying that RIM is playing follow the leader, and if you are always following the leader you can't be the leader yourself now can you?

Communication

The author lays it on the line here, RIM's software teams aren't communicating and there is no one capable of making the key decisions that need to be taken. Coupled with what he described as 'crazy' working hours this has led to the teams being demotivated.

What is particularly interesting here though is when the author says "We need some heavy hitters at RIM when it comes to software management". That sentence implies that RIM simply doesn't have the right people to do the job, or at least the people it does have aren't qualified enough or don't have the necessary industry experience.

Cut Projects To The Bone

Again the author comes back to talking about focusing on the end-user rather than the networks. He says that RIM should be 'disciplined' in its choice of projects and rather than working on projects that are a result of network requests it should focus on what is best for the customer.

He also talks about RIM shipping incomplete products. He makes the valid point that shipping a product that isn't finished will hurt the brand and urges RIM to take a longer term view of such things, saying that '... it will pay off in the long term" if a product is held back to make sure it is up to scratch. This is a remarkable comment from an executive at a company because it really lays bare a failing and is perhaps another reason the author chooses to remain anonymous.

Devs Not Networks

"There is no polite way to say this, but it is true - BlackBerry smartphone apps suck". You can't get much more blunt than that, but the author uses that statement to underscore his claim that developing for BlackBerry is 'painful'. He says that there needs to be a bigger focus on devs and giving them what they need to work with the platform.

This underscores the reality of the current smartphone space. It's not the networks that will decide how successful your platform becomes, but the devs, or lack thereof as the case may be, who work with you.

Marketing

Another hard hitting point, but again very relevant. The author simply says that for all RIM goes on about being technically superior to the likes of the iPhone customers simply don't care. The thing is, he's right. The average customer really doesn't give a monkey's about the technical specifications of a product, rather they want it to look nice and do what they need it to do and to do so easily. In that regard RIM has failed.

Accountability

... well more like the lack of accountability. The author claims that RIM is simply too nicey nicey and won't take the measures necessary to weed out those employees who aren't performing well. That fits in with the previous comments about RIM's culture where no one feels able to speak out. Perhaps it's time for some hard hitting talks at RIM? Get rid of the dead wood and reward people who are taking the company forwards.

Management

This is where the letter gets really frank ... it calls out the management, specifically the two joint-CEO's. In a nutshell the author says that the partnership between the two, whilst not broken, isn't efficient. He says that overconfidence in management led to RIM missing some key movements in the industry e.g. the rise of the iPhone. You can't get much more serious than a senior executive calling for the CEO(s) to be replaced. Then again if the CEO(s) are part of the problem then in the interests of the comapny perhaps some fresh blood is needed.

Democratise

Why democratise? Well according to the author "Some of our offices feel like Soviet-era government workplaces". He wants RIM to reach out to employees and engage with them; illicit feedback that won't make people fear for their jobs.

This last section doesn't paint a very good picture at RIM though with the author saying that "... headhunters have already started circling ...".  He calls for RIM to shake things up and put a bit of life back into the company. The obvious inferral being that if they don't then they stand to loose what good people they have.

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Open Letter To RIM: Part I    [ 01-07-2011 16:31 ]

Author: Ivanov Konstantin   Source: BGR     Translation by:     

As any one who has been following the smartphone scene recently will be well aware all is not well at RIM these days. It often seems that the heyday of the BlackBerry is now over with falling marketshare and customers seemingly disinterested in new products, not to mention products being cancelled either. To this end BGR published an open letter to RIM yesterday, the letter purportedly coming from a senior executive at the company, but who has chosen to remain anonymous.

I've posted the letter below for you to read over and owning to its length I'll provide my commentary in a subsequent post:

To the RIM Senior Management Team:

I have lost confidence.

While I hide it at work, my passion has been sapped. I know I am not alone — the sentiment is widespread and it includes people within your own teams.

Mike and Jim, please take the time to really absorb and digest the content of this letter because it reflects the feeling across a huge percentage of your employee base. You have many smart employees, many that have great ideas for the future, but unfortunately the culture at RIM does not allow us to speak openly without having to worry about the career-limiting effects.

Before I get into the meat of the matter, I will say I am not part of a large group of bitter employees wishing to embarrass us. Rather, I believe these points need to be heard and I desperately want RIM to regain its position as a successful industry leader. Our carriers, distributors, alliance partners, enterprise customers, and our loyal end users all want the same thing… for BlackBerry to once again be leading the pack.

We are in the middle of major “transition” and things have never been more chaotic. Almost every project is falling further and further behind schedule at a time when we absolutely must deliver great, solid products on time. We urge you to make bold decisions about our organisational structure, about our culture and most importantly our products.

While we anxiously wait to see the details of the streamlining plan, here are some suggestions:

1) Focus on the End User experience

Let’s obsess about what is best for the end user. We often make product decisions based on strategic alignment, partner requests or even legal advice — the end user doesn’t care. We simply have to admit that Apple is nailing this and it is one of the reasons they have people lining up overnight at stores around the world, and products sold out for months. These people aren’t hypnotized zombies, they simply love beautifully designed products that are user centric and work how they are supposed to work. Android has a major weakness — it will always lack the simplicity and elegance that comes with end-to-end device software, middleware and hardware control. We really have a great opportunity to build something new and “uniquely BlackBerry” with the QNX platform.

Let’s start an internal innovation revival with teams focused on what users will love instead of chasing “feature parity” and feature differentiation for no good reason (Adobe Flash being a major example). When was the last time we pushed out a significant new experience or feature that wasn’t already on other platforms?

Rather than constantly mocking iPhone and Android, we should encourage key decision makers across the board to use these products as their primary device for a week or so at a time — yes, on Exchange! This way we can understand why our users are switching and get inspiration as to how we can build our next-gen products even better! It’s incomprehensible that our top software engineers and executives aren’t using or deeply familiar with our competitor’s products.

2) Recruit Senior SW Leaders & enable decision-making

I’m going to say what everyone is thinking… We need some heavy hitters at RIM when it comes to software management. Teams still aren’t talking together properly, no one is making or can make critical decisions, all the while everyone is working crazy hours and still far behind. We are demotivated. Just look at who our major competitors are: Apple, Google & Microsoft. These are three of the biggest and most talented software companies on the planet. Then take a look at our software leadership teams in terms of what they have delivered and their past experience prior to RIM… It says everything.

3) Cut projects to the bone.

There is a serious need to consolidate our focus to just a handful of projects. Period.

We need to be disciplined here. We can’t afford any more initiatives based on carrier requests to squeeze out slightly more volume. Again, back to point #1, focus on the end users. They are the ones making both consumer & enterprise purchase decisions.

Strategy is often in the things you decide not to do.

On that note, we simply must stop shipping incomplete products that aren’t ready for the end user. It is hurting our brand tremendously. It takes guts to not allow a product to launch that may be 90% ready with a quarter end in sight, but it will pay off in the long term.

Look at Apple in 1997 for tips here. I really want you to watch this video because it has never been more relevant. It is our friend Steve Jobs in 97 and it may as well be you speaking to RIM employees and partners today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LEXae1j6EY

4) Developers, not Carriers can now make or break us

We urgently need to invest like we never have before in becoming developer friendly. The return will be worth every cent. There is no polite way to say this, but it’s true — BlackBerry smartphone apps suck. Even PlayBook, with all its glorious power, looks like a Fisher Price toy with its Adobe AIR/Flash apps.

Developing for BlackBerry is painful, and despite what you’ve been told, things haven’t really changed that much since Jamie Murai’s letter. Our SDK / development platform is like a rundown 1990′s Ford Explorer. Then there’s Apple, which has a shiny new BMW M3… just such a pleasure to drive. Developers want and need quality tools.

If we create great tools, we will see great work. Offer shit tools and we shouldn’t be surprised when we see shit apps.

The truth is, no one in RIM dares to tell management how bad our tools still are. Even our closest dev partners do their best to say it politely, but they will never bite the hand that feeds them. The solution? Recruit serious talent, buy SDK/API specialist companies, throw a truckload of money at it… Let’s do whatever it takes, and quickly!

5) Need for serious marketing punch to create end user desire

25 million iPad users don’t care that it doesn’t have Flash or true multitasking, so why make that a focus in our campaigns? I’ll answer that for you: it’s because that’s all that differentiates our products and its lazy marketing. I’ve never seen someone buy product B because it has something product A doesn’t have. People buy product B because they want and lust after product B.

Also an important note regarding our marketing: a product’s technical superiority does not equal desire, and therefore sales… How many Linux laptops are getting sold? How did Betamax go? My mother wants an iPad and iPhone because it is simple and appeals to her. Powerful multitasking doesn’t.

BlackBerry Messenger has been our standout, yet we wasted our marketing on strange stories from a barber shop to a horse wrangler. I promise you, this did nothing to help us in the mind of the average consumer.

We need an inventive and engaging campaign that focuses on what we are about. People buy into a brand / product not just because of features, but because of what it stands for and what it delivers to them. People don’t buy “what you do,” people buy “why you do it.” Take 3 minutes to watch the this video starting from the 2min mark: http://youtu.be/qp0HIF3SfI4

6) No Accountability – Canadians are too nice

RIM has a lot of people who underperform but still stay in their roles. No one is accountable. Where is the guy responsible for the 9530 software? Still with us, still running some important software initiative. We will never achieve excellence with this culture. Just because someone may have been a loyal RIM employee for 7 years, it doesn’t mean they are the best Manager / Director / VP for that role. It’s time to change the culture to deliver or move on and get out. We have far too many people in critical roles that fit this description. I can hear the cheers of my fellow employees now.

7) The press and analysts are pissing you off. Don’t snap. Now is the time for humility with a dash of paranoia.

The public’s questions about dual-CEOs are warranted. The partnership is not broken, but on the ground level, it is not efficient. Maybe we need our Eric Schmidt reign period.

Yes, four years ago we beat Microsoft when everyone said Windows Mobile with Direct Push in Exchange would kill us. It didn’t… in fact we grew stronger.

However, overconfidence clouds good decision-making. We missed not boldly reacting to the threat of iPhone when we saw it in January over four years ago. We laughed and said they are trying to put a computer on a phone, that it won’t work. We should have made the QNX-like transition then. We are now 3-4 years too late. That is the painful truth… it was a major strategic oversight and we know who is responsible.

Jim, in referring to our current transition recently said: “No other technology company other than Apple has successfully transitioned their platform. It’s almost never done, and it’s way harder than you realize. This transition is where tech companies go to die.”

To avoid this death, perhaps it is time to seriously consider a new, fresh thinking, experienced CEO. There is no shame in no longer being a CEO. Mike, you could focus on innovation. Jim, you could focus on our carriers/customers… They are our lifeblood.

8) Democratise. Engage and interact with your employees — please!

Reach out to all employees asking them on how we can make RIM better. Encourage input from ground-level teams—without repercussions—to seek out honest feedback and really absorb it.

Lastly, we’re all reading the news and many are extremely nervous, especially when we see people get fired. We need an injection of confidence: share your strategy and ask us for support. The headhunters have already started circling and we are at risk of losing our best people.

Now would be a great time to internally re-brand and re-energize the workplace. For example, rename the company to just “BlackBerry” to signify our new focus on one QNX product line. We should also address issues surrounding making RIM an enjoyable workplace. Some of our offices feel like Soviet-era government workplaces.

The timing is perfect to seriously evaluate at our position and make these major changes. We can do it!

Sincerely,

A RIM Employee

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Windows Phone Passes 25K App Mark    [ 01-07-2011 16:04 ]

Author: Ivanov Konstantin   Source: WindowsPhoneApplist     Translation by: Paul Smith     

Windows Phone has passed an important mileston according to one website tracking the acitivity of its app store. That milestone is the passing of the 25,000 app marker although it should be pointed out that other websites tracking these sorts of things still continue to list the Windows Phone Marketplace as having less than 25,000 apps.

Be that as it may the central point here is that Windows Phone is growing, at least as far as apps are concerned. A little context shows us that in the five months leading up to the end of March this year Windows Phone had managed to accrue a respectable 11,500 apps. That means that the next 13,500 apps, to bring us up to that figure of 25,000, was achieved in around three months.

With Mango due for release later this year Windows Phone will probably not be slowing down any time soon and certainly Windows Phone has raced past some other platforms in this regard e.g. webOS. Of course the number of apps in the store doesn't say anything about quality, but it is still an indicator that Microsoft's newest mobile platform is in fine form.

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