RIM’s outlook for 2012 is gloomy, at best
If BlackBerry maker Research in Motion is going to rebound in 2012, it better forget all about an ugly 2011. Its tablet PlayBook never dented Apple’s huge market share, BlackBerry fans were frustrated by several worldwide blackouts and off-the-court incidents marred its image horribly. Essentially, any year can be better than 2011 for RIM.
But will it be? Look at RIM’s own projections, as outlined in its recent quarterly statement: its BlackBerry 10 phones won’t be available until the second half of 2012 because it is waiting on the manufacturing of dual-core LTE chipsets to power the smartphones. Also, “it expects the number of devices it ships in the quarter including Christmas will drop as much as 26 percent from a year ago,” as Fox reports. Ouch.
Analysts are equally bearish about RIM. Research firm Strategy Analytics predicts RIM’s share of the U.S. smartphone market to fall to 12 percent this year, a sharp drop from 2007, when RIM had a 44 per cent share, Toronto Star writes.
Other analysts believe RIM has to sell its handset business and focus on the super-secure data network it so highly prizes. Recently, Jaguar Financial wrote, “[we believe] that the road map to value restoration lies in a sale of RIM whether as a whole or in separate parts.” Jaguar also called for a change in leadership, saying Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie need to make way for new transformative talent.
“Clearly, something has got to change at RIM pretty quickly,” an analyst told AllThingsD. “They are eroding market share at a pretty rapid rate here.” That essentially sums up RIM’s mountainous challenge in 2012, and the Canadian company needs to do something drastic to change its fortunes. Otherwise, it may end up becoming another Nortel.
Photo courtesy of Official Blackberry Images