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No Blackberry is not Dead yet ,,,,,
In the words of Granny Weatherwax "I ate'nt dead" ..... (see Terry Pratchett's discworld novels if this quote passes you by)
I've had enough - only this week on the Big show I had to defend Research In Motion (RIM) - then I read Paul Thurott's blog post on RIM, even the BBC are at it. It just seems like a cheap shot. RIM shows no signs of bankruptcy, or poor business practices, yet the tech media insists they're done finished and gone. I frankly think all these normally wise heads are swayed by these pretty glass rectangles made by fruit themed toy makers and a popular search engine company, and are missing the point completely.
Are Blackberry's the best business phone? maybe not ... they've had some misses with some recent handsets as they stepped away from what they know to sell pretty glass rectangles. However the simple curve/bold qwerty keyboard phones are best in class without a doubt. Not convinced Nokia, HTC, Motorola, Samsung and others all have a designs that looks similar, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Why make one if the markets dead?
Yet, this is only the tip of the iceberg, the Blackberry infrastructure is superb, offering end to end e-mail encryption. You can start with a 50 user Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) for free, and all you loose over the paid version, is some granular control. BES Express still has end to end e-mail encryption, remote wipe, application control and and all the other essential features you need. The recent outage in the UK only affected users of blackberry's web-based BIS service. The rest of us with BES's just carried on. 2011 outage was the first since 2009 each earlier outage was pretty minor.
The level of security up to recently has been ironclad, the encryption keys were closely guarded by RIM, and government's were generally told to get stuffed if they asked for them. However in this "terrorist under the bed" post 9/11 world, RIM has released the keys to selected governments and security services after some arm twisting. But, its still the first choice for civil servants, drug dealers, spies and most recently rioters as a secure method of communication. What better recommendation is there....
Paul Thurrott's recent hatchet job on RIM, was in some places well observed. The playbook was ill advised and they should have ignored the tablet fad and watched the market a bit longer before diving in. No one would have cared if just they carried on making qwerty keyboard phones, that's what businesses the world over trust RIM to do . But, he missed the point in laughing at the playbook and the model of the month release schedule thats always been a "feature" of blackberry ownership. All thats small beer, RIM still provides reliable business class messaging services with fleets of Blackberries out there to prove it.
I'm sad to say lazy tech journalists seem blinded by the wizzy flash touch screen phones that are so trendy at the minute. They miss what the rest of the world is doing. Across the world now millions of blackberries are beeping and providing safe secure business critical email to everyone from CEO's to engineers in oil fields. Thats the sound of success not of a company in trouble.
Ian Grant
Ian can be found on twitter @tioaboa and soon on his blog…. Ian is a system administrator with 15 years experience in the IT industry, and is a messaging and virtualisation specialist.
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Ian Grant