stopped out for a few cent gain, but at least this discussion was interesting

Have both a Blackberry Bold, and Iphone 4. Prefer the Bold immensely with the keypad, and now allows touch screen if need be. I'm able to conduct business significantly faster, and as mentioned the battery life difference is noticeable.

How would they turn it around? Somehow incorporate Skype with it?

msft + rimm + fb = 1 time

* +nok?

Not the only value. RIM has been playing with the idea of licensing out their software and access to their network to be incorporated into handsets running other operating systems. They should have done that years ago when it was clear they could not win on hardware.

Amazon was interested before. They wanted to get into the handset market but the RIM founders were not interested. Since they are gone now and thing are pretty desperate I can see Amazon trying again. Most people know Amazon as a retailer but they are also a huge infrastructure company and RIM's network is valuable. Throw in QNX and the patents and even if Blackberry 10 is a flop you have a lot of other stuff Amazon can use.

RIM is not going to disappear. They still have a huge performance advantage over the cool phones in a lot of geographical locations where the networks are not as robust as they are in NA. That isn't really a great business strategy but it does mean the company will be around in some form for at least a few years.

Microsoft is in bed with Nokia so I can't see them trying to maintain two very different product lines.

Incorporate with Outlook, email hosting and new windows phones. The majority of business still use outlook.

Wow. first quarter numbers are an unmitigated disaster. can you say palm pilot?

I'm unsure about that. Companies like RIM really scare me because it seems they have no competitive advantage. I can't speak on their performance where there are shoddy networks, but in the US cell phones are almost a status symbol.

People actually make fun of other people for their phones. It sounds almost silly, but this is exactly why some people I know have upgraded to better phones. My wife and my best friend were two good examples of people who never cared about smartphones until finally they caved in. A coworker of mine has a blackberry Curve and I've heard people actually say "wtf man you got a blackberry? They still make those?"

RIM, at this point, is on the bad end of that.

It's actually an amazing statement because business-wise having a smart phone doesn't make you more productive. It just gives an employee more toys to play with. What RIM failed to realize is the when a CEO of a company wanted his toy phone he opened the door for all the other employees to follow. Also, many people where waiting for Verizon to get the IPhone because their service is so much better especially in the Northeast.

RIM just never evolved and died like Motorola, Palm, Nokia, etc.

wil318466,

I wouldn't call it a status symbol but there is social pressure to have the right phone. A lot of people who I knew as die-hard Blackberry supporters have jumped ship. I have never used a Blackberry or an Android / iPhone so I have no idea what the differences are. If Blackberry 10 was out now it might have an impact but allowing Apple to have another iPhone come out without any new products from RIM is pretty bad. By 2013 it is going to be too late.

What would those better choices be?

How long until there is an Apple thread like this one?

I wouldn't picture you not having the latest iPhone for some reason. What do you use?

Probably not for a long long time. Apple has figured out and popularized something that is very hard to do - make tech easy to use paired with very stylish design. Other companies can copy the stylish designs, but Apple controls their software, whereas other companies have open architecture.

MacOS and iPhone OS is designed to be streamlined. Windows and Android are both open. This creates serious issues in terms of usability across different platforms, where Apple doesn't have that issue. Using an iPhone is simple, fast, and you get the same user experience (mostly) across every phone in that model. Not the same with Android at all.

The resurgence of Apple within the last 10 years has been astonishing. Years ago when someone said they were buying a mac I literally laughed at them.

As someone who has used blackberry products (a handspring was my phone before my first blackberry) for a long time and just recently jumped ships. yes, the appeal is gone. kids and young adults are shunning them quick, androids and iphones are superior in amost every way (battery life/emai/bbm still better imo), Also as someone who lost money shorting this when it was triple digits , I think 7.8 puts it way too oversold. I will peruse the 10k's tomorrow as the breakup value might be higher for this puppy.