In terms of challenges, as I mentioned on the March financial results conference call, RIM is going through a significant transformation as we move towards the BlackBerry 10 launch, and our financial performance will continue to be challenging for the next few quarters. The on-going competitive environment is impacting our business in the form of lower volumes and highly competitive pricing dynamics in the marketplace, and we expect our Q1 results to reflect this, and likely result in an operating loss for the quarter.

When taking a photo of several people at once, it's almost impossible to get that one 'perfect shot' where everyone is smiling and looking at the camera – and where no one is blinking!</p><p>

Not anymore.</p><p>

It's now actually possible to take the best facial expressions from a sequence of photos, and then combine them into one single photo. The result? It's now quick and easy to create the perfect group shot.

You'd think they would have spent the time to make sure they got it right, and that they would have focused on radically improving the user interface and experience to bring BlackBerry up to par with Android, iOS, and Windows Phone 7. It is almost impossible to comprehend, but they didn't do that.</p><p>

Instead, they released something uninspired, uninteresting, and unfinished. That no one at RIM had the guts and authority to recognize the seriousness of their situation–the company is literally dying!–and say, “Hey, maybe we should wait until BlackBerry 10 is awesome before we release it,” is an ultimate demonstration of how RIM's culture will lead to its now inevitable demise. This is what happens when the sales people are in charge.

Research in Motion Ltd may take four to five years to regain its stride after its recent stumbles, but the BlackBerry maker's stock is a good buy at current levels, value investor Prem Watsa said on Thursday.</p><p>

"Is it going to turn around in three months, six months, nine months? No," said Watsa, chief executive of insurer Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. "But if you're looking four, five years ... We make investments over four or five years."

Since my post in June last year Sony Ericsson and Motorola were acquired making the total victims list total 14 companies with Nokia, LG and RIM having joined the “endangered species list”. If the pattern repeats, then RIM and Nokia are in early phases of what promises to be an extended period of pain followed by an exit.</p><p>

What the analysis does not answer is when a vendor loses its independence after beginning loss making. Motorola took 20 quarters; Sony Ericsson 14, Ericsson 8 and Siemens only 7. We cannot tell if or when LG which is still operating after 8 and Nokia, which is now in its fourth and RIM in its second quarter post-loss will lose independence.

Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM), the troubled maker of the BlackBerry smartphone, is in talks to hire a financial adviser that can help it weigh strategic options, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.</p><p>
RIM is considering hiring one Canadian bank and one global bank, said one of the people, who asked to remain anonymous because the deliberations are private.

I’m very excited about the prospects for the BlackBerry 10 platform, which is on track for the latter part of calendar 2012. Notwithstanding these strengths and opportunities, the business challenges we face over the next several quarters are significant and I am taking the necessary steps to address them.

Canada’s love affair with the BlackBerry is waning.

Research In Motion has been ousted from the top spot for smartphone shipments in its home market for the first time, trailing Apple Inc.’s iPhone.

RIM, based in Waterloo, Ontario, shipped 2.08m BlackBerrys last year in Canada, compared with 2.85m units for Apple, data compiled by IDC and Bloomberg show. In 2010, the BlackBerry topped the iPhone by half a million, and in 2008, the year after the iPhone’s debut, RIM outsold Apple by almost five to one.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is planning to start the process of ditching Research in Motion’s signature BlackBerry wireless phone largely in favor of the iPhone, the agency’s top tech official told POLITICO.

“We’re going to delete the BlackBerry from the mix,” Rick Holgate, ATF’s chief information officer, said in an interview.

That move — which includes swapping out about 3,800 BlackBerrys — should be complete in “probably no more than a year,” he said. More than 60% of the replacement devices are initially slated to be iPhones.

RIM UK PlayBook shipments took off in Q4 as price cuts finally convinced distributors to increase their orders.

According to data from Context, the number of RIM fondleslabs sold to UK wholesalers during Q4 was up nearly three fold on a sequential basis to 32,000 units, taking market share to 3.4 per cent.

…some are arguing that Apple has single-handedly redefined the concept of a cellphone with the iPhone's giant touch-screen interface, making devices such as the BlackBerry Pearl, launched just last September, appear relatively clunky and outdated."Nobody does industrial design as well as Apple does it today," says Carmi Levy, senior vice-president of strategic consulting for AR Communications Inc. "But you can bet your next mortgage payment that RIM's engineers are already working on the next design that mimics and probably leapfrogs the iPhone. That's the name of the game."

[Co-CEO Jim] Balsillie IS the first to admit some will find the iPhone's look appealing, but he says he's doubtful the device will have much of an impact on RIM's overall sales. For one thing, he says, the iPhone will hold little appeal for RIM's core business market and its need for secure information technology systems, which RIM has been providing for years with its corporate BlackBerry email servers.

Joining the large crop of businesses and organizations dropping the BlackBerry, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration plans to provide employees with Apple’s iPhones and iPads instead.

The government agency, based in Washington, cited the steep cost of Research in Motion’s software, which is used to secure and manage BlackBerry devices, as the primary reason for the switch, which was first reported Thursday by The Loop. The agency has distributed about 3,000 BlackBerry devices among 20,000 workers, and plans to move to the Apple devices beginning in May.

It is with a heavy heart (and thumbs) that we must announce this: KAYAK Mobile is dropping active support and maintenance for our BlackBerry application. We are sincerely sorry to BlackBerry users, but we have regrettably come to this practical decision.

When we started KAYAK in 2004, we issued BlackBerries to the entire engineering team so we could communicate instantly 24/7. Today we've all switched, and it seems our users are doing the same. Our audience of BlackBerry users has been declining precipitously, and we can't justify the cost any longer.

RIM was a smartphone pioneer and we thank them for what they've done, and wish them renewed success. BlackBerry was (and is) an amazing messaging platform. But it's not working out to be a great channel for consumer mobile applications, which is what leads us to this sad post.

"Over the next year, we will begin expanding the use of our mobile technology by transitioning from the BlackBerry (RIM) platform that we currently use to smartphone technology via the iPhone," the Houston, Texas-based firm told employees in an internal newsletter this month.