Bye, bye Canadian Pie?

(My apologies for the headline. I thought of it and figured I could, should, apologize for it. On the other hand, it almost fits the topic of this post. As long as you define "almost" in the most liberal way you can..." :-D )

The fruitily named "smart" phone seems to have a not-so-smart management team. Research in Motion's two CEO's stepped down. How the hell do you run a company with two CEO's? (I like the new guy already; one of his hobbies is motorcycling. :-D ) Oh, that's right - you can't. They were rapidly losing marketshare and becoming irrelevant in the new smartphone market. Their "me too" tablet, what the heck was it called?, was a disaster, but without the saving graces of HP's inane foray into that market.

For a while there, I figured RIM was going the way of Palm - cool product, timed perfectly and then the founders became so enamored of both their success and their idea they developed myopia. You could never accuse Steve Jobs of that! Nokia almost lost it when they did the same thing as RIM - they went their own way, investing a millions in an operating system that no one noticed, or cared for when they did.

The smartphone market has two players: Apple and Google. It's strange how no one [in these companies] actually noticed.

Well, it turns out that RIM's shareholders did notice, and provided notice to the two CEO's. (Sorry. I had to fit that one in, somewhere... :-) ) How the heck did they operate so long with two CEO's? It's a recipe for stagnation and decline, in either order. RIM tried both at once.

The story isn't over for Blackberry and its legion of fans. Not yet, anyway. But they'll have to do something drastic, like jettisoning their operating system and fitting Android into their phones and services, if they're to make any headway and stay relevant, and profitable, in the marketplace.

Carolyn Ann