The IT Nerd

Today was a big day for RIM. First, their Q4 and full year numbers were released today. In a word the numbers sucked. Here’s the highlights

• RIM fell short of revenue expectations of US$4.57-billion, reporting just US$4.19-billion in Q4 revenues

• RIM’s earnings per share was in line with expectations a 81¢ US.

• Quarterly smartphone shipments of 11.1 million fell short of expectations of 11.2-million.

• PlayBook tablet sales of more than 500,000 were vastly ahead of even the more bullish analyst expectations of about 350,000.

Oh well. At least PlayBook sales were good. Of course the fact that they were heavily discounted had something to do with that. The full results can be read here [Warning: PDF].

Now here’s the second and third pieces of news. Jim Balsillie who was until recently one of the two CEOs of this company resigned from RIM’s board along with two other executives. Not only that, the company is going to do “strategic review” of their business. That’s code for the company is up for sale.

Consider this to be the beginning of the end for RIM. This company will be sliced, diced, and sold to try and maximize shareholder value.

Bottom line: Time to go buy an iPhone.

I once worked with a master sales person who said that to be really successful, you have to be able to sell in your own backyard. Assuming that’s true, RIM isn’t successful as a recent report shows that the Blackberry is being outsold by the iPhone by almost a million phones in Canada. That’s not a good stat for RIM as it’s banked on being the hometown hero for some time. Face it RIM, the iPhone is simply a better product. Unless you step up your game and produce a smart phone that can seriously compete with the iPhone, your days are numbered.

It’s a bad day for RIM. The news has hit the Interwebs that Blackberry smartphones are being replaced by iPhones by the ATF:

“We’re going to delete the BlackBerry from the mix,” Rick Holgate said, adding the ATF will start replacing its 3,800 BlackBerrys in March. Most of the BlackBerrys, including the ones used by ATF field agents, will be replaced with iPhones, Holgate told Politico. He expects the process to be complete in a year.

But a RIM mouthpiece spokesperson who has clearly been drinking the Kool Aid had this spin on the situation:

RIM spokesperson Rebecca Freiburger defended the BlackBerry, saying there are still plenty of government bodies using it.

“RIM continues to work closely with its more than one million government customers in North America who rely on the unmatched security of the BlackBerry platform,” said Freiburger, who also touted RIM’s reputation for security.

“BlackBerry smartphones running on the powerful new BlackBerry 7 operating systems (OS) have been awarded FIPS 140-2 certification by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC). The BlackBerry PlayBook remains the only tablet certified for use by U.S. government agencies,” Freiburger said.

She of course is failing to acknowledge the fact that the above argument is irrelevant to those who are dumping them. Also consider that the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Haliburton among others are dumping the Blackberry and there’s only one conclusion. RIM is dying. If that’s isn’t enough for you consider this:

Meanwhile Tuesday, UBS analyst Phillip Huang panned RIM’s presence at the Mobile World Congress, calling it “underwhelming.”

“As we expected, and not a surprise, RIM’s presence at MWC was underwhelming with no new product announcements, no further clarity on the timing of BB10 devices,” Huang wrote in his research report.

“The show reinforced the uphill battle RIM faces in reversing its position in a market that continues to evolve at a torrid pace and with formidable competitors that include Google, Apple and Microsoft,” Huang added. He also pointed to growing momentum from Microsoft in the smartphone market.

“It was interesting to learn from Microsoft that the number of apps now supported in its marketplace has increased to 65k from 10k a year-ago, compared to about 60k apps for RIM (versus about 30k a year-ago),” said Huang.

It sucks to be RIM. It truly does.

Early this morning, it was announced Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis stepped down as the co-CEOs of RIM and were replaced by COO Thorsten Heins. Balsillie and Lazaridis will still be on the board though. A pair of videos from the new CEO then appeared on YouTube. Here they are for your viewing pleasure:

What do I think of this change? There’s really nothing to see here as all RIM has done is rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. RIM is still a sinking ship that has no new products based on the new Blackberry OS until the latter half of 2012 and is seeing its market share erode as RIM users migrate to Android and iOS devices. Until they fix those issues, it doesn’t matter who’s at the top of the food chain at RIM.

I will wish Heins good luck though, because he’s really going to need it.