RIM Now The Perfect Target For Google Takeover
With the internet bloggers and industry analyst all crying that sky is falling for RIM due to lower earnings expectations and a rapidly diminishing market share it said the end is near for the Blackberry maker.
While we have observed RIM’s lack of innovation from a past review the recent consortium of companies; MS, Apple, EMC, Sony and Ericsson have just made a RIM a major takeover candidate for a Google. Many analysts feel that because of the vulnerability of RIM now with diminished stock prices that now is the best time to take over the company.
The porting of BBM to Android and then eventually iOS for the long-term may actually save RIM in the short-term. From a hardware standpoint a fresh redesign is clearly needed and also needs to be more user friendly. Hardware sales may be impacted due to having BBM on an Android phone but this can save RIM from its own demise. This will be a new service that RIM can offer on its enterprise servers meaning more corporate revenue. This strategy supports the BYOD (bring your own device) that is now the fad in corporate America. IT will have to add this functionality and administer this through the BB Enterprise Server.
Although Google did not win any of the patent rights in the recent Nortel auction for IP and patents does not put Google at a disadvantage. It may secretly being eying the Blackberry company. This may have been part of the strategy to see how the auction plays out and acquire portions of those companies Such as EMC, RIM Sony or Ericsson. Google is cash rich therefore now that RIM has a significant portion of the patent property (approximately $775M) makes it right for picking up the entire company. IF BBM is ported to Android and Google owns the company the integration and now various design form factors will have to change to update current BB devices.
If Google picks up RIM then the management structure at the top will change. This has been the criticism of analysts and bloggers that BB cannot innovate to keep up with current trends. The new devices will have to be some form of innovation or some giant leap forward in usability to lure customers back to RIM devices. As a former Android user from a basic device the new BB Bold 9780 cannot compete in ease of use and convenience of an old version of Android 1.5 although I am using BB version 6.0 now.
Should be interesting to see where all this ends up RIM vs. Google, Apple, MS, Sony, Ericsson all major players in the mobile game. Although this post was written before the Google/Motorola bid, it still may be a viable option for Google as they are stocking their litigation department with new talent I suspect to protect themselves from the IP lawsuits that may come against them. The IP that RIM can bring to the table if added to the Google/Motorola bid can be a formidable foe against Apple. RIM's recently decreased share price makes this also more attractive to Google as well as they are still cash rich even after the Motorola purchase.
