Research In Motion TM583 - 11/13/11 Research In Motion (RIM) is the company behind the development of the Blackberry wireless hardware. The company...
Research In Motion
TM583 – 11/13/11
Research In Motion (RIM) is the company behind the development of the Blackberry wireless
hardware. The company was one of the first to market a “smartphone” amid a sea of wireless devices
available to consumers. RIM is now expanding their product line to include wi reless tablets in addition to
the newest generation of handsets.
The Blackberry has faced strong competition throughout its development. Now with developers
such as Google and Apple, Blackberry is finding their dominant market share diminishing. When RIM
first introduced the Blackberry design is was quickly adopted by business individuals as a convenien t
way to conduct operations away from their desk. The company’s designs were innovative enough to
patent and the Blackberry has had its share of battles to protect itself from copies. There have been
infringement suits against other companies for such things as the Blackberry’s email system and the
design of the keyboard. In several cases, the infringing companies chose to license RIM’s technology
instead of continuing litigation.
There are some industry factors that influenced the designs of RIM. The emerging smartphone
market wanted handsets capable of high data transfer rates which would allow accessing web pages and
sending emails and text messages. This was of course in addition to making calls with high quality audio
and very little drop outs. The Blackberry included a tactile keyboard in order to facilitate sending text
messages and email, taking notes for meetings, inputting contact information, and a screen large
enough to clearly read the aforementioned functions. Many competing phones of the day had a
rudimentary means of entering text and were “crude” compared to the Blackberry design.
I believe RIM has addressed many of the TCOs presented for this class. TCO A entails describing
the industry dynamics of technological innovation. The Blackberry released in 1999 amid a nearly
already flooded wireless market, but was a significant step ahead of the competition and captured a
significant share of that market especially with the business world. TCO B describes the protection of
technological innovations, and RIM has taken careful steps to patent their designs and monitor
competitors to make sure they are not infringing upon those designs (as witnessed by the court battles
with other companies). TCO C covers identifying the core technological competencies of the
organization in an industry context. RIM has been, and will most likely continue to be, and innovato r in
the wireless mobile industry, which inclu de the Blackberry OS as well as hardware.
TCO D addresses how the company can increase their innovative capabilities through
collaboration and internal strategies. RIM is currently expanding into the wireless tablet market (s imilar
to the iPad). I believe that ensuring their handsets and tablets are complimentary devices is a way to
give their products a wider install base, and encouraging first and third party developers to produc e
applications for each (or even complimentary apps) will give added value t o the consu mer. TCO E covers
formulating an innovation strategy through new product development, and I think RIM is in the proces s
of doing this right now. They are continuing to develop the Blackberry devices and expanding their
capabilities to meet or ex ceed current generation handsets and tablets, but still be compatible with current data standards. I believe they should focus on preparing for the next generation of data
networks (5g). TCO F suggests a deployment strategy to facilitate the success of the technology driven
organization. Also I believe RIM is doing this right now. They have captured a strong market with th e
corporate business individuals who need reliable and diverse wireless technologies to use in their d ay to
day business. Perhaps they ca n develop corporate software to interface with the wireless hardware in
which individuals can access company information and resources anywhere their handset can go.
In closing, I believe RIM will continue to innovate with their Blackberry design. They ha ve a loyal
following much the same as Apple with the iPhone. Now RIM is joining other developers in producing a
wireless tablet. As long as the Blackberry is able to appeal to the business individual, I think the y will be
a strong competitor to the other h andset manufacturers.
Bibliography
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