RIM pushes consumer focus at investment conference

Despite two large-scale service outages, a looming US recession and increased competition in the smartphone market, users of all stripes can't seem to get enough of their BlackBerrys. And Waterloo ON-based Research in Motion Ltd. continues to make solid gains in the consumer market, which now makes up about 30% of its subscriber based. Speaking at the TD Newcrest Tech Media Telecom Conference last week, RIM's co-CEO Mike Lazaridis talked about the company increasing focus on the consumer space, highlighting the recent introduction of the BlackBerry Pearl 8110 with built in GPS and several mapping applications. The device was introduced by Rogers Wireless here in Canada and Vodafone in Spain, the Carphone Warehouse in the UK and KPN in the Netherlands in the past two months. Uptake across all markets continues to be strong for the BlackBerry maker with the company recently upping its subscriber forecast of 1.82 million for the fourth quarter by 15% to 20% last week. RIM's Q4 and fiscal year ended on March 1. In a move presumably to capture a greater share of younger users, RIM has also launched Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones, enabling streamlined and optimized mobile access to the popular social utility. "There's a transition happening from feature phones to smartphones," said Lazaridis. "I think what's happening is that as more entrants get into the space and there's more applications, and more social networking, more IM and data use and more people browsing, starting to go into the stores and saying ‘I want a data device.'" RIM hopes consumers' familiarity with the brand will lead them to choose the BlackBerry over the competition, particularly Apple Inc.'s iPhone. Apple's established connection with early adopters and younger consumers, coupled with iPhones' rich multi-media experience and touchscreen capabilities, is cause for concern as RIM aims to expand its presence on the consumer space. The iPhone is not yet available in Canada. Lazaridis is, however, confident RIM can overcome the competitive hurdles. "I think it's important not to get distracted by technologies and features. I think it's really important to understand what customers want, especially with the personal handheld device you carry with you," he said. "Obviously Apple has got part of that experience right, and that's what's led to their success and excitement around . But you have to be very careful. Touchscreens have been around for a long time and over the years, keyboards have won out." Although several analysts have recently been questioning Apple's sales goal of 10 million iPhones in 2008, the company's COO Tim Cook said at last week's Goldman Sachs investment conference that he had "really good confidence" in the target. The company also said it planned to unveil new features aimed at businesses, potentially stepping up competition with RIM in the enterprise space. Apple is expected to outline the software roadmap for iPhone in March, including details of enterprise-friendly features. Lazaridis also spoke about RIM's BlackBerry Unite program. Unveiled last October, the program is designed to combine the home PC with mobile devices for family and SOHO purposes. "Just imagine the possibilities about being able to access your computer from your Blackberry, to be able to access your files, to open picture files on your BlackBerry using the MDS capabilities. Imagine having software that families can install and setup policies for things such as blocking phone numbers," he said. "This is not a new concept or new product," he noted. "This is taking the enormous investment we've made and the success we've had with BlackBerry enterprise servers and tweaking it for a whole new market." Despite RIM's increased push into the consumer space, there is still concern that the company will be negatively affected by softness in the enterprise space. Whether RIM can continue to meet and exceed its subscriber forecasts in both market segments in light of this new competition remains to be seen.

RIM pushes consumer focus at investment conference

News | 03/04/2008 1:14 pm EST

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