Takeover rumors – has RIM found an escape hatch? Frost & Sullivan comments
London, 18 January 2012
It was reported recently that RIM is in rumored talks with Samsung regarding a potential takeover of all or part of the former by the latter. True or not, this rumor speaks to the recent struggles RIM, formerly an undisputed leader in the smartphone market, has had in the software-dominated smartphone ecosystem of the present–2011 saw a precipitous fall in RIM’s global smartphone market share.
To be fair, RIM’s fall may be more representative of the meteoric rise of Android, as smartphones move to the mass market, and less representative of RIM’s weaknesses. Blackberry has established itself as a poster brand for customer loyalty, and RIM enjoys an enviable niche in the enterprise space.
But that niche could be precarious. Enterprise customers are becoming increasingly fickle as employees demand handset choice. True, there are some for whom trading in their blackberry would be akin to trading in their child, but there are a growing group of customers clamoring for access to alternatives like the iPhone in their work environments. Nokia – Microsoft is also expected to make a push to unseat RIM atop the enterprise market.
All the while, the smartphone software battle in the consumer space has narrowed to a two horse race (the hopes from Nokia/Microsoft to expand this to three notwithstanding) between Android and Apple. It will be a monumental task for RIM on its own to establish itself as a legitimate third (or forth) alternative at the same scale as these players. At the same time, handset manufacturers in the Android camp have had mixed fortunes.
Out of the gates, HTC and Samsung have gathered a disproportionate share of the Android success, while others like LG have floundered. Whether (and more importantly, why) this breakdown will remain is a huge question for all these players, as they struggle to differentiate themselves within the Android ecosystem.
Enter RIM. If Samsung (or any other Android partner) were to integrate RIM’s enterprise services like Blackberry Messenger into their offering, they would achieve instant differentiation in the increasingly-monochrome Android space. Not to mention gaining a brand which, despite its recent misfortune, still enjoys a loyal following and has seen recent gains in developing markets globally.
RIM’s current state may not be so precarious after all…
Contact:
Joanna Lewandowska
Corporate Communications – Europe
P: +48 22 481 62 20
E: joanna.lewandowska@frost.com
