Let us all remember when the iPhone hype made every non-Apple smartphone producer shake in fear. Showing off at the Academy Awards with the latent support of Holywood,Apple rolled in its baby: the iPhone. Although we all loved the pinching and the swapping and so forth some of us who were smart enough saw that it basically offered what was already in the market, but with a brand new image and marketing magic. Following the first iPhone, 3G came and 3GS. Until the point when Apple was spreading rumours around its upcoming device,the iPhone 4, RIM decided not to mess around with Steve Jobs. Apple had its own story its own consumer community and user preferences and so did RIM. Apple was for fun RIM was for business. But suddenly RIM leaders panicked. They decided to roll out a device which would have multimedia as much as business. The result was the 9800 Torch. It failed in the market but became a huge hit among BB users (the author of this article rocks a black 9800). Why did it fail? The same question can be asked for iMessage which is being rolled out as a very bad spin off of BBM. Why did they fail?
The primary rule in war is using your advantages to your benefit and recognizing the advantages of the enemy. Its a rule which teaches you not to try to hit the enemy with its own weapon. RIM tried to hit Apple with a multimedia BB. Apple tried to hit RIM with a crappy instant messaging program. Both tried to steal or imitate the best of the other. This is why they both failed. The Torch cannot match the iPhone. iMessage can never match BBM: so this is a futile battle. So one should ask: why can’t they get along?
First and foremost we must look at two people: Steve Jobs and Mark Lazaridis. Both wild kids of their times, built their empires from scratch. They percieve the business world as a theatre of war. For them fighting until the last drop of blood is the only acceptable capitulation to the enemy. And when it comes to introducing new weapons into war they are zealots. Therefore they constantly crash. They represent two types of people in the world: Steve Jobs the creative marketing genius, Lazaridis: the professional serious success story. They can’t get along. They won’t get along. As far as they are who they are they won’t change themselves.
RIM and Apple. Two companies which rule the world of mobile devices. Their war sometimes bears disasters to the users: an iPhone wannabe BB or a BBM wannabe messaging client.
But in the end one must always recognize the truth about competition and fierce rivalry: they increase quality.
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