Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Shorting RIM.


Research In Motion has lost half its market value in the last twelve months and the question on the table is whether it will lose another half of its market capitalization in the next twelve months. Apple and Android are encroaching on RIM's space as never before. RIM keeps imagining that its next new product will turn the tide. It won't. The Blackberry tablet will not be as cool as the Apple I-Pad. Not now and not ever.

But here's the thing: it doesn't have to be. Blackberry just needs to be the Lexus of smart-phones and smart-pads; reliable, efficient, effective, done and done. Their tag line should be: "if its business, it's Blackberry." They could do a lot of funny riffs off of that, to reach their huge teenage cohort. But the core message is that Blackberry is the tool "of, for and by" business. Nail down that real estate and the stock will reverse course.