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BlackBerry Faces Challenges Beyond The NTP Lawsuit

Posted by Elena Malykhina
March 13, 2006

Tags: Balsillie, BlackBerry, E-discovery, E-mail/IM, Legal/Antitrust, Microsoft, Mobile hardware, other, Mobile services/solutions, Mobile software, Nokia, PDA, Palm, RIM, Research In Motion, Treo, Unified Communications & VoIP, Wireless, cell phones

Channel: Wireless, E-discovery, UC & VoIP

Jim Balsillie is betting that the $612.5 million Research In Motion pays NTP to settle a long and bitter patent-infringement lawsuit will have some 5 million customers feeling better about the BlackBerry's future. "We spent the money to ensure certainty," says RIM's chairman and co-CEO. "I would think that went a long way to restore customer trust."

It was a big relief for subscribers. But all the money in the world can't buy RIM certainty, including whether it can keep its lead in PDA sales. Shaking NTP off its back is just half the battle. The $2 billion-a-year Canadian company is in the crosshairs of the much bigger guns of Microsoft and Nokia, while established competitor Palm is proving a quick study on the changing needs of mobile-device users.

What's historically been the BlackBerry's strength--a mobile device expressly for business users--could be a weakness. With so many more professionals purchasing their own PDAs and smart phones for personal and business use, competitive offerings with cameras and cell-phone-like shapes could prove more appealing. In some instances, companies are deciding to let employees choose their mobile devices, with some restrictions, rather than having the IT department purchase and centrally manage them (see story, "Impact Of Consumer Technology Hits Business World"}. The phenomenon has RIM focusing on "prosumer" features--as Balsillie calls them--including instant messaging, voice over IP, and new E-commerce options.

Balsillie: $613 million poorer, but optimistic.

RIM also intends to keep its solid business customer base by offering technologies IT and telecom managers won't find from a consumer-oriented vendor. Last week it acquired VoIP provider Ascendent Systems, and plans to use the company's technologies to turn the BlackBerry into a full-fledged business phone, capable of picking up calls that come into a user's desktop phone extension, checking desktop phone voice mail, transferring calls, and ad hoc teleconferencing. RIM also announced it now supports Cisco Systems' VoIP PBX, Unified CallManager 5.0, allowing CallManager to extend those same kinds of VoIP features to users of BlackBerrys that run on company wireless LANs.

Clean Slate
The NTP settlement came just in time for RIM. In December, the company projected it would have up to 750,000 new subscribers for its fiscal fourth quarter 2006 ended March 4, but lowered that number to between 620,000 and 630,000 in a March 3 preliminary results report. Uncertainty about the NTP suit scared off tens of thousands of potential customers, RIM said. Its revised revenue forecast for the quarter is about $550 million, down from more than $590 million it originally expected.

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