RIM : Tougher Times Ahead

Last Week a U.S. federal judge's decision last week opened the door to a possible injunction that would stop sales of BlackBerry mobile e-mail devices, and shut down BlackBerry service, in the U.S. Gartner has issued an alert warning customers to stop or delay all mission-critical BlackBerry deployments and investments in the platform until RIM's legal position is clarified. The advisory note is spot on in egging customers to demand that RIM's work-around plans be made available — in detail and in public — and carefully review their legal and operational impact. Gartner advises customers not to sign any agreements that could involve them in the RIM/NTP dispute. As contingency measure, alternate solutions for mission-critical applications may need to be put in place. Ofcourse alternative solutions could cause transition costs that will be unnecessary if the case is settled.The best course would be that if the applications are not mission critical , no action may be needed.I do not know of applications where Blackberry plays a role –where it is not mission critical – the key thing about Blackberry is its constant availability and world over at all leves – CEO downwards – whoever has used Blackberry would find it difficult to live without it – such is the powerful impact that RIM has brought forth – but clearly with so much uncertainities around – most of management time and attention would obviously go towards fighting this. An outage would be a near disaster for most users. With increased competition and with Nokia stepping up the heat, RIM may be in for tougher time ahead.