http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204422404576597061591715344.html?mod=WSJ_Tech_LEADTop

I don’t agree with the Wall Street Journal’s view of the company.  The Journal has played down the company’s past woes.  Those past woes need to be viewed in the context of the way the company does business.  It appears the company's management is completely disconnected from what is happening around it.  The management team ignores the advice of outsiders even when they hire.

RIM infringed on patents that were developed by NTP.  Anyone remember when RIM threatened to shut down its network if it failed to win the infringement case?  I do.  The courts wisely saw through the RIM bluff and then hit RIM with a $600 Million plus judgment, which by the way was justified.  RIM did in fact infringe on NTP’s wireless email patents.  At the time, RIM had touted their wireless email technology as the key differentiator from all other wireless service apps.  Guess what, RIM did not own it then and not now either.

So what does RIM have that makes RIM worth buying?  RIM has a brand and a large customer base.  However, as those new to the wireless business have discovered wireless customers tend not to be sticky and hence that means the brand has little to no impact.

Wall Street industry insiders who have piles of cash to lose if RIM tanks are now saying that if RIM’s Playbook takes off with the right applications it will be a strong competitor against the iPad.  Now let’s look at what these insiders are saying.  “IF the Playbook has the right applications” has to be the most obvious statement that could be made and sounds desperate.

The chances of this company having the right applications at the right time is next to zero.  The right time is now.  Promised improvements to the Playbook have not appeared.  The applications development community has walked away from RIM.

RIM has failed to market to the consumer market; and that is with the outside professional it hired.  I don't blame the outside marketing professionals, I blame the entrenched insiders of RIM.  They were obviously so worried about losing their jobs or power it appears they refused to work with their new marketing executives.  Of course Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis did absolutely nothing to resolve the company's internal decision troubles.  RIM will have to spend enormous amounts of cash to even think of catching up.  Analysts have made several comments that RIM had a cahs cushion.  That is not comforting becuase they have not spent it well to date.  Unless the company makes a change in management the cash will likely disappear.  By the way, the company’s cash hoard will have to be drained if RIM expects any chance of recovering and that is with experienced management.

I have said this numerous times, both co-CEOs need to go now.  The board needs to go now.  If the shareholders want to save this company and keep it from going the way of Nortel then they need to act decisively now.  My feelings about the incompetence of this management are documented in all of my postings.  This company failed to act time and again for the last 2 years.  Just hearing about what is happening to this company is exhausting.

The fact that the co-CEOs have not been able to find a focus for their own products is a clear sign of how dysfunctional this team is.

The only hope RIM has is massive change under the guidance of an activist shareholder like Carl Icahn.

Do I get a refund or some kind of financial compensation for the impact on my business because of RIM's recent network outage?