BBC NEWS | Business | Blackberry squares up to rivals

BBC NEWS | Business | Blackberry squares up to rivals: “The Canadian company behind the Blackberry, the wireless e-mail device beloved by business executives and celebrities, is bearing the fruits of a year of rapid subscriber growth.
Yet, as the sector expands, market leader Research In Motion (RIM) faces challengers in the shape of Microsoft, other software developers and mobile phone manufacturers.

‘Employees are very much dependant on e-mail and secure wireless e-mail has a very large potential adoption,’ says Monica Basso, analyst at Gartner Research.

‘RIM may have created the demand but in a few years there will be more players in the picture.

‘The Blackberry model isn’t going to be a viable option for everyone.’ ” …

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RIM really has created this market to what it is today. However wireless email/PIM is becoming a commodity very raplidly. The speed in which this market is developing is going in a much faster pace than the business model of RIM allows. RIM Blackberry is sold almost exclusively through mobile operators. The structure of the business model (RIM demands some 30% of the monthly subscription fee for their service) does not allow a lot of margin for the mobile operators to compete.
Besides the busines model, the BlackBerry ‘platform’ is very strong when it comes to email, with regards to other applications and services the platform does have its limitations.