What is the future for RIM?

1 Reply Katerina

The BlackBerry 7 smartphoneBlackBerry phones are thought to be among the safest in the world. Almost all politicians use them. But nevertheless, RIM has reported a very big drop in sales and revenues (about 40%) in comparison with the previous year, and this tendency has been observed for several years already. Besides, the release of new Blackberry 10 has been delayed up to the beginning of 2013, the sales of Blackberry 7 isn’t at the levels wanted, the company has to cut up to five thousand job places. The chain of total misfortunes has followed RIM for the past time. So, many specialists say that Blackberry is dying. Is it so? What can RIM do to improve its prospects?

Today RIM has several possible solutions, but all of them require total change in company’s work and specialization. And here they are:

  1. Licensing RIM software to other companies. One of the possible ways for RIM to get out of the crisis is to let other companies to use its Blackberry operation system. It may lead to the increase of the popularity of the OS (just like it was with Android) when people will get a chance to choose among different hardware solutions.
  2. Sale or license of the patents. It may be a good variant to let other corporations to use the patents, but it won’t make any contribution to innovative development of RIM what can lead to the further drop of the positions. It may happen just because money isn’t the most important thing in mobile development today; it is more for innovations in this sphere. Who is smarter gets more profit.
  3. Focus on hardware development. It is quite opposite solution to the first one mentioned. As a variant RIM can start developing good hardware with installing some other operating systems, like Android or Windows Mobile (the latter would be more reasonable as the number of manufacturers that develop phones for Windows Mobile isn’t very big now and the niche isn’t taken yet).
  4. Selling of RIM. Of course, it is the worst variant of all, but if there are no changes in the situation, the owners will have to do it. However, it would mean the end of Blackberry as a trend.

No matter what decision is taken, the era of great changes for everyone who is somehow connected to RIM is coming. Let’s hope that these changes will be for good and we will see Blackberry phones in top 5 of best-selling phones in the world accompanied by iOS, Android and Windows Mobile phones.

Openworld showcases cloud and virtualisation advances

Leave a reply Christopher Roberts

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As Oracle OpenWorld draws to a close for 2012, the announcements filtering out from the event included headline-catching advancements from the world of business software.

However, the attendees’ attention was divided by the inevitable comparison with last years’ conference. That event unfortunately coincided with the death of Steve Jobs, the news spread during the closing speech by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, a close friend of Jobs’, who was comparing the similarities between Oracle and Apple.

Many reports continued after the 2012 OpenWorld to compare the difficulties both companies have faced throughout the year and the way each of the tech giants are led. Both companies combine hardware and software but Apple are viewed as innovators whereas Oracle is only just catching up with the crowd, particularly in areas previously dismissed by Ellison.

OpenWorld 2012 was generally considered a success by the IT sector even if a number of observers thought that it lacked innovation. The technologies announced highlighted a number of ways the roles within oracle jobs will be evolving as the firm advances with virtualisation and cloud computing.

One of the announcements during the conference focused on the new Exadata X3 Database In-Memory Machine. The role of this product is to compete against SAP and permit consumers to move their IT jobs to the internet from data centres.

Oracle - Manage many as one“You can access all of these services across the network,” Ellison said. “It took a long time to build a complete suite of cloud applications and the all-important platform, which we call Fusion middleware… We have a huge advantage in platform solutions in the cloud because we are the number one platform company in the world.”

Ellison’s own desires may have overshadowed the outcome of the conference.  In an interview with CNBC, a financial news channel, taken just before Oracle OpenWorld launched for this year, Ellison covered a number of topics ranging from Oracle to his Hawaiian island Lanai.

If the success of Oracle was ever in doubt, a browse through Ellison’s ambitions may clear the issue up.  With a current fortune of $41 billion, he recently bought 98% of Lanai, and also hopes to one day own his favourite NBA team; the Los Angeles Lakers. Previously Ellison bid for the Golden State Warriors and mentions liking the Chicago Bulls too.

Oracle Openworld 2012 proved to be a successful conference for consumers and businesses alike. The countdown begins for what Oracle can come up with for Openworld 2013.

Print Your Own Gun

2 Replies Jonny Hankins

Last week I went to a street fair in Boston. It was an interesting event to say the least, it was a celebration of local inventors and craftspeople. We made trans-music with a home built computerized digital orchestra, rode on electric motorbikes, played with robots and a large wooden catapult. Have a look at some of the photos here.

The robot collection was extraordinary, but one object really made me think. Someone had built there own 3D printer and was making objects as we watched.

3D printing has come up on this site before, but the fact that somebody could build one themselves at home had escaped me. And these types of printers have recently been in the news here in the USA for a very serious reason, somebody has claimed that they could produce a gun using only 3d printing.

Cody Wilson, 3D weapon advocate

Cody Wilson, 3D weapon advocate

Defense Distributed, a group of gun advocates, recently posted a YouTube video trying to raise money to make a printable gun.  The concept is to use fast-improving 3D printer technology to create gun parts that could be assembled into a fully-workable firearm.

“As the printing press revolutionized literacy, 3D printing is in its moment,” Cody Wilson, 24, founder of Defense Distributed, said in the video clip.

Three-dimensional printers have been used industrially for years to produce plastic or metal objects, but as the prices for entry level machines have fallen as low as $500, the printers have become more prevalent among hobbyists and educational institutions.

Users can create or download a data file, then simply click “Print” and the machines will create the three-dimensional prototype.

Now this organization would like to distribute a data file for a workable gun, something that may well not even be illegal over here, the law remains fuzzy in the face of such technology.

Fortunately the printer company have taken their machine back from Mr. Wilson as it is illegal to manufacture guns without a license, but he has raised over $20 000 for his project so far so may well soon be able to buy another.

Another hobbyist has actually produced some parts for a gun, assembled it and fired it more than 200 times so this is certainly not science fiction. Have a look at this article in Gizmag.

Is this just a crazy idea? Or could it undermine any gun controls put in place and put weapons into everybody’s hands? The second is Mr. Wilson’s goal unfortunately.

This kind of unforeseen use for an otherwise interesting new technology reminds me of why I keep on battling for ethics and responsibility in innovation through my work.