Gates talks on the Pocket PC, dismisses RIM

[Ed Hansberry]

http://www.nationalpost.com/financialpost/story.html?id={5460A289-4668-44BD-9286-FB8027FC5BDF}<br /><br />Bill Gates talkes a bit about the economic slowdown as it relates to IT spending and discusses the RIM Blackberry. "Mr. Gates, who says he has never used a BlackBerry, admits he has talked to users who trumpet the handheld computer's virtues. Microsoft will continue to make investments in the wireless sector, he said, which will allow the company to connect its much discussed Tablet PC and Pocket PC handhelds to the Web. But a RIM acquisition doesn't appear to be in the picture."<br /><br />It is nice to see the Pocket PC in Mr. Gates' plans and being talked about. I haven't been following the RIM financial situation very closely, but I do know that it isn't growing that much and looks destined to be a niche player unless they come out with some new products. What do you think? Should MS buy RIM? Will RIM need a buyer to stay alive and competitive?

[Cobbler]

RIM needs to be put out of their misery. Have you ever seen such a pathetic device?

[stevew]

I would love to have my email pushed to my pocket PC as the Blackberry RIM device does. I really could care less about doing a whole lot of web surfing on a PPC, although it is cool to be able to do it. But having my email pushed to the PPC like the Blackberry RIM device would really be great. If it takes Microsoft to buy out RIM in order to be able to do this then I say go for it.

[Jeff Rutledge]

I would love to have my email pushed to my pocket PC as the Blackberry RIM device does. I really could care less about doing a whole lot of web surfing on a PPC, although it is cool to be able to do it. But having my email pushed to the PPC like the Blackberry RIM device would really be great. If it takes Microsoft to buy out RIM in order to be able to do this then I say go for it.

I totally agree. And I think that underlies the Enterprise need too. Corporate users need to stay in touch with what's happening, and that's still primarily through email.

[Rob Borek]

I live near RIM, I work near RIM, and I have friends and colleagues that work at RIM.

That said, RIM is a one-trick pony with simple devices. They need to beef up their support and add some new features and come out with some new devices. While I've never worked with one, I've heard that their PIM is extremely basic. So, people carry around a Blackberry and a PDA. Heck, I know some executives at Rogers Cable that carry an iPAQ, a Blackberry, and a cell phone. Wouldn't it be nice if all three could be merged? :roll:

RIM was a hotshot, and they're kind of struggling (innovation-wise), but they are doing A LOT better than Palm. RIM has a lot of financial reserves, and is bleeding some money per quarter, but nowhere near as bad as Palm was. RIM had revenues of $71.6mln last quarter (first quarter 2003), and had a net loss of $10.8mln, with $616.0mln in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities (the press release is at http://www.rim.net/news/press/pr-02_07_2002.shtml). Sooooo... they've still got money to burn and time to come up with some better products for the future.

[icatar]

I just got a Blackberry for work and it's extremely convenient to have access to my corporate e-mail. However, I feel like Batman because I'm carrying around a cell phone, a PPC, and a Blackberry.

If you give me Blackberry functionality on my Pocket PC then you've got a winner!

[billb]

Check out good.com

Right now their client software is only available for RIM like devices, however they are porting the software to the PocketPC and it will be out next year.

Their GoodLink server gives you FULL exchange access via the Internet (email, calendar, tasks, contacts) and is 100% bi-directional so you don't need ANY desktop software for synchronization.

This is REALLY cool stuff.

Now we just have to be patient for a few months...

-Bill B.

[HR]

My prediction:

RIM created a product with very handy functionality that hadn't existed when it came out. Even today, other PDA companies have not been able to fully duplicate the always on email successfully. This will change as more PDA and phones will start offering this function. When this happens, consumers and business will have two types of products to choose from: full PDAs with always on, or pager-like RIMs. RIM will survive as the new pager standard and will be used by the people who now carry simple pagers.

[Pony99CA]

Check out good.com

Right now their client software is only available for RIM like devices, however they are porting the software to the PocketPC and it will be out next year.

Their GoodLink server gives you FULL exchange access via the Internet (email, calendar, tasks, contacts) and is 100% bi-directional so you don't need ANY desktop software for synchronization.

This is REALLY cool stuff.

Now we just have to be patient for a few months...


Nuts, someone stole my comments about Good. :P

However, one thing that wasn't mentioned was the current litigation going on. Good sued Rim pre-emptively, Rim has sued Good more than once, so this might take more than a few months.

Steve

[ijablokov]

Guys, as a long time Blackberry user, the Treo 300 is the first device that comes close to merging phone, pda, and RIM-like functionality... I know this site is allergic to anything non-MSFT, but just give it a try (not PPC converts but at least those that need a BB-like device). That said, I would love to see a PPC with push email (and NOT JUST EXCHANGE, many of us do use POP, IMAP, or Lotus Notes) with phone and built in keyboard...

[marlof]

I would love to have my email pushed to my pocket PC as the Blackberry RIM device does.

I feel the biggest advantage of GPRS is that you're having an always on net connection. This leads to my question (I've never used e-mail push technology, so I'm just trying to grasp the concept): what are the advantages of this better than having your e-mail client check for e-mail over a GPRS connection say every 5 or 10 mins? My nPOP e-mail client does just that, and I'm pretty happy with that. But if there's something better around, I want that. :)

[Pony99CA]

I feel the biggest advantage of GPRS is that you're having an always on net connection. This leads to my question (I've never used e-mail push technology, so I'm just trying to grasp the concept): what are the advantages of this better than having your e-mail client check for e-mail over a GPRS connection say every 5 or 10 mins?

I've wondered the same thing. Here are some things I've come up with:

* Push probably saves power if the device only has to power up when E-mail arrives instead of powering up every time it tries to pull E-mail.

* Similarly, processor cycles aren't wasted polling for E-mail. This probably isn't very important on fast devices unless you're doing something processor-intensive like multimedia.

* Something that's very urgent would get to you immediately instead of 5 or 10 minutes late. (At home, my laptop E-mail client is set to pull E-mail every two minutes, so this advantage depends on how often you want to pull, remembering the previous points.)

Steve