黑莓没落之谜（节选）

    RIM聘用了两家大型银行，对其战略方案进行评估，这一决定意味着，RIM极有可能将自己——至少是主要业务——进行拍卖。公司可能抛售硬件业务，自身转型为一家软件与服务公司，将仍很值钱的电子邮件服务和基础设施授权给其他手机制造商经营。（这是公司一位前联席CEO提出的解决方案）。或者，公司可以物色一位战略合作伙伴，比如微软（Microsoft）和诺基亚（Nokia），把包袱甩给它们；或者干脆将整个公司打包出售。但不论哪个选择都很艰难。

    当然，RIM也曾一帆风顺。RIM位于加拿大安大略省滑铁卢市，诞生于1984年，最初是一家咨询公司。后来，公司开发和销售电影行业用于扫描胶片卷轴的数字条形码阅读器，以及双向寻呼机。2003年，公司推出了首款黑莓设备，凭借电子邮件推送和小巧的QWERTY标准键盘赢得了员工的交口称赞。IT人士喜欢这款产品，因为它具有强大的安全控制能力——例如，可以切断对网页的非法访问，或一键清除丢失设备上的内容。很快，黑莓设备就成为职场人士的最爱，各大公司的首席信息官也开始从RIM采购成千上万套支持电子邮件的服务器。

    RIM成为加拿大的宠儿。在全世界，黑莓成为大批移动专业人群的智能手机首选，忠实粉丝超过数百万人。阿布拉姆斯基称：“加拿大人为RIM骄傲。它在加拿大的地位堪比苹果在美国的地位——都是在全球市场占据领先地位的本土科技公司。”

    然而，2007年，苹果公司推出iPhone，市场风潮开始转变。最初，对于iPhone在企业应用中的潜力，包括RIM管理层在内的许多人都不屑一顾。毕竟，史蒂夫•乔布斯曾明确表示，iPhone的首选客户并非企业消费者，并且他非常鄙视企业的首席信息官，将他们称作“小孔”。谷歌安卓系统的开发对象也是消费者，而非企业用户。然而，这些都不是问题。不久，排队购买全新触摸屏手机的消费者就开始将自己的新手机用到工作当中。

    iOS与安卓系统超越RIM之处恰恰在于它们更能吸引普通用户，而不是企业用户。而且，它们还发布了人性化应用商店，里面有数百万个可以打发时间的时尚应用。（后来，RIM也推出了应用商店，但却早已被远远抛在身后。）而且，在iPhone和安卓手机上，用户可以访问整版网页，而不是黑莓和其它低端手机上提供的缩小版的网页。RIM公司的设备曾经是手机创新领域的佼佼者，如今却远远落后于竞争对手。

    全美互惠保险公司（Nationwide Mutual Insurance）新产品创新负责人鲍勃•伯克哈特称：“多年以来，消费者一直要求RIM提供控制移动设备方方面面的能力，而RIM也一直在这么做。但他们忙于迎合消费者的需求，却忽略了他们应该专注的东西——创新。”

    译者：阿龙/乔树静

    RIM's decision to enlist two major banks in evaluating its options means the company is highly likely to put itself -- or at least major parts of its business -- on the auction block. The company could ditch the hardware business and spin itself into a software and services company, licensing its still-valuable email service and infrastructure to other phone manufacturers. (That is a solution one of its former co-CEOs is said to have proposed.) Or it could throw its weight behind a strategic partnership like Microsoft (MSFT) and Nokia (NOK), or just sell off the entire business. None of the options are good.

    Of course, there was a time when RIM could do no wrong. Based in tiny Waterloo, Ontario, the company started out as a consulting business in 1984. It later developed and sold digital barcode readers used by the movie industry to scan through spools of film, as well as two-way pagers. In 2003 it launched the first BlackBerry, wowing employees with push email and teeny-tiny QWERTY keyboards. IT professionals loved the product because of ample security controls -- they could, for instance, shut off access to websites deemed inappropriate or remotely erase the contents of a lost device with the push of a button. It wasn't long before BlackBerries became the accessory of choice for working professionals and chief information officers were purchasing thousands of email-enabling servers from RIM.

    In Canada, RIM became a darling. And all across the world, "CrackBerry" addicts were signing on by the millions as BlackBerries became the smartphone of choice for a whole army of increasingly mobile professionals. "It was a great source of pride in Canada," says Abramsky, the former RBC Capital Markets analyst. "It was almost like Apple is in the United States -- a local tech company that's also a leading player on the world stage."

    The tide started to turn in 2007, when Apple introduced the iPhone. At first, many -- including, of course, RIM's managers -- dismissed its potential in the enterprise. After all, Apple's Steve Jobs had made it clear that catering to enterprise customers wasn't a priority, once referring to CIOs as "chief information orifices." Google's Android was also developed with consumers, not corporate users, in mind. It didn't matter. Before long, employees who had stood in line to buy shiny new touchscreens began bringing their new phones to work.

    Both iOS and Android managed to overtake RIM precisely because they appealed to everyday users, not enterprise customers. They launched user-friendly app stores with millions of sleek, time-sucking apps. (RIM was unfashionably late to launching its own application store.) And they gave users access to the full web, not the miniaturized version offered on BlackBerries and low-end handsets. RIM's device -- once the poster-child for mobile innovation -- fell badly behind.

    "For years and years we asked RIM to give us the ability to control every last little aspect of the devices and RIM went right with us," says Bob Burkhart, director of new product innovation at Nationwide Mutual Insurance. "They were so busy doing what we wanted them to do that they took their eye off the ball."