Another Step in RIM Death-Spiral As Yahoo! Offers Employees Any Smartphone EXCEPT Blackberry!

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Imagine that your employer came around and told you that everyone in the company was getting their choice of smartphone! That would be so cool, and it’s something that just doesn’t happen in most companies. But it was something just done by new CEO Marisa Meyer at Yahoo!.

There was just one stipulation according to an article at TechCrunch – you cannot have a Blackberry.

The basic thought process behind the decision? Blackberry is for business ONLY, and as a ‘customer facing’ company, Yahoo! needs to be in touch with what people do in their ‘real life’, not just their ‘work life’. Also, more and more companies are leaving the (sinking) RIM ship. Here is the quote from Meyer:

We have a very exciting update to share with you today – we are announcing Yahoo! Smart Phones, Smart Fun! As of today, Yahoo is moving off of blackberries as our corporate phones and on to smartphones in 22 countries. A few weeks ago, we said that we would look into smartphone penetration rates globally and take those rates into account when deciding on corporate phones. Ideally, we’d like our employees to have devices similar to our users, so we can think and work as the majority of our users do.

At my company, the standard phone for those with significant travel used to be a BlackBerry but expanded to include the iPhone last year … and subsequently everyone I know has switched over – to the extent that the company announced a phase-out of Blackberry services (one that was not originally planned).

The move at Yahoo! reflects the reality of RIM as a fading property with little relevance in the app & media dominated smartphone market. And as we seem to say way too often, it is just another signpost on RIM’s trip to nowheresville!

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About the Author

Michael Anderson
I have loved technology for as long as I can remember - and have been a computer gamer since the PDP-10! Mobile Technology has played a major role in my life - I have used an electronic companion since the HP95LX more than 20 years ago, and have been a 'Laptop First' person since my Compaq LTE Lite 3/20 and Powerbook 170 back in 1991! As an avid gamer and gadget-junkie I was constantly asked for my opinions on new technology, which led to writing small blurbs ... and eventually becoming a reviewer many years ago. My family is my biggest priority in life, and they alternate between loving and tolerating my gaming and gadget hobbies ... but ultimately benefits from the addition of technology to our lives!

5 Comments on "Another Step in RIM Death-Spiral As Yahoo! Offers Employees Any Smartphone EXCEPT Blackberry!"

  1. What is really strange with the whole RIM situation is even though they are definitely in a death spiral, they are licensing new tech from of all people, Microsoft. They signed into an agreement to license exFAT from Microsoft.

    http://www.pcworld.com/article/2010040/rim-signs-deal-to-license-microsoft-exfat-technology.html

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