黑莓沒落之謎（節選）

????RIM聘用了兩家大型銀行，對其戰略方案進行評估，這一決定意味著，RIM極有可能將自己——至少是主要業務——進行拍賣。公司可能拋售硬件業務，自身轉型為一家軟件與服務公司，將仍很值錢的電子郵件服務和基礎設施授權給其他手機制造商經營。（這是公司一位前聯席CEO提出的解決方案）。或者，公司可以物色一位戰略合作伙伴，比如微軟（Microsoft）和諾基亞（Nokia），把包袱甩給它們；或者干脆將整個公司打包出售。但不論哪個選擇都很艱難。

????當然，RIM也曾一帆風順。RIM位于加拿大安大略省滑鐵盧市，誕生于1984年，最初是一家咨詢公司。后來，公司開發和銷售電影行業用于掃描膠片卷軸的數字條形碼閱讀器，以及雙向尋呼機。2003年，公司推出了首款黑莓設備，憑借電子郵件推送和小巧的QWERTY標準鍵盤贏得了員工的交口稱贊。IT人士喜歡這款產品，因為它具有強大的安全控制能力——例如，可以切斷對網頁的非法訪問，或一鍵清除丟失設備上的內容。很快，黑莓設備就成為職場人士的最愛，各大公司的首席信息官也開始從RIM采購成千上萬套支持電子郵件的服務器。

????RIM成為加拿大的寵兒。在全世界，黑莓成為大批移動專業人群的智能手機首選，忠實粉絲超過數百萬人。阿布拉姆斯基稱：“加拿大人為RIM驕傲。它在加拿大的地位堪比蘋果在美國的地位——都是在全球市場占據領先地位的本土科技公司。”

????然而，2007年，蘋果公司推出iPhone，市場風潮開始轉變。最初，對于iPhone在企業應用中的潛力，包括RIM管理層在內的許多人都不屑一顧。畢竟，史蒂夫?喬布斯曾明確表示，iPhone的首選客戶并非企業消費者，并且他非常鄙視企業的首席信息官，將他們稱作“小孔”。谷歌安卓系統的開發對象也是消費者，而非企業用戶。然而，這些都不是問題。不久，排隊購買全新觸摸屏手機的消費者就開始將自己的新手機用到工作當中。

????iOS與安卓系統超越RIM之處恰恰在于它們更能吸引普通用戶，而不是企業用戶。而且，它們還發布了人性化應用商店，里面有數百萬個可以打發時間的時尚應用。（后來，RIM也推出了應用商店，但卻早已被遠遠拋在身后。）而且，在iPhone和安卓手機上，用戶可以訪問整版網頁，而不是黑莓和其它低端手機上提供的縮小版的網頁。RIM公司的設備曾經是手機創新領域的佼佼者，如今卻遠遠落后于競爭對手。

????全美互惠保險公司（Nationwide Mutual Insurance）新產品創新負責人鮑勃?伯克哈特稱：“多年以來，消費者一直要求RIM提供控制移動設備方方面面的能力，而RIM也一直在這么做。但他們忙于迎合消費者的需求，卻忽略了他們應該專注的東西——創新。”

????譯者：阿龍/喬樹靜

????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."