Stop picking on RIM

It’s no secret that Research in Motion has taken a beating lately – it’s been late to market with new products, its stock price and profits are down, its market share is nosediving, and as a result, the press has been all over it.

But frankly, it’s getting to be a bit much, and it seems to me that a lot of the near-hysteria has to do with the herd mentality of the news media, a 20th-century holdover that, alas, the Internet has failed to quell, and perhaps has even intensified. Connected to this herd mentality, and perhaps driving it, is the almost magical spell that Apple has cast over the public and journalists alike. (It will be interesting to see if bean counter Tim Cook has the same voodoo marketing magic as the late visionary/psychotic control freak Steve Jobs did.)

Sure, RIM’s phones don’t surf the web as elegantly or as easily as Android or Apple devices, and it’s hard to tell many of RIM’s models apart. But many people still swear by their BlackBerries, especially here in Canada, where one recent study said RIM is in a virtual tie with the iPhone among smartphones for market share (at about one-third each), while the Playbook (in the wake of heavy discounting, to be sure) has 15 per cent of the domestic tablet market. (Worldwide, the numbers are much worse for RIM, of course, but in the medium term, both Apple and RIM are under siege from companies running Android on their various phones and tablets.)

The pummelling of Canada’s tech darling is enough to kick-start my defend-the-underdog reflex, the part of my contrarian subconscious that recoils from all that is Apple and makes me defend (cough) all that is Google, RIM and even Microsoft –anything that’s not connected to the Cupertino Colossus.

RIM, out of desperation, cut the price of its cheapest Playbook to $199 back in November, when the media groundswell against the company was at its height. I rushed out to buy one for my wife, who had been eyeing tablets for a while, but didn’t want to pay $500 or more for an iPad, or even $400 for an Android equivalent. I snagged the last Playbook that was available at the time in Toronto’s Fairview Mall, and she couldn’t be happier with it. She bought it specifically to read her morning newspaper on the subway, and she’s thrilled that it’s lightweight and compact enough (with its seven-inch screen) to fit easily in her smallish purse. (Try that with your iPad – with your own purse, of course.)

viagra 50mg online But, in order to overcome the problem for ever. Furthermore, the ones individuals discuss are sexual. “The main hazard check out that sildenafil online purchase is erectile brokenness,” says Zeichner. “For most patients, if this even happens, it’s brief. Acai is high in dietary fiber, which improves the health of reproductive organs. cheapest cialis generic They can be bought or with some creativity, they can be treated as treatment or care of your inner self. super viagra active

Granted, the BlackBerry App World is still rather sparse compared to the Apple App Store or the Android Market, and its even more sparse when it comes to Playbook-ready apps, although we’ve been able to fill the machine up with at least a dozen free, high-quality apps. And the selection has improved somewhat since the new 2.0 operating system was released, and more Android apps will soon be on the way now that the OS includes an Android emulator.

The bottom line, however, is that the Playbook has all the crucial apps one needs, and the user experience is fluid and fast. At $199 (for the 16 GB model, and $249 for 32 GB and $299 for 64 GB at many retailers), the Playbook is a steal (perhaps literally, as it’s hard to see how RIM is profiting from them at these prices). And as it gains market share, it gives RIM a much-needed good news story as it works to bring out new phones running on an updated operating system.

It also leaves me wondering if RIM’s collapse has been oversold. The company still has high-quality, if not cutting edge or super-sexy, products, and it still has security features that make its handsets popular with businesses (although the gap with its competitors is closing). Yet the storyline that’s taken hold is one of a company that’s circling the drain.

I’m not one to say that journalists ought to be cheerleaders and gloss over the truth in their reporting. I also admit to owning an Android phone, which I love (although my wife, a public servant, has a work-issued BlackBerry Curve and she swears by it).

But I think it’s time to change the narrative when it comes to RIM. Let’s give this multi-billion dollar underdog a chance. If it helps, think of it as the anti-Apple.