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back to article Government intervention unlikely for beleaguered BlackBerry

Struggling Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry shouldn't expect any help from the government, a prominent cabinet minister has indicated. Although he acknowledged that BlackBerry is having "a hard time" with its latest products, Canadian Minister of Industry James Moore told Bloomberg, "It's for them to engage the market and …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A bailout won't fix their issues. Sure it might remove some debt but their products are not selling and it would only be a matter of time before they would need another bailout. They are either going to sink or swim. Years ago I said RIM needed to get out of the device market and make BB Connect better. Get out of the hardware business and be a services and software company. It was their software that managers liked and with BB Connect, it wouldn't matter what phone was used, RIM would be managing the company side of it. Now with other vendors seeing the need to have a phone isolate the personal and the business, RIM could have been in a great position to capitalize on it.

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    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge
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      Ottawa could rule that only Canadian smartphones were allowed in Canada.

      In the same way that they only allow Canadian owned cell phone companies - thus protecting the true north strong and free from having Verizon.

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      1. Nikko13
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        This is Canadian inferiority.

        " we're not good enough to compete with foreign companies, so foreign companies are not allowed to do buisness here. "

        The idea should be to create a product people want, not make it the law that they have to buy something inferior just to be Canadian.

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      2. JaitcH
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        WTF?

        No wonder you call youself Yet Another Anonymous Coward ...

        when you make statements like that.

        There is little in common between selling devices and owning utilities. Both the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organisation rules apply.

        Many governments restrict use of spectrum by Foreigners. Broadcasting is also restricted. The same applies to critical national infrastructure.

        Just because Ding Dong Thatcher sold off UK government assets, doesn't mean to say all Conservatives are nuts. (The present Canadian mob is Conservative)

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    2. LarsG
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      Best thing they could do now is licence their system for use in other OS's and stop making phones.

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      1. Anonymous Coward
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        Anonymous Coward

        Best thing they could do on the device side is license Windows Phone and start making secure devices with unique designs - and stop pouring money into an OS that one needed and that has already been completely hacked via a Flash exploit....

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Smartphones are essentially going the way of PCs. The proprietary operating systems are losing share to the more open standards. Apple in particular is making the same mistake they made with Mac os in the 80s.

    Ms gets to play os/2 to androids dos--poetic justice there.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      "Smartphones are essentially going the way of PCs. The proprietary operating systems are losing share to the more open standards"

      Erm - but Linux still sits on ~1% share of PCs and Windows is still at over 92% - and there are no signs of that changing.

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    2. Nikko13
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      Depends on how you look at it.

      "Mistake" doesn't seem like the right word. The Mac OS has about the same market share in the computer world that mercedes has in the auto industry. I wouldn't consider mercedes a failure because they don't own the market.

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Since when has a state rescue package ever worked?

    Look at the history car making at Longbridge for a perfect example of that.

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    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge
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      Those Rolls Royce chaps making aeroplane engines seem to be doing quite well

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  4. Nick Kew

    Too Late

    The time when state intervention would have been right was when RIM was held to ransom by the global pirates NTP, and the trauma turned the company away from innovation and towards the grey suits.

    It's not clear whether the Canadian government even then could've done anything effective against being plundered by its southern neighbour, but that's when it would've been right for them to make the effort on behalf of their star company.

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  5. unlockworldwide

    Salvage

    A once fine ship is reported to be sinking off the coat of Canada; it floundered, near The Banks of Hubris after hitting an Apple, under the command of Captain (resigned) Mike Lazaridis. Rescue efforts by the Canadian Coast Guard are unlikely as Salvage Experts are reported to be already circling the wreck. Or are they? Are even the salvage guys interested?

    Replacement Captain Heins attempted (bravely) to steer the MS RIM by renaming it BlackBerry. This may have succeeded had the Apple not been concealing an underwater berg as big as a Galaxy. Essential crew were regrettably placed into lifeboats before avoidance measures were initiated, resulting in Investors commandeering the remaining lifeboats.

    Huge loss of careers is predicted.

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  6. The_Regulator

    I guess its just a matter of time.

    Bail out of a company such as RIM makes no sense, either you #profit or #fail. Kinda makes you realize though that even with its failings Nokia probably made a semi smart move aligning with MSFT as I'm sure we could easily have been having a similar conversation about them as well.

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