Over the last few years we've seen an explosion of online or "cloud" storage services and with that market expansion the inevitable has happened: Prices have fallen, features have improved, and the target markets have expanded from enterprise to SMB to consumers.
BlackBerry
Management Changes at RIM – But Will Any of this Matter?
RIM should be applauded for making an effort to address its core issues. But the bold moves required to assure both customers and investors are still not there.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Mon, 01/23/12 - 2:50pm.
The shift in management at BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) announced over the weekend is, as I previously discussed, a step in the right direction. No more Co-Presidents/Co-Chairmen/Co-CEOs nonsense. But the two gentlemen who previously held all those titles remain on the Board of Directors, as perhaps they might given their large percentage of ownership in the firm. Read more
Is It Over at RIM?
Will the BlackBerry die? As hard as this is to believe, things are looking quite bleak at Research in Motion, and the end of the company as we know it is now a real possibility.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Mon, 12/19/11 - 3:28pm.
When I last wrote about RIM and the BlackBerry mess, only a few months ago, I gave the company more than the benefit of the doubt. Core, major problems have been evident for some time (declining sales are always a strong indicator that something is really wrong at any business), but it was easy to see that possibilities did in fact exist and that a turnaround was possible. Read more
Major Internet outage only briefly delays griping via social media
RIM, Time Warner, Juniper, Comcast all targeted by angry Tweeters
Submitted by Alpha Doggs on Mon, 11/07/11 - 2:38pm.
RIM really can't win these days, taking the early hits for today's Internet outage that appears to have stemmed from router problems and issues within backbone provider Level 3's network, not within the BlackBerry network itself. But BlackBerry customers have last month's big outage still fresh in mind. Read more
UAE police claim Blackberry outage made driving safer
'The roads became much safer when BlackBerry stopped working'
Submitted by Paul McNamara on Mon, 10/17/11 - 10:26am.
Make of this what you will: Police in the United Arab Emirates contend that last week's extended BlackBerry service outage significantly reduced traffic accidents there.
BlackBerry maker hangs head, extends bouquet of flowers
Research in Motion offers free 'we're sorry apps,' technical support
Submitted by Paul McNamara on Mon, 10/17/11 - 6:31am.
In an attempt to make more concrete its apology for last week's disastrous service outage, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion this morning is offering users a dozen free applications and enterprise customers a month's worth of free technical support.
(UAE police: BlackBerry outage made driving safer.)
The applications include: Read more
RIM's Pain is Microsoft's Attempted Gain
Redmond dangles Windows Phones in front of BlackBerry users. Will it work?
Submitted by Andy Patrizio on Thu, 10/13/11 - 4:24pm.
I guess when your market share would make for a really good golf score on a tough hole, you have to do anything to gain ground. In Microsoft's case, it's giving away 25 Windows Phone devices BlackBerry users frustrated with this week's outage. Read more
As BlackBerry service recovers, RIM apologizes
As for the long-term damage, here's what one user told me
Submitted by Paul McNamara on Thu, 10/13/11 - 11:33am.
Research in Motion executives are saying BlackBerry service is back to normal for most and getting there quickly for the balance of its customers.
They're also apologizing ... profusely. Here's RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis: Read more
Yet Another BlackBerry Outage: Looking for Mobile E-Mail that Works
The latest mysterious BlackBerry service outage has implications well beyond the future of RIM – this is really about building reliable e-mail from the start.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Thu, 10/13/11 - 10:11am.
I've written about BlackBerry service outages in the past, but the latest, which seems to be extending its engagement into day four, is by far the largest, affecting, well, the planet. RIM has been, as usual, tight-lipped about the cause, but the specific source of the problem isn't of immediate interest here. Rather, I have been thinking about the reliability of e-mail overall, or, rather, the fundamental lack of reliability in this more-than-mission-critical capability. Read more
BlackBerry outage brings down some Microsoft BPOS users
BPOS and Office 365 includes free integration with a BlackBerry service hosted by RIM
Submitted by Microsoft Subnet on Mon, 10/10/11 - 1:50pm.
Some of Microsoft's cloud customers are being affected by BlackBerry outage going on now. The outage is affecting BlackBerry customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Research in Motion has been investigating for about the last three hours. About an hour ago, Microsoft's MSOnline Twitter account sent out a short message warning that some if its Productivity Online Standard Suite (BPOS) customers are being affected by RIM's outage. Read more
Windows XP on TSA laptops? TSA Dinged in Wireless Cybersecurity Audit
DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) dinged TSA in a recent security audit. High-risk vulnerabilities were detected in Federal Air Marshals' Blackberry devices, in patch management, in configuration controls . . . and can you believe Windows XP on TSA laptops?
Submitted by Ms. Smith on Wed, 08/24/11 - 5:12pm.
We've questioned whether or not IT departments are too slow to patch Windows, and then took a survey that basically told us what we know, that patching Windows is a necessary evil and a huge time sink for IT. Well it must be a royal pain for TSA IT as well. Read more
16 milestones of a million, billion or more ...
... and these are just from the past month
Submitted by Paul McNamara on Mon, 08/08/11 - 8:28am.
Quantitative milestones have been a marketing staple since long before McDonald's began counting burgers. So when I saw recently that Huffington Post was boasting of having hosted its 100 millionth comment, I did a little searching to see how many of these pronouncements I could find ... over just the past month. Here's a slideshow featuring the more notable ones with any kind of tech connection. Read more
Mark's rating: 
Singing the BlackBerry Blues
Say it ain’t so – the company that practically personified mobility during the technology’s formative years isn’t getting much respect these days. Can RIM put the bloom back on the ‘Berry?
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Thu, 05/05/11 - 8:05pm.
Research in Motion was the first real breakout firm as mobility began to take hold in the late '90's; the company was building successful PDA-form-factor handsets really before anyone else. Read more
Barack Obama disses BlackBerry, gets free phone offer from Microsoft
Barack Obama wants a new phone, but does he want Windows?
Submitted by Jon Brodkin on Fri, 04/15/11 - 1:19pm.
It turns out U.S. President Barack Obama is getting tired of his BlackBerry, complaining that in "the Oval Office, I always thought I was going to have really cool phones and stuff. I'm like, c'mon guys, I'm the president of the United States. Where's the fancy buttons and stuff and the big screen comes up? It doesn't happen." Read more
Fire sale on Windows Phone 7
AT&T cuts price of its WP7 phone by half -- again
Submitted by Robert Mullins on Wed, 03/30/11 - 5:56pm.
AT&T this week cut the price of two Microsoft Windows Phone 7 handsets after having already cut the price in half a few months earlier, another bad sign for the beleaguered mobile OS. To be sure, discounting is par for the course in the mobile handset market and retailing in general, but it’s also a common indicator of a problem: We’ve gotta move this stuff. Read more
Neilsen smartphone OS report gives Windows 10 percent share
But numbers are mix of WP7 and Windows Mobile
Submitted by Robert Mullins on Thu, 03/03/11 - 7:09pm.
A report out today from The Nielsen Company shows a tight three-way race between Android, Apple and BlackBerry for the U.S. smartphone market. Microsoft comes in fourth with what at first glance seems a respectable 10 percent share, although that’s a mix of the new Windows Phone 7 and the likely closeout priced Windows Mobile operating system. Read more
Mark's rating: 
A promising way to manage mobile devices
By Mark Gibbs on Wed, 02/09/2011 - 4:18pm.
I just had a long conversation with my old pal and fellow Network World contributor Winn Schwartau and his colleagues at Mobile Active Defense (MAD) Partners. They have a really interesting answer to the mobile device management issue I discussed last week.
Read more
Mark's rating:
Mobile devices: You're losing control
By Mark Gibbs on Thu, 02/03/2011 - 12:00am.
There was a time, way back in prehistory, when your user population was manageable. They had PCs but you had control. They had floppy disks but you had the ability to take 'em away. They got to print anything they wanted, as long as you let 'em. In fact, they got to do anything they wanted ... as long as you let 'em.
Yep, in those halcyon days, you were The Man. Your word was law and their computer use was at your pleasure. Alas, that all changed.
Read more
It's Time To Re-Examine Endpoint Security
Commodity viewpoint is erroneous -- and dangerous
Submitted by joltsik on Wed, 02/02/11 - 11:41am.
Back in 2007, ESG Research asked 206 IT security professionals to respond to the following statement: "Desktop security has become a commodity market with little difference between products." As expected, 58% of respondents either strongly agreed (17%) or agreed (41%) with this statement. In other words, it really didn't matter whether your ran Internet security tools from Kaspersky, McAfee, Microsoft, Sophos, Symantec, or Trend Micro; all would be equally effective. Read more
Android: We're Number One!
No surprise here - we've all seen exactly this scenario play out before, and this result was absolutely predictable.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Wed, 02/02/11 - 10:46am.
You have probably heard by now, as reported in the WSJ, that findings from market researcher Canalys placed Android sales in the fourth quarter of last year as the clear #1 handset OS, ahead of perennial-leader-because-Nokia-ships-it-in-just-about-everything-but-now-on-permanent-decline Symbian, as well as Apple and RIM, in that order. What is very significant is that Android shipments were just about double Apple and RIM (each), and regardless greater than the two of them combined! Read more
-
Network World, Inc
The Connected Enterprise