RIM：你就要完蛋了

原文标题：RIM：You’re Done Here

来自：MobileCrunch

Research In Motion is done. They’ll be bought in the next year or so, their products will roll into whoever buys them – Microsoft, most probably – and they’ll go the way of Nokia, Danger, and countless other mobile platforms. They’ll exist independently for a while and then be subsumed. It’s over.

RIM（黑莓制造商）就要完蛋了。他们将在一年左右被收购，他们的产品将落入收购者手中-最有可能是微软-他们将步入诺基亚，Danger等无数其他手机平台的老路。他们将独立存在一段时间，然后被融合。一切都将结束了。

Here’s why.

There is no money in “business” phones. Blackberries aren’t status symbols. They’re the real-world equivalent of the thick, heavy IT-department-assigned business laptop. They’re staid, boring, and unwanted but people are used to them and, for email, they are quite capable. But that’s about it.

这是原因：

商务手机中已没有钱途。黑莓不再是地位的象征。他们与现实生活中厚重的IT部门分配的商务笔记本差不多。他们稳重，无聊，没有吸引力，但是人们已经习惯用他们处理邮件，他们相当便携。但就是因为这个。

But these phones are increasingly getting a drubbing from IT departments who are starting to support more popular devices including, obviously, iOS and Android phones. No one ever got fired for installing a BES, but you can be sure someone will get fired for not supporting WebDAV standards over the next few years.

但是这些手机越来越受到那些开始支持更多受欢迎设备（很明显包括iOS和Android手机）IT部门的的痛击。从来没有人因为安装了BES而被解雇，但可以肯定有人会因为在未来几年不支持WebDAV标准而被淘汰。

You can make lots of money selling hardware to fleet buyers, to be sure. But when those fleet buyers are saving money buy refusing to pay for devices, where do you think consumers are going to go? Back to the same hardware they’ve been saddled with for years?

可以肯定的是，你可以通过向排队顾客卖硬件而赚很多钱。但当这些购买者正在攒钱更换设备时，你认为这些消费者会投奔哪里？会重新选择他们使用了好多年的产品？

Their audience has already moved on. I remember a few years ago I was invited onto MTV (and never invited back) to talk about the “top smartphones.” I think it was 2007. These included a Windows Mobile device, a new Sidekick, and, inexplicably, a Blackberry Curve. The results of a viewer survey had the Sidekick beat out the other devices quite handily but what I couldn’t understand was how the Curve, for all its benefits, could have made it onto the list in the first place. The Sidekick was a lifestyle device and even the WinMo-powered Dash by HTC could be seen as a lifestyle device. But the Curve? Never.

他们的粉丝已经叛离。我记得几年前受邀去MTV（再也没有第二次受邀）讨论关于“最给力智能手机”。我记得是在2007年。其中包括Windows Mobile设备，一个新的Sidekick，令人费解的是还有一台黑莓Curve。观众调查结果是Sidekick轻松的击败了其他设备，但我不能理解的是就算考虑到它所有的优点，Curve怎么能出现在这个列表的第一位的呢？Sidekick是一种生活方式，甚至HTC的WM系统的Dasb也可以看作是一种改变生活方式的设备。但是黑莓Curve呢？从来不是。

RIM has an audience, but that audience is shrinking. Arguably they had a good run, but there are plenty of other devices from other manufacturers – Microsoft included – that have much more cachet in terms of general appeal. Even BBM no longer sounds as enticing as it once did, especially in an era of Facetime, Qik, and Hipchat.

RIM有粉丝，但是粉丝数却在萎缩。可以说，他们运行很好，但也有很多其他制造商的的机型（也包括微软），它们也相当有吸引力。甚至BBM听起来都不再那么诱人，特别在Facetime, Qik, and Hipchat的时代。

译者注：近来 RIM 的负面消息缠身，高官离职、股票跌个不停、业界不看好、批评声音不断……但作为一枚BBer，我依然热爱着黑莓。企业和人生一样不可能一路坦途，苹果不也是涅磐重生后一路高歌吗？但愿RIM及时调整，早日走出阴霾，设计出更多消费者喜爱的设备。

英文原文：RIM: You’re Done Here