Is Rimageddon Coming?

Congratulations are in order as Research In Motion’s Blackberry App World has finally reached 1 billion downloads last week. For those who don’t follow tech news, RIM has been struggling for the past several months (understatement). Approximately three years ago, RIM shares were trading at $150.00 apiece; currently they are trading at roughly $26.00.

Shareholders must be ripping their hair out!

Although we are happy for RIM, we cannot side track from the fact that it took about two years to accomplish this whereas, Apple’s app store has a total of 15 billion downloads to date and hit it’s 1^st billion in just nine months. Google’s Android has a total of 4.5 billion downloads to date.

In the latest shareholders meeting, RIM confirmed that it is planning on releasing seven new phones in the upcoming months. SEVEN? RIM hasn’t stated what new smartphones they will be launching but they are most likely to be upgraded models. The two most talked-about Blackberries to be released are the Bold 9900 and the Torch 2 (9860), as for the other five, we will just have to wait and see.  Also, RIM announced that the new Blackberry OS 7 would be the OS running on the Bold 9900.

We are thrilled to see the new operating system but rumor has it that current blackberry users would not be able to upgrade to OS 7. Let us hope that this is just a rumor.

But could this be the beginning of a comeback or the coming of Rimageddon?

Most will agree with the latter, it’s just too difficult to stay optimistic! Just a couple of days ago, RIM announced they plan to lay off 2,000 employees, which is equivalent to approximately 11% of their workforce. The intended purpose for this is to help RIM achieve higher growth, realign strategic objectives, and restructure senior management. These lay-offs will allow RIM to reduce costs and supposedly, introduce products to the market in a more timely manner (i.e. faster).

The next couple of months should be exciting.

Good or bad move by RIM?

Good luck RIM, you’ll need it.

Lou Dubois at Inc.com wrote a great article on whether your business is in need of a mobile application, or not. He digs deeper into the mobile space, questioning whether an application is useful for all business. Showcasing our very own Pizza Pizza app and lots of excerpts from our Queen Melody Adhami, this article is an excellent resource for anyone that has thought about an application for their business. Everyone’s needs are different, and we understand that. Applications need to be tailored to the business objectives and consumer needs. Lou lays out a series of useful questions to ask yourself before going down the route of a mobile app.

You can read the full article here.

We found this great infographic from G+ and wanted to share it on our blog as it illustrates the state of mobile commerce pretty well.  The infographic shows the continued pattern of growth with m-commerce and the major impact from NFC.

Plastic Mobile was featured on App Central show with technology host Amber Mac. The show airs on the popular Business News Network (BNN), CTV, and CP24. Watch it now below:

Watch Melody Adhami, also known as the Queen of Apps / Mobile Maven, provide the latest mobile and tech news on CTV News with Jennifer Ward. Please excuse the low quality video.

As part of our ongoing efforts to educate the community and stay in touch with the people who matter most (our youth), we have joined forces with Career Mash to showcase a day in the world of Mobile App Development. We hope that we can help bring the real-life experiences and excitement of a career in the technology field.

Watch Melody Adhami provide her perspective: