Dazzle or be done

Shares in Research In Motion are up almost $3 this morning in what might be called a relief rally, relief that the new iPhone didn’t impress. Welcome to the new world of overwrought expectations. Because the iPhone 4S is unable to solve the problem of debt in Greece, the media and techies have pooh-poohed it.

The BlackBerry has been suffering through similar denunciations for months. How soon the worm turns on success. Look at Yahoo. Not so long ago Yahoo was hot. Now they fire CEOs three before tea.

To be sure, Research In Motion has fallen behind. The new models released in August were catchup only. An updated version of PlayBook is overdue. Competitors are gaining ground in business via the same route BlackBerry once infiltrated the office. Employees are buying their own Androids, iPhones and iPads, thereby forcing IT to accept what’s already within the firewalls. Time was when RIM won major contracts doing the same.

I haven’t done any interviews with RIM executives since my book was published 18 months ago. Nor, as far as I can tell, has anyone else learned much. But I do know that RIM has upped the internal ante. People have disappeared and projects are being pushed. Will it be enough? Maybe this breather will help. As long as the next round of new models using QNX software dazzle the market. And as we have just seen with Apple, jaded observers don’t impress easily.