Six ways to save RIM

Sell off the acquisitions

This is, in fact, exactly what RIM announced on Aug. 14: It was putting some of its recent acquisitions on the auction block to raise enough money to keep the wolves from the door until its BlackBerry 10 operating system is ready for market. Among the assets will likely be cloud content company NewBay and “other minor assets that it recently acquired,” according Reuters. (Source: Daily Tech)

Pull an Apple: Dump the PlayBook

It’s hard to imagine, but in 1996, Apple was in an even tighter death spiral than RIM is now. According to Steve Jobs, the company was 90 days from bankruptcy. What did Jobs do? He cut the number of product offerings (RIM offers 22 handsets in the U.S.), partitioned the markets into consumer and professional offerings, and dumped products, like the Newton, that weren’t selling (hello, PlayBook). (Source: The Guardian Technology Blog)

Pull a reverse Apple: Dump the OS, go with Android

Ten years later, in 2006, Jobs ditched the PowerPC processor for Intel chipsets in its PC line, allowing the company to focus more on its own software. But EarthWeb co-founder Jack Hidary says RIM should do the opposite: Forget about starting a developer ecosystem from scratch on BB10, and run its popular hardware on its own business-oriented version of Google’s Android mobile operating system. (Source: Fortune Tech)

No, wait, go with Windows Phone 8

Microsoft’s partnership with Nokia has led to a snappy Windows 7 phone in the Lumia. Many have mooted the idea of a similar deal with RIM. This would, again, allow the company to focus on killer hardware with an OS that’s more stable and business-oriented than Android, and a larger developer base than RIM’s. (Source: VentureBeat)

Make a super feature phone

More than a feature phone, but less than a smart phone, a super feature phone (essentially, a smart phone without the ability to add apps) could take advantage of lower-cost data plans while offering an array of powerful, integrated applications. Instead of the iPhone and Android devices, RIM would be competing with Samsung’s Bada and Marvell’s Kinoma devices (who they?). (Source: CNet News)

Back to the future

Brett Arends, in an open letter to then-new CEO Thorsten Heins, offered this piece of advice: Go back to your roots. The old BlackBerrys were tough, had batteries that lasted forever, and keyboards even the biggest thumbs could use. Instead of chasing a consumer market Apple & Co. already have sewn up, go back to the business users who built your business. (Source: Market Watch)