Is RIM dead and is it going to be bought by a Rap artist?

I must start by stating that I NO RIM fan and have never been. Just by opening statement you can tell that I never got the memo even though I know many people my age that cannot live without BBM. But that notwithstanding, I will say I am a trendsetter a techie and an early adopter whose fancy was never tickled by this amazing products. I have heard a lot of stories and about the BlackBerry as well as the mighty BBM and I wish I could have shared the experience. I know of many of my friends who cannot live without BBM and I do agree its quit revolutionary given the fact that the service has become more affordable as compared to other communication alternatives like the buying of alternative of buying unlimited data bundles from your mobile service provider. One of the most inspiring stories that I have come across is by from Henry Blodget is CEO and editor-in-chief of Business Insider. He was previously a Wall Street analyst. Below is story;

 ” I’ll never forget the first time I saw a BlackBerry. It was a near-religious experience for me. It was back in 1999, and I was a Wall Street tech-stock analyst, and I was on a 747 flying from Denver to San Francisco. The colleague I was travelling with, a big-time investment banker pulled a strange-looking gadget off his belt and handed it to me. The device had a scroll wheel, and a keyboard. I could hold the device with both hands and scroll and type with my thumbs, as though it was a video game. The device made soothing chirping noises that, I soon learned, alerted the owner every time a new e-mail arrived—which happened automatically, magically, via “push.” 

I’d never seen anything like the BlackBerry. After a few minutes of fiddling with my colleague’s, I was hooked. The following week, I got my own, and I instantly became addicted to it. Thus began a 10-year love affair with successive generations of BlackBerrys, which were rarely more than two feet away from me for 24 hours a day”.

That is how big BlackBerry was and I don’t believe that there is anything comparable to it. By creating the BlackBerry, Research In Motion revolutionized mobile productivity. For nearly a decade, the company easily fended off the competition by providing the best personal-information gadget on the market. It silenced its critics. It reduced Palm, a previous leader in mobile gadgets, to a pile of rubble. And it made its shareholders rich. In the recent past I have been coming across a lot of talk about the death of the end of Research In Motion and I must admit even though I am no fan it’s hard to believe that seems to becoming to pass. I know that many RIM fans might be optimistic about the future of the company but then again if it is to have any future then it’s going to take a lot to get back on the track. Some of the reasons as to why the company is looking down are;

First and foremost, RIM’s products are no longer the best on the market. Although some diehard business users still cling to their BlackBerrys—and insist that the devices are better for e-mail and calendar management than anything else out there—these folks are increasingly a minority. The rest of smartphone users prefer the broader capabilities of iPhones and Android phones, especially apps and web browsing. Even on Wall Street, RIM’s initial stronghold, many bankers are either making the switch or carrying their BlackBerry plus something else, just so they don’t miss out on all the iPhones and Android phones have to offer.

Second, the smartphone market has become a “platform” game. As Microsoft’s Windows demonstrated in the PC era, technology markets in which third-party companies build programs or applications to run on top of a particular operating system or other product—”platform markets”—tend to standardize around one or two market leaders. Thanks to the explosion of “apps” available for iPhones and Android phones, the smartphone market is increasingly becoming a platform market. Research In Motion has fewer developers building apps for BlackBerry than Apple and Google do for their platforms, and this lack of apps makes the products less useful for consumers. RIM has tried to encourage developers in recent years, but it still lags badly as an app-development platform.

Third, one of the biggest selling points for BlackBerrys has always been their security and integration with corporate computing systems, most notably Microsoft’s Exchange. Increasingly, however, companies are allowing employees to use whichever devices they prefer. And many employees are choosing iPhones and Android phones. In addition, many companies and government institutions are officially equipping employees with iPhones and iPads, something that was nearly unheard of only a few years ago. In short, other smartphones, once dismissed as consumer toys, are now being adopted by enterprises, and that’s bad news for RIM.

 Several times over the past few years, RIM’s management has promised that the company’s next generation of products would be mind-blowing— the Torch, for example, would be a “quantum leap” over the iPhone—only to have the reality disappoint. You can’t over-promise and under-deliver too many times before observers begin to dismiss you as incompetent or delusional.

 If what I here is true then the worst scenario of RIM becoming the next Palm, a one-time leader that falls on its face and is eventually sold for scrap to a larger technology player only this time it’s the reverse since the buyer is a small time player that bates big.

In what seems like a delayed April fool’s joke, the CEO of United Vision Marketing Firms (UVMF) said on Thursday that the company is making an offering to Research In Motion (RIM) to acquire its BlackBerry assets. But alas, there doesn't seem to be any jokes involved. After a strategy session with UVMF's board members and consultants, the company proposes an all stock swap deal that will position RIM shareholders to be in a greater equity position by swapping for UVMF's IPO stock price.

"The team at UVMF feels the move is perfect timing on how to better leverage itself against other device makers," the company stated on Thursday. "The deal will help the development of UVMF'S $1.6 Billion proposed Pearson Education Tablet (PET), take UVMF public and develop a new brand imaging campaign for Black Berry Products using UVMF's entertainment ties."

Now here's where the announcement gets a little strange. According to the UVMF, it's a smaller company but is best known for its "big ideas." The actual founder/CEO of the firm, self-proclaimed 37-year-old Dr. Nono C. Pearson, started out as a D.J. producer and song writer. He's also supposedly known for starting and predicting new trends including "the biggest in history and some of the worst trends in history, like our current economic crises."

"One trend that Dr. Pearson has been more vocal about in past interviews is what he called 'making country cool' in rap music," the company claims. "This was at the time when the east and west coast rap music ruled the air waves. It's now documented that the 'make country cool' movement in rap music has sold over 78 million records for the recording industry."

Pearson reportedly plans to head to Wall Street with the copyrights to prove that he is the owner of what he calls "Corporate Hip Hop" while pushing the concept to the entertainment business. Meanwhile, UVMF has signed up a multi-platinum selling rapper to help set the trend that will help develop the market and leverage the acquisition deal.

"From day one we have been positioning United Vision Marketing Firm to be the Apple of the future in terms of out innovating the competition by continuously focusing on the best technology, creativity and delivering socially relevant content," says Eze Redwood COO of UVMF.

The company claims it has a huge portfolio of "socially relevant ideas to bring to market that will totally monetize its business model beyond advertising revenue."

Are you a RIM fan and what is your take on this? Do you think RIM is going to take this offer? Below is a statement from the CEO

"Dr. Nono C. PearsonToday we announced that we would like to acquire RIM Black Berry and it’s amazing to me how some people are questioning the move as if it’s a joke. Well tell all those people who may lose their jobs and have it hard to feed their kids will it be joke if the RIM goes under. We have the creativity to help the company move into the future and we can bring the educational tablet to market so students can get an affordable education. Lets stay focused!"