It’s a mobile world. Of that, there is little doubt. There is no longer a question about whether the smartphone and mobile industry in general can take over the mind (and hand) share of the data and communications industry. The only question that needs to be answered is who will be able to cash in and who’s going to cash out soon. Android and Apple are in wonderful positions. Microsoft Windows Phones and the newest re-entry into the segment, BlackBerry, are on the bubble. They are alive today, but for how long? Perhaps there’s only room for one of them. Perhaps neither will survive. This small graphic…

For RIM, you are what you eat. The latest twist for tumbling company Research in Motion, they’ve chosen to change their name and branding to reflect who they really are. Instead of being the once-proud RIM brand, they will be known simply as “BlackBerry” going forward. This is a good move. It focuses all attention on the one thing that has a chance of keeping everyone in the company employed: a successful BlackBerry 10 launch. This is their last chance. If they cannot recapture some of the market that they’ve been hemorrhaging for a while, particularly in the business sector, than they will not be…

Fans who are still holding to hope for Research in Motion’s revival through BlackBerry 10 devices due to be introduced later this month will be happy to note that they are planning to take on Nero’s approach in the final scenes of Star Trek. “Fire everything!” Questions have been asked about the company’s future and the viability of their once-proud BlackBerry line. Will it be priced in the high, middle, or low range? Will they be all-touch or will they have sliding or front-facing keyboards? Will it keep its roots as a business phone or will it branch out and become something that anyone would be proud…

Blackberry Keyboard via Shutterstock In some ways, it’s simply a matter of circumstance. In others, it was missteps on their part that have contributed to their slow demise. Research In Motion is in the kind of deep trouble that companies as dominant as they were not too long ago rarely find themselves in so quickly. In an exclusive interview with CIO, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins breaks down the state of the company and the future of BlackBerry. Here’s a quote that exemplifies much of what is happening: “What also happened, in the U.S., was the drive to 4G started, and it got accelerated. Carriers were…

Research In Motion has been the whipping post for tech bloggers for a couple of years, now. We’ve taken our own swipes at them here (and here, and here, and here), but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a smidgen of hope coming from the Blackberry maker. The hope is being broadcast loud and clear by CEO Thorsten Heins who was claiming on Tuesday that “there’s nothing wrong with the company as it exists right now.” Blackberry 10, which many consider to be the last chance RIM has of regaining a bigger slice of the pie and staying in business as they are now beyond 2013, was delayed again last week. 5000 layoffs…

After hitting the market hard, then getting hit hard by the market, Facebook’s tumultuous IPO has hit a new low, closing at $28.84 yesterday and losing more after hours to rest at $28.69. Some of the “smart money” made claims last week and before that they were going to wait until Facebook went south of $30 before buying. That time has come. Will they buy? The answer would probably be yes if it weren’t for foolish semi-confirmed reports that Facebook is building a phone. If the rumors turn out to be true, many will run from the risky endeavor which would take the virtual world of social media and add in…

Here’s how it all breaks down: It doesn’t take an astute observer to realize that RIM is dying. It takes even less knowledge of the mobile industry to know that Microsoft desperately wants to compete and excel in phone and tablets. Both companies have problems that are best represented by two companies: Apple and Google. Why doesn’t Research In Motion simply sell at any cost to Microsoft? They are losing executives and cutting employees. No measure of restructuring can save their plummeting market share or improve their dismal outlook. They need help in a big way. Microsoft needs to make some moves….

The romance between Twitter and Bing will continue. The two announced the renewal of their real-time search partnership, fittingly enough, via Twitter late yesterday. Over the course of their back-and-forth tweets, Twitter and Bing reminisced about their past two years of working together and agreed to continue their partnership, alluding to “bigger and better things” to come. Twitter and Microsoft first teamed up in 2009, making Bing the first major search engine to have access to Twitter’s “Firehose” of tweets. Google also partnered with the popular social media service, but…

Most of the iPad’s competition has been inferior and higher priced, which has resulted in numerous failures to create a true competitor. But Research In Motion might be on to something with the Blackberry Playbook. But this one little detail might be the most shocking of them all: it will cost $499. Since the creation of the original iPad, there has been little in the way of competition for Apple. Tablets like Galaxy Tab and Xoom have hit the scene, but they also have a price (a bigger one than iPad), which meant that not only was iPad superior, but it was more competitively priced. And that is how it has…

The general consensus following the release of the BlackBerry Torch in the tech journalism sphere was that RIM had failed to put out a competitor to the iPhone and Android smartphones, and had therefore failed. Since we’re never really about swimming with the other salmon here on Techi, I decided to hold a very unscientific poll of a few friends and colleagues who were already BlackBerry users to see if they agreed with the pundits. BlackBerry Users Are Loyal Overwhelmingly, they did not. Out of about six people, only one definitively stated that they would be switching to an iPhone. The rest were…