Losing The Signal summary

Remember having to connect your PC to the internet using a cord? Seems like yesterday, right? So it might come as a surprise that wireless communication has been around for a while.

Balsillie and Lazaridis began working on wireless communication in 1996. Before developing their own device, RIM worked on radio modems that could connect laptops and mobile data users to a network called Mobitex. Initially established to allow cars and service trucks to communicate with one another wirelessly, Mobitex was a wireless data network based on radio frequencies.

In business, a good deal means a win-win agreement between two parties – and RIM was able to come to just such an agreement with BellSouth.

BellSouth owned the Mobitex network and had been planning to shut it down. That is, until RIM approached them with their new wireless device. If not for RIM’s device, Mobitex would no longer have been profitable.

If you want to implement a new idea, you’ve got to convince others of its soundness. This was exactly the challenge faced by the people at RIM.

To get the BlackBerry off the ground, RIM had to persuade executives of the concept. Balsillie and Lazaridis quickly saw the potential of the BlackBerry in the business world, but they also knew that selling it to executives would be a challenge. Decisions regarding the purchase of new technological devices are usually made by Chief Information Officers, a group of people notorious for being highly critical of new devices, especially when these devices are designed to send sensitive information via an external network.

What’s the most fundamental market principle? If demand is higher than supply, other players will creep into the market to satisfy that demand.

So, naturally, the burgeoning wireless communication market bred competition. Additionally, since the market for wireless communication devices seemed extremely lucrative, other companies were also pouring money into the technology.

Remember when the first iPhone came out in 2007? It was a total game changer in the world of mobile devices.

The iPhone single-handedly revolutionized the wireless-communication device market. In January 2007, Steve Jobs announced that Apple’s new device would shift the existing paradigm, connecting internet communication with a mobile phone and a touch-based iPod. And that wasn’t the only trick Apple had up its sleeve: they’d made a deal with AT&T. Working with this giant US network carrier meant that the iPhone could transmit far more data than BlackBerry.

The iPhone changed the face of mobile technology. But Apple didn’t get complacent. Rather, they scored again with the iPad.

In 2010, Apple released the iPad, which again revolutionized the market. Skeptics didn’t think it would be as successful as the iPhone, but, nonetheless, the iPad set the standard for the tablet market.

Have you ever tried to work on a project with someone you’ve had a falling out with? How did it influence the results? Well, Lazaridis and Balsillie eventually butted heads – and, adding insult to injury, there was a major accounting problem at RIM.

In 2007, an accounting executive held a meeting with Balsillie and Lazaridis to make them aware of an accounting problem at the company. They were engaging in a practice known as backdating – that is, allowing shareholders to purchase stocks at prices that the shares had had at one point in the past.