"And CrackBerry Nation is always rooting for ya RIM, even when we vent do our occasional vent"

Agreed. Long live Blackberry! :D

I'm surprised the Joy of Tech people put that much detail into these comics. That's actually what the Columbia/Phillip street intersection looks like behind them. Right down to the gas station/Tim Hortons. Neat!

LoVe ur optimism, but its just a matter of time. I dont feel bad for RIM at all, they did this to themselves. While the market continued to evolve RIM's devices/OS didnt. They kept feeding us with that "well if aint broke dont fix it" bS, and everyone fell into it. If you still love ur BB thats cool and theres absolutely nothing wrong with that but dont try and front like you dont know whats about to happen them within the next few years.

That is great

...agree with cartoon. they need to update the look, dump the storm, curve, pearl, and torch design. keep the bold because far to many people like the whole "ohhh like i haz a real keyboard i can touch keys and junk". in place of the dumped phones release one phone, a slate style phone with no physical keys on the face of the device like the playbook, use gesture swipe controls for everything and make it the bugotti veyron of the mobile phone industries. give it all the bellls, whistle, looks, and make give it the absolute best hardware you can get your hands on. then put the same hardware in the bold to make it like the slates unattractive brother.

dunno whats funnier, the cartoon or the fact the artists believe mike and jim share an office lol

And that ladies and gentleman is exactly why RIM is in the shape that it is. Antiquated and out of date and slow to react.

I loved when my BB was a rock-solid device. Now my 9650 gives me hourglass writing emails.

Seriously, today I rebooted, then didn't open any apps. An hour later I write an email, and it stops for the hourglass. Only the most basic system software is running, and I'm seeing the hourglass. MY GOD, Rim! Your phones are so underpowered they can't run the OS!!!

Since I started noticing crap like this, I've moved quickly into the camp of people very frustrated with RIM.

-Stephen

Jim and Mike have been great. HAVE been great.

I think they would do very well in giving their titles over to 1 CEO and staying on as advisers. But I mean.. Who could take that responsibility?

... I'll do it!

(btw, great comic!)

I feel like I am the only one that does not find Joy of Tech funny. I equate it to the comic Brevity and it has its place with cheap, straight-forward, "comedy." Honestly. Zero dimension to it.

The more a Blackberry looks like a Blackberry--and not in any way shape or form an iSmudge--the better. The 8800, for instance, while not old or clunky, had a great look: black, square and manly. Newer models that bring in feminine silvery curvy applejacks filigree not only appear to be aping the great Satan, but in and of themselves don't look as good as ANY of the "old clunky" models.

The space age look is for school gals and gadgetards... BlackBerry: BE BLACKBERRY and maybe you'll save the ship.

Slow reaction to a faster growing smartphone market is killing RIM. I am not an Apple fan, nor a Steve Jobs fan, but Apple reacts with speed and decisiveness to market changes. IOS 5 will fix so many complaints consumers had with the Iphone, plus a few wishes. I bet the Ipad 3 will have multitasking and finger swiping gestures. RIM still has stuff bugging consumers since OS4. Instead of fixing some stuff and moving forward with more speed, all I hear is excuse after excuse. Its carriers fault; we are waiting for faster chips that have better battery life; the playbook will get native apps and games soon. The list can go on and on. While I don't see my 9780 as an old clunker, I had to buy a second phone because I got a little tired of waiting and hoping for RIM to get better phones. I can only hope that next year I will see a brand new OS.....not an OS 6 refresh, plus some new hardware from RIM. I really hate having to have 2 phones again after 4 years with one blackberry.

Blackberry hasnt done anything innovative since they first came out. Push Email. Now every device has it and RIM has not done anything. Their devices are so behind the competition its amazing how they still exist.

I love it. This cartoon really sums it up. Dumb and Dumber running a sucessful company into the ground, and doing a fine job of it. Blackberry is not going out of business by any means, but they are being put in the number 3 and maybe 4th position in the market. This is very sad for the company that invented the market, and then sat back on their laurels and watched the competition eat their breakfast, lunch, and soon to be dinner. They do have good market share in 3rd world countries mostly because of bbm. But, competition is not letting this go unnoticed and I'm sure they will come up with something that is serious competition. Apple now has imessage, but their devices are still to expensive for these markets. I'm confident someone in the sphere of andoid os will come out with something in the very near future and then it could be more doom for BB. Meanwhile, I'm following Mike & Jim's suggestion and still using my retro Bold 9000, cause it works!! However it is getting worn out and needs to be replaced but RIM does not have a better alternative. I also have a Torch but it is junk as a work phone. Maybe RIM can come up with a service to keep these antiques working!!!!

I agree with the article and that's where RIM has problems. If 8700 never becomes uncool, how does it expect to sell newer Blackberrys?

I think RIM needs to comes up with a radical hardware and OS that is so cool that makes current line up obsolete.

To be honest, I was a Bold 9000 user and moved to 9780 2 years later only to find same functionality and marginal improvements on hardware and OS. And, that is sad.

This. Is NOT funny at all

This. Is NOT funny at all

GOOD JAB AT RIM!!! They need it! It's a strong wake up call, if they haven't already woken up to the reality. Their new phones are waaaayyyyy overdue. Even if they come out with new phones this month, they would have already lost a fair share of their current customers looking to upgrade but being lured away by Apple and Android manufacturers who are DELIVERING!

This delay is a very serious misstep and RIM is already becoming the laughing stock of the smartphone community. RIM is taking a beating on the stock market and from financial analysts who now see their stock as underperforming. Folks are pulling them from mutual funds and other investment

I needed a new phone in January and I'm hanging onto a 2-1/2 year old phone with hope, but seriously my patience is quickly running out. Sad, but my hope is fading...