On January 6th reports of Symantec (makers of Norton Anitvirus) being hacked surfaced. The group of hackers behind the attack behind the attack were from India. In a statement issued by a member from the Lords of Dharamraja group (badass name!), the guys said:

As of now we start sharing with all our brothers and followers information from the Indian Militaty (sic) Intelligence servers, so far we have discovered within the Indian Spy Programme (sic) source codes of a dozen software companies which have signed agreements with Indian TANCS programme (sic) and CBI

Ignoring the typing error, gaining access to Indian Military’s Intelligence servers is pretty damning for the agency. The hack got covered since the hackers claimed to have acces to Norton’s source code. Earlier today I came across scans of a set of documents that are internal communications between the Indian Military. The documents claim the existence of a system known as RINOA SUR. While I did not find what SUR stands for but RINOA is RIM, NOkia and Apple. And this is where things start to get very interesting, according to the set of documents, the RINOA SUR platform was used to spy on the USCC—the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Let’s take a moment for that to digest. Here’s an image from the documents underlining the relevant part:

The documents contain snippets of emails sent by members of the USCC. Apparently, RINOA SUR platform has been declared a success and the Indian Navy has shown interest in the same. The leaked military documents suggest, RINOA were arm twisted into providing backdoor access in exchange for operating in India:

While the Indian government recently gave the nation’s premiere spy agency—RAW—permission to access any citizen’s electronic communication, the Department of Telecommunications has reached out to the Interpol for help in decrypting communication via services like RIM’s BlackBerry.

Many of my friends, when it's time for an upgrade, ask me "What smartphone should I get?"
My typical answer is, "What carrier do you have?" and we proceed to go online and look at that carrier's selection of Android devices. I pick out a few, depending on their needs and preferences, usually mid-range in price, some with a happy mix of the best hardware and the best price, and some that appeal to their needs and taste.

But what they're really asking is, "Tony, should I get an iPhone, or an Android?" When I picked out high-end phones for them, they thought "Android it is," and proceed to go out and buy the cheapest, or even free phone, and then blame me when it's not delivering them iPhone quality.
So I should preface by saying that if you want something that's going to compete with the iPhone's quality, you're going to have to pay a similar price. Android is an awesome OS, and works amazingly when you have good hardware behind it.

So please listen when when you hear Android fanboys like me raving about how awesome Android devices are, how much better they are than iPhones, how much more they can do, or any of those things that I'm sure you've heard us go on about at some point or another. Just know that we're not saying that you should go out and buy the cheapest phone just because there's a little green Android on the info plaque at the store. Android is a lot of awesome things, but it is not magic, and it will not transform a low-end piece of junk into something that can rival the quality of a $600 iPhone.

So when you ask what phone to get on Verizon, and I say, "Get yourself a Droid 3," that does not mean you should go look around at the store to see what is prettiest. You asked me for a reason, so please don't blame me when you are stuck with an LG Ally that can't even play Angry Birds without force closing you to death. If you're trying to decide between an iPhone and an Android, you need to look at Androids that are going to cost about the same amount as the iPhone. I promise, you'll be glad you did.

So let's get on to the facts. Below we have one free Android handset from each of the most popular U.S. carriers, with some specs listed. Let me know if you start to see a theme.

Hit the names for the full technical specifications, courtesy of our friends over at Phone Arena.

Verizon

LG Enlighten
Android Gingerbread 2.3
3.2 inch screen
800 MHz single-core processor
3.2 Megapixel rear camera
150 MB internal storage
Slide out physical keyboard

 

Sprint

LG Optimus S
Android Froyo 2.2
3.2 inch screen
600 MHz single-core processor
3.2 Megapixel rear camera
140 MB internal storage

AT&T

LG Phoenix
Andoid Froyo 2.2
3.2 inch screen
600 MHz single-core processor
3.2 Megapixel rear camera
150 MB internal storage

T-Mobile

Samsung Dart
Android Froyo 2.2
3.14 inch screen
600 MHz single-core processor
3 Megapixel rear camera
160 MB internal storage

Now that you have an idea of what exactly you're going to be stuck with for the next 2 years because you wanted a free phone, let's take a walk down memory lane.
Let's go back to the G1, the first Android phone. Keeping in mind the specs you read above for what you're getting in your free phone nowadays, read on and see what you would have had 3 years ago.

T-Mobile G1

Android Cupcake 1.5
3.2 inch screen
528 MHz single-core processor
3.2 Megapixel rear camera
192 MB RAM 250 MB ROM
Slide out physical keyboard

Do you see something wrong here? As technology advances, the software becomes more complex, and requires better, faster, more robust hardware to run properly. But what you have now, running newer versions of Android, isn't much of a step-up from the original G1. So they've dumbed down the OS and taken things away, just so they could say it runs Froyo or Gingerbread. It's disgusting that people fall for this and never realize that if they don't pay premium costs, they will not end up with a premium handset. Now let's meet the Galaxy Nexus, arguably the best handset on the market today. The Galaxy Nexus runs around $189.99 with a new contract.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus

Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0
1.2 GHz Dual-core processor
4.65 inch screen
1 GB RAM 32 GB Internal storage
5 Megapixel rear camera 1.3 Megapixel Front facing camera
Talk time of 17 hours

That about sums it up. The whole idea here is that you're going to get what you pay for, so decide now if that $29.99 Android phone with specs from 2009 is worth it.

Americans consented to secretly installed software on 150 million mobile phones that logs what apps they use and what websites they visit and who they communicate with, according to mobile-phone makers and carriers.

Sprint, AT&T, HTC and Samsung told Sen. Al Franken (D-Minnesota) Thursday that their end-user licensing agreements — those pages of fine print you sign when you get a new cell phone — authorize them to use Carrier IQ software to monitor app deployment, battery life, phone CPU output and data and cell-site connectivity. The companies’ statements, released by Franken, are a good roadmap to how the companies will fight federal privacy lawsuits already brought by consumers over the secret software.

The companies have deployed the software on handsets for years now. But it had only received mainstream attention last month when a Connecticut researcher publicized its presence on YouTube. The ensuing furor over the video prompted Franken to demand answers.

Franken was none too happy with the ones he got.

“People have a fundamental right to control their private information. After reading the companies’ responses, I’m still concerned that this right is not being respected,” Franken said in a statement. “The average user of any device equipped with Carrier IQ software has no way of knowing that this software is running, what information it is getting, and who it is giving it to — and that’s a problem.”

T-Mobile, which has acknowledged using the software, and Motorola are expected to respond to Franken’s inquiry by Dec. 20. Carrier IQ, founded in Mountain View, California, six years ago, has also spoken to government officials, including the Federal Trade Commission, but maintains no official investigation has commenced.

AT&T, for example, cited its terms-of-service agreement with consumers to Franken. Among other things, the agreement says consumers consent to monitoring to “improve your network and the quality of your wireless experience.”

Samsung, which installs the software at the carriers’ request, told Franken that the carriers are responsible for notifying consumers about it. The phone maker said it does not sell phones installed with Carrier IQ “directly to consumers.”

The software runs hidden from users, who generally can’t find it or uninstall it without very sophisticated knowledge or by switching out the operating system by “rooting” their phone and flashing an alternative operating system. While legal, rooting almost always voids a phone’s warranty.

What data is sent to Carrier IQ and the carriers depends on how much data the telcos want. Some carriers might want the text-message data, for example, only when certain conditions are met, such as when a text doesn’t go through to the intended recipient.

“Sprint does not always know why a call drops or a website will not load, for example. Sprint may not always know why a get message is not delivered timely, or why service is unavailable in a particular area,” Sprint wrote. “To help it better understand these issues, Sprint uses troubleshooting software installed on customers’ devices to report diagnostic and analytics data so it can solve particular problems,” Sprint told Franken.

Sprint, which said Friday it was disabling Carrier IQ from 26 million active devices that carry it, added that its “privacy policy explains that it may use tools and analytics to collect such information.”

Verizon does not employ Carrier IQ.

Some carriers collect the the data on an anonymized basis. That provides them a roadmap to where and when calls are dropped without knowing whose phone was being used. When too many calls are dropped in a certain location, for example, that could mean extra cell towers are needed in that area. The same could be true for when the software detects similar areas of low data connectivity.

But other carriers collect data that lets them drill down to the individual phone, providing customer-service representatives with vast tools to assist complaining customers. For example, a carrier could tell a customer that battery life is poor because a certain app is hogging electricity in the background. The software can be programmed to know when a consumer changed the battery, or how many times a battery charger was used. AT&T’s and Sprint’s letters spell out what data Carrier IQ collects on their behalf.

Here’s a synopsis of what the respondents told Franken:

• “AT&T collects information about the proximate location of your Device in relations to our cell towers and the Global Positioning System (GPS). We use that information, as well as other usage and performance information also obtained from our network and your Device, to provide you with wireless voice and data services, and to maintain and improve your network and the quality of your wireless experience,” AT&T said, (.pdf) citing its terms of service.
• “Information we collect when we provide you with Services includes when your wireless device is turned on, how your device is functioning, device signal strength, where it is located, what device you are using, what you have purchased with your device, how you are using it, and what sites you visit. And, Sprint’s privacy policy explains that it may use tools and analytics to collect such information,” Sprint wrote (.pdf) Franken, also citing its user agreement.
• “To the best of HTC’s knowledge the wireless service providers have made their collection activities known via their privacy policies and terms of use. The Federal Trade Commission staff also recognize that consumers ‘reasonably anticipate, and are likely to accept, that an [electronic communication service provider] will monitor the transmission of data for reasons related to providing the [related service], such as to ensure that their service is not interrupted or to detect and block the transmission of computer viruses or malware.’ Accordingly, the FTC calls this type of activity a ‘commonly accepted practice,’” HTC responded. (.pdf)
• “Because Samsung does not sell any relevant devices directly to consumers, Samsung is not in a position to determine the extent of consumer awareness regarding the nature of the relationship between the carrier and the consumer, including the carriers’ inclusion of Carrier IQ on devices operating on their networks. Samsung understands that the carriers have Terms of Service and/or Privacy Policy agreements that discuss the collection and usage of consumer data, and that those agreements may govern the carriers’ relationships,” Samsung said.

Over the last two years, Apple has been engaged in vicious legal battles over smartphone patents, many of which are aimed at squelching (or squeezing money out of) manufacturers of devices running Android. And now, for some reason, it has given valuable patents to a patent troll — which is using them to sue many of the top technology companies in the world.

Meet Digitude Innovations, a firm based in Virginia that recently filed suit with the International Trade Commission alleging patent infringement by technology companies including RIM, HTC, LG, Motorola, Samsung, Sony, Amazon, and Nokia (note that Apple is not on this list). The ITC is a favorite for companies litigating over mobile phone patent disputes, as it can block the import of products long before a case has actually concluded.

Digitude was founded in 2010 and raised $50 million from Altitude Capital Partners, with aims to “acquire, aggregate, and license key technology areas within the consumer electronics and related technology fields in a patent consortium” — in other words, it buys up patents and then sues other companies until they settle and agree to pay licensing fees, because it’s generally less expensive than actually going to court.

From a Forbes article this past June:

Digitude is a new kind of patent investment vehicle because it seeks to team up with strategic players that can invest in Digitude not with money, but by contributing patents. The contributing entity would then get a license for all of Digitude’s patents, [Digitude Chairman Robert] Kramer says.

In April, Digitude announced the “completion of its first such strategic partnership with one of the world’s leading consumer electronics companies” — which it didn’t name. The company later announced that additional (unnamed) parties have jumped on board as well, who will receive a portion of Digitude’s proceeds based on the value of the IP each party contributed.

Apple appears to be one of these participants, and may be the unnamed leading consumer electronics company that Digitude boasted about this past spring. Of the four patents that Digitude included in its claim this week, two were owned by Apple earlier this year, before they were transferred to Digitude.

The patents in question:

USPTO #6208879 — Mobile Information Terminal Equipment and Portable Electronic Apparatus

USPTO #6456841 — Mobile Communication Apparatus Notifying User Of Reproduction Waiting Information Effectively

In both cases, Apple transfered ownership of the patent to a company called Cliff Island LLC, which in turn transferred it to Digitude Innovations. In fact, Apple has transferred a dozen patents to Cliff Island LLC this year (though only two of these were named in this ITC suit).

You probably haven’t heard of Cliff Island LLC, because it appears to exist in name only. There is a next to no information about the company available online — though the patent filing does include an address: 485 Madison Avenue, Suite 2300 in New York City.

I was unable to find a phone number for the company, so I attempted to pay a visit to their office, only to find that it doesn’t appear to exist. But there are other tenants on the twenty-third floor of 485 Madison. One of which is Altitude Capital, the same IP-focused private equity firm that happened to lead Digitude’s $50 million funding round.

Put another way, Apple appears to have transferred its patents to the patent troll Digitude, though it first routed them through a shell company that shares the same office as Digitude’s lead investor and Chairman. Further evidence of the relationship between Apple and Digitude can be found on the ITC’s own website, where a list of files relevant to the lawsuit can be found. Many of these files are marked confidential, but it appears someone mistakenly left the file names intact. One of which is “Digitude-Apple License Agreement” (see screenshot below).

So what is going on? There are a pair of scenarios that seem plausible — though both of them are strange.

The first is that Apple is using Digitude as a hired gun of sorts in its patent offensive, giving the company valuable patents to wield against its opponents (while avoiding the waves of press that are spurred by each new lawsuit). But Apple hasn’t exactly been quiet about suing its rivals over smartphone patents, so it’s not clear what they’d gain from this.

The alternative is that Apple has given some of its patents to Digitude because the patent troll came after it first. The dozen patents Apple has handed over may have been part of a settlement with the firm, along with the license agreement (which would presumably give Apple the rights to its patents, and additional Digitude patents). This seems more likely.

But even if Digitude shot first, so to speak, it’s still hard to see Apple in a positive light here. This is Apple we’re talking about. The idea that the company didn’t have any options other than handing over valuable patents to a patent troll — knowing full well that it would then use those patents to sue other tech companies — seems ludicrous.

I spoke with Julie Samuels, Staff Attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who focuses on patents, who points out that in some cases certain companies will sell their patents to other parties when they’re under financial stress. But Apple clearly doesn’t fall into that bucket.

If Apple were deliberately aiding Digitude, Samuels says “it would be horrifying — the patent troll problem is completely out of control. Apple has every legal right to sue over its patents, but it should be the one to do it”.

And if Apple was indeed threatened first by Digitude, and only handed over its patents as part of a settlement, she says she “cannot imagine any reasonable scenario where Apple didn’t have any other options”.

Both Apple and Digitude declined to comment.

Also, oddly, Digitude Innovations had a website as recently as December 4, but it apparently took it down in the last few days.

A security researcher has posted a video detailing hidden software installed on smart phones that logs numerous details about users' activities.

In a 17-minute video posted Monday on YouTube, Trevor Eckhart shows how the software – known as Carrier IQ – logs every text message, Google search and phone number typed on a wide variety of smart phones - including HTC, Blackberry, Nokia and others - and reports them to the mobile phone carrier.

The application, which is labeled on Eckhart’s HTC smartphone as "HTC IQ Agent," also logs the URL of websites searched on the phone, even if the user intends to encrypt that data using a URL that begins with "HTTPS," Eckhart said.

The software always runs when Android operating system is running and users are unable to stop it, Eckhart said in the video.

"Why is this not opt-in and why is it so hard to fully remove?" Eckhart wrote at the end of the video.

In a post about Carrier IQ on his website, Eckhart called the software a "rootkit," a security term for software that runs in the background without a user's knowledge and is commonly used in malicious software.

Eckhart's video is the latest in a series of attacks between him and the company. Earlier this month, Carrier IQ sent a cease and desist letter to Eckhart claiming he violated copyright law by publishing Carrier IQ training manuals online. But after the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group, came to Eckhart’s defense, the company backed off its legal threats.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation said the software that Eckhart has publicized "raises substantial privacy concerns" about software that "many consumers don’t know about."

Carrier IQ could not immediately be reached for comment. But the company told Wired.com that its software is used for “gathering information off the handset to understand the mobile-user experience, where phone calls are dropped, where signal quality is poor, why applications crash and battery life.”

On its website, Carrier IQ, founded in 2005, describes itself as "the world's leading provider of Mobile Service Intelligence solutions."

Watch video of Eckhart explaining his findings:

It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

Legions of nine-to-fivers stare idly at their office monitors, pretending to work in the few short hours before going on holiday. Dysfunctional families assemble for awkward turkey dinners. And, of course, all of the consumer electronics companies ramp up their ad campaigns to lure in the tired, poor and hungry masses of seasonal shoppers.

Yet, sadly, by the looks of all the smartphone commercials coming out, it seems advertising companies consider us idiots. Instead of smart, Super Bowl-quality ads, we’re forced to watch ridiculous dreck, often featuring more hype than actual product. Why?

Well, most obviously, dreck has been a mainstay of the ad industry since the days of Mad Men. It’s about selling an idea, not a product. Still, with these most recent commercial debuts, we’ve reached a new low.

Here are a few of this season’s most egregious offenders.

Samsung’s Hit Piece on Apple Fanboys

In a certain light, we see what Samsung is trying to do here, and it’s a noble stab at being clever. Take all of the fervor reserved for Apple product releases and poke fun at the adoration, especially when the last iPhone release was so similar to the one previous.

On the other hand, the commercial barely even features the actual advertised product, Samsung’s Galaxy S2. Instead, the company is preoccupied with making fun of Apple fans, thus losing the chance to show off the phone’s nifty features. It’s mentioned in passing that the phone has a big screen and is fast. And then the ad spot moves on to more Apple mockery.

I’ll admit, the swipe at the Apple-loving barista at the halfway point had me cracking up. Take that, snooty latte-drinking art lovers!) And I love a good dose of company quarreling.

But when you’re embroiled in major copyright infringement litigation with the company you’re mocking — especially when that litigation focuses on how often you seem to be ripping said company off — it’s hard to take your jabs seriously, Samsung. Oh, and by the way — nice new white Galaxy S2 release.

Apple’s Ad Featuring Pointless Questions for Siri

The more I see it in practice, the more a Siri-reliant world frightens me.

Is it not an exercise in futility to ask if it’ll be chilly in San Francisco? When you’re sitting and staring at cars in front of you, is it truly necessary to ask Siri if there’s traffic in this area?

And, honestly, if you really need to ask how many cups are in 12 ounces, you probably shouldn’t be baking in the first place. Or be allowed near an open flame.

Don’t get me wrong: Half the charm of Siri is found in the novelty of asking the virtual assistant questions. But after the novelty wears off, will we continue to ask her easily answerable questions? Will the cutesiness of a pocket-portable version of Google wear us down to the point where we cease pondering, and start Siri-ing?

I hope not.

Amazon’s Kindle Fire Fail

I know it’s a tablet and not a smartphone, but Amazon’s latest Kindle spot bugs me.

It doesn’t matter that the commercial is aiming to depict that nice feeling you get upon receiving a surprise gift in time for Christmas. No, the real takeaway here is that any mailman who leaves a package filled with relatively expensive electronics equipment on the front porch of an urban Brownstone deserves to be fired. No way in hell that package sits there for more than 20 minutes without getting swiped.

And, just how did our protagonist jump online so quickly? Does her Wi-Fi reach her doorstep? Does she even know her password string by memory? Because, no, the Kindle doesn’t come with 3G support for internet-nearly-everywhere connectivity.

Oh, wait, it’s a flawed, laggy Kindle Fire. No one will be stealing that.

Motorola’s “Payload” Commercial for the Droid Razr

This commercial is almost too stupid for words.

A full 51 seconds of the ad is concentrated on a low-budget version of some Michael Bay flick, followed by nine seconds of video of the actual phone for sale.

And, of course, the phone is held up on all four of its sides with spears. Because it’s the Razr. Get it?

You’d think the company would have learned from its past horrible ads for Droid products. When the Droid Bionic came out, the first ad featured 60 seconds of a Lara Croft-meets-Blade Runner face off. Zero phone screen time.

Seriously, Motorola, no matter what sort of mini-saga you play out on screen, I’m not going to be inspired to buy your phone unless you actually tell me what the product is.

Don Bailey says he can unlock thousands of cars across the United States simply by sending a few texts from his Android phone.

And that's not even the scary part.

Bailey, a senior security consultant with iSEC Partners, said in an interview with CNN at the Black Hat security conference here at Caesars Palace that the same hack he has used to demonstrate unlocking and even starting a car via text message also could be used to attack industrial systems, the power grid and the water system.

"I could care less if I could unlock a car door," he said. "It's cool. It's sexy. But the same system is used to control phone, power, traffic systems. I think that's the real threat."

Bailey would not share details about which cars or which auto systems are vulnerable to the hack that he showed off publicly at the event.

The hack affects many kinds of devices that connect to cellular GSM networks, like the one used by AT&T. As cars and plenty of other stuff -- from pill bottles to trees, he said -- start connecting to cell grids and the Internet, Bailey said they become more vulnerable.

Certain electronic components that accept wireless signals are vulnerable to the hack, he said. Those components are in the cars Bailey said he can unlock remotely.

Again, he would not name which cars have them.

Strangely enough, Oprah Winfrey kinda-sorta inspired this research.

Bailey said he was watching an "Oprah" show about a device called the Zoombak, which the TV host said could be used by parents to track the locations of their kids.

"I heard that and thought, 'Oh dear God no. Please Oprah, no, no no!' " he said in a presentation at Black Hat. "This was my thinking: That's dangerous. That can definitely be owned. Let's own that thing."

In hacker-speak, "own" means to take control of a device.

Once he figured out how to take control of the kid-tracker, Bailey moved on to cars, which he said was more difficult but still not impossible.

"I couldn't just straight-up text message it and be like, 'Gimme yo' datas!' " he said, referring to the car parts. "So it was a little more work."

It's not all doom-and-gloom, though.

Bailey said manufacturers could purchase more expensive parts that would keep these types of hacks from being possible. He thinks industry associations should put out recommendations suggesting this approach, even though cost increases would be "highly significant."

"We have to," he said. "We have to find elegant ways to find that sweet spot between cost and security."

Black Hat is an annual gathering of hackers and security professionals in Las Vegas. Researchers hope that by showing off how to hack certain systems, the computer industry will take steps to make infrastructure and consumers safer.

RIM on Thursday released its response to an open letter published exclusively by BGR. The letter, which was written by a senior RIM executive, pleads with the company’s upper management to make some drastic changes if it is to regain the mind share and market share it has lost in recent years. After questioning the authenticity of the letter — and we assure you, it is indeed genuine and its author has been vetted — RIM said the company is “fully aware of and aggressively addressing both the company’s challenges and its opportunities.” The response goes on to take an extremely defensive stance, listing various reasons that RIM is still in a strong position. The company also says its management is taking its current challenges seriously during this transitional period. “The company is thankfully in a solid business and financial position to tackle the opportunities ahead with a solid balance sheet (nearly $3 billion in cash and no debt), strong profitability (RIM’s net income last quarter was $695 million) and substantial international growth (international revenue in Q1 grew 67% over the same quarter last year). In fact, while growth has slowed in the US, RIM still shipped 13.2 million BlackBerry smartphones last quarter (which is about 100 smartphones per minute, 24 hours per day) and RIM is more committed than ever to serving its loyal customers and partners around the world,” the response concludes. RIM’s statement can be read below in its entirety.

 

An “Open Letter” to RIM’s senior management was published anonymously on the web today and it was attributed to an unnamed person described as a ‘high level employee”. It is obviously difficult to address anonymous commentary and it is particularly difficult to believe that a “high level employee” in good standing with the company would choose to anonymously publish a letter on the web rather than engage their fellow executives in a constructive manner, but regardless of whether the letter is real, fake, exaggerated or written with ulterior motivations, it is fair to say that the senior management team at RIM is nonetheless fully aware of and aggressively addressing both the company’s challenges and its opportunities.

RIM recently confirmed that it is nearing the end of a major business and technology transition. Although this transition has taken longer than anticipated, there is much excitement and optimism within the company about the new products that are lined up for the coming months. There is a fundamental business reality however that following an extended period of hyper growth (during which RIM nearly quadrupled in size over the past 5 years alone), it has become necessary for the company to streamline its operations in order to allow it to grow its business profitably while pursuing newer strategic opportunities. Again, RIM’s management team takes these challenges seriously and is actively addressing the situation. The company is thankfully in a solid business and financial position to tackle the opportunities ahead with a solid balance sheet (nearly $3 billion in cash and no debt), strong profitability (RIM’s net income last quarter was $695 million) and substantial international growth (international revenue in Q1 grew 67% over the same quarter last year). In fact, while growth has slowed in the US, RIM still shipped 13.2 million BlackBerry smartphones last quarter (which is about 100 smartphones per minute, 24 hours per day) and RIM is more committed than ever to serving its loyal customers and partners around the world.

 

There’s no question Research In Motion is in the midst of a major transitional period. The company is planning to launch a brand new product line based on a brand new operating system within the next 12 months, and even though the first device born out of RIM’s new QNX OS was impressive in some ways, it was incomplete. There still is a chance for RIM to deliver some really interesting competitive products, but time is quickly running out, as we have written time and time again. The thing is, RIM has always been a company controlled by two people — Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis. For all the things that have worked, they have missed the boat countless times and we’re now seeing the results.

We have received an open letter to Mike and Jim from a high-level RIM employee (whose identity we have verified), and in an amazingly honest and passionate plea, this letter gives fascinating insights into what RIM must fix, and fast. RIM did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Read the open letter in its entirety after the break.

The company’s full response can be viewed here.
 

–

To the RIM Senior Management Team:

I have lost confidence.

While I hide it at work, my passion has been sapped. I know I am not alone — the sentiment is widespread and it includes people within your own teams.

Mike and Jim, please take the time to really absorb and digest the content of this letter because it reflects the feeling across a huge percentage of your employee base. You have many smart employees, many that have great ideas for the future, but unfortunately the culture at RIM does not allow us to speak openly without having to worry about the career-limiting effects.

Before I get into the meat of the matter, I will say I am not part of a large group of bitter employees wishing to embarrass us. Rather, I believe these points need to be heard and I desperately want RIM to regain its position as a successful industry leader. Our carriers, distributors, alliance partners, enterprise customers, and our loyal end users all want the same thing… for BlackBerry to once again be leading the pack.

We are in the middle of major “transition” and things have never been more chaotic. Almost every project is falling further and further behind schedule at a time when we absolutely must deliver great, solid products on time. We urge you to make bold decisions about our organisational structure, about our culture and most importantly our products.

While we anxiously wait to see the details of the streamlining plan, here are some suggestions:

1) Focus on the End User experience

Let’s obsess about what is best for the end user. We often make product decisions based on strategic alignment, partner requests or even legal advice — the end user doesn’t care. We simply have to admit that Apple is nailing this and it is one of the reasons they have people lining up overnight at stores around the world, and products sold out for months. These people aren’t hypnotized zombies, they simply love beautifully designed products that are user centric and work how they are supposed to work. Android has a major weakness — it will always lack the simplicity and elegance that comes with end-to-end device software, middleware and hardware control. We really have a great opportunity to build something new and “uniquely BlackBerry” with the QNX platform.

Let’s start an internal innovation revival with teams focused on what users will love instead of chasing “feature parity” and feature differentiation for no good reason (Adobe Flash being a major example). When was the last time we pushed out a significant new experience or feature that wasn’t already on other platforms?

Rather than constantly mocking iPhone and Android, we should encourage key decision makers across the board to use these products as their primary device for a week or so at a time — yes, on Exchange! This way we can understand why our users are switching and get inspiration as to how we can build our next-gen products even better! It’s incomprehensible that our top software engineers and executives aren’t using or deeply familiar with our competitor’s products.

2) Recruit Senior SW Leaders & enable decision-making

I’m going to say what everyone is thinking… We need some heavy hitters at RIM when it comes to software management. Teams still aren’t talking together properly, no one is making or can make critical decisions, all the while everyone is working crazy hours and still far behind. We are demotivated. Just look at who our major competitors are: Apple, Google & Microsoft. These are three of the biggest and most talented software companies on the planet. Then take a look at our software leadership teams in terms of what they have delivered and their past experience prior to RIM… It says everything.

3) Cut projects to the bone.

There is a serious need to consolidate our focus to just a handful of projects. Period.

We need to be disciplined here. We can’t afford any more initiatives based on carrier requests to squeeze out slightly more volume. Again, back to point #1, focus on the end users. They are the ones making both consumer & enterprise purchase decisions.

Strategy is often in the things you decide not to do.

On that note, we simply must stop shipping incomplete products that aren’t ready for the end user. It is hurting our brand tremendously. It takes guts to not allow a product to launch that may be 90% ready with a quarter end in sight, but it will pay off in the long term.

Look at Apple in 1997 for tips here. I really want you to watch this video because it has never been more relevant. It is our friend Steve Jobs in 97 and it may as well be you speaking to RIM employees and partners today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LEXae1j6EY

4) Developers, not Carriers can now make or break us

We urgently need to invest like we never have before in becoming developer friendly. The return will be worth every cent. There is no polite way to say this, but it’s true — BlackBerry smartphone apps suck. Even PlayBook, with all its glorious power, looks like a Fisher Price toy with its Adobe AIR/Flash apps.

Developing for BlackBerry is painful, and despite what you’ve been told, things haven’t really changed that much since Jamie Murai’s letter. Our SDK / development platform is like a rundown 1990′s Ford Explorer. Then there’s Apple, which has a shiny new BMW M3… just such a pleasure to drive. Developers want and need quality tools.

If we create great tools, we will see great work. Offer shit tools and we shouldn’t be surprised when we see shit apps.

The truth is, no one in RIM dares to tell management how bad our tools still are. Even our closest dev partners do their best to say it politely, but they will never bite the hand that feeds them. The solution? Recruit serious talent, buy SDK/API specialist companies, throw a truckload of money at it… Let’s do whatever it takes, and quickly!

5) Need for serious marketing punch to create end user desire

25 million iPad users don’t care that it doesn’t have Flash or true multitasking, so why make that a focus in our campaigns? I’ll answer that for you: it’s because that’s all that differentiates our products and its lazy marketing. I’ve never seen someone buy product B because it has something product A doesn’t have. People buy product B because they want and lust after product B.

Also an important note regarding our marketing: a product’s technical superiority does not equal desire, and therefore sales… How many Linux laptops are getting sold? How did Betamax go? My mother wants an iPad and iPhone because it is simple and appeals to her. Powerful multitasking doesn’t.

BlackBerry Messenger has been our standout, yet we wasted our marketing on strange stories from a barber shop to a horse wrangler. I promise you, this did nothing to help us in the mind of the average consumer.

We need an inventive and engaging campaign that focuses on what we are about. People buy into a brand / product not just because of features, but because of what it stands for and what it delivers to them. People don’t buy “what you do,” people buy “why you do it.” Take 3 minutes to watch the this video starting from the 2min mark: 

6) No Accountability – Canadians are too nice

RIM has a lot of people who underperform but still stay in their roles. No one is accountable. Where is the guy responsible for the 9530 software? Still with us, still running some important software initiative. We will never achieve excellence with this culture. Just because someone may have been a loyal RIM employee for 7 years, it doesn’t mean they are the best Manager / Director / VP for that role. It’s time to change the culture to deliver or move on and get out. We have far too many people in critical roles that fit this description. I can hear the cheers of my fellow employees now.

7) The press and analysts are pissing you off. Don’t snap. Now is the time for humility with a dash of paranoia.

The public’s questions about dual-CEOs are warranted. The partnership is not broken, but on the ground level, it is not efficient. Maybe we need our Eric Schmidt reign period.

Yes, four years ago we beat Microsoft when everyone said Windows Mobile with Direct Push in Exchange would kill us. It didn’t… in fact we grew stronger.

However, overconfidence clouds good decision-making. We missed not boldly reacting to the threat of iPhone when we saw it in January over four years ago. We laughed and said they are trying to put a computer on a phone, that it won’t work. We should have made the QNX-like transition then. We are now 3-4 years too late. That is the painful truth… it was a major strategic oversight and we know who is responsible.

Jim, in referring to our current transition recently said: “No other technology company other than Apple has successfully transitioned their platform. It’s almost never done, and it’s way harder than you realize. This transition is where tech companies go to die.”

To avoid this death, perhaps it is time to seriously consider a new, fresh thinking, experienced CEO. There is no shame in no longer being a CEO. Mike, you could focus on innovation. Jim, you could focus on our carriers/customers… They are our lifeblood.

8) Democratise. Engage and interact with your employees — please!

Reach out to all employees asking them on how we can make RIM better. Encourage input from ground-level teams—without repercussions—to seek out honest feedback and really absorb it.

Lastly, we’re all reading the news and many are extremely nervous, especially when we see people get fired. We need an injection of confidence: share your strategy and ask us for support. The headhunters have already started circling and we are at risk of losing our best people.

Now would be a great time to internally re-brand and re-energize the workplace. For example, rename the company to just “BlackBerry” to signify our new focus on one QNX product line. We should also address issues surrounding making RIM an enjoyable workplace. Some of our offices feel like Soviet-era government workplaces.

The timing is perfect to seriously evaluate at our position and make these major changes. We can do it!

Sincerely,

A RIM Employee