RIM CEO: Buggy smartphone software is the "new reality"

While our experience says otherwise, we really hope that the practice of launching buggy smartphones hasn't been institutionalized. The Wall Street Journal just published a report about the "bumpy launch" of the BlackBerry Storm -- a handset that WSJ sources say sold some 500,000 units in the first month following its global release. Not bad, but well off the 2.4 million launch pace seen by the iPhone 3G -- the phone the Storm had hoped to unseat as sales champ. The WSJ speculates that the relatively timid response stems from buggy or otherwise "clunky software" that crippled the user experience and performance at launch only to be (partially) corrected later via software updates. An abysmal scenario which echos the buggy 2.0 software that accompanied the iPhone 3G at launch.

Now, instead of pleading for mercy at the feet of disgruntled consumers, RIM co-CEO, Jim Balsillie, calls the post-launch scramble part of the "new reality" of making complex cellphones in large volumes. A Verizon spokesman noted that return percentages are measurable in single digits (standard for a smartphone) adding, "The sales and performance of the device have lived up to our expectations." Fine, but when expectations are high that the consumer experience will be poor, somehow that doesn't sound like a victory to us.

[UnixSystemsEngineer @ Jan 26th 2009 2:04AM]

This is one of those cases where the co-CEO is probably right, but shouldn't have admitted it.

[Poke4Christ @ Jan 26th 2009 8:02AM]

I was wondering how this wasn't a "CE-Uh Oh"

[TexRob @ Jan 26th 2009 9:10AM]

So very true.

Interesting to see that the cell phone makers have now gone the way of the video game industry. Game makers and console makers have said the same thing, and been regretting admitting it, for many years.

[Ping @ Jan 26th 2009 10:06AM]

Oh please, with the increasing complexity of hardware these days, the only component of the cell phone that can be reliably reproduced with consistent quality, over large volumes, is the software.

[pizzaz @ Jan 26th 2009 6:43PM]

I don't get why "large volumes" are the reason for buggy software. If they were only to release 1000 of them would the software be better?

[silk @ Jan 27th 2009 6:57AM]

Its sad that it has come to this kind of statement. He probably shouldn't have said it? Yeah bad PR is the worst thing. Heck maybe that is even true, that its better to treat your customers with contempt and lie about it than suffer bad PR. If so, that is a terrible thing, no?

The fact is, we pay for devices that should work as advertised. The iPhone 3G couldn't even make complete calls when it came out. That week that I had one was a nightmare. OEMs changing the paradigm from "devices that work as advertised" to "devices that work as advertised at some point" is a big change. It demonstrates how powerless informed consumers are these days. Sure you can vote with your wallet, you can also pee in a monsoon. Both seem to have the same impact today, as there are countless numbers of the unwashed masses that don't. Sony rootkited us. Endgadget was mad, everyone was mad. Yet Sony's album/electronic sales are no different that the rest of the industry.

Heck, maybe I am just whining and I should just join the unwashed masses and be an unthinking cash machine for corporate profits. Its easier to swim downstream than upstream, right?

[JOSE @ Jan 26th 2009 2:11AM]

its nothing new for the ceo to say that both iphones the g1 and i can put money on it that the palm pre will end up the same way needing software updates at some point...

[KarlW @ Jan 26th 2009 2:52AM]

Of course they will need updates, but stability issues are certainly not something to expect.

I remember the iPhone v1 software was pretty much flawless - I got mine at launch and updated to each new version had it until I moved to a 3G and v2.0, and I never experienced a crash despite heavy use. They totally ruined it with v2.0, which not only crashes fairly often (especially Safari), but causes app developers to advise people reset their phones before using their software (to me, that's the ultimate slap in the face to Apple customers).

The point is that software, from anybody (The iPhone is just used as an example - RIM, Microsoft and Google have similar issues), can be done right. It just isn't being done right now. These companies need to step up to the plate and make sure they don't put highly complex operating systems on devices that people rely on unless they can ensure it will be stable.

[Andrew @ Jan 26th 2009 3:07AM]

I too had the original iPhone from launch and agree that the original os was flawless. It also didnt have to support thousands of 3rd party apps.

It wasnt until Apple release 2.0 and allowed apps that it became buggy. I think it just shows how complicated it is to not only create a mobile OS but one that can support 3rd party apps. Phones will only become more complicated in the future as they add features and move closer to full featured computers. Its only fair to think that there will be some buggy software along the way from BlackBerry, Apple, Android and MS.

Palm probably knows this and is why they are taking the easy way out with crippled apps at launch.

[nerdtalker @ Jan 26th 2009 3:52AM]

More likely than not, you're right. However, bugfixes and security updates are a value-added feature, if they add new functionality and enhance the experience (here's the catcher) in addition to what the out-of-box experience is.

The problem with the BB Storm and G1 is that features are being added which were supposed to be out-of-box (or at least should have been). Keyboards in portrait mode for the Storm, multitouch for the G1. C'mon guys, this was supposed to be what you shipped with; not stuff you throw in down the road! Same with the iPhone: Mobile Me and the whole cloud - push notification system *still* isn't in place, working, and functioning as promised during that original keynote.

Another thing is that Verizon and RIM kept the BB Storm's entire interface under wraps the entire development cycle; what little people got was leaked information and a few screenshots. Same for the G1; up until the last few months, the GUI really wasn't finished (and arguably it still isn't). The iPhone and Pre have at least had full, live demos of the interface, proving before their launches that the software and functionality are something which at least exist in a few working demos. That's the difference.

[Bob @ Jan 26th 2009 8:42AM]

But if you are paying top $ should you not get a top quality phone? ( especially for all those early adopters braving long lines, long hours)

If companies plan on giving out buggy phone, they should put that on the boxes ( of the 1st editions) that software might be buggy? Should mention that in bold letters instead of being the above.

My respect for RIM as a company just dropped a few notches down.

[CJ @ Jan 26th 2009 8:47AM]

And to be perfectly fair, iPhone 1.0 falls very firmly into the 'Featurephone' category, even die-hard iPhone fanboys can admit that.

[JerJer @ Jan 26th 2009 2:13AM]

haha

"wait wait! don't say it directly like that! say we've got like...people working on it...and that we can't proof against everything...and that...awww he said it directly didnt he."

[adam @ Jan 26th 2009 2:15AM]

best image ever. i will miss you forever dawson's creek.
and my trapper keeper futura 2000 of course

[Hashbrown Hunter @ Jan 26th 2009 4:46AM]

hmm...what happens if you click on the sadness?

[CJ @ Jan 26th 2009 8:49AM]

Well... Sadness, presumably.

[jupiterthunder @ Jan 26th 2009 11:16AM]

@Hashbrown Hunter

2. ....
3. Push again.
4. ....
5. Profit?

[D! @ Jan 26th 2009 2:17AM]

and they can't get it right the first time after months of testing because?

[shamon @ Jan 26th 2009 2:27AM]

my friend is having these problems with his storm

[Like_A_Glove @ Jan 26th 2009 2:29AM]

If every smartphone had to be bug free before launch, I say smartphones should be banned altogether.

[suicycle.com @ Jan 26th 2009 2:30AM]

That's nice. Just absolve your company from any responsibility for manufacturing and testing quality products and services.

[mrpysnik @ Jan 26th 2009 2:34AM]

Speaking of which, my 9530 and I are sitting here, waiting for the next update. When's that hitting, Red?

[avirji @ Jan 26th 2009 2:36AM]

I wonder how Obama will feel? Having buggy software on a mobile device at a government level is never a good thing...

[Gad Get @ Jan 26th 2009 4:48AM]

Somehow I doubt he'll be using the consumer-oriented Storm. He seems to like a traditional BlackBerry.

[Simon Sage @ Jan 26th 2009 8:53AM]

Yeah, Obama's got an 8830.

[Randomness @ Jan 26th 2009 2:43AM]

I don't think the market for a Blackberry and that of the iPhone are really comparable. You're looking at something all consumers generally would want, vs mostly something business people are interested in. Look at the market each is going for, and look at the marketing campaigns. Apple's was huge and backed by the media. Just another blackberry isn't that exciting for people. And businesses are cutting back drastically on all expenses (except for the CEOs, etc) so they aren't buying in numbers.

[A.R. @ Jan 26th 2009 3:04AM]

Love the crying Dawson in the lower right. That's always my funniest scene from Dawson's creek. Not making fun of the storyline but it was just bad overacting by Vanderbeek.

[TRAFFICBLOWS @ Jan 26th 2009 8:02AM]

I had no friggen idea who that person was... if it's from Dawson's Creek then I'm glad I didn't know!

[CaliHusky @ Jan 26th 2009 3:05AM]

Oh, that's nice of them.

I would have thought returns will be in single digit numbers, because everyone's advising people to keep hold of the device as any faults will 'be fixed in a later software update'.

As far as I remember, most end users who ended up with a blackberry storm (from my point, working on a mobile support desk anyway) never even installed the software on their PC, let alone even used a blackberry before.

The process itself is simple enough, but the end users don't seem to get how to do it, until someone explains it to them.
Our Vodafone storms have certainly had more returns for updates than any other handset I can remember.

[Eric (other) @ Jan 26th 2009 3:34AM]

Jim Balsillie, calls the post-launch scramble part of the "new reality" of making complex cellphones in large volumes.

Translation: We here at RIM hope to make 'perfection' a thing of the past; it's just too hard. And personally, my mushy cranium can't fathom such levels of integrity where in excellence is measured by the quality of our product and not by the gloss on our glam product photos and dreamy spec sheets.

How do we expect to compete in this world of Apples, Nokias and Samsungs? Well we're very hip and modern, just like Apple; in fact we're so contemporary that our morals remain unbruised even after we've sold you a 'new' phone that's only 70% finished.

[Eh? @ Jan 26th 2009 3:41AM]

Because people always forget that you can test and test and test
something until you are blue in the face in a lab and STILL have bugs
crop up in mass-usage. People love to forget that LAB != REAL LIFE.

People will ALWAYS find little gotchas and problems because those who
write software for ever-more-complex devices can NEVER think of all of
them. Never underestimate people's ingenuity to find ways to use
something that wasn't thought of in labs.

Even the first gen iPhone (those little devices that people like to
call the Jesus Phone because it obviously cures cancer or something)
had issues at launch they had to issue updates for. But hey, it's
Apple, they mostly get a free ride because people will never give
them more than a cursory "oh well, next time" whenever they make a
mistep, while everyone else must be perfect-plus-some-more or they
get blasted to kingdom come.

People are demanding everything to be an "iPhone" killer but not be
an iPhone. Anytime anyone comes close the mantra that immediately
occurs from people is "they copied Apple!"



EVERYTHING will have issues at first, I'm sorry, that's just the way
it is. To demand things be perfect out of the gate is delusional,
people get their own expectations up regardless of whether the
companies help out in that or not. People are just like that. I'm
glad an executive has the guts to actually be honest, it's a
refreshing change from "it's not there because people don't need it,"
or the standard line of, "it's working as intended."

[TMM @ Jan 26th 2009 5:19AM]

iPhone 2.0 software and the Storm are not comparable.
Their might have been / be little flaws in the iPhone software.

But the Storm was in a state of clusterfuck. Period.
The software is like in the pre production devices I was testing back when I worked at Vodafone.

And knowing the normal process at Vodafone back then I can't help to mention that back then we wouldn't have released a mobile phone in such a sad state.

Seems like Vodafone decided to fuck it and just get "an iPhone competitor" out there, finaly.

And again: comparing the iPhone 2.0 flaws to the Storm is just wrong.
Be hones and don't bullshit.

[Mikeo @ Jan 26th 2009 8:47AM]

I stopped reading at "little flaws".

[z0phi3l @ Jan 26th 2009 10:27AM]

Funny thing, my Storm runs fairly well with the latest Official software, and I've advised a few people to test it out before considering one because other than a few little flaws it works great for me.

[The WC @ Jan 26th 2009 6:12AM]

Wow. And people thought Steve Jobs was bad at kowtowing to the customer.

I'm beginning to think that the position of CEO requires a level of denial/arrogance unheard of in regular people. This way, they can push customers to buy third products via sheer force of will.

[The WC @ Jan 26th 2009 6:15AM]

"Their," not "third."

Goddamn iPhone spellcheck and 3AM typing.

[chrisgo53 @ Jan 26th 2009 6:52AM]

As a Storm owner, I find this whole thing disconcerting. While my phone is usable, I have been waiting expectantly for an official update to improve the performance and iron out more bugs in the phone. Verizon Storm users are left with the unfortunate choice of sticking with the current, unsatisfying firmware (.75) or upgrading at their own risk to one of the many leaked updates. RIM and Verizon need to show a serious commitment to their customers or they may find that many of those 500,000 Storm owners switch to AT&T the first chance they get.

[Doug Meek @ Jan 26th 2009 7:16AM]

At least my storm can send/receive MMS messages. LOL

I find it completely ridiculous to imagine a company continuing to stay in business after telling the customer that they know their product is flawed and they are 'working' on it. Has anyone else here used .90? I can't even save pictures anymore, but the video camera works flawlessly now. I guess you win some you lose some.

I don't want to hear you iPhone users bitch about how good your phones are because of the following that I can do and you can't (even in a flawed OS):

1. Camera zoom
2. Take videos
3. MMS

Until Jobs drops that functionality into your phone, I don't wanna here it.

[Doug Meek @ Jan 26th 2009 7:44AM]

I forgot Copy/Paste

[The WC @ Jan 26th 2009 12:03PM]

Slight grammar lesson here:

"Bitch" is used as a verb stronger than "complain," not as a replacement for "brag."

I.E, People are "bitching" about Basillie's cavalier attitude toward buggy software, while iPhone users are "bragging" about how well iPhone OS 1.0 worked.

[Doug Meek @ Jan 26th 2009 1:41PM]

I'm not quite sure why you chose to bring a grammar lesson to a blog about RIM's apparent credibility suicide, but since you did, allow me to retort with a grammar lesson of my own. Shall we call this bitch 101:

Bitch over the last couple of years has come to have several different meanings. Three of which I am going to present to you today.

Bitch meaning #1: Whore - for example:
A pimp says, "Bitch, where's my money?"

Bitch meaning #2: Complaining - I give you credit for this one as you did have this right. Example:
I will continue to bitch about RIM's lack of quality OS's for their Storm.

Bitch meaning #3: Nagging - This is the one I intended in my original post. Example:
My girlfriend keeps bitching at me to quit watching football and clean the living room.

So you see, when I chose my words, I chose them wisely, as such to create the intent of:
iPhone users keep nagging at me about how shitty my phone is compared to theirs.

Quite literally you could take my actual sentence and substitute bitch for nag:
I don't want to hear you iPhone users nag about how good your phones are because of the following that I can do and you can't (even in a flawed OS).

Also, I just want to add, I was just over half way through a 12 hour shift and unfortunately was doing everything in my power to stay awake. Hence the reason I used the wrong tense of 'hear' in the last sentence.

That concludes bitch 101.

Have a nice day.

[nxp3 @ Jan 26th 2009 7:43AM]

People don't switch OS when there's a new one. So why should it be diffeent with a phone OS. Vote with your wallet, don't buy it. Whether it's games, OS, phones...companies always think they can fix it later with a patch. You the consumer have to wait and suffer. Look at the xbox360, released with known hardware issue. The only problem with it is you can't update firmware to fix hardware issue.

[Greg M @ Jan 26th 2009 8:00AM]

The Storm is a half baked smartphone with buggy software. I sure hope they fix this soon. This is the first poorly designed and executed RIM product in my opinion. I am a huge Blackberry fan, but this is not helping matters. The unit is clunky, unresponsive, and flat out slow!!!

[Doug @ Jan 26th 2009 8:07AM]

For what it's worth, when I was working for Nokia we were told to assume that only 30% of bugs found would be fixed - ever. Despite repeated requests for corrections, we would see the same errors in phone after phone, year after year.

Terveisin,
- an ex-Nokia

[TRAFFICBLOWS @ Jan 26th 2009 8:00AM]

This is one of the reasons I haven't upgraded from my 3+ yr old phone...

[Cybergypsy @ Jan 26th 2009 8:10AM]

iPhone ftw! LOL

[Ericok @ Jan 26th 2009 8:16AM]

Of course returns are in the "single digits". VERIZON refuses to acknowledge what a piece of crap this is and won't accept any returns.

[Canis_Minor @ Jan 26th 2009 8:25AM]

Engadget,

I think it's time for one of your "open letters", like you sent to Palm, just this time to RIM.

[fastharry @ Jan 26th 2009 8:33AM]

As an radio control racer( search fastharry on youtube)...and an xbox 360 gamer( gamertag=fastharry) I have 2 comments.

One, I remember listening to pops losi, who used to make the Losi RC cars. People would always ask why RC cars would sometimes break front arms, strip gears, etc.....And you know what he said?....You can test till you are blue in the face...but if you keep testing, and never bring the product to market, you will eventually go broke, and you will never see how it operates in real world conditions. team Losi always did a great job in getting updated parts out, for free no less......The second issue regarding bugs and bringing stuff to market is support. As ANY 360 gamer knows, All the games ( software) released today have glitches and bugs...the difference in the games is how these bugs and glitches are patched later on by the company through download-able updates. Company support AFTER the product is made determines the life of the game or product in today's software driven world. Which is why Everyone still plays Halo 3 a year alter( thanks Bungie).....and NO ONE is playing rainbow6 vegas2 and Far Cry 2( BAD job as ever from Ubisoft ).....



That's why the Storm will be a success......RIM is known for support, and the storm will be outselling the samsung omnia, HTC touch pro, and all the other non BB smart phones...

[Jason @ Jan 26th 2009 8:36AM]

Anyone who owns the Storm knows its more than just the OS being buggy. I got tired of waiting for their official update release and returned the phone. Thanks RIM for sticking up to your falsely advertised product.


/rant.