RIM's BlackBerry 10 Service Plans Should Be No Secret to Investors

NEWS ANALYSIS: RIM announcement of upcoming changes in services fees was a surprise to investors and thus caused the stock to drop, even as company revenues and cash continue to grow.

So I’ll try to spell this out for all the stunned investors. What RIM is doing is positioning itself for a multi-platform future. Heins is a smart guy and he knows that nobody is going to standardize on a single mobile platform in this day and age.

For the enterprise to exist in a world of Bring Your Own Device and consumer grade wireless devices, it needs enterprise-class management and security. RIM is in a position to provide that, and it has started selling its Mobile Fusion device management suite that gives enterprises much the same capabilities that BlackBerry Enterprise Server gave to BlackBerry devices.

The role this broader management platform plays has been made clear by RIM for months. It’s part of the tiered pricing that Heins was pointing to in his remarks. It’s also something that no other company really offers. In the long run, RIM stands to increase its revenue because of this.

I suspect that much of the problem that RIM is experiencing with this drop in its stock price has more to do with timing than anything else. Basically, everyone is distracted by the holidays, Congress and maybe even the Mayan Apocalypse. This means that RIM’s stock will bounce back in a few days as the lemming-like behavior of investors and analysts swings back in the other direction.

Meanwhile, it would help if RIM was a little more forthcoming as to its tiered pricing and it would help even more if it was more forthcoming about BlackBerry 10. Skittish investors have a right to be worried when RIM is betting so heavily on this one line of devices. If BlackBerry 10 doesn’t sell like hotcakes and if the new services don’t take off quickly, RIM could have a serious problem.

Clearly Heins knows exactly what RIMs problems are and he’s trying to avoid them. He’s delaying the release of BlackBerry 10 until the device is perfect and until RIM has stocked its app store with enough apps to be worth considering.  Heins doesn’t want to make the same mistakes that his predecessors made with the PlayBook, but he also has to avoid being too cautious.

We don’t know yet just how well RIM will do, but the odds look good with that huge cash supply and rising revenues. My biggest regret is that I’m not allowed to buy stock in RIM.