RIM has been on a death spiral for months now. In just a few short years, it has gone from trading at nearly $150 a share with a market cap of $78 billion in 2008, to now trading at $7.44 with a market cap of $3.8 billion. How can RIM turn its fortunes around? It’s actually not that hard and doesn’t require a long post to explain. The current strategy RIM has will destroy the company for the following reasons:

1. A law firm hired to try and salvage a company that’s main advantage is innovation and research is a death wish.

2. Letting the two founders leave the company was a massive mistake, as the entire essence of the company is now gone.

3. Creating a new BlackBerry OS is a waste of time because developers do not want another ecosystem, and applications will not be developed for BlackBerry OS 10 regardless of how great it may be.

4. Going on public record time and time again to say RIM is not in trouble and the sky is the limit while continuing on the path that has lead them to lose 95% of their market cap is going to take the stock even lower.

Taking Advantage of the Great

People absolutely love BlackBerry Instant Messenger. BBM is indispensable to people. Everyone loves it. Nobody wants to lose it. At the same time, people that have BlackBerry’s love their tactile keyboards. Not everyone loves typing on a screen. RIM needs to figure out a way to take advantage of these features. People love the security that BlackBerry provides.

Lose the Junk

BlackBerry owners are starting to hate the operating system and the fact that BlackBerry users don’t have a wide selection of quality applications that are updated on a regular basis. The lack of applications, games, music service, and lack of developers in the ecosystem make it an incredibly unattractive phone for most consumers. Even enterprise customers want to have some fun when they are waiting for a delayed flight. BlackBerry doesn’t currently let them have any fun. For developers, the outdated SDK and lack of quality application development tools makes developing for BlackBerry devices difficult and also an unattractive proposition.

Gain an Incredible Operating System and Platform

Windows Phone has been picking up incredible steam. It has won countless awards for its incredible user interface. Users fall in love with the device. Pairing RIM’s BlackBerry hardware with a keyboard, BlackBerry Messenger, and RIM’s security for the enterprise with Windows Phone OS is an incredible combination that would see enterprise customers fall in love with BlackBerry devices again. This approach would solve an incredible amount of issues quickly, while still maintaining RIM’s unique position as the company that makes “BlackBerry”.

The Ultimate Enterprise Phone

The Windows Phone BlackBerry would dominate the enterprise market literally overnight. I can’t tell you how many people I know that have switched to iPhone from BlackBerry still miss BBM and the great keyboards. By combining the best of Windows Phone, with the best of BlackBerry, RIM would see droves of customers come back to the BlackBerry, and fall in love yet again with one of the greatest companies that Canada has produced. It’s not too late RIM, but you need to take action fast. Scrap the BlackBerry OS 10, partner with Microsoft to bring the BlackBerry Windows Phone to market, or everyone will be looking for a job in less than a year, including CEO Thorsten Hein.