Research In Motion Should Just Shut Up!

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- If you are waiting for beleaguered tech giant Research in Motion (RIMM) to rise from its coma, show some signs of life and compete with Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG), don't hold your breath. False hopes could mean you end up laying next to it in a hospital bed.

Although I would prefer not to describe RIM as "sick," saying that it is merely "under the weather" would be a gross understatement. In fact, I have become convinced that RIM will never get well. After all, it has not yet taken the first step in any recovery process, which is admitting there is a problem and coming to terms with it. Like its investors, the company remains in denial.

With the release of its horrid earnings results, I got the sense that RIM has become the company that can neither speak nor walk straight. It has demonstrated a remarkable ability to say the wrong things at the wrong times -- a habit it seems committed to prolonging. On Tuesday, the company's chief executive, Thorsten Heins, said "there is nothing wrong with the company as it exists now." Somehow, it has magically lost 95% of its value over the past three years, despite being in excellent health. It seems Wall Street has been wrong - at least according to the company.

Heins, while acknowledging that RIM is facing some very big challenges, seemed confident RIM can emerge successfully from its recent difficulties. He added: "I'm not talking about the company as I, kind of, took it over six months ago. I'm talking about the company [in the] state it's in right now." While I appreciate his positive attitude and don't think anyone really expected him to say otherwise, he has two full quarters under his belt and nothing appears to have changed.

In its most recent quarter -- in which RIM missed on both the top and bottom lines -- the company saw its revenue decline by 33% sequentially and 43% year over year. The fact of the matter is Apple and Google devices have been eating RIM's lunch.

The demand for its products is just no longer there. While it did ship almost 8 million BlackBerry units, that is down 40% from the 13.2 million it shipped last year. And the same goes for its PlayBook tablets, which will now be under attack from Microsoft's (MSFT) new Surface tablet as well as Google's Nexus 7, scheduled for shipment this month.

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