Microsoft could pick Blackberry
BLACKBERRY MAKER Research In Motion (RIM) is in danger of being plucked by Microsoft as the firm’s market value continues to slide due to the financial crisis and pressure on margins.
With shares trading at a paltry $60 – down $88 from $148 in just four months – RIM is looking ripe for the picking.
Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek reckons Microsoft has already made a move, with a "standing offer" to buy RIM out for $50 a share if the shares fall much below that. It’s thought that RIM might not fight too hard against the takeover, if the Vole approached it in a friendly, non aggressive way.
A potential deal between the two firms could completely change the name of the game on the smartphone playing field, dealing a massive blow to Google and its megalomaniacal dreams of taking over the phone market as well as the rest of the world.
RIM-Soft would combine about 20 million Crackberry users with another 18 million Windows Mobile users, effectively making the Vole a big player in the business smartphone industry.
But it might not all be as easy as berry pie for the Redmond Giant. Most Blackberry users are already so dependent on the phone’s system that changing it to Windows Mobile could prove mighty unpopular.
If the Vole does go ahead with the move, it might have to consider having a dual OS or adapting the Windows Mobile code enough to support all Blackberry features.
Berry, Berry tricky. µ
L'Inq
Reuters
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Most commentators haven't thought about the antitrust issues that a merger of RIM and Microsoft would bring. The HH index measures the level of concentration in an industry and is based on the sum of the squares of the market shares of the 5 largest market competitors. If the sum is below 1100 the merger is accept able. If below 2000 then safe guards are needed. Above 2000 no deal. Since RIM's market share is already 900+ the chances of this type of acquisition are nearly 0. The buyer would have to be someone with no presence in the Smart phone business.
"If the Vole does go ahead with the move, it might have to consider having a dual OS or adapting the Windows Mobile code enough to support all Blackberry features."

Yes, because it's not as if BlackBerry Connect exists already, supporting WM devices, is it?
If MS buys RIM, and the Blackberry business, hello iPhone for me.
Most of my coworkers have had windows mobile and switched to blackberry. I'm considering doing the same, especially now that the new berries support rtsp and rtp video. though in a funny twist, windows media player mobile can play mp4 files and windows media player desktop can't... If ms can get over itself trying to force themselves onto everybody and just support popular standards (even ones that aren't theirs) I think everybody would like them a whole lot more. 


I think a dual-booting phone is a terrible idea so they'd better work on a windows mobile desktop that looks and feels almost identical to rim's and can run rim apps. which will probably take so long to do that by the time it's available nobody will care anymore.
People are buying Blackberry precisely because Windows Mobile sucks. It never was much like Windows anyway, and the Apps are just plain fakes of their desktop counterparts. Note to Microsoft: Business users don't care about Media Player or that lame Internet Explorer Version 3 (Pocket Internet Explorer) you managed to squeeze on the device. And you can't even read Compiled HTML (CHM) files that Microsoft Press distributes with every book. At least Adobe Reader works, but is constrained to 320x240 by the "OS". Windows Mobile/Pocket PC/Windows CE/what-do-you-name-it-today is a complete failure for business! Scrap it now!
I'm the unproud owner of an 8925. I would rather have a blackberry because windows mobile is slow and frustrating. It keeps with the windows tradition to bog the cpu down and make things a hassle.

If they did, I wouldn't even look at a blackberry since it would inherit all the stupidity of windows mobile.
MS can see the mobile device as the key thing here. If they play it smart they can capitalise on the Blackberry and grow that brand. Use the RIM and their own OS's to drive competition in house, and share the best ideas to end up with an improved OS and device for both sets of customers.

Or else just do what MS always does, swallow your competition and they kill it's product within 3 years. I bet they kill the product within 3 years.
IMHO ppl buying BB wants just limited email oriented service.. BB focused on that and got popularity because they did, right, focused step by step improvements. 
WM took wide scale approach from the beginning and it shows .. has some cons and pros...
cons like Push Email service implemented too late..
Some ppl think WM is slow after some usage as M$ did mark X not to close application but just to minimise it so ppl think their WM is running slow just because they don't know what they are running in the background... 

personally I love WM when done right... Look at HTC Diamond PRO or HTC HD or HTC Quartz(T8290) 
WM and HTC are giving new meaning to "Personal Computer" 800x460 resolution with wimax wifi 3g edge grps gps gsensor with fast responsive screen (which they learnt thanx to great iPhone)

WM or BB? for me simple choice:
WM got 3 desktop grade web browsers.. which means if bank site doesn't work on one I can switch/try another one or due to number of existing application s I always find solution+biggest choice if native IM clients... MSN SKYPE....

MS can afford to buy RIM but if they do it, RIM as you know it will be destroyed along with the BlackBerry as you know it.