Research in Motion outage this week could be just another nail in their coffin, and the timing couldn’t be worse. Indeed with the release of a newer iPhone – the iPhone 4S, RIM is going to face more competition. Many companies are now allowing their workers to use their own phone and I sense that many other companies will start doing the same. Why not? It is after all a saving for these companies if they don’t have to pay for communication devices. Productivity should also increase if you are using technology that you can master.

With this newer iPhone, Apple is getting one step closer to what RIM is offering. Indeed Apple now offer a mail service that is similar to what the maker of the Blackberry is offering. Preordering of the newer iPhone is doing very well. Apple announced that on the first day they received over a million orders for the new iPhone. This even after this newer iPhone has bee largely criticized. The fact that Steve Jobs died the day after the release of the new phone didn’t affect at all sales. I would even say that it might have helped. The death of Steve just brought more attention to Apple – the company maker of all these marvelous gadgets. It showed to the world that Apple is a company that will continue to thrive even if Jobs is gone.

Apple has now over 75 billion $ in its coffers. RIM on the other hand is loosing money. They have great technology but can’t seem to manage. Apple on the other hand has no problem managing but will need to continue improving to compete with Android. Maybe it would be time for a marriage of RIM and Apple. RIM would probably loose a lot in this union but at least they would survive. Not so long ago we’ve seen such union of reason between Nokia and Microsoft. If Apple and Research in Motion would unite their forces, they would be in better position to affront Android.

One thing for sure there is not enough room for all these players into this market.