It was a classic disruption innovation case. Anyone who knows what that means, they would've known that RIM and Nokia will be in trouble ever since the first iP

It was a classic disruption innovation case. Anyone who knows what that means, they would've known that RIM and Nokia will be in trouble ever since the first iPhone came out. But specifically, RIM is in trouble because either they didn't see the industry change towards touchscreen devices fast enough, or they didn't care until recently. Why wouldn't they care? Because until recently their financials were reaching records after records, and they thought that's the only metric for the company's future success. "Hey, why would we ever change when we're making so much money with out old ways?". The problem is disruptive innovations and market shifts like these are very misleading for incumbents. The disruptive products don't start hurting the incumbent's financials until it's already too late to change. That's why they have to start changing fast as soon as they notice the change catching on in their industry, even if they are making a lot of money from the old way.