Abandon ship: BlackBerry loses YouMail

It is no secret that Research In Motion is in trouble — the company is struggling to find a device that will actually sell and competitors have gained the upper hand in the corporate market where it once dominated. While neither of those are even remotely good news, you know things are bad when one of your top app developers calls it quits.
That is exactly what YouMail did over the weekend. The company produces an app of the same name that brings iPhone-like visual voicemail to the BlackBerry. In a post announcing the latest update to the app, its CEO Alex Quilici wrote that it will also be YouMail’s last “at least for now.” Need that in three words? Nobody’s downloading anymore.
Blackberry usage has steadily declined while downloads for YouMail’s Android and iPhone apps soar. “It’s sad, but on many days we’re now getting fewer BB users than Windows Phone 7 users, and we don’t even have a Windows Phone 7 app,” Quilici noted. (Third party Windows Phone developers tap into YouMail’s API to offer apps on that platform.)
YouMail was the seventh most popular application in the productivity category of BlackBerry App World as of Tuesday afternoon. The popularity of YouMail and its developer’s decision to abandon the platform signals broader trouble for RIM. BlackBerry’s problem is more than just its paltry 6% share of wireless device sales as reported by NPD; RIM lacks a hot selling phone, and may even soon find itself behind Windows Phone.
We can question the impact of Nokia’s Lumia devices to the mobile industry at large, but it’s obvious that Nokia is getting much more buzz in the press and among consumers than any BlackBerry device. The fact that BlackBerry developers are pointing this out (indirectly, however) is pretty embarrassing for RIM.
What can RIM do? That is pretty clear: the company needs to make a decision soon on whether staying in the hardware business is worthwhile. Other manufacturers have shown an interest in developing devices for the BlackBerry platform — such as Samsung — and getting out would save the company quite a bit of money.
This change will be painful one, and a lot of good folks at RIM would find themselves out of work as the company transitions to focusing on software. But really, what else can they do? Why risk the entire company on a business that is a drag on your bottom line, rather than focus on something with much less overhead?
With developers beginning to run for the exits, RIM’s big decision may come sooner rather than later.