WSJ.com - With Its BlackBerry a Big Hit, RIM Is Squeezed by All Comers

WSJ.com - With Its BlackBerry a Big Hit, RIM Is Squeezed by All Comers: "RIM commands a $12.4 billion market valuation. It has made tycoons of Co-Chief Executive Officers Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, who found success after years of sometimes quixotic effort.
Awakened by RIM's achievement, tech giants and hungry upstarts are responding with an arsenal of gear aimed at cracking the BlackBerry's stronghold. Consumer-electronics companies such as Nokia Corp., Motorola Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. are rolling out competing e-mail devices. Meanwhile, rivals are providing network software designed to intercept or block the revenue RIM generates from handling wireless e-mail traffic.
RIM now faces a classic technology-industry problem: Young companies that launch popular products aren't always the long-term winners. Netscape Corp.'s Web browser was superseded by a late alternative from Microsoft Corp. Google Inc.'s Internet-search service eclipsed early offerings by Yahoo Inc., and now Google itself faces intensifying counterattacks."

Includes company/product history lessons