Losing The Signal: The Untold Story Behind The Extraordinary Rise And Spectacular Fall Of BlackBerry, McNish & Silcoff - B+

                In October, 2011, the two top executives of Research In Motion (RIM) were in Canada and Dubai when they spoke on their Blackberry's. Under attack from Apple and Samsung, rising competitors in the mobile phone space, RIM was reeling and a 3 day outage caused by a server collapse in England would prove to be the beginning of the end.  

               Jim Balsillie was raised in Quebec. Brilliant and ambitious, he set his sights on the University of Toronto and Harvard Business School. After graduating from both, he turned down Wall Street, and returned home to run a small manufacturing business. Mike Lazaridis, from Windsor was a superb scientist who dropped out of the University of Waterloo to start a computer software company with a friend, and in 1984 incorporated Research In Motion. In the early 1990's when Balsillie's firm was acquired, he took his severance money, invested in, and became a partner of Lazaridis' at RIM. Their goal was to create a wireless data transmission device. In the 1990's, they wrote software, manufactured modems, and tried to keep the business going. With a new chip that Intel made for them, RIM was able to build an interactive two way pager in 1997.  The Bullfrog worked in a demonstration for Bell South, but never did again. The Leapfrog followed, and Bell South placed a $50M order. They were able to go public later that year.

                      

               Lazaridis continued working on a modern, simple mobile device that could handle emails. He desired the utility of a laptop in one's hand. The device would be called a BlackBerry. The Blackberry's ability to check office emails at a time when two way paging was trendy was revolutionary. And it began to catch fire, not with gear heads, but with big time businessmen, bankers, and lawyers. Soon, everyone wanted one. Bill Gates and Jack Welch were early champions. It changed the world of email as instantaneous responses were now expected. 'Fortune' named it a "cult brand." A Nasdaq listing raised more capital, and soon the co-CEO's were billionaires. They passed Palm, Nokia, Ericsson, and Motorola to take the lead in personal digital assistants. On September 11th, the fact that they were the only network functioning added to their cachet. Washington was so impressed that each member of Congress was issued a BlackBerry.

             Soon thereafter, they added voice and offered a full-fledged smartphone. In 2003, Oprah endorsed the phone and BlackBerry moved into the consumer market. Within a few years, they were at the top of the telephone pyramid, sitting on top of the world.

             In January 2007, Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone to the world. Apple partnered with Cingular Wireless, recently acquired by ATT, to offer full data and internet access that no carrier had ever allowed before. Plus, the 'Jesus phone' was sleek and stunning compared to all that preceded it. RIM had just spent five years of management distraction fighting a patent infringement case in the US that cost in excess of a $600M settlement. Right after the iPhone introduction, the two co-CEO's were faced with both American and Canadian investigations into the backdating of options. Lazaridis, the pure technician and computer expert, felt blindsided by the mess that he believed was in Balsillie's domain. Then, when he took apart the iPhone, he was flabbergasted. Apple was offering the internet on a phone; they were offering email. RIM responded by assuring their carrier partners, Verizon and Vodafone, that they would deliver a touch phone in nine months. The iPhone was growing by leaps and bounds, and beginning to take away their share. Lazaridis delivered the BlackBerry Storm, but it was not ready for prime time. A NYT tech reviewer said "it had more bugs than a summer picnic."

           In early 2009, the Ontario Securities Commission penalized RIM and its two co-CEO's.  Balsillie was subjected to a more severe penalty, and for the first time, the two men began to drift apart. Verizon told Balsillie that almost all of the millions of Storms sold were defective, had to be repaired and demanded $500M from RIM. The company was in a major crisis, notwithstanding that it was still the fastest growing company in the world.  Lazaridis went back to the lab. He concluded that RIM had to move away from Java, and find a new operating system. He told Balsillie that "very few companies have ever survived a platform change." However, when Verizon told him they were implementing a new 4G system, RIM did not have an answer or a product. They began working on a tablet that they called PlayBook, but Apple trumped them with the iPad. RIM was losing badly in the US, but still amazingly successful in the emerging world where 4G was a distant pipe dream. The company continued to increase revenue and profits, but with an aging product line. 

           When 2011 Q1 earnings showed a material decline in revenue leading to a dramatic drop in the company's stock price,  the company began layoffs and the shareholders called for the removal of the co-CEO's. The 3 day server collapse in October of 2011 caused all BlackBerrys worldwide to go dark, and shocked the tech world. In January 2012, the two man team that had built Research In Motion announced their joint retirement.

            "If the rise and fall of BlackBerry teaches us anything it that the race for innovation has no finish line, and that winners and losers can change places in an instant." This is truly fascinating story that is very well told. Thanks to my friend David Gutowski for  another excellent recommendation.

Skies Of Thunder: The Deadly World War II Mission Over The Roof Of The World, Alexander - B+

                   Approximately 1700 airmen of the US Army Air Corps died in 600 crashes attempting to supply China by flying over the Hump.  This is their story.

                   Fearing a Japanese blockade, China began to build a road south from Yunnan province to Burma. "Threading a torturous course across mountains, jungle, and plunging gorges, an ancient mule track ran between Yunnan and Upper Burma." The Japanese closed the Burma Road in the spring of 1942. FDR committed to an "aerial" road to "keep China in the war." The so called Ferry Command was established with bases in western India and southern China. The Himalayas were in between the two. The route taken was to fly east to Burma before turning north. They did not attempt to fly over the highest mountains but, at 20,000 feet, just below them. Nonetheless, impossible weather that the planes were ill equipped to handle dominated the challenges the pilots faced. The cold dry air from the north met warm monsoon winds from the south and led to violent drafts that could toss planes up and down 4,000 feet per minute. The deadly crashes began, as did airmen parachuting into the jungle. As the war progressed, the Americans and the British coordinated their search and rescue efforts along the route between India and Burma. Late 1943 saw the beginning of Japanese fighter planes attacking the operation, leading to the initiation of night flights for the first time in the CBI theater. That same season, the Army medical staff concluded that the pilots suffered from 'Humpitis' because the weather was the scariest imaginable and it broke many men. Nineteen forty-four saw some real dismay on the part of the Allies who concluded that supplying the Nationalists was unproductive, but at FDR's insistence a ground effort was made to open the road was as a continuation of the flights over the Hump. A Japanese offensive in China put an end to any American hope that the mainland could be used as a base to bomb Japan. 

                  Whether the effort put into the airlift was worthwhile has been debated ever since. Some believe that the Chinese tied down the enemy and kept some quality soldiers away from the Pacific.  Others suggest it prepped our airlift skills. Many think it was a fools errand. This excellent book has been quite enlightening. Unlike Tuchman's history of Stillwell in China, this author is very critical of 'Vinegar Joe.'  She takes his acerbic style and distaste for allies to task. On the other hand, she also eviscerates the gross incompetence, if not corrupt cowardice, of Chiang. The author mentions Chiang's conversion to Christianity, something I suspect I knew but had forgotten, as part of the obsessional devotion of Henry Luce and the old China lobby. As so many of them, including Luce, were the children of missionaries, it goes some way in explaining their irrational enthusiasm. Lastly, she points out that Sara Delano, FDR's influential mother, grew up in China as part of the reason for his belief in helping the Nationalists

Camino Ghosts, Grisham - B+

                 This is the third in a series loosely structured around a bookseller, Bruce Cable, in the fictional north Florida town of Camino Island. Bruce tells a young writer, Mercer, who is summering there, to read a book by a local, Lovely Jackson, telling the story of her ancestors, Africans who occupied and owned the island off the coast called Dark Isle. She had left there in the mid-fifties as a teenager, the last of the descendants of escaped slaves to live on the island. Now a developer wishes to build a massive project on Dark Isle.  Mercer begins to write the story of the slaves, and a local lawyer begins a pro bono legal action to declare Lovely the owner of the island. The efforts to help Lovely entices  some of the 'characters' around town and some financial aid is forthcoming. An archaeological dig is pursued by a national organization interested in slaves' cemeteries. A friend from the NYT is invited to the trial, at which no one can crack Lovely's story.  A Times article rallies Blacks and historians from around the country to her cause. The trial judge rules that Lovely owns the island. The story explodes nationally, and led to Mercer's book becoming a #1 bestseller, the creation of the Nella Foundation, named for Lovely's ancestor who washed ashore after a  shipwreck, and the establishment of the island as a revered and protected place. There are none of the usual twisting, intriguing, and legal surprises in this book, but rather it looks like John Grisham is trying to tug at some heartstrings. As usual, exceptional.

The Welath Of Shadows, Moore - B+

                  Ansel Luxford is a lawyer in St. Paul in 1939 when he seeks an opportunity to go to D.C. to prepare for the coming war. He obtains a position in the Treasury Dept. working in a secret unit focused on hurting the German economy. Nazi Germany is an autarky with few trading partners. He and his boss, Harry White,  approach the Brazilians at an international conference to offer them a premium in dollars over the gold Germany is paying for iron and cotton. They refuse. A Brazilian tells them they were betrayed by an American, and they learn the FBI believes that there is a Soviet agent in their department.  They conclude that the person opposing them, who planted the Soviet agent rumor is Breckenridge Long of State, a noted fascist sympathizer. They concoct plan to out Long by bringing to the attention of the White House a memo about the experimental gassing of Jews in Poland that Long buried in the archives.  Treasury Secretary Morgenthau is able to isolate Long, and give the Research Dept. the green light to proceed. Soon, all the nations of Latin America make trade deals with the US, and some agree to freeze any German money within their borders. Realizing that the Cash and Carry program that FDR had created could not work for more than a few months, Ansel and his staff create Lend-Lease. They cheer when the US enters the war.

                Three years later, the US principals are together with their friendly adversary, John Maynard Keynes, in Bretton Woods, N. H. trying to sort out the postwar order. The goal is to finance the reconstruction of the war torn countries, re-establish trade relationships, and intertwine the world's economies to the point that war just won't be an option.  Thus, the World Bank and IMF a re created.

               This is historical fiction at its best. Keynes, White, Long and Morgenthau are all noted characters in the history of the era. Long was a racist sympathizer, and White, the first chair of the IMF, was later determined to be a Soviet agent. Even Ansel Luxford is real. The author points out that "this is fiction though one that's been sketched upon a canvas of reality."

Tell me Who You Are, Luna - B

                   Dr. Caroline Strange has it all: a Park Slope browns- tone, two boys, a great husband and a prosperous psychiatry practice. When a client tells her he will kidnap and starve a local reporter, she engages in a bit of cat and mouse with the police. She believes she can find the missing woman faster. As the story evolves, we learn that Caroline may not be who she appears to be. Three decades earlier, she survived a murderous night at her next door neighbor's house. Her hospitalized mother accuses her, and not the dad, of killing the Strong family. She may have manipulated her neighbor, but she's no killer. She tracks down the kidnapper and is saved by the NYPD in the nick of time.