It isn't vanishing it was destroyed by incompetence and the lack of a high tech industrial strategy and putting virtual idiots in the portfolio as federal & provincial industry ministers, not because of their tech or industrial savey but because they are party hacks. It is that incompetence plus crooked executives at some companies that has destroyed the tech sector in Canada (eg. Nortel & now RIM just to name a few). Now the brains and foot soilders who built these companies are now helping to build other potential tech leaders around the world but not in Canada.

All this while the Canadian public just sat back and watched without a wimper or protest while their tax dollars over the decades that supported the inovations and patents have been sold off and only returned a fraction of a percentage of what it could have.

RIM failed to keep up with the market, particularly the under 30's, who like bells and whistles.

My kids' first cellphones were Blackberry Storms. They didn't last 3 years. One fell apart. The keyboard (like the Iphone keyboard) on the other tended to skip letters. I had to replace both of them, and the kids went to I-phones. Better apps, easier to use, and so far neither has fallen apart. The third child, younger, chose an I-phone right off the bat, and there have been no problems with it.

I think RIM was great for people who wanted keyboards, or needed strong encryption for business purposes. They were never in Apple's league in sleekness/looks, and that's important now. They were engineers who developed a great product, but didn't have a management that really trended with the market or had flair. That's their problem, and no amount of federal money thrown at them will help.

There are great tax incentives right now, through SRED, for high tech industries. I think our market is too small for most companies. What we need to look at is how to do business globally while keeping head offices and workforces in Canada.

If the Canadian government can invest the tax payers money to help Chrysler and General Motors out, why why not give RIM a helping hand. Other countries, like Korea have protectionist policies that help their high-tech sector out. Four years iPhone was banned from sale in South Korea, a moved which help Samsung greatly at home. The feds for what ever reason will not help the high tech sector out in Canada. Whether it's an established company that needs to short-term help or a start up that needs capital to get established, the feds just refused to help. No wonder we are losing high-tech set sector jobs, this is another form of brain drain in this country. Could our proximity to the United States have anything to do with this?

Hands up those that believe that RIM wasn't sabotaged.
The Propaganda was thick and fast it's been relentless all year.