RIM's apps revolution swings on Blackberry 10

late 2012

Didn't RIM already say Blackberry 10 for phones would be coming late 2012?

http://features.techworld.com/mobile-wireless/3336591/five-big-blackberry-announcements-look-forward/

"Though BlackBerry 7.1 certainly isn't BlackBerry 10, RIM's upcoming OS that's built on a new and completely different software foundation, it's definitely worth the update, and it ought to help tide over anxious CrackBerry users until BlackBerry 10 becomes available in late 2012 or early 2013."

Which to me means probably late Q1 2013. I recall last year many people were commenting how the new mobile OS would be out in Q1 2012.

Sad to see RIM crash and burn so much, their current decline combined with a disruptive upgrade I think will only cause further erosion in their market share in the next few years. Really doesn't seem that long ago that RIM's stock was a market darling reaching to new heights every few days/week.

http://business.financialpost.com/2012/02/07/halliburton-abandons-blackberry-picks-up-iphone/

"Halliburton Co. became the latest major enterprise customer to abandon RIM on Tuesday in favour of Apple’s iPhone, the Canadian company’s largest rival. The Houston, Texas-based firm — among the largest energy services providers in the world – plans to replace about 4,500 company-issued BlackBerrys with iPhones within two years."

not that I am a fan of apple, quite the opposite in fact. My smart phone platform of choice is WebOS so I know how RIM feels.

QT

We've got QT apps. QT support on IOS and Android is very weak. Blackberry now becomes our target.

Java

Write once, run anywhere . . . no wait, rewrite from the ground up for new platform.

Rebuild on strengths

If I were RIM I'd be looking at ways to rebuild the corporate and government reliance on their products by building on the existing reputation for security and reliability (outages notwithstanding).

Arguably the attempts to move into the consumer (read: teenaged girls) market is what did them in. They should be selling themselves as a rock solid, secure end-to-end communications tool. That kind of reputation allows for premium pricing and long term buy in by the corporate and government customers that built the company.

Sure, good browsing, a music player, and Angry Birds should also be there, but RIM has to define their own market instead of chasing Apple and Google.

Convergence

I will defer to the others in respect to the technical attributes ... or lack thereof, of the Playbook.

I am however intrigued by the ability to use the smartphones qwerty keyboard to supplement, or substitute the tablets touchpad. Regrettably, that still leaves the user to purchase and carry two devices.

Assuming that the technical attributes are all up to snuff; I think the next great incentive for those who want more than a phone, will be a tablet that incorporates all the phones functions, offers a slide out qwerty, and leaves the user to carry the tablet in .... dare I say ... a "man bag". A wireless earpiece completes the ensemble.

The mass market, while susceptible to Apple hype, will ultimately follow convenience and affordability.

Self-destruct sequence

Every manufacturer has to keep at least one API going when transitioning from one platform to the next. Maybe they can kill it off in a few years, but until then they have to bring the developers with them. Apple are very good at this. Some would argue Microsoft are too good as Windows is still soldering on under the weight of backward compatibility.

RIM obviously aren't any good at all. When faced with a load of Java code and a completely new platform which doesn't use Java, one is sorely tempted to jump ship to Android.