In the end Canada is a NATO country

RIM'll say no, but being Canadians, probably politely and I'd not be surprized if some visits and calls from the US consulate in Toronto have gone to Waterloo, Ontario. The one thing RIM sells that's their distinguishing feature is security. Their credibility is based upon this.

A Canadian metaphor

This is an example of skating to where the ice hockey puck is, rather than where the puck is going to be.

It's a me-too product that'll probably be a version of the BB OS with push mail, but will it be as nicely scaled up as Apple chose to take the time to do. It drives some technical people around the bend, but it's often the case that it's not what you're offering but how you're offering it.

I've forgotten the number of times I've tried to get devs to remove useless mouse clicks and pointless interface hoops to jump through only to be told 'Our users are smart.' That's not the point, it's that you want to make things efficient for the user.

Will the competition have the ability and discipline to think differently about the UI? That's the beauty if the iPad -- it doesn't work like a desktop OS. You receive stuff on it and make minor updates. Making it a full blown OS for free-form data input is exactly what has failed repeatedly for the last decade.

Best of luck to them!