Every week there's news of some new device RIM is coming out with that's going to be a supposed game changer. Well I have some news for the stockholders and executives at RIM. The device is NOT the problem. The OS is. It has nothing to do with how fancy your new device is anymore. I don't care if you get a Giga-Pixel camera, and a fold-able 32" OLED display squeezed into a phone that has a keyboard attached to it. If you can't motivate developers to develop new applications for your platform then you're dead on arrival. Learning a new development toolkit is a real commitment for us developers. We have to do tons of reading and debugging before we can get that very first app to even open a window. And when we finally create an app, we'd like to be ensured that there's a real mechanism for distribution and an actual audience for it. In short, RIM needs to adopt Android as it's operating system and it needs to do so immediately.
The next Black-Droid or Driod-Berry must run the Android operating system and it must also have a dozen native apps for the avid BB-addict. Features like an alert light, and BBM need to be app driven and ready at first boot. The form factor of the device can still resemble whatever it is that BB-lovers love so much about this relic of a company, but the innards need to support the Android operating system.
I hear analysts on CNBC talk ad nauseam about the many patents RIM still holds and how the company still has some inherent value. Really?? That's like saying Sony is worth something because they hold the patent to the VCR. Patents are only worth something if they're still relevant. In the new mobile world, RIM patents hold very little value other than those that have direct enterprise application.
So what's the plan RIM execs? Doird or Bust!
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