RIM - The Demise of BlackBerry OS, and the rise of QNX/M$/Droid?

I recently stumbled across this CNet article: http://cnet.co/nRw65K, advising folks to think twice before opting for the latest and greatest BBOS7 RIM mobile handsets, and I got to thinking, why is RIM dumping BBOS as a platform? Three notable reasons came to mind immediately:

Image -courtesy-RIM



1. USER INTERFACE - RIM always sought, but never reached the intuitive user interface iOS managed, from round one. This is the cost of being an innovator in the digital mobility age, just look at how much time, effort, and cash Nokia dumped into Symbian before killing it altogether.

2. BES SECURITY - Designed for a robust & compelling mobile platform for Enterprise IT, this is one of those qualities most folks use as an answer to the "what is your biggest area of opportunity?", their largest strength and standalone compelling industry statement is their BES secret soup recipe. HOWEVER - worth noting, remember the trouble this caused them recently from governmental agencies in EMEA?

3. BLACKBERRY APP WORLD - RIM needed this to take off, like a ROCKET, whereas the marketplace sort of shrugged, and kicked a pebble down the street mumbling to themselves. SOLUTION = Developers! RIM can still turn this around, (especially with what we're going to discuss next re: PlayBook) take a bite out of Apple's developer mindshare! Offer a 85/15 split, then add additional total sales threshold bonuses, run an integrated social media campaign to boost awareness, and subsidize initial purchases through BlackBerry App World, "Deals of the Day" or other branding. It's not hard to engage a technologically-connected audience, especially if you already have their BBM - just sayin'.


Here's what a little research came up with as a brief (&incomplete) timeline of RIM events:

April 09, 2010 - http://bit.ly/bmsqWU RIM buys QNX
-RIM's acquisition of QNX allowed them to dig deeper into the neutrino platform, both acquiring a new services delivery channel, direct into enterprise IT, and a new base to build and roll out a brand-new user experience.

May 3, 2011 - http://cnet.co/jG0Cuk RIM & M$
-About a year after RIM's acquisition of QNX, at BlackBerry World conference, Steve Ballmer announced BING integration at the OS level. This despite the fact they are direct competition in the mobile marketplace, combined with the M$/Nokia partnership (CNet again here: http://cnet.co/dXrin6 ), makes me wonder if the Titans have decided to close ranks and strategize together on how to reclaim some marketshare out of an increasingly competitive landscape.


~Now, we discuss where I think RIM can make a serious "play" to get marketshare back. Courtesy ZDNet : http://zd.net/hZUocH PlayBook will provide Android support! This is an awesome idea, and opens up a host of opportunities for RIM. I would dearly love to get my hands on some of their latest gear to test personally, but alas, I've got other financial commitments on the go. (FYI, renovations SUCK.)

Image -courtesy-RIM



RIM can completely bounce back - but they need to differentiate their PlayBook from the slew of it's competition, and BB handset integration is not going to sell new customers, or entire old customers to return. RIM needs a killer app, Angry Birds is AWESOME, but they need an exclusive idea, hopefully tied into their hardware / OS ecosystem to ensure it remains an exclusive title for their platform. GAME ON.

So RIM, if you're out there in the 1's and 0's listening, I'm happy to offer my services as a tech consultant (or even a reviewer!), just be prepared to get a brutally honest opinion back, I am rooting for ya!

Motorola Atrix - A (less-than) Generic Review

After playing the patience game as long as I could, (READ: Apple iPhone became so laggy and non-responsive) I decided I had had enough of being in the walled garden, and made the decision not only to jump handsets again, but this time carriers as well.

Having spent over 10 years with Roger$, I became fed up with their billing pratices, and seemingly constant new fees, adn value-add marketing calls and junk mail, working with many folks there was a generaly good experience, caveat : only if I was fortunate enough to be branched into their local call center, being routed into Quebec, Ontario or points west in the Roger$ support / account management infrastructure was not only a complete waste of my time, but typically ended up with me explaining my reasonable requests to four or five individuals over the phone without resolution, that is if the initial agent did not painc and just hang up, which occurred to me fairly often when trying to have issues resolved by their organization. /end_rant

So after careful research and some inquiries to g33k colleagues and friends, I opted to give Roger$ the boot in favor of BellAliant. I could name all the things that as a long-time Roger$ customer I have been annoyed or inconvienced by with BellAliant, but the simple truth is: I wanted out from under Roger$' thumb and market gouging.

Quite the preamble! On with the review !!!

While perusing what technological goodies were available on the BellAliant menu, I discovered they had announced the Motorola Atrix! I was very excited, as I was sick of the iPhone 3G application issues, lag, and not interested in jailbreaking as it can leave the handest open to exploitation by malicious code. So I asked the dude working and he confiremd the Atrix did feature the spec sheet they were advertising, over 40 Gigabytes of storage(w/MicroSD), dual-core processing, and 1GB of onboard RAM, HDMI out, and a host of other awesomeness, including a fingerprint scanner for locking/unlocking the handset(I have been fascinated by, and a huge fan of biometrics for years since my first ThinkPad featured this nifty invention)!

I made some phone calls, and did the math for what penalties I would incur by leaving Rogers, and even after tallying up the bill, I still decided to make the leap, after all, I have always been a fan of Moto handsets, and was sick of both my iPhone and Rogers, so I cancelled service and signed up for the Motorola Atrix.

IN THE BOX :

Unboxing the Atrix finds a generous helping of goodies for a change from any previous Moto products I've owned in the past: the handset, 3.5mm wired headset w/inline mic, Mini USB to USB cable, USB charging plug, MiniHDMI to HDMI cable.

The Atrix itself is a sleek phone, running Android 2.2.2 since the recent BellAliant network-prompted update package. More to come on the Atrix functionality and applications in the next post in a few hours.

Last note on the intro here: I did buy an OtterBox with the phone. I was hoping iSkin made one, but the nicest I found locally was this one :

I will admit to having been impressed thus far. It's chunky, hard to get in and out of a pants pocket, and rather more stoic than I am used to. The design was obviously to offer maximum protection fpr the handset while trying to minimize the added bulk.

Verdict OtterBox : Does EXACTLY what you expect, is among the best cases I've owned. It's basic black, pro and con there, and it does add to the size of the handset, period.

#Apple #iPhone5 #Mobile #Android

So, I've had Apple iOS and Motorola Android user experience, in addition to Blackberry. (We'll leave Noklia, and symbian/other attempts alone for the moment.)

Device comparison stacks up simply in my opinion:

iPhone = Emminently intuitive. Walled Garden makes non-tech savvy feel comfortable.

Android = Emminently customizable. OS open architecture, catered to power users, tinkerers and hackers..

Blackberry = Corporate clientele. BES environment security, BBM simplicity, Market Innovator and clumsy hardware.

The tale of the tape here seems to be if you're a tech junkie, get a Droid, newbs ought to prefer iPhones, and I think BlackBerry is writing their last gasp, without a complete interface and handset innovation.

Personal $0.02, I hope Research In Motion figures it our in time, before they are forced into the same position Nokia is in, once a bastion of the indusrty, now stagnant, the first Xerox of the mobility wars.

YouTube atGenericHandle

So, Klout is branching out again, adding YouTube integration, somthing I've been working twoards anyway! Happy coincidence? I think not.

Working on content for the new channel here : http://www.youtube.com/user/atGenericHandle?feature=mhee , feel free to stop over nothing yet, but in the works.

Cross-Promotion!

My good Friend @msmasson, is responsible for forcing me to begin blogging, and you should take my advice and drop by his blog at : http://t.co/8iPSNTX !

Neat-o!

I'm pretty lucky. We're a small group that can post this kind of bandwidth in North America :

Mind you, this is delivered through the ISP's Ookla page. Directly @ Speedtest.net :

It's True, I <3 Fiber.