[jrohland]

If you stick with this post you will see what it has to do with RIM and BlackBerry.

The observations to follow started as a nagging thought; Why did Google create Android? When looking at it from a business perspective, I found it hard to justify. Then it came to me. Google is obsessed with voyeurism. The life blood of the organization is data. They collect and analyze data. The most interesting data is what individuals are doing at any given moment. Their interests, fantasies, location, connections, etc... Google does not want to control what you do, they want to watch.

This is where Android enters the picture. Google understands your phone knows more about you then anyone or anything. It collects and stores your most intimate thoughts, images that matter to you, your location, your appointments and your connections. What better way to collect those details then to put a phone on your person.

The thought above triggered another thought; Such a personal product as a smart phone reflects the personality of the company that makes it. This is easy to see:

Apple: Founded and run--until recently--by a megalomaniac control freak. If you don't see that reflected in the iPhone, I guess you are blinded by your faith in the cult.

Google/Android: Already discussed above--a benign collector of details.

RIM/BlackBerry: Obsession bordering on paranoia over privacy--which requires security. So, what will the BlackBerry become under Hier Heins? Innovative? Productive? Nerdy?

[Superfly_FR]

So, what will the BlackBerry become under Hier Heins? Innovative? Productive? Nerdy?

Exclusive and efficient, but sexy : This is how I'll promote it.
It's probably more an European view, but I'll compare it to Audi cars (much more than to Porsche).

[ubizmo]

The thought above triggered another thought; Such a personal product as a smart phone reflects the personality of the company that makes it. This is easy to see:

Apple: Founded and run--until recently--by a megalomaniac control freak. If you don't see that reflected in the iPhone, I guess you are blinded by your faith in the cult.

Google/Android: Already discussed above--a benign collector of details.

RIM/BlackBerry: Obsession bordering on paranoia over privacy--which requires security. So, what will the BlackBerry become under Hier Heins? Innovative? Productive? Nerdy?

This is an interesting thought, but I think the "personality" of the device and that of the company can be very different. For example, although Apple may indeed be just what you say it is, Apple products for years had a vaguely "countercultural" image. The television ad campaign in the US that featured the hip Apple guy (can't remember the actor's name) in jeans and untucked shirt and the somewhat stuffy PC guy in an unhip beige suit helped to promote this. People had, and may still have, the idea that by buying an Apple computer they were "sticking it to the man"--that would be Microsoft.

All this imagery is absurd, of course, and in the mobile universe today Apple is as much a corporate juggernaut as Microsoft still is in desktop, but the images don't fade quickly.

Google also entered public consciousness as a very "cool" company, a workplace that did things differently, giving it a somewhat countercultural feel too. Google promotes this with its clever variations on its search page, reminding us that they are paying attention to what's going on in the world.

RIM and BB, however, have never had that. If anything, BB's legacy image is that of the corporate bigwig, a Rolex-wearing fatcat in an expensive tailored suit. I think that image hurts them now, and is a reason why RIM is the company people love to hate. It would be very helpful to RIM to change this, and I think they're trying hard to do so.