[infamyx]

RIM is killing themselves here, and as someone whose first smartphone was a BB (and many after) i have a soft spot in my heart for RIM but enough is enough. RIM is running themselves into the ground like HP did. The similarities are there and as much as i dont want it to be true it is. Even if RIM can get a BB10 device out they are facing an uphill battle, just like Palm did before it's coffers ran out.

RIM isn't Google Apple or Microsoft who can simply keep tossing money at it (MS especially) and force it to stick. If people dont buy the headsets RIM is f*cked, and with the waning support of the current BlackBerry community its simply not going to be enough. Not enough users will jump ship and "wait" for features and apps to come. Dont believe me, see how well Microsoft is doing and they truly have a nice unique OS.

RIM needs to make a clean break and get to the market while they can, and they need Android to do it. Software has never been RIM's strong point and it never will, they are nothing more than a hardware and networking company and this can be a massive strength.

All RIM needs to do is:

1. Build a Bold model and a full touch model with powerful compelling hardware. People buy based on specs, even iSheep (they love to tout them when their the best). This is why the Galaxy line tends to dominate the Android lineup.

2. Fork the latest Android and mold/skin/whatever it to their liking, so that while running Android underpinning it will be familiar to faithful BB users

3. Create a UDID for each device so that when bringing BBM over it remains special to RIM

4. Lock it down, if the govt and Motorola can do it so can RIM.

5. Be faster than everyone else on Android updates and get them out ASAP. This is a selling feature! People will buy devices they know will have great support and why the Nexus devices are the devices that reign supreme in the Android Kingdom. With the Android PDK now the OS is in the hands of manufacturers months before it becomes AOSP, so fast updates are a major plus that every manufacturer struggles with currently.

That's it, developers will do all the work already just like they have in the past for Android. Really there is zero reason for RIM to keep trudging down the path of surefire failure. RIM can easily follow the path Samsung and HTC have and skin the device and make custom apps to make it their "own".

[Superfly_FR]

All RIM needs to do is

Generally, when I read this, I stop reading. No exception here.

[_StephenBB81]

RIM's hardware business is losing money

best solution! focus on their hardware business Brilliant

defiantly switch to android, and lose half of what BlackBerry is.
Instead of going down swinging if they go down, they should get out of the ring and put on the patch work dress of android....

[rthonpm]

Wow, just what we all want: to sell our souls to Google just to activate our phones. Maybe I'm just a luddite, but I don't use gMail or any other g- or i- product. YouTube? Don't even need it...

[[email protected]]

Wow, just what we all want: to sell our souls to Google just to activate our phones. Maybe I'm just a luddite, but I don't use gMail or any other g- or i- product. YouTube? Don't even need it...

Facebook?

...

[Tre Lawrence]

RIM doesn't need to. They could, but I doubt they will. I think turning its back on BB10 would be particularly foolish.

But... creating a specially skinned, locked down Android powered device could buy the company some time, in theory.

RIM has to worry about its brand in the long term. It has already dabbled in Android anyway.

[SnoozerBold]

If RIM were to decide today to drop BBOS10 and go with Android I don't think we'd see a device hit the market until at least the third quarter of 2015. Possibly early 2016.


/This was a joke. It's been a rough day for us rim fans.

[berklon]

If anyone wants to buy an Android phone, they can buy one offered by many different companies. Samsung offers some really nice Android phones. They'd be much better than anything RIM would release with Android.

This strategy of switching to an existing OS may have worked a couple years ago. It's too late now. RIM is stuck with the outdated BB7 now, and the never-to-be-released BB10. RIM not only made horrible decisions the last 4 or 5 years, they took way too long to pull the trigger.

They made their grave, they're going to have to lie in it now.

[sam_b77]

Why don't people understand the problem with Open Source? Once the FOS kernel is laid out each company puts its own proprietary OS on top by modifying the kernel. So eventually the OS gets pulled in different directions and the software/OS becomes so fragmented that supporting it becomes a nightmare and developers start hating it.
Google bought Motorola precisely for this reason, so they could control one version of Android and keep it alive on one company. Otherwise with the different versions of Android evolving faster than bacteria, there would be nothing seamless left about the different versions.
Only proprietary software can be controlled and supported seamlessly. IOS has that and RIM has that and MS. RIM is changing its tech and bringing out a new future ready OS. That is always a painful thing to do. IOS will have to go through this pain in a few years while Open source will die its fragmented death as all open source does, unless of course google can keep Motorola running with a "controllled" open source.

[rdkempt]

Develop enterprise and management software - drop the PlayBook and BB10 and continue selling crappy phones to developing countries.

[ugahairydawgs]

Just what the market needs....another Android OEM.

[adrenaline_x]

Hmm... android on a BB phone is not what consumers want.. They want the best all around phone.. FOr alot of people Android devices meet that need, Some want a high spec phone (like me) so they (i) will (now) get a s3. Some want a cheap phone and android fits that need if you look at lower end android phones.

bb10 offers a stellar communication experience for quickly and easily sending txt, bbm, emails, twitter etc messages. Running android on a bb will kill their remaining strength. If you only now have a choice between a bb with android and a nexus or s3 with android, i bet most wouldn't touch the bb.

Android isn't the savior some all like to think it is.. Its working wonders for Samsung and htc to a lesser degree, but i don't see the rest of the manufacturers being nearly as successful.. I don't think Rim would benefit from android like most thing it would.

[Buzz_Dengue]

Wow, just what we all want: to sell our souls to Google just to activate our phones. Maybe I'm just a luddite, but I don't use gMail or any other g- or i- product. YouTube? Don't even need it...

... a good 'ole Luddite reference is always enjoyable....

[Majestic Lion]

Android...not even once.

[ynomrah]

Why don't people understand the problem with Open Source? Once the FOS kernel is laid out each company puts its own proprietary OS on top by modifying the kernel. So eventually the OS gets pulled in different directions and the software/OS becomes so fragmented that supporting it becomes a nightmare and developers start hating it.
Google bought Motorola precisely for this reason, so they could control one version of Android and keep it alive on one company. Otherwise with the different versions of Android evolving faster than bacteria, there would be nothing seamless left about the different versions.
Only proprietary software can be controlled and supported seamlessly. IOS has that and RIM has that and MS. RIM is changing its tech and bringing out a new future ready OS. That is always a painful thing to do. IOS will have to go through this pain in a few years while Open source will die its fragmented death as all open source does, unless of course google can keep Motorola running with a "controllled" open source.

Open source dying? Right. And RIM somehow will also make it out this year... Not.

The battle isn't about open source or closed, it's about the ecosystem. Get with the program.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Tapatalk 2

[Pete6]

I hope not. Of all the OSs on the market Android would be my last choice.

[sleepngbear]

Why don't people understand the problem with Open Source? Once the FOS kernel is laid out each company puts its own proprietary OS on top by modifying the kernel. So eventually the OS gets pulled in different directions and the software/OS becomes so fragmented that supporting it becomes a nightmare and developers start hating it.
Google bought Motorola precisely for this reason, so they could control one version of Android and keep it alive on one company. Otherwise with the different versions of Android evolving faster than bacteria, there would be nothing seamless left about the different versions.
Only proprietary software can be controlled and supported seamlessly. IOS has that and RIM has that and MS. RIM is changing its tech and bringing out a new future ready OS. That is always a painful thing to do. IOS will have to go through this pain in a few years while Open source will die its fragmented death as all open source does, unless of course google can keep Motorola running with a "controllled" open source.

Now wait just a minute here. One of the multitudes of CB's armchair experts just yesterday chastised the daylights out of me for suggesting there's fragmentation in Android, that it is a figment of my imagination. Could it be that maybe, just maybe, I wasn't wrong?

Nahhh ...

[Tre Lawrence]

Open source dying? Right. And RIM somehow will also make it out this year... Not.

The battle isn't about open source or closed, it's about the ecosystem. Get with the program.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Tapatalk 2

Yeah, I am of the opinion that it was the ecosystem (or lack thereof) that has hurt RIM the most.

[infamyx]

Why don't people understand the problem with Open Source? Once the FOS kernel is laid out each company puts its own proprietary OS on top by modifying the kernel. So eventually the OS gets pulled in different directions and the software/OS becomes so fragmented that supporting it becomes a nightmare and developers start hating it.
Google bought Motorola precisely for this reason, so they could control one version of Android and keep it alive on one company. Otherwise with the different versions of Android evolving faster than bacteria, there would be nothing seamless left about the different versions.
Only proprietary software can be controlled and supported seamlessly. IOS has that and RIM has that and MS. RIM is changing its tech and bringing out a new future ready OS. That is always a painful thing to do. IOS will have to go through this pain in a few years while Open source will die its fragmented death as all open source does, unless of course google can keep Motorola running with a "controllled" open source.

The underlying Linux kernel stays exactly the same, and Motorola is still insignificant to Google right now. Until Moto starts dumping pure AOSP devices and is habitually a cut above the rest Motorola is nothing more than it is now, just a hardware maker.

I have yet to see Linux die and god knows how many different distros of that there are. That is the beauty of open source, it is customizable to fit almost every need if you tailor it to do so. RIM can do this with Android now, think about the way the Kindle Fire is and it would be something akin to it. Yes it would have Android framework underneath, but thats about it if they wanted it to be, and never even touch Google services.

Everything RIM has shown with QNX is simply an app in the Play market other than their camera software, but surely you know that OEMs like Samsung and HTC also have their own dedicated camera software on Android right? Id like to know where anything RIM has shown has not or cannot be done on Android? Absolutely nothing they have shown says "this is why BB10 is worth the 3 year wait since they bought QNX back in 2010, no other platform can do this".

I want RIM to be successful but slowly bleeding out and continual push backs while the competition is not sleeping in the least. Microsoft has finally pulled everything together for Windows 8 ecosystem to launch THIS YEAR, Apple is moving along briskly and will launch iOS6 and the new iPhone 5 THIS YEAR and Samsung and the new wave of quad core/A15 dual core phones along with Jelly Bean are already or is going to be out THIS YEAR.

RIM has no legs to stand on, even if they get the phone to market. They have little support from the development community so far (why would they support it, RIM cant keep a time frame for release), and by far the worst of all is no ecosystem.

I'd rather see RIM become another OEM and start rolling in the dough like Samsung (remember those guys and their continual record break profits that even Apple hates so much that they wanna sue into oblivion?), than make a product that no one in the end cares about, even if it is good, and they end up getting swallowed up and spit out like Palm.

[ynomrah]

Now wait just a minute here. One of the multitudes of CB's armchair experts just yesterday chastised the daylights out of me for suggesting there's fragmentation in Android, that it is a figment of my imagination. Could it be that maybe, just maybe, I wasn't wrong?

Nahhh ...

Nope you were wrong, and so is he. Just can't spend forever telling everyone the same things especially for people who more than likely got their information from the comment section of some blog.

I do like how Sam thinks its so hard for developers to develop for android and the platform has 600k apps. The two android apps I've developed work on all devices at least running eclair (which is 5 versions ago), and took no time to implement that function. This also goes for pretty much 95% of apps I would say. Again, can that be said about bbos? Where's this fragmentation again?

Its all about perception and if you are perceiving things from a 3rd person view, its hard to say if you have the best opinion.

As far as the topic is concerned, I don't think RIM giving out free chocolate cake will save them, let alone android.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Tapatalk 2

[xandermac]

Sure, because getting android running in sync with their infrastructure, hardware and apps is definitely an overnight proposition.... :RollsFreakinEyes:

BB10 is the platform they've committed to & they're too far into development to turn back. Not to mention the damage to the 3rd party developer community that's already pretty peed off.

And what better way to ruin investor sentiment than yet another "plan".

[Tre Lawrence]

Yeah... stick with the plan. The Android thing is intriguing in theory, but I don't know if it is worth pursuing at this junction.

I do laugh when folks here point out the problems with Android fragmentation. LOL.

[infamyx]

Sure, because getting android running in sync with their infrastructure, hardware and apps is definitely an overnight proposition.... :RollsFreakinEyes:

BB10 is the platform they've committed to & they're too far into development to turn back. Not to mention the damage to the 3rd party developer community that's already pretty peed off.

And what better way to ruin investor sentiment than yet another "plan".

Of course its not an overnight thing but RIM essentially has the hardware already finalized most likely and its all in getting the software right and then tuned for the hardware. Initially the first delay from early 2012 to late 2012 was chip related but i think this is and has always been a software issue, since struggling to even get the Playbook to work well.

These things they happen in creating software from the ground up, but when your is on the line and in the public eye every mistake is scrutinized.

The time RIM spends dilly-dallying with QNX just trying to get it to work they could already have had a device on the market leveraging their services with a great foundation to work from in Android and at least rebuilding their lost marketshare. Then RIM could have merged that device from Android underpinnings to a QNX backbone device that was 100% ready to go. In essence they go from one framework to another and the user never knows the difference. RIM is supporting Android apps anyways so for the general user they arent going to miss a beat.

I honestly dont know of any developers willing to pour assets into what is turning out to be a stillborn product. Most are holding off or simply have zero plans to support RIM outside of bringing their Android app over.

I think most investors know the writing is on the wall unfortunately and will most likely only hold onto their stock (those that havent dumped them already) for an eventual buyout after RIM burns all their assets out. It wouldn't surprise me to see someone snatch them up for their patents *cough* Google & Microsoft *cough*.

As it stands now, BlackBerry users have nothing but to hold out or jump ship. The question remains is how long can RIM hold out.

[ajst222]

Generally, when I read this, I stop reading. No exception here.

Hit the nail right on the head lol but hey:you gotta do this, this, and that, and this is the key to success...I mean if only it were that simple.

[rogeryen]

The underlying Linux kernel stays exactly the same, and Motorola is still insignificant to Google right now. Until Moto starts dumping pure AOSP devices and is habitually a cut above the rest Motorola is nothing more than it is now, just a hardware maker.

I have yet to see Linux die and god knows how many different distros of that there are. That is the beauty of open source, it is customizable to fit almost every need if you tailor it to do so. RIM can do this with Android now, think about the way the Kindle Fire is and it would be something akin to it. Yes it would have Android framework underneath, but thats about it if they wanted it to be, and never even touch Google services.

Everything RIM has shown with QNX is simply an app in the Play market other than their camera software, but surely you know that OEMs like Samsung and HTC also have their own dedicated camera software on Android right? Id like to know where anything RIM has shown has not or cannot be done on Android? Absolutely nothing they have shown says "this is why BB10 is worth the 3 year wait since they bought QNX back in 2010, no other platform can do this".

I want RIM to be successful but slowly bleeding out and continual push backs while the competition is not sleeping in the least. Microsoft has finally pulled everything together for Windows 8 ecosystem to launch THIS YEAR, Apple is moving along briskly and will launch iOS6 and the new iPhone 5 THIS YEAR and Samsung and the new wave of quad core/A15 dual core phones along with Jelly Bean are already or is going to be out THIS YEAR.

RIM has no legs to stand on, even if they get the phone to market. They have little support from the development community so far (why would they support it, RIM cant keep a time frame for release), and by far the worst of all is no ecosystem.

I'd rather see RIM become another OEM and start rolling in the dough like Samsung (remember those guys and their continual record break profits that even Apple hates so much that they wanna sue into oblivion?), than make a product that no one in the end cares about, even if it is good, and they end up getting swallowed up and spit out like Palm.

What makes you think that Android OEM = rolling in dough? Don't you see the trend that all Android OEMs are not doing well EXCEPT for Samsung? Even HTC is in trouble trying to fight market share against Samsung. Don't mention Amazon because their strategy is simply to provide a cheap gateway for their "content".