[kojita]

Appesque � BlackBerry is not PALM!

Thought I'd share...

[howarmat]

For those dont want to click

Recent press about BlackBerry 10 and how it’s doomed like PALM’s WebOS irritates me. Dont’get me wrong. As a BlackBerry app developer for 10 years I’ve lived through many ups and downs with BlackBerry. I’ve always disliked the BlackBerry Java APIs, and how RIM treated partners poorly over the years so I’m by no means a ‘fanboy’. Today we develop apps for all major smartphone and tablet platforms, and BlackBerry is absolutely not one of my favorite platforms.

However, from what I hear this week out of BlackBerry World in Florida and the changes made internally around developer support I’m encouraged to take another look at QNX/BlackBerry 10. Am I going to push customers to develop for BB 10? No. It’s too early to tell if RIM can deliver. I’ll share more with you over the course of the summer. Meanwhile back to my rant..

When PALM Inc tried to reignite it’s customer base with WebOS devices it had one and a half devices in the market place ripe for upgrading. The Treo and Centro. PALM were slow to get carriers worldwide to sell their phones, mostly because carriers could choose between an iPhone or a selection of BlackBerry devices at the time. Carriers like to differentiate, especially in Europe where they like to have exclusivity. This further restricted PALM’s efforts to grow distribution channels quickly.

PALM had a small but passionate audience, eager to see a new device that would compete with the iPhone. The PALM Pre did not deliver on the hardware front and a few short months after it’s release it was over for PALM. I guess it’s easy to paint both PALM and RIM with the same brush but I don’t buy it. BlackBerry has a strong following (70m worldwide) with a vast array of devices (cheap and cheerful to premium on every wireless network worldwide). Their market is made up of enterprises and a solid youth following due to BBM (with 55m users) and a few celebs in between. RIM is global. They have distribution globally. They know how to ship a new device into all corners of the world. RIM have cash in the bank, they are profitable and have an army of account managers to educate their carrier partners on new products. All RIM need to do is align everyone in the company and deliver on the vision. Something they have failed to do for a number of years. Thorsten Heins (CEO) has made moves in the right direction, exciting the crowd at BlackBerry World with demos of the new virtual keyboard, camera and user interface flow. He also made an appearance in Amsterdam at the BlackBerry Developer conference in February. Whilst I was disappointed by his very first comments as CEO: “Nothing will change, we are on the right path” it sent the wrong signal to a public who perceived RIM has disorganized and mismanaged. Perhaps a few months into the role he realizes the outside perception, certainly things are aligning from what I see. It’s my view that Mr. Heins is only now able to flex his muscle, after reorganizing the senior management team.

I’m confident in RIM’s ability to make quality hardware. Today, the main issue most people have with BlackBerry smartphones is the slow, cumbersome legacy operating system. Beyond that, as a developer, the poorly written Java SDK didn’t help outsiders innovate on the platform. Testing was often non-existent at the API level. Why would this change? Because of QNX & TAT. RIM need to bring the radio stacks over to QNX, which I believe is pretty much wrapped up. PlayBook OS was a testbed, albeit an expensive one! PlayBook OS, soon to be BlackBerry 10 is a very solid realtime operating system that has reliability and responsiveness designed into it. Also, the user interface elements built out by TAT (Cascades SDK) look astonishing (pun intended, Tribe) along with the native SDK which has slowly matured over the course of the last year on PlayBook. This is why they can do cool demos like the flow from one screen to the next. Or an amazing predictive keyboard which responds so quickly.

I feel over time, with the right focus on developers that RIM can get a core base of developers to learn this new platform. Will the next Instagram be born on BlackBerry 10? Unlikely. But I do see reasons why new apps would start on BlackBerry 10, e.g. those seeking BBM integration. Developers won’t flock to BB 10 until it proves itself in the market place. I guess the $10,000 guarantee by RIM for developers is an incentive for students and individuals tinkering with mobile development. For larger more professional outfits and brands, it will be wait and see for 2012.

Apps are amazing, I’m sold on the vision and productivity of apps since late 2002 when I cofounded a mobile technology company in Ireland. I’d seen the very first BlackBerry’s selling in the UK (5820 with monochrome screen) and was excited to take it further. I’ve not looked back. Will RIM be part of the mobile development platforms of the future with BB 10? it’s too early to say, but this is how I rate RIM’s challenges in late 2012:

A) Deliver top-notch BlackBerry 10 hardware: very likely
B) Top-notch BB 10 OS: likely
C) Seamless enterprise integration (BES/MDS): not so sure, porting encryption and IT policies is tr�s difficult.
D) Attract top developers: Aside from select games developers, unlikely in 2012. E.g. our customers in the fashion industry won’t target BlackBerry 10 until it has widespread adoption in key demographics for them.
E) Die like PALM? Not if RIM get A thru D right.

[lnichols]

Palm never had the user base, profitability, or cash that RIM has. They also have never had the press route for them like the press did for Palm. Even after HP bought them people wanted them to succeed, where it seems like most want RIM to fail. RIM is not Palm, they are way more successful.

[BergerKing]

Palm failed to make decent hardware after the older devices phased out, too. Their later hardware was the pits, even with a sweet OS. Making tiny keyboard phones was their doom., even as some might disagree.

[scorpiodsu]

Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. We will see. Maybe BB10 craps out like WebOS. WebOS was good but it was too late so by the time it came out it didn't matter anymore. Hopefully this doesn't happen with BB10 but they aren't immune to failing. Their user base hasn't been able to keep the current stock from sliding and all the organizational changes as a result. So we will see. I hope they aren't Palm because a 4th OS just means more choice for us. But who knows. End of 2012-2013, RIM will either start bouncing back with BB10 or it will be a massive flop. Let's hope it's the former.

[Appesque]

Thanks so much for bringing my post into CrackBerry forums! I'm embarrassed to admit this is my first post on CB, after all these years - and I didn't even post it myself, double shame on me

It felt good to get that blog off my chest. I'm pleased to see others feel the same.

[OzarkaTexile]

Excellent post. Developer support will be the hardest thing to achieve. I think they can get a great OS and great devices, but developers are going to be very slow to adopt.

As a mobile developer (BlackBerry only for about 5 years), I always found RIM difficult to deal with. Arrogant, unhelpful. They're developer support is much better now, but it will take them a long time to grow that community and get devs interested in this new platform.

[dcgore]

RIM's push technology alone makes it different from Palm. The issue here is that if bb10 doesn't make it then most likely RIM will folow the course of an IBM for instance. No more hardware, just software and service provider.
So all in all, RIM will continue to exist in a worst case scenario but to what extend, we can only speculate.

[scorpiodsu]

This was a little interesting given this post...


"During the annual Consumer Electronics Show in January 2009, a struggling smartphone company that had once helped shape the mobile industry unveiled its next-generation platform. It was gorgeous. The design was unique and appealing, the gesture-based controls were smart and intuitive, and the company’s new smartphone operating system offered a breath of fresh air in an industry dominated by just two major players, Apple and Google.

On August 18th, 2011, less than three years after this promising new platform was unveiled, it was effectively laid to rest.


During the annual BlackBerry World conference on Tuesday, a struggling smartphone company that had once helped shape the mobile industry unveiled its next-generation platform. It was gorgeous. The design was unique and appealing, the gesture-based controls were smart and intuitive, and the company’s new smartphone operating system offered a breath of fresh air in an industry dominated by just two major players, Apple and Google.

Yes, history is repeating itself.

There are too many comparisons between Research In Motion today and Palm in late 2008 and early 2009 to count. Ignoring the similarities between Palm and HP’s webOS platform and BlackBerry 10 is ignoring the obvious: a sleek UI that deviates from industry leaders and innovates in several key areas, sky-high ambitions, aspirations of pushing the platform beyond smartphones and onto various other products, and a seemingly impossible lead to overcome. RIM is in a much better place than Palm was at that time, of course, with a much larger user base, better performance and more resources at its disposal. Despite these advantages, however, both of these stories may end up sharing the same final chapter if RIM can’t find a way to tip the scales in its favor.....Whether or not RIM can avoid a similar fate for its mobile platform remains to be seen, but unfortunately, we haven’t been shown anything compelling or significantly differentiated thus far that suggests this will be the case. For RIM’s sake, and for the sake of smartphone users everywhere who are hungry for a viable new platform, let’s hope that changes."

[CranBerry413]

Thanks so much for bringing my post into CrackBerry forums! I'm embarrassed to admit this is my first post on CB, after all these years - and I didn't even post it myself, double shame on me

It felt good to get that blog off my chest. I'm pleased to see others feel the same.

Well, you did a great job and that is a good post. I'll be following your Blog.

[Laura Knotek]

Palm failed to make decent hardware after the older devices phased out, too. Their later hardware was the pits, even with a sweet OS. Making tiny keyboard phones was their doom., even as some might disagree.

The Pre keyboard was awful. I even remember a review where the guy said he snapped off the slider keyboard on the unit he was sent to do the review.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express

[greatwiseone]

Of course it's not Palm. Palm was struggling to get by each year and RIM is still making lots of money...

[leftypepper716]

I agree. Palm waited a year longer than RIM did to finally change things, and as everyone knows, a year in smartphone device lag, is almost like cutting one of your arms off. RIM hasn't shown me anything from BBW 2012 that makes me asure that they can compete with Apple, Samsung or HTC...but IMO, this really is the last chance for RIM to get it right.

[Admorris]

In my opinion Palm had more going for them in the end...WebOS was awesome, but the crap hardware attached killed it. BB has nothing at this point other than hopes at the end of the year...other than the just released 9900 series phones, their hardware is straight out of the nineties. Their OS just sucks...plain and simple. It was ahead of the curve quite some time back but has done literally almost nothing to improve since. I see them going to same route as Palm.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express