Replacing BB?

Recently we've been hearing a lot of talk about the next new phone that is gonna "overtake" Blackberry and so on and so forth. The reasons for this vary depending on whomever you ask and what phone or OS you're comparing it to.

For all of those hardcore BB fans. All those people who have been with BB for years (I wouldn't necesarilly include myself in this, but I'm verging on it) new devices come and go, but BB remains their strong suit. The one they fall back to every time. There are plenty of others (and even plenty of crackberry addicts that just jump ship anyway) who decide to leave and stay with another device.

Personally, as I become more in depth of a fan of Blackberry, I'm kind of about people leaving BB. Seeing the new Blackberry commercials has me somewhat upset. The Blackberry phone and software were designed to do specific things, and they were really good at them. Whether or not their quality has been going down is debateable and will be.

However, I see any decline as an answer to maybe shareholders, maybe something else, who really knows what. But I see it as an answer to reach out to markets and demographics that weren't meant to want BBs. If BB wants to reach into the iPhone and multimedia sector (for example) then why not do what car companies do, and create an "offshoot" company which is focused on that? BB can't be everything to everyone and it never will be. No one company can.

So I think BB should either nix this whole "reaching" idea and go back to their roots, or really be serious about branching out. These half-**ed attempts to compete with phone and software makers alike only make them look bad. They need to decide on a direction and go with it. If that fails, well, then look to another section. I'm personally totally satisfied with my brand new BB, it does what it's designed to do perfectly well. And except for a better browsing experience, I couldn't be happier.

That's MHO!