Phone makers Research In Motion (RIM) and Nokia are treading the same water. Both companies are leaning on older operating systems (BlackBerry OS and Symbian respectively), that while still extremely capable, are rapidly losing the respect and admiration of the consumer market. With iOS and Android continuing to separate themselves as the upcoming smartphone platforms of choice, Microsoft unleashing a Windows Phone 7 blitzkrieg, and H/Palm launching webOS 2.0; RIM and Nokia are turning toward new technologies to finally propel them into modernity.
I’m not going to go too in depth on Nokia’s situation (this a BlackBerry-centric blog after all), but needless to say they’re nearly as far up the creek as RIM has found themselves. They launched their first Symbian smartphone in the middle of 2002 (around the same time as RIM was launching it’s first smart “phone”), an OS that began life with the founding of Psion in 1980. Thirty years later, Nokia is turning toward “MeeGo”, a joint venture with Intel, to bring their smartphones firmly into the 21st century.
On this side of the North Atlantic, our beloved RIM is facing an all-to-similar dilemma. Long one of the premier smartphone manufacturers in the world (producing a product so addicting it has been compared to a certain narcotic), they’ve recently found themselves outdone and outclassed by the likes of Apple, Google, Palm, and even Microsoft. While the BlackBerry platform continues to offer one of the best messaging and e-mail experiences available; it has an extremely limited upside. Like Ryan Leaf or JaMarcus Russell, BlackBerry OS has been characterized as a washed-up has-been. Unlike Nokia, RIM doesn’t have a legion of “dumb phones” to bolster it’s sales, and has been relying on corporate sales and “first time” smartphone buyers.
So what’s a company to do? Until relatively recently, RIM had been in complete denial. Like an angry politician they shouted about strong sales numbers while ignoring the 800lb gorilla creeping up behind them with an apple-shaped bar stool. While sales were strong, their mind share was plummeting as tech “experts” and fan boys and girls alike became disgruntled with the limited capability of their phones. When my girlfriend, a BlackBerry fanatic, becomes so frustrated that she throws her Bold 9700 to the ground and says “That’s it, I want a Droid”, you know RIM has a problem.
Enter QNX: the well-respected UNIX-like operating system (ironically who’s origins also lay in the year 1980) RIM acquired on April 9th of this year. The first offspring of this union is the clumsily named “BlackBerry Tablet OS” premiering on the equally awkward “BlackBerry PlayBook” (RIM really needs to work on their naming schemes). While hands-on time with an actual device has been non-existent, the early “previews” show promise. Borrowing (or pilfering, depending on your viewpoint) several metaphors from Palm’s webOS, RIM and QNX have managed to create a modern operating system just as swipy and flashy as anything to come out of Cupertino, Redmond, or Mountain View (and who doesn’t get a kick out of Lazzy fumbling around with a touchscreen on stage).
I’ll save my full opinion on the PlayBook for a later date (preview: I think it’s pretty rad.), but what’s more important is how RIM plans to leverage this new operating system in it’s future devices. RIM has confirmed their intention to bring the QNX platform to their smartphone lineup, with an as yet unannounced BlackBerry OS 7 serving as an intermediate stepping stone. While this is certainly excellent news, there are two large problems with this plan.
- QNX still can’t run Java worth a damn. This has been a problem/issue/feature for pretty much the entirety of the operating system’s existence, and is a major hurdle to getting the 10,000+ third party BlackBerry apps converted and ported over to QNX.
- We’re still at least a year away from seeing QNX on a BlackBerry phone, and realistically we’re probably looking at two or three years. That might as well be an epoch in the lightning-paced phone world. Even Nokia is planning to launch it’s last, best effort (MeeGo) sometime next calendar year. BlackBerry 7 either needs to be phenomenal, or RIM needs to hire some folks and kick development into ultra high gear. Time is a luxury they no longer possess.
Like many of you, I want nothing more than to see RIM succeed. Not only have I been a fan of their products, I’m also a big believer in competition being better for everyone. The harder these companies have to work to win our affection, the better, and we need (and want) RIM to be a key player in that game. In the interest of posterity and full disclosure, I’ll freely admit that I no longer use a BlackBerry as my daily phone.
Wait…what? Blasphemy! “You write for a BlackBerry blog, how the hell can you not use one yourself?”, to which I say you’re absolutely correct. It’s bordering on the obscene, how can I write about a device I don’t even use that often? Well, I can say with a fair amount of confidence that the difference between using one periodically, and using one everyday, isn’t all that drastic when you’ve been carting around a BlackBerry in some form since 2005 (or 6, or something like that). The new Torch and BlackBerry 6 are unavailable to me (AT&T sucks even more than usual where I live), and I wasn’t willing to rely on the corporate sloths at Verizon to push BlackBerry 6 to the Bold 9650 anytime this side of the singularity. Thus, I am now the owner of a Binged out Samsung Fascinate and now find myself waiting for the corporate sloths at Verizon to push out Android 2.2…doh!
Have no fear though. I still use my BlackBerry Storm 2 several times a week, and will eagerly return full time to the BlackBerry fold as soon as a solid BlackBerry 6 option lands on Verizon (I’ll admit, I like touchscreens, so the Bold won’t be it). I’ve had a chance to interact (sounds naughty, no?) with the Torch, and I find it to be about where the Nokia N8 is now. It’s a solid intermediate device, but it isn’t the answer. Like Nokia with MeeGo, RIM needs to go all in with QNX (and come up with a catchier name), and quickly!
Before I depart, I’d like for us to take a moment of silence (perhaps eight of them) for the dearly departed Paul the Octopus, bane of World Cup teams everywhere. This soothsaying cephalopod passed away quietly in the early morning hours of October 26th at the ripe old age of two and a half (pretty old for an octopus). While he has departed this mortal world, we shall always remember his bold predictions and love for tasty mussels. In memorandum, we give you Paul making his final divination:
