Jean-Louis Gassée has a fantastic article dissecting the comparisons of RIM now and Apple back in the mid-nineties (when Apple was on the verge of collapse). A lot has been said about RIM and what they are trying to do, but I love this question for RIM believers from Gassée:
>Weren’t most of these engineers already onboard when RIM fell asleep at the switch?
Indeed.
At this point it’s not only that RIM doesn’t have a competent platform to even compete with Microsoft, but it is that they seemingly can’t decide what the hell the right path forward is.
– We will march on!
– New CEO
– We are massively talented.
– Slash 5k jobs.
– BB10 will save the world.
– BB10 will run everything for you.
– Our handset business is still growing!
– We *might* need to license BB10. Might.
It’s like playing Monopoly against a child and convincing the child to trade different colors with you back and forth as it benefits you. Every trade you make a compelling case why it is best for them, without thinking the child buys that case and makes the trade. Next time you make another more compelling case that contradicts your last. And so on.
RIM is the child here.
They started off assuring everyone that they were fine that the management was great. Then they hire a new management team, which says everything is fine. Then they cut thousands of jobs, but it’s right back to everything is fine.
This is a pathetic line of rhetoric that seemingly only RIM’s board is buying.
Yes, there will always be those that want a hardware keyboard, but if the demand for such a device is strong enough I assure you an Android partner will make it. There simply are no more compelling reasons why one chooses RIM over Apple/Google/Microsoft.