RIM’s highly anticipated and crucial move from the legacy Blackberry OS to the QNX-based variant will indeed take the “BBX” nomenclature, as confirmed by Co-CEO Jim Balsillie in a recent interview. According to Jim, RIM had to “reinvent themselves and the platform for the future” with QNX.
So far QNX has failed to gain much traction on the only device currently available, the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Though many would argue the PlayBook’s slow adoption rate is more likely explained by lack of essential apps (such as native email) as well as 3rd party options.
Besides the slow progress with QNX, one other thing that worries us about RIM’s immediate future are the two co-CEOs themselves. They’ve come under plenty of criticsm over the last year specifically, being blamed for the increasing decline in RIM’s relevance and market share due to hardware (and software) that simply pales in comparison to competing products from iOS and Android platforms. Many see the two co-CEOs as having lost touch of what consumers really want from the BlackBerry platform. Highlighting this argument is perfectly exemplified in Balsillie’s interview in which he says:
“We’ve leapfrogged everyone with what we’re announcing [on Tuesday] and you’re going to see it on display..”
“We built an engine back in the mid-90s that served us incredibly well for 15 years, and in the past couple of years, we’ve had to build the engine of the future while still driving the engine we’ve got.”
RIM has repeatedly made statements in recent years bragging of “leapfrogging the competition” and releasing products that are “quantum leaps” ahead of everyone else only to have the actual products fail to come anywhere close to meeting such claims.
Please, RIM. Don’t set yourself up for failure by over-promising and under-delivering. Being consistent on that front isn’t something to be proud of.
Look for more info regarding BBX and future Playbook plans at the upcomign BlackBerry DevCon conference.
Via: BlackBerryEmpire
