RIM's challenge: Platforms don't sell, gadgets do
Related: Gadget makers: Innovate, not iterate
Details about the next era of the BlackBerry will be unfolding for a while as RIM tries to capture the excitement of the tech world. Sadly, it won't have an impact on the market that RIM desperately needs to reach, mainstream consumers.
Techies get all excited about the details of how things work under the hood, but Joe Public doesn't. What he wants to see is that super-duper, whiz-bang gadget that will set his world on fire. That new phone, tablet, or whatever that revolutionizes everything and that he absolutely must have.
BlackBerry 10 may be the best version of the platform yet, and probably will be. It's understandable that RIM wants to get the word out about this evolution in its line, but in the end it won't matter.
What RIM better do, absolutely must do in fact, is produce the best smartphone it ever has. The best smartphone anyone has ever produced, matter of fact. A handset that is mind-blowing to everyone who sees it, and that rocks the world with BlackBerry 10.
Forget selling the platform, that does not work. Forget a mind-numbing line of similar phones that are more of the same. Concentrate everything, design, engineering, marketing, the works on producing one single phone that will kick-start the company back into the mainstream. Nothing else is going to work.