RIM Changes Corporate Name to Blackberry, but It Will Only Affect the Number of Letters on the Tombstone

I was addicted to my crackberry for many years. I counted it up recently and I owned 10 different models. I loved the product. I still have a lot of them and they are in a box in my closet.

In 2008, while working for Google, I got my first Android device and changed my drug of choice. I owned the very first “candy bar” device, all the Nexus models and most of the Motorola models. Today, I am sporting a Samsung Galaxy Note II.

However, in January, I left Google and as the BB10 announcement day approached, I found myself secretly rooting for RIM. Could they pull off a “Steve Jobs-Like Comeback” and somehow leapfrog or at least challenge Android and iOS? As a Canadian who went to school in Waterloo, I would have to be a little heartless not to root for the hometown team, wouldn’t I?

So, I have read the reviews, seen the specs, watched the videos and I can only say three words:  “Its not enough.”

Here’s why:

• Consumers drive the Smartphone market! Steve Jobs and Andy Rubin were right.
• The few corporate mobile device programs that exist are being marginalized by BYOD and almost every corporate program allows iPhones and Android devices.
• There is not a single major mobile device use case where the Blackberry is better than Android or iPhone.
•            Android/iPhone are better than Blackberry on 4 of the 6 major use cases for a mobile device.

To elaborate further, the major use cases for modern mobile devices are:

1. Phone/Text, 
2. Email 
3. Running Apps
4. Internet Browsing
5. Camera, 
6. GPS Mapping and Directions.

Here is how the blackberry stacks up on those uses cases:

Phone/Text: Blackberry has equivalency. No major differences between the three platforms.

Email: Long the hallmark of Blackberry, one can only say that Blackberry should be able to maintain equivalency here. I am not sure how this Hub thing will play out, but the native apps on iPhone and Android make email a great experience on those devices.

Running Apps: Blackberry is behind here pretty badly. There are only a fraction of the apps on BB10 as there are on iPhone/Android. Not only does it lack depth, but its missing some big ones:  Instagram, Pandora, Netflix, YouTube, Gmail, Temple Run.  Plus, I am hearing many of the 70K Apps might be “ported” Andoroid Apps that will be suboptimal for the Blackberry devices.

Web Browsing: BB10 seems like a huge improvement over the old blackberry here, but early reports are browsing performance lags that of Android/iPhone. No one wants slower Internet access.

Camera: Hardware specs on BB10 devices seem equivalent, and the camera software looks like it has some nice features, but most reviews had the camera behind the iPhone and popular Android phones.

GPS: No Google Maps. Do I need to say more?  If a buy a blackberry, does it come with a free Garmin device?

So, if the reviews are right, after 6 years of waiting, RIM has produced a good phone that is not good enough. Ask Palm or Microsoft about how that turns out.  Blackberry is stuck selling the same things that they have been for the last 6 years. For business customers, they tout the better keyboard and they sell BBM in developing countries. At best they can maintain their current customers, but I think even that will be tough.  Nothing has changed--the descent will continue. Investment bankers are preparing their strategic option pitch books and jumping on planes for the commute to Waterloo.

I guess we should wait until the devices are out and until we get a a good look at them, but if the reviews are right, things look grim. You have to give them an A for effort, but it won’t be enough. The tombstone will apparently read Blackberry, not RIM. I hope they get a spot in the cemetery beside Visicalc. Wordperfect. Novell, Lotus Notes , Digital and MySpace. I will visit the gravesite. I promise. I will bring my box of crackberries and relive the glory days of this great category creator.