Saturday, February 12, 2011

What RIM should do

Nokia just announced that they are moving to WinMo - which I think was absolutely the wrong decision (as, I guess does a lot of the rest of the web).

Big question is: What should RIM do?

I think the 3 huge strengths and one minor strength of RIM are:
- Outstanding exchange integration
- Great enterprise management app
- Phenomenal international roaming agreements, where you get unlimited international data roaming for ~$10 per month

The minor strength is BB Messenger, which for some strange reason my niece's just love.

The big problems they have are:
- Their developer environment sucks
- Hard to develop code that works across their phones
- Poor APIs

What I think RIM needs to do, is get out of the mobile OS business. If they think they are great at manufacturing (which isn't clear to me), then make hardware. Otherwise, let Samsung, HTC, Motorola fight that battle. Instead,  get your phone make by somebody in China/Taiwan, slap Android on it and add the BB pixie-dust on top - the exchange integration, the enterprise app management and the roaming agreements. Call these the new Blackberries and sell them like crazy.

About BB Messenger: Not sure why some people love them, but since they do have a loyal following, port BB Messenger to iPhone and Android and sell them before somebody else does that (thinking Kik here).

Comments?