RIM and the BlackPad - to Infinity and Beyond

If I can catch him once upon the hip,

I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.

Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, I, 3

It seems the old grudge that I bore against RIM and their not-so-“smart” phone for trouncing the Palm Pilot, developer of the first touch screen PDA (Personal Data Assistant) the forerunner of the Apple iPhone back in the 90’s is finally bearing fruit. RIM is not only committing a full line of its Blackberry smart phone to utilize touch screen technology as stated in the article “BlackBerry revamp to take on iPhone?”, published July 28, 2010 1:39 PM PDT by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News - Signal Strength.

The introduction of the Blackberry 9800 a touch screen continuation of the Blackberry Storm 9500 (Apple iPhone imitator, its flattery most sincere!!) but with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard similar to the Motorola Droid and its petulant cousin the Motorola Droid X, the soon-to-be-crowned Apple iPhone killer as was predicted in the article “iPhone feels the heat from the Droid X factor”, published Thursday July 1, 2010 12:23 pm ET, Yahoo! News and now being strongly hinted as being so as stated in the article “Out-of-Stock Droid X is Best-Selling Android Phone”, published Tuesday July 27 2010 by Adam Dickter, newsfactor.com, Yahoo! News.

They have finally awoken and realized that they are in the 21^st Century. RIM, in keeping with the new trend, like Old Man Time awakening from his slumber, is thus launching a device that fits into the period and is a major departure from their two (2) decade long 90’s style QWERTY phone that originally killed the Palm Pilot – and hence my grudge.

Folks, just as it was last week, history is being made again this week with the much rumored RIM BlackPad as stated in the article “RIM said to land Tablet for November to Take on Apple's iPad”, published Friday July 30 2010 by Hugo Miller, the BloomBerg Report set to debut in August of 2010 and possibly in November of 2010 in time for Christmas. John Public is now convinced of one thing: the Gods [white people] must be crazy!!

RIM’s progression after months of speculation by technology pundits worldwide seem to be finally about to bear fruit in the Summer of 2010, August to be specific, if the buzz is to be believed. A bit of a back story is required. RIM threw its ring into the Social Network game as bait for a younger crowd stated in the article “Report: RIM to launch Blackberry Social Network”, published July 13, 2009 2:35 PM PDT by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News – Wireless.

A RIM Blackberry Messenger Platform could have been revamped into a Social Network in a move mimicking Google in forming Google Buzz using its Gmail Platform to interconnect users already using Google Apps as stated in the article " Buzz Backfire: How Google pushed me to Facebook" published March 5, 2010 4:00 AM PST by Stephen Shankland, CNET News - Deep Tech, CNET News.

RIM has also made the Blackberry Enterprise Server free in a move to counteract the free Google Android Marketplace Platform as stated in “RIM to give away server software”, published February 16, 2010 4:32 AM PST by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News - 3GSM blog, CNET News.

Thus RIM’s upgrade to their much anticipated touchscreen phone line is now envisaged in the form of the Blackberry 9800 using the more media savvy and browser improved Blackberry OS 6.0, which I might add, also support apps from a Blackberry Apps Store (good news for us Developers!!) as long speculated some time ago in the video CNET Loaded aired April 27^th 2010 by Natalie Del Conte, Senior Editor, CNET News.

So the announcement of the Blackberry 9800 with touchscreen and a slide out QWERTY keyboard fits with their overall gradual push. However, the writing was on the wall for RIM, with many being concerned over its lack of new products in light of the Apple iPhone sudden appearance on the Telecom Scene in 2007. As far back as January 2010 globally Blackberry was still going strong, being cheaper (typical Apple iPhone unlocked is US$599.99) and requires no qualified Apple Technicians (read “expensive”).

Then Google began to take its toll as stated in the article  “Analysts predict bold growth for Google Android”, published January 25, 2010 2:18 PM PST by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News - Signal Strength, confirmed by a scientifically conducted statistical review by ComScore that upheld the truthfulness of this statement as proclaimed in the article “Google Android growth outpacing the industry”, published April 5, 2010 2:36 PM PDT by Tom Krazit, CNET News – Relevant.

This despite reports of fragmentation or splintering of the source code of the Android OS, resulting from too many frequent updates by Google of its Android SDK (Software Developer Kit as state in the article “Report: Android fragmentation could harm growth”, published April 8, 2010 8:50 AM PDT by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News - Signal Strength, a problem now fixed by over-the-air updates.

These factors, which make these excellent yet pricey alternatives to the Blackberry appear to be an expensive gamble, are currently the Blackberry’s competitors Achilles Heel, which would explain in part the slow adoption of the Apple iPhone being sold exclusively by Telecom Provider CLARO and the lackluster interest in acquiring Google Android phones by local Telecoms Providers.

This is especially as they are associated with low cost smart Taiwanese Mobile Equipment Handset Vendor HTC, despite high profile EU (European Union) companies such as Nokia who recently sent Symbian into Open Source heaven as stated in the article “Symbian now fully open-sourced”, published shed February 4, 2010 6:25 AM PST by David Meyer, CNET News - Wireless and now confirmed with the launch of their first Open-sourced phone as stated in the article “Nokia launched Open Source phone” published Wednesday April 28 2010, BBC News.

But now RIM’s armour is beginning to show chinks and cracks. International Smart phone shipment for the second quarter of 2010 have jumped globally by 43% compared to the corresponding period for the same period from 2009, according to research strategy firm Strategy Analytics as stated in the article “Smartphone shipments jump 43 percent”, published July 22, 2010 12:34 PM PDT by Lance Whitney, CNET News - Wireless,(http://www.cnet.com), with nearly sixty million (60,000,000) smart phones being sold. Nokia is leading the charge with nearly 40% of the smart phone market, leaving second and third place respectively to RIM and Apple, with Google Android nowhere on the scene.

But wait!! This just in! RIM Global Market share dipped by some 0.5% from 19.3% in the second quarter of 2009 to some 18.8% in the second quarter of 2010 while Apple iPhone Global Market share gained by some 1.6% from 12.5% in the second quarter of 2009 to some 14.1% in the second quarter of 2010.

Albeit not statistically significant, the trend is a follow-on on a recorded dip in Global Market share for RIM and a gain in Global Market share for Apple when the First Quarter of 2009 and 2010 are compared, as based on statistical data from IDC, RIM Global Market share dipped by some 1.5% from 20.9% in the First Quarter of 2009 to some 19.4% in the First Quarter of 2010 while Apple iPhone Global Market share gained by some 5.2% from 10.9% in the First Quarter of 2009 to some 16.1.1% in the First Quarter of 2010 as stated in the article “RIM BlackPad Expected to Compete with Apple's iPad”, published Friday July 30th 2010 by Mike Kent, newsfactor.com, Yahoo! News.

Albeit one cannot compare statistical data from two different Statistical Analysts, it is nonetheless the same trend. RIM realizes that they are in trouble and hence the ramping up of activity, especially in light of component shortages due to heavier than expected demand affecting both the Apple iPhone and the Apple iPad since Apple debut the Apple iPad on the weekend of Saturday April 3^rd and Sunday April 4^th 2010 AD and the Apple iPhone 4.0 on Thursday June 24^th 2010 AD and Tuesday June 29^th 2010 AD as stated in the article “White iPhone 4 faces manufacturing woes; iPad too”, published Friday July 24 2010 by  Ben Patterson, Technology Writer, Yahoo! News.

This was confirmed by the article “LG overwhelmed by iPad display orders”, published by July 23, 2010 9:56 AM PDT by Erica Ogg, CNET News - Circuit Breaker selling at a rate of nearly one million (1,000,000) units per week. Component shortages are even affecting the competition as stated in the article “The Summer of smartphone shortages”, published July 13, 2010 4:00 AM PDT by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News - Signal Strength and confirmed by the article “HTC Evo 4G, Incredible shortages make room for Droid X”, published Monday July 12 2010 by Jared Newman, Yahoo! News.

Thus Blackberry has gotten bullish about their new Blackberry OS 6.0 and its new take on touch screen via its RIM Blackberry 9800 and the RIM BlackPad, rumoured to also be debuting in November of 2010 as stated in the article “RIM's rumoured 'BlackPad' tablet due in November?”, published Friday July 30, 3:54 pm ET by Ben Patterson, Technology Writer, Yahoo! News possibly hoping to make consumer Christmas of 2010 gadget wish list.

Mike Kent, possibly a sibling of Clarke Kent from the Daily Planet, Superman’s Alter-Ego, is spot on in his analysis, pointing out the above mentioned BloomBerg Report in his article “RIM BlackPad Expected to Compete with Apple's iPad”, published Friday July 30th 2010 by Mike Kent, newsfactor.com, Yahoo! News, which one of course must take with the usual large grain of salt.

But salt may be bad for your blood pressure this time around, as this looks a bit TOO real to be the wild imaginings of Bloomberg. Despite RIM purchase the rights to the BlackPad.com domain, I will wait until analyst iSuppli, an analyst that tracks and predicts with a fairly high level of accuracy new up and coming devices based on pre-orders by electronics manufacturers for components, before I get too giddy about this particular rumour.

The tasty tidbit about the specs, an obvious clone of the Apple iPad but with support for Video Calling and the tethering option to the Blackberry should get most people in an anticipatory mood for this device.

The good news, however, is for us Developers as after being disappointed by the ruling from the Copyright Office in the United States of America in favor of the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) that legalizes “jail breaking” your Apple iPhone or any smart phone for that matter as stated in the article “Apple: Jailbreaking an iPhone will (still) violate your warranty”, published Tuesday 27 July 2010 by Ben Patterson, Technology Writer, Yahoo! News and further elucidate in the article “On Call: Go ahead an jailbreak, its legal now”, published July 27, 2010 2:20 PM PDT by Kent German, CNET News - Dialed In would open up the Apple iPad and the Apple iPhone to Third Party Developers who do not live by the Rules of Apple Developers.

Thus., it is rather heartening to know that with the sudden frenzied interest in tablet computers from Google, LG Electronics, Hewlett-Packard, Dell and their currently popular Dell Streak and now Microsoft and COO Steve Ballmer’s announcement of a tablet PC as stated in the article “Microsoft takes aim at Tablet market”, published Friday July 30th 2010 by Christopher Null, Technology Writer, Yahoo! News indicates that we will have a whole Alternate Dimension, Big Bang Theory style of devices for which we can develop apps instead of the soon-to-be invaded Apple Universe that CEO Steve Jobs built.

But most interestingly to us Jamaicans Developers for Apple and Google Android is Telecom Provider Digicel’s recent adoption of Telecom Provider Verizon’s hit phone and potential Apple iPhone killer, the Motorola Droid, re-christened as the Motorola Milestone and the HTC Google Nexus One, both Google Android powered phones, opens a new market of potential customers for Developers to sell their apps.

Telecom Provider LIME’s support of the Apple iPad, even though it is for their 100 Days of Summer Promotion, is a shade better than Telecom Provider CLARO non-support or lack of confirmed support for the Apple iPhone 3GS or announcements of the upcoming Apple iPhone 4.0 or even the Apple iPad Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) or the Apple iPad 3G + Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n).

Not even a teased advert stating a future possible intention. Instead, they mainly seemed to be focused on beating Telecom Provider Digicel in the Voice Telecom market, despite the coming of Telecom Provider Dekal Wireless on the scene with their Island wide Municipal Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) Network, ironically owned by one of the principals shareholders in FLOW, Wayne Chen, in partnership with other Chinese Dragons, the term used for wealthy Chinese Business owners as stated in the article “Wayne Chen, Lees enter wireless Broadband Market”, published Friday July 30^th 2010 by Mark Titus, Business Reporter, The Financial Gleaner.

But that is another story. Until then, using my idea that I gave to Apple, I can now proclaim that RIM is being fed fat with the ancient grudge I still bear against them because of the unfair defeat of Palm Pilot, whose fortunes are being reborn like the phoenix after their purchase by Hewlett Packard………with dividends for the Christmas of 2010 for us Developers!