RIM: Do these things and I'll become your customer
What you see above is one of my favorite form factors ever. That's the BlackBerry Torch, and although it's a terrible device, I can't stop loving the touchscreen/slide-out portrait QWERTY combination.
The thing that ticks me off the most about it though is that it's a BlackBerry running BlackBerry OS. I loved the BlackBerry PlayBook and QNX operating system, even with each having its own limitations. Unfortunately, QNX still doesn't run on BlackBerry smartphones, and I wish it did. There's a few other things RIM needs to do after they've got that done, though, and I'd like to show my viewpoint on the whole upcoming death of RIM.
I'd like to start off by saying that I don't think RIM will die. They're still a massive company, and even though we don't like to admit it, still have dominance in the enterprise world. So they definitely have a source of income, even if it's not very much.
RIM's worldwide headquarters are located in Waterloo, Ontario, a medium-sized town with some other tech companies, but mainly just RIM. I say that because in 2009, my State almost collapsed when the big three automakers went into bankruptcy. The government knew it would be devastating to Michigan, and bailed them out. I have a strange feeling that the same thing will happen to RIM, too. Normally tech companies aren't bailed out, but RIM has an impression in markets all over the world, and because of that, employ a lot of people. I don't think Canada's government would let that happen; but hey, that's just me.
Anyway, on to what would make me switch from an iPhone 4 to a BlackBerry. The Torch is on the small end with its screen. That screen was also low quality, as well. I'd like about a 3.7-inch to 4-inch screen, with slightly bigger keys for that already awesome portrait QWERTY. It also needs to be pixel dense, because QNX has some fancy visuals that I'd like to be able to see with the most clarity possible.
Then we arrive at internals, where things desperately need an upgrade. Since QNX needs a dual-core processor to run (apparently,) I'd like to see a 1.4GHz dual-core processor, supplemented with 1GB of RAM. It should also include at least 16GB of usable internal space to store media, which is an important feature for QNX when compared to regular old BBOS.
Finally, there's the App World. Just Monday, I noted that developers are leaving the BlackBerry platform for other, more profitable ones. If RIM spent some of their money on literally paying developers to be producing quality apps for new hardware, then I'm sure a lot of people would go to BlackBerry again.
Is that too much to ask for from a company that could definitely do it? It seems like they simply choose not to, like they're too arrogant or something stupid like that. If only they would realize that something needs to be done in order to keep themselves from going bankrupt, this dream might become a reality.
If these things were to happen, would you become a BlackBerry user?
