
How should RIM react to increased competition from Apple, Palm? - davidw
http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2009/09/25/how-should-rim-react-to-increased-competiton-from-apple-palm/
======
plinkplonk
This is probably a weird idea, but almost all my dieas are weird ideas hey
this is HN! Here goes.

I would (a) (pay decent money to get a brilliant designer to) design a new
model with a powerful hardware base(nice camera, graphics card) (b)
_radically_ clean up the software platform, paying attention to well designed
graphics apis and controllers (c)give away an upgrade to the new platform to
anyone who turns in an old model and then start working on the next hardware
AND sw in ONE package device. (d) Build an appstore that caters to apps _only_
for this new model (Have a better approval process than Apple, shouldn't be
very hard to do!).

Plan to release ONE model every two or three years or so. Pay more attention
to the Indian and Chinese markets (they sell _many_ more phones than the
American market - most plans are not tied to a device and people are used to
buying undiscounted phones).

This instantly creates a mass of customers standardised on a single platform
with identical device capabilities (this is the biggest advantage of the
IPhone, there are at most one or two device/sw combinations to program for.
the RIM hardware/sw combos are all over the place and the graphics suck
badly).

yeah ok that probably makes no financial sense. But that's what I'd consider
doing if I were an executive at RIM (which is probably a good reason I am
_not_ a high paid manager :-P).

RiM _can_ dominate the "business mobile" marketplace if they play their cards
right.

~~~
jerryji
I agree that RIM should try to hold on to their grip on the enterprise market
rather than diversifying resource to start an unpromising war on the consumer
turf.

Hence, I believe things like security, reliability, or even a better browser
will be more welcome by the business users (and the procurement decision
makers!) than will some consumer eye candy like a camera.

I particularly agree with getting into the emerging markets, such as that of
China and India, even though the business there might not have a keen interest
(let alone purchasing power) in RIM's products at the present. Quoting Charles
Geschke (co-founder of Adobe) in Founders at Work -- "shoot where the duck is
going to be, not where the duck is".

------
davidw
Well, they could start by making the developer experience suck a little bit
less. It's not nearly as pleasant or easy as working with J2ME or Android.

