RIM Employee Praises iOS, Disrespects Android

[StupidGenius]

BGR has an interesting article covering an “open-letter” from an anonymous RIM executive to its CEOs. It’s quite a read but this part stood out.

“Let’s obsess about what is best for the end user. We often make product decisions based on strategic alignment, partner requests or even legal advice — the end user doesn’t care. We simply have to admit that Apple is nailing this and it is one of the reasons they have people lining up overnight at stores around the world, and products sold out for months. These people aren’t hypnotized zombies, they simply love beautifully designed products that are user centric and work how they are supposed to work. Android has a major weakness — it will always lack the simplicity and elegance that comes with end-to-end device software, middleware and hardware control. We really have a great opportunity to build something new and “uniquely BlackBerry” with the QNX platform.”

I admit that Apple and iOS certainly began the major bleeding but hasn’t Android’s rise largely impacted their business? Their market share really seemed to start dropping in early 2010, shortly after the OG Droid launched and continues to do so. I’m not asking as, or for a fanboy point of view, just what you honestly think.

Link to article:
Open letter to BlackBerry bosses: Senior RIM exec tells all as company crumbles around him

 

[Jeyman]

It is a wait and see game at this point. iOS has been slowed by a very large percent because of android, That is fact. Apple even admits that they cant keep up in the hardware department(though they did not say it that way)

Need to keep an eye out on what they do next, their strong point is the same as with their PCs. Because the system is so locked down its optimized out the ass. Good? bad? depends on the user.

Apple has a very large following so they are not going anywhere anytime soon even if they where to fail hardcore on their next device(and we all no that is not going to happen)

On the other hand we have android that is open and has tons of work being done on it. Far more then iSO. Both iOS and android are in it for the long hall. Rim and windows 7 are the ones that I think are iffy. Rim being the one that has the most to prove, Microsoft is working with devs so I think they are good.

Rim is just trying to lump them in with apple is how I see this statement.

 

[bplewis24]

BGR has an interesting article covering an “open-letter” from an anonymous RIM executive to the its CEOs. It’s quite a read but this part stood out.

“Let’s obsess about what is best for the end user. We often make product decisions based on strategic alignment, partner requests or even legal advice — the end user doesn’t care. We simply have to admit that Apple is nailing this and it is one of the reasons they have people lining up overnight at stores around the world, and products sold out for months. These people aren’t hypnotized zombies, they simply love beautifully designed products that are user centric and work how they are supposed to work. Android has a major weakness — it will always lack the simplicity and elegance that comes with end-to-end device software, middleware and hardware control. We really have a great opportunity to build something new and “uniquely BlackBerry” with the QNX platform.”

I admit that Apple and iOS certainly began the major bleeding but hasn’t Android’s rise largely impacted their business? Their market share really seemed to start dropping in early 2010, shortly after the OG Droid launched and continues to do so. I’m not asking as, or for a fanboy point of view, just what you honestly think.

Link to article:
Open letter to BlackBerry bosses: Senior RIM exec tells all as company crumbles around him

No point in dissecting the article too much. The guy is plainly ignorant. He even contradicts himself in that paragraph:

the end user doesn't care...

These people aren’t hypnotized zombies

So, first they don't care, and next they aren't zombies? If nobody cared about choice, then why do people flock to Android much more than they flock to iOS? If you let him tell the story, iOS has all of the market share.

The reason Apple has people lining up in stores is because they have 1 major product launch in each market per year. Guess what happens if they start having two or three product launches of the same industry in the same year? Just ask Verizon how many people lined up for the iPhone4.

Anyway, yes iOS can be elegant, but the more idiots go around claiming that Android is the antithesis of elegance just contributes to all of the "hypnotized zombies" that believe everything they read from the mainstream tech sites. I dare any iPhone owner to compare his iOS to my Android phone and compare the "elegance" plus my added functionality.

The bolded portion of the article you quoted is slightly different. He says end-to-end lack of control is a weakness. He can spin it that way because in some ways it is a weakness. Google doesn't control the hardware specs, so it makes some things more difficult to get to the end user. But it's also Android's greatest strength: it's why we can have multiple variations of hardware on the platform and increase performance at a rate much faster than Apple can. That quote is somewhat of a misnomer.

Brandon

 

[jroc]

I dont think thats a major weakness for Android.

Not elegant, maybe. Depend on who you ask and what you comparing it to. But thats not a major weakness. Simplicity? I just posted about this recently:

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/dr...ummer-release-droid-bionic-3.html#post1600885

Depending on what you do on your phone, what you use it for, it can be as simple as the iPhone. Of the things I mentioned in that post, thats universal across every Android phone. One of Androids strengths is it can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be.

Having a big variety and being able greatly adapt to the user out the box is a major strength for Android.

Now if you mean simplicity with iOS being on basically one product in each category, thats different. Easier to update iDevices, easier to deal with hardware problems, etc. Apple somewhat took RIM's business approach and did it better. There are different types of Blackberries, but they are all made by RIM. Is all Palm phones made by Palm? If so same thing.

Android took MS's approach and did it better. Right now Apple and Google showed the OG's how it shoulda been done to a certain extent.

 

[czerdrill]

The reason Apple has people lining up in stores is because they have 1 major product launch in each market per year. Guess what happens if they start having two or three product launches of the same industry in the same year? Just ask Verizon how many people lined up for the iPhone4.

^Well I don't think Apple is having any problems selling iPhones haha. If lines outside a store at launch time were the determination of success, Android would be a complete fail. The fact is both OS's are fine, and neither Google nor Apple are in any danger of falling off the face of the earth.

iPhone will continue to sell like crazy, as will Android.

 

[jroc]

And the lines were also due to AT&T not handling online sales as well as Verizon.

Apple just capitalized on the long line opportunities and helped create this aura of greatness that surrounds the iPhone.

If Verizon wouldnt have done sales online I can guarantee there woulda been longer lines for Verizon too. I wonder why Apple or Verizon didnt do that...they missed a marketing opportunity there.

 

[czerdrill]

And the lines were also due to AT&T not handling online sales as well as Verizon.

Apple just capitalized on the long line opportunities and helped create this aura of greatness that surrounds the iPhone.

If Verizon wouldnt have done sales online I can guarantee there woulda been longer lines for Verizon too. I wonder why Apple or Verizon didnt do that...they missed a marketing opportunity there.

Exactly. Lines are not a good indication of the success of a product. The numbers for both Android and iPhone speak for themselves. And as I mentioned neither side is losing sleep over poor sales, because the numbers prove that both sides are selling ridiculous amounts of units every quarter.

 

[bplewis24]

The reason Apple has people lining up in stores is because they have 1 major product launch in each market per year. Guess what happens if they start having two or three product launches of the same industry in the same year? Just ask Verizon how many people lined up for the iPhone4.

^Well I don't think Apple is having any problems selling iPhones haha. If lines outside a store at launch time were the determination of success, Android would be a complete fail. The fact is both OS's are fine, and neither Google nor Apple are in any danger of falling off the face of the earth.

iPhone will continue to sell like crazy, as will Android.

I don't think they are going anywhere either. But the RIM executive was claiming the "lines" were a sign that iOS is somehow superior when in fact it has no correlation.

If Google put out one Nexus phone each year and didn't allow Android on ANY other phone hardware, the lines would be just as long. But that still doesn't say much about how good the OS is.

Brandon

 

[freezyfreaky]

I think RIM is in a lot of trouble. It is a smart move for them to support android apps because they don't have the developer support that IOS or Android has. Even so, RIM is basically banking on QNX to be a better OS for running Android apps than Android. I don't see developers flocking to make native apps for QNX until they capture a big piece of the market and unlike Microsoft, RIM doesn't have the financials resources to continually sink loses to make a comeback.

 

[czerdrill]

The reason Apple has people lining up in stores is because they have 1 major product launch in each market per year. Guess what happens if they start having two or three product launches of the same industry in the same year? Just ask Verizon how many people lined up for the iPhone4.

^Well I don't think Apple is having any problems selling iPhones haha. If lines outside a store at launch time were the determination of success, Android would be a complete fail. The fact is both OS's are fine, and neither Google nor Apple are in any danger of falling off the face of the earth.

iPhone will continue to sell like crazy, as will Android.

I don't think they are going anywhere either. But the RIM executive was claiming the "lines" were a sign that iOS is somehow superior when in fact it has no correlation.

If Google put out one Nexus phone each year and didn't allow Android on ANY other phone hardware, the lines would be just as long. But that still doesn't say much about how good the OS is.

Brandon

Yeah that RIM guy is a fool haha...using lines at a store as an indication of success is stupidity.

 

[bplewis24]

I think RIM will be okay if they do some layoffs, ditch QNX and focus on enterprise products only. They may even be able to license their security protocols and patents to Android/iOS. But their time as a smartphone leader seems numbered. WP7 has a better chance to play (distant) #3 to Android & iOS than RIM does in the long run, IMO.

Brandon

 

[kodiak799]

RIM is yesterday's news. One can also read that article over bitterness at Android really being the one to eat their lunch.

Agreed RIM's only chance is to focus on software and the enterprise market. If they don't do something quick, pretty soon that edge/branding is going to be eroded because IOS and Android are already equally capable, it just takes Corp IT types that long to get comfortable with the concept.

I NEVER liked blackberry's, anyway. I go out of my way to avoid using my one for work.