For RIM to come back, just having a new OS (BB 10) and shiny hardware is not going to be enough.
As an aside, Nokia, a company with similar brand recognition - albeit in a different market segment - is trying to claw back into the game is using Windows Phone 7 and Lumia 800, 900 series of phones. If I see this correctly, Nokia isn't betting on just the new hardware and Microsoft's OS (and financial muscle); they are also implicitly optimistic about Windows Marketplace and other content (XBox?) gradually becoming seamlessly available across it's product range. Content and services are the key; a decent piece of hardware and a decent OS should be agiven.
The reason I brought up this is that for RIM to make a comeback, they need to be able to offer something more than Apple is offering at the moment; that's the only way to entice users away from a platform they've invested in. In my opinion, the only company that can provide RIM with an edge in content and services is Amazon.
I wonder if RIM and Amazon can cut some sort of a deal. Amazon already makes a tablet that is fairly successful; the prospect of mobile phones with the Silk browser running on them, seems quite interesting.
Have you used the Silk browser? It performs like a pig. Turning off "Silk" is the only way to use it. Even then, it is substandard, in my opinion. If I have my Kindle Fire in my hands and need to look something up online I will usually put it down and reach for my iPhone on the nightstand. It is better than nothing on a device I use primarily for reading books, but I would steer clear of any phone running it.
I should have clarified; yes indeed, Silk does perform like a pig currently, but I like the idea behind it, and I believe that Amazon has the engineering chops to pull it off.
Immediate access to the mobile phone market along with a huge amount of data that can go Amazon's way if they fix Silk, might make a partnership seem mutually beneficial. (Also, since the mobile phone market is still carrier dependent, Amazon will have a harder time penetrating that market segment on its own)
Silk has the same ideas behind it which Opera has been pushing with Opera Mini/Mobile and Opera Turbo for years. There is no reason why Amazon cannot enjoy the same kind of tremendous marketshare as Opera does.
As an aside, Nokia, a company with similar brand recognition - albeit in a different market segment - is trying to claw back into the game is using Windows Phone 7 and Lumia 800, 900 series of phones. If I see this correctly, Nokia isn't betting on just the new hardware and Microsoft's OS (and financial muscle); they are also implicitly optimistic about Windows Marketplace and other content (XBox?) gradually becoming seamlessly available across it's product range. Content and services are the key; a decent piece of hardware and a decent OS should be agiven.
The reason I brought up this is that for RIM to make a comeback, they need to be able to offer something more than Apple is offering at the moment; that's the only way to entice users away from a platform they've invested in. In my opinion, the only company that can provide RIM with an edge in content and services is Amazon.
I wonder if RIM and Amazon can cut some sort of a deal. Amazon already makes a tablet that is fairly successful; the prospect of mobile phones with the Silk browser running on them, seems quite interesting.