RIM Playbook

Earlier this week, Research in Motion (RIM) introduced a 7″ tablet device,  the Playbook.

Here’s why I think this is a great play from RIM, inspite of  the coming wave of iPad-killer devices.

1. RIM is hitting the right market - By continuing to market to the corporate market, and its ability to synchronize with existing Blackberry devices and servers, this will win over the heart of the IT departments,  while also continue to sell Blackberries to the corporate users.

2. Look at who are using the Blackberry phones: the corporate executives, marketing, sales, and IT workers.   I talked to several front line workers installing my Internet at home – they love using  the iPad for work but IT department never would allow it, well, now they have a new device!

3. The Playbook based its system off an fairly old, but stable and proven technology developed in QNX. As an engineering student in a Canadian university (I assume American universities as well), we actually learned to use the QNX as a real-time embedded operating system, circa 2000.  It is similar to Linux, but even more simpler and easy to program with.  Although QNX is an older OS, it won the approval of my vote as being a very stable system, with true multi-tasking and very flexible platform.

Now, some of the potential problems I can foresee with the Playbook,

1. 7″ vs iPad’s 10″ – the ability to type on the iPad gave it a huge advantage vs the recent announcement of the 7″ tablets, namely Samsung Galaxy Tab and the Playbook.  There is simply no way to type properly on the 7″ device! if you hold it in vertical, it’s quite big to “thumb it” too.  RIM may be better off by introducing a  10″ tablet and hit Apple directly.

2. Battery Life – with the smaller device, the Playbook’s battery will be physically smaller than the iPad – QNX has always been an OS in a desktop environment, so I am a bit skeptical about the battery performance in the Playbook.  Nowadays, 10 hours seems to be the standard for most tablet users.

3. Diversion from the corporate market – as I have mentioned in previous posts, I really am not optimistic about RIM marketing to the consumer sectors (Torch, Pearl, etc) because they are facing competitions from the iPhone – the ultimate consumer market guru, and a crapshoot of Android-based devices.  The Playbook needs to be focused and marketed to the corporate users.  Because to the general consumers, it’s about apps, apps, and apps.  Apple and Android had too strong of a head start.

So when will we see a tablet from Nokia? (No, it’s not the  N900)

I would like to end this blog post by siting a story (true story!).  It was back in 1999, and I was a co-op student working in Motorola.  Back in the days, there were two departments in the Richmond facility. The top floor with all the shiny new equipment and big team would be the cellular team making GPRS and  EDGE and UMTS software.  The small little department that I was in support for, was supporting for the DataTAC 2-way messaging system.  There were about 20 staff left or so, and we all worried about what is there to do because it was a  ”sunset technology”.  Think about SMSs, and WAP browsing, and who would use these 2-way pagers? One of the co-workers mentioned that a small little startup in Waterloo, ON is licensing the technology to build the device on, and we were all joking about how the entire team will need to move there.  Obviously, that little startup, became what RIM is today.  And seriously, I wonder if any of the DataTAC team went to work for RIM.  But the Motorola Richmond facility was later dismissed and the entire operation has been moved to China.

The moral of  the story – technology is only one of the small factors in a business – choosing the right market to attack is the key to win.

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There has been numerous comparisons between different phones and features, is the Nexus One better than the Droid, or is it better than the iPhone.  Not many comparisons are on the web regarding  the platforms, and the platforms only.  The platforms that I’m considering here are:

• iPhone OS
• Android
• Windows Mobile
• Blackberry
• Symbian OS
• Taiwan-made MTK
• PalmOS

Of course, each of these operating systems has each of its advantages and disadvantages, and we cannot simply look at the platform without considering the devices around them.

However, with the convergence of phone manufacturers jumping  on to different platforms (HTC has WinMo and Android, Ericsson has WinMo, Symbian, and Android), the mobile devices is more and more uniform. Hence we really should be looking at how the different operating systems are like.

First, the low down:

Market Shares of mobile platforms

Second, the breakdown of each of the platforms:

iPhone OS

iPhone has been around since 2007.   Since then, it has been called the “God” phone.  Currently it has sold over 42 Million units all over the world, with the majority in the United States.  I was mesmerized by the sleekness, speed, and the ability to multi-touch when I first saw the phone.  The form factor, user experience has been imitated from then on.  The strongest point of the iPhone has been its applications, with over 150,000 applications in the store.  Of those, all the coolest applications are on it and some businesses would develop in this only.  However, because the App Store  is a closed system, there had been complaints from developers saying their apps cannot pass through due to conflict of interest with Apple and its partners.

Google vs Apple (taken from New York Times)

Android

Android began its life as an open-source project and the operating system of the Open Handset Alliance.  In 2005 they were acquired by Google and the popularity just soared.  The project was a branch off the Linux kernel, but since Google acquired them, Google has made many changes to the project without contributing back, hence getting kicked out of the Linux Kernel.  To date, it has over 30,000 applications and equally gathering lots of attention of developers and businesses.  China, who manufactures low cost handsets, is a huge proponent to the Android OS, because it can further reduce the price of the offering to its rural area and for exports.  However, the recent incident between Chinese government and Google may create some road block of the growth for Android.

Windows Mobile

Microsoft has certain been one of the earlier adopters to mobile computing with the WinCE system on PDAs (Also the Apple Newton and Palm Pilots).  However, all through these years, Windows Mobiles had similar looks, and required the use of a stylus.  With phone manufacturers such as HTC, Samsung putting up their own efforts to make the skin more user friendly, there is still no hiding that the operating system is out-dated. In 2010, Microsoft announced that they are releasing Windows Phone 7 Series, with one HUGE problem – none of the previous applications are compatible with this new release.

I can already see how Microsoft will be losing this race, despite having a brand new offering, it  may have already turned their most loyal users away.  To date, there are around 700 applications and they need to figure out a new strategy in order to stay competitive in the smartphone market.

Blackberry

I like RIM –  I used to work in Motorola Canada where I was making software for two-way pagers, and I know the RIM originates from this technology.  Having witnessed how a small company from Waterloo, Ontario grew internationally, I think the “tipping point” moment of its history must have been the United States President Obama being dubbed the “Blackberry President“.  (I swear he was not the first one that used it,  it must have been much much earlier, maybe during Bill Clinton times) Since then, the brand has been associated with power, business and more power.

I truly believe this is the brand image that RIM needs to keep – no more touch screen phones, stop focusing on the consumer.  Just simply do the email and data well. Pay money to developers to create business applications.   If they branch off too much into consumerism and attempt to compete with Apple or Android,  then it may drain away too much of their resources.

Symbian OS

I must admit, I love Nokia phones.  I had a 6230i which lasted me 6 years, and I am currently using a E71. They are great phones, with awesome features and long lasting battery life, unlike the iPhone and other Android phones.  However, Symbian is having image problems.  Being the dominated mobile manufacturer and operating system, Symbian had been around for… TOO LONG. It’s similar to how Hotmail came about and everyone had hotmail at one point, and then, all of a sudden, they were taken over by the sexier, sleeker gmail.   I think  Symbian actually has more applications than the iPhone.  Of how many of them are current and usable, I can’t say.

One of the problems I have heard from an industry leader about Symbian, is that they are very reliable, low cost, and people perceived that it should stay that way.  Nokia would have no problem supplying the new, low cost markets with its low end phones, however, to a Geek or a developer, these markets are not  interesting enough.  So, when someone new looking at the available applications to the platform, there is NO GOOD APPS.  The Ovi Store simply cannot attract new developers as they cannot expect the low cost markets to pay for an app, even if it is being charged $1US.

Taiwan-made MTK

MTK is actually a  chip manufacturer in Taiwan, which supply 99% of all the “Shanzhai” (fake) phones in China. Despite the looks of a fake iPhone that you may have seen on news articles, underneath, they all have the same operating system – the MTK system.  The general specification of the system: Dual SIM, Bluetooth, Calendar, MP3, books, multi-lingual input, microSD input, support QQ  (a very popular IM), WAP/EDGE, touch screen capable, Java capable (sometimes).  The typical cost of a MTK powered phone: less than $100USD – it certainly can be a power to be if it has a proper application platform and better P.R. (no pun intended, means Public Relations here…)

The latest news I heard, is that MTK is intending to use Android as its de-facto operating system.

PalmOS

See Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, except imagine a company running out of cash.  Good luck, Palm.

So, how will the mobile future looks like?

My Bet:

If I have to put in a bet to see where the future in Mobile Smartphone Platforms, I will certainly place it in Android.  iPhone will be always cool, but a  closed system (hardware and software) will once again create an ecosystem of what happened 20 years ago with the MacIntosh vs the PC argument.  Windows Mobile will be interesting as things are too early at this point to judge.  I personally would like Nokia/Symbian to have a better prospect, although turning a large ship, like Symbian, around takes time and money – both of which Nokia can provide given its large lead and its penetration in the low-end market.

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