From the DF Archives: Why RIM Is Screwed

Yours truly, back in May 2008, on the trouble the iPhone posed for RIM:

There is marketing. There most certainly is design. But at the core of this market — by which I mean the market for handheld multitasking web-surfing networked-everywhere “phones” which are really computers — is engineering.

Apple is the best handheld computer engineering company in the world today, hands down. They’re also the best handheld computer user experience design company. And they’re not sharing.

I.e., RIM was bringing knife-making skills to a gun-making market battle. Starting with the iPhone, the mobile industry shifted from phone/messaging to full-on mobile computing, and RIM wasn’t prepared for that. And in hindsight, that’s why Android has fared so well in the three years since I wrote the above. Android is a mobile computing platform, not merely a phone/messaging platform.

★ Friday, 17 June 2011