Mobile Industry Insider's Opinon of the Smartphone and Mobile Platform Landscape

This opinion written by Abdi  Zadeh, former REGARD VP of Professional Services...and redistributed here with his permission.  So, these are not my opinions, however, Abdi is spot on for the most part here...
Steve Beauregard
For the past 6 weeks, I’ve gone through an array of smartphones and tablets. I thought I’d share my experience:


Smartphone Landscape:

BlackBerry Torch: This is the phone that RIM should had come out with 12 months earlier than they did. Nice display, form-factor, and great battery life. This device won’t win any non-BlackBerry user over, but provides a nice stop-gap for existing BlackBerry users.

iPhone 4: This is great phone. Easy to use, good battery life, and nice form-factor. In fact, the only flaw is the lack of Flash support, which is quickly becoming a non-issue with the adoption of HTML 5

HP Veer: This is a cute phone, but definitely not for power-users. The form-factor is weird and the screen is too small. This runs on WebOS 2.0, which lacks quantity of apps. I’d wait for next generation devices from HP supporting WebOS 3.0

Samsung Galaxy 2 – Epic 4G: I really liked this Android 2.2 phone. Very nice touch display and full qwerty keyboard is nice for those of us that can’t type on screen displays. Battery life is definitely an issue, especially when the 4G, Wi-fi, or or GPS toggles are active. Also – the qwerty keyboard is too wide, making text-entry difficult with 2 thumbs (even for my long fingers). The accelerometer, which monitors device orientation and directional-navigation, seems to have some quirks as well.

Samsung Droid Charge: This is my current phone and I LOVE it. Incredibly fast 4G LTE with surprisingly sufficient battery-life. The Charge runs on Android 2.2, has a large touch display, and is extremely light in weight. The front facing camera is pretty cool too. My only issues with this phone are that main nav keys are hard buttons as opposed to screen-displays, which makes it a weird experience going back/forth from screen to buttons. Also – there’s no toggle between 3G and 4G. You have to use 4G where available.

HTC Thunderbolt: Hate it! Horribly outdated form-factor. It feels like a clunky PDA from Palm-4 days (late 90s). Battery life sucked

Samsung Focus: LOVE IT! I can’t believe Microsoft finally delivered a solid Mobile Platform. Running Windows Mobile 7, which introduces some new interactions with the finger gestures, the Focus provides new intuitive ways of navigating through apps and content. The battery life is on par with iPhone. The only negative is the lack of apps. The question is… can Microsoft win over consumers after so many horrible mobile platforms in the last 10 years?

Tablet Landscape:
iPad: This is still the best tablet out in the market. Best display, weight, form-factor.

BlackBerry Playbook: In my opinion, Playbook is the only device that comes close to iPad. Great hardware and experience. There’s a slight learning curve for new users, but once you get over it – you realize its brilliant design. What I don’t like; at 7”, I wish it were bigger. I also wish they would have launched with Android App support, which is expected in early Q4.

Motorala Xoom: A ridiculously overpriced paper-weight! The display is visibly cheap. When you hold it up to your phone or other tablets, it’s visibly less bright and sharp. It’s extremely heavy in weight and the power button is hidden on the back of the device (stupid). The processor chokes on interactive content, such as AJAX features.

Mobile Platform Landscape:

Apple’s iOS: Still the best, but others are catching up quickly. I believed that lack of Flash support would be their downfall, but with the growing adoption of HTML 5, Apple may have killed Flash. The only negative - for PC users, it sucks to be forced into using iTunes to sync/transfer content.

RIM’s BlackBerry: As a longtime advocate of the BlackBerry platform, all I can say now is that RIM’s days are numbered. RIM is so infused into corporate culture that it will be a slow death (ala Novel). They are trying to retain users with a big push in Latin America and Asia, but are hemorrhaging U.S. market-share. The Torch and Playbook are OK, but too little, too late.

Google’s Android 2.2 and 2.3: I’m a big fan, but they need to figure out their battery-management issues. They have the advantage of having multiple Manufacturers building hardware and interfaces for this platform, creating competition - which is always better for consumers. The funny thing about this is… Google’s Android Apps (e.g., Gmail and Google Docs) are really poorly designed.

Microsoft's Mobile 7: They finally did it! They finally put out an platform that wasn't ridiculously bad. In fact, it's pretty good. They introduce some new gesture interactions that allow for both vertical and horizontal navigation of content. The biggest challenge for this platform is the bad reputation Microsoft has in this space.

HP’s WebOS: I’m a fan, but have never seen any strong push or implementation of this platform. Since HP acquired Palm over a year ago – they’ve gone into hibernation. In Q4 of this year – we can expect new HP phones and tablets using a new WebOS 3.0 (with improved gestures for touch-screens). I’m sure HP will have a marketing blitz for developers and consumers. This is a very enticing platform for developers, as all you need to know is Javascript (even the native device APIs).

Qualcomm’s BrewMP: Stick to your hardware, chipsets, and Snapdragon Qualcomm! Mobile o/s is not your game! For a long time, I have predicted that this platform will die soon. I have inside info that suggests the time has finally come. It looks like Android will be the sole platform for Snapdragon devices.

Sean Penn to Marry Dr. Laura Schlessinger or Microsoft to buy RIM?

This headline seems as unlikely to me today as "Microsoft to Buy Research in Motion” (aka RIM, creators of the BlackBerry.) Photo by BlackBerryCool

This morning I was contacted by a technology reporter and asked to comment on the rumor.  I have speculated with peers for years as to which company would ultimately buy RIM and when.  There was a time about 3 years ago, that a take over of RIM by the software giant would have made obvious sense.

In late 2007, Microsoft Mobile 6 was clearly failing to gain meaningful mobile market share.  Meanwhile, RIM was trying to get their legs back under them after the 15^th round knockdown by NTP in the multi-year lawsuit.  For the better part of the year (a technology eternity,) RIM’s best and brightest engineers worked on contingency plans to circumvent certain message transport methods to hopefully stay off the NTP injunction.  RIM spent little time during that dispute staying ahead of the competition. 

During this time, Microsoft made giant strides with the Active Sync technology which is now utilized by Apple iPhone and other Smartphone manufacturers.  In my opinion, that was the key time for Microsoft, or Google for that matter, to buy RIM.  With the lawsuit settled and the BlackBerry Smartphone OS aching for an overhaul, Microsoft would have instantly taken the leadership position in the mobile race rather than continuing to flail about in the surf.

Google on the other hand would have then greatly benefited from acquiring RIM at that time as well.  Google would have instantly established an enterprise customer base to sell through all of the cloud based apps to displace Microsoft more rapidly than they recently have. Couple that with reason with the flop of the Nexus One, Google was ripe at that point to buy RIM.  Google quickly realized they “stepped in it” BIG TIME attempting to enter the hardware business.  Once they abandoned and realigned their strategy, Google Android promptly marched to the top of the US Smartphone market. So, why would they buy RIM now?

Although this is bad news for RIM, they remain an attractive acquisition target still for the following reasons:

1.   Recurring revenue. RIM continues to print money with their take of the monthly carrier bill and the annual enterprise T-Support contracts.

2.   Enterprise Customer Base.  RIM has an impressive government and corporate customer base for selling through other hardware, software and services.

3.  RIM is abandoning their legacy proprietary OS overhauling in favor of their QNX (UNIX based) OS.

4.  The new PlayBook will run Android apps on top of a virtual

Obstacles to a sale:

1.   RIM top brass don't want to sell.  Both Jim Ballsillie and Mike Lazaridis are RIM lifers.  Perhaps if Jim Ballisille can finally win his bid to bring a NHL hockey franchise to Waterloo...that may be a big enough distraction for him.  However, Lazaridis is a self admitted geek and LOVES what he does.  I would not be the least bit surprised to see the Co-Captains go down with the BlackBerry ship Novell style.  REGARDless…RIM will still be a major factor for 5 to 10 more years.

2.  Supporting RIM’s plethora of legacy devices, OS versions and BlackBerry Enterprise Server versions has got to me a formidable undertaking for any outsider coming in.

3.  The number one obstacle however will be blending the culture of most any organization with RIM. Having worked in or consulted for thousands of companies of all sizes over the past two decades, I have rarely come across any organization with the ability to say “my way or the highway” to customers and partners and get “their way” almost without exception. 

RIM and Microsoft would clash culturally worse than Sean Penn marrying Dr. Laura Schlessinger.  From my earliest dealings with RIM back in 1998, they came out of the gate with ATTITUDE and EGO which has served them VERY well up and to now!

The tides have indeed turned!  In general, the market reception I am hearing even among the most loyal BlackBerry users is "We are so over BlackBerry!"  The new Smartphones hitting the market are too compelling and the consumer version of BlackBerry Internet Services is no longer the differentiator.  RIM will be forced to adapt, sell the company or they will atrophy into the history books!