What We've Seen From Distant Eyes

Sitting here behind my laptop watching and reading what has come out of BBWC and BlackBerry Jam has made me envious. How much I wish I'd have been able to attend this year's festivities in Orlando. In lieu of that, I've depended upon the eyes, ears and minds of others to inform me of what we can expect from RIM in the next few months which will pave the way for years to come.

The BlackBerryOS crew that went to BBWC to party....errr report and review the future of RIM and our beloved BlackBerry phones did a fantastic job. The crew here that wasn't able to attend kept the site running put out some great articles. I'm so proud to have been able to join such a wonderful group of people.

So, the question remains...What have we seen come out of Orlando? The honest answer...the truthful answer, to borrow a line from Bachmann Turner Overdrive, is we ain't seen nuthin' yet. We've seen Thorsten Heins' Keynote Address. We've seen the new Keyboard in action. We've seen BlackBerry 10 developers attend and start to show what the power of QNX and Cascades can do. We've seen the new capabilities of the BlackBerry 10 camera. All amazing things we've never seen on a BlackBerry device.

What does it all mean though? This Alpha device isn't what we've been told will be the phone that BlackBerry releases at the end of the year. This news really makes me excited. Why? Because this is another present that RIM is promising us. Like a Ralphie waiting for his Red Ryder BB gun on Christmas morning, seeing what was developed, is being developed and what will be developed for this new BlackBerry 10 device has me on tenterhooks in wonder of what will grace my hands this fall.

Keeping all this in mind, does this whole BlackBerry 10 mean the make or break of RIM. No. What WILL make or break BlackBerry 10 and RIM is marketing and public relations. For too long RIM relied on it's business dominance and security to keep it going. Recently it has realized that it needs to capture the young user. The mobile market has passed it by and RIM has grabbed onto the bumper of the bus and is hanging on in the back. Smart marketing, hip marketing, heavy and familiar marketing needs to be the onus for RIM's marketing department. The BlackBerry 10 operating system looks to be the best out there but without the demonstration of it's marketability and usefulness, it will be just another thing for us BlackBerry fanbois to drool over. Apple markets a decent phone with simplicity. Basically they shove 10 pounds of poo into a 5 pound bag and sell it to the masses. Name recognition is needed. Brand recognition needs to be the focus. Quality needs to be the key.

For once I want the suits at RIM to get mad! Get aggressive and fire that broadside commercially at the waterline of their competitors.

In the end, RIM puts out fantastic products. From apps to devices to OS. What Orlando showed us laptop jockeys is that they're acknowledging what was wrong and correcting the way things were done. Orlando should be a rallying cry for us