RIM Should Make the Move to Android

If you’ve been following RIM recently you probably know that while the company is going strong in the enterprise mobile market their standing in the world of consumer handsets is lacking at best.  The company’s image as a boring manufacturer that produces devices built for all work and no play is enough to make it an unattractive choice for consumers.  Worse yet, the simple fact that RIM uses their own in-house BlackBerry operating system means that users are limited to a platform that offers very little in terms of third-party applications or features that users take for granted in more modern mobile systems really is the nail in the coffin for the company’s potential with consumers.

Of course Apple uses iOS, it’s own in-house operating system, on its iPhone but the difference here is that RIM’s BlackBerry OS isn’t established with consumers.  Much like Apple and Google haven’t been able to get a grasp on the enterprise market, RIM’s potential in the consumer field simply is an uphill battle right now.  But when it comes down to it, RIM only has one component that is preventing themselves from hitting it big; its own stubbornness as a company.

Like I’ve said, BlackBerry OS isn’t getting RIM anywhere with consumers right now.  So what could the company do to fix this?  They could burn through operating capital to improve and re-market the OS, but that would be a simple waste and even after all the effort I honestly doubt that they’d be much better off than they are no.  The real solution, though, would be to admit defeat and hit the ground running with RIM-powered phones running Google’s Android operating system.

Even now the company is already working to add capabilities to the BlackBerry OS that would allow it to run Android applications.  My question though, is why they would only do it half-way and not just start running Android on its consumer devices.  After all, from what I’ve read so far it seems as if Android application support of BlackBerry OS is going to have rather limited support and will only amount to another failed venture for RIM.

Trust me, I get it.  If RIM started using Android on its devices it would be seen as a surrender in the mobile market.  But really, RIM is at the point now where they simply cannot afford to be anything but cutting edge, and sticking to their own underdeveloped and under-marketed operating system isn’t going to get them anywhere.  And it’s not like the company couldn’t make Android work for them.

Look at it; there’s not a single major manufacture out there that produces devices that run pure vanilla copies of Android.  All of them use their own modified builds, and I think that if RIM were to port over some of its work to run on Android they’d be able to have the best of both worlds; the RIM quality the company is legendary support, and the Android function that has become incredibly popular in the last few years.

Better yet, RIM could still develop BlackBerry OS and have simultaneous problems in both the enterprise market that they currently reign over, and the virtually unlimited potential of the consumer market that they’re surely drooling over by now.

Really, it seems like a simple and logical move, and it’s beyond me why RIM hasn’t put this move into play yet.