ScreamingToaster

We are at the VIP area of bb devcon looking at all the new innovations that RIM has been up to. Its quite exciting to see so many new things coming from this company. A couple of quick thoughts:

* its great to see validation of the path that ScreamingToaster is on, with the ONE platform and web, mobile, dekstop connected experiences powered by our cloud.

* the new apis and functionality that are part of bb 5.0 break backward compatibiility. This is a double edged sword. This alienates the majority of existing bb devices out there (30 something million). It takes between 3 and 5 yrs to get the new platform today become prevalent (from a market size pespective). So for new development, an ISV must ask “should I support 5.0 or just switch to android?”. The bb browser is still not on webkit and 5.0 will not run on the bulk of existing devices and these new apis + services will require new skills/knowledge. So why not switch to android? Its been around for a while now and its got lots of awesome apis and tooling and capabilities.

* rim’s strength is really b2b. And these new apis and services will definitely help that segment. However, b2c, to me, seems to be a really difficult battle for this company, given apple, google, and next year microsoft’s presence (with win7 mobile and their own hardware).

More thoughts to come upon further reflection . We are excited about the demo later on tonight!!! I hope all the right people will be watching.

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