Research in Motion (RIM may have suffered some very difficult times in the last couple of years, but it is now primed to make its comeback in the smartphone industry this year with its heavily anticipated BlackBerry 10 OS. Leaked photos of the new smart phone OS have, however, revealed that it has the same typical design for touch phones – rectangular handset with a black screen and no physical buttons. As a result, sceptics are justifiably concerned that RIM’s new device will bring nothing new to the table and may have a hard time making the impact it’s hoping for.
RIM’s earlier attempts at entering the touchscreen market proved by unsuccessful as 2008’s BlackBerry Storm got buried in obscurity as the first version of the iPhone stole the limelight. Its attempt to enter the tablet market was met with a very similar fate, as its Playbook entered the scene when the iPad was making headlines and was met with an even poorer response due to the fact that its email feature only worked if a BlackBerry phone was attached to it. As a result, RIM decided to focus on miniaturized QWERTY keyboards for their smartphones which were easy to type on quickly and managed to attract consumers who weren’t ready to transition into the rapidly growing domain of touch phones.
While this formula has brought enough success to RIM to keep it afloat, the company may have to change things up if it wants to hold its current customer base and attract wider interest amongst consumers. From its past experiences, the company’s transition to touch screen products has been met with relative failure and it may have to build upon what has already worked for it in the past few years. While most consumers are gradually making the switch to touchscreen, there are still numerous consumers who have absolutely no interest in them.
The problem, as always, has been proper integration of touch screen devices and physical keyboards. Many consumers have a strict preference for either, but RIM seems to have chosen the touch screen niche with the Blackberry 10 OS, whereas its primary base consists of keyboard fans. Analysts predict RIM will eventually release a BB10 device with a physical keyboard to appease fans. However, how well BB10 as a touch screen platform will scale for devices with keyboards may be the key to the company’s future.
