+1 ignorance among other things.....

This is a typical blinkered response in not seeing the bigger picture.

It's for the CEO and company to reach out to all the peoples he needs to inspire and motivate to help him out of this mess.

AND that includes speaking directly to the developers in his first address. Thereby recognising that the app eco-system they build, will realise the extensive hardware and software investment RIM have made.

It's not about pandering, or saying developers are gods, its about Android and Apple having an extra 300k virtual employees who try and make stuff for and on their platform. Does anyone here realise that more iOs developer SDKs were downloaded in the first month after release, then in all of RIMs years of existence! This is where the battleground is.

The QNX aquisition is a great one, there are many strengths to this 'new' OS, with it's multi-core scalability and inherent stability. (Note it's only new to mobile). The utility industry has it embedded in abundance, but Linnux is an example of another workhorse OS with little consumer traction.

But who cares when there are almost no apps to show off what QNX can do, because RIM has taken so god damn long to transition to it. Has done such a bad job managing expectations and left developers with a buggy dying OS in the interim that they switch to others.

Message to Alec Saunders: Your an improvement, but your not an improvement enough and time is not on your side. You should realise your responsible for the most powerful tool to unlock RIMs future, the developers. Despite being smaller than other platforms, you effectively have access to the largest resource of people in RIM.

BUT Guess what? Developers follow the money, follow where they get project commissions? where they get contracts, and it isn't for developing BlackBerry.

BlackBerry SDK and Eclipse plug-ins lag in features and die in functionality. Until recently as a developer you have to reboot with each committed change. The simulator absolutely sucks. This adds to a developers productivity, time spent and frustrations. BUT in real terms it means any BlackBerry project takes longer and therefore costs more. You also have to get new signing certificates with each commit and if the signing server is playing up (typically does)your sat there waiting, and this even though your debugging and developing without publishing. Add to which the UI work is insanely painful given the visual return.

What do you think will happen when the first BB10 handset finally launches in Q4? It's bang up against the iPhone5, which will likely match it in hardware, but will have the most well respected eco-system of services, be they fun or functional ready to go.

RIM should be using the Playbook as a way to build enough software capital so that they have a live and healthy system ready to go. USB to go should have been shown off as a way to say this is a master tablet. Playbook should have been daisychained together to show of the QNX multi-core capability. And the TAT guys should have been given FULL Control of the project.

The TAT aquisition is another stroke of genius, that then disappoints. They are encumbered by the forces within and the TAT guys are respected across the whole mobile industry. They were responsible for Android early look and feel,plus have always exhibited much more vision and excitement in their own proof of concepts. I was so excited when they came on board,but they just dont get the freedom.

QNX is extremely promising, but history is littered with much lauded, beautiful and technically gifted OSs...Maelmo, MeeGo, WebOS.

Users don't care about the OSs. They want tools to help make their lives easier, more productive or more fun. Yes fun, it's not a dirty word!

Users don't care that carriers are the gate keepers to RIMs latest OS update. They just want stuff to work. RIM should stop sucking up to the carriers and directly push out to handsets when they want to share new features they have designed or iron out bugs. In fact why are RIMs OS update links so damn slow? The developer links are the same. Don't you want more people showing the capabilities of your investment and smartness off?

I HATE the way Apple controls the user, but one linear OS with a minimal device line-up means the army of developers find their lives made simpler so they can concentrate on the look, feel and play.

I HATE the fragmentation in Android and the wild west app store, but Google are trying to create order via ICS and style guidelines, and with the first FIPS certification of an Android device (which Apple doesn't have, yet!) and Google Apps, they know Enterprise is the next battle ground.

In fact does anyone here at CrackBerry realise how many RIM enterprise SENIOR sales people have been poached by Apple? And that Samsung, HTC, LG and Sony Ericsson are all about to join the fun too!

Five years of my and mine teams life have been invested in working with RIM and supporting BlackBerry. I started before the iPhone and App store because I knew mobile software development was the next great vista. I have seen RIM be celebrated, and then sadly witnessed their complacency leave them left behind. They're a real stand out company, but they have also failed to see the writing on the wall. This latest news does not alter that view that they are writing themselves into history for the wrong reasons.

Chasing emerging market customers is like chasing PAYG customers. The margins are slimmer, and you no longer are the aspirational product they covet and want to upgrade to next. Your just a rebound or starter relationship, your not marriage material.

RIMs problem is definitely not going to be solved with marketing, when developers are the invisible, almost free army that truly help market a platform. It's about having the leverage to exercise your potential, and recognising that is an internal and external symbiotic effort.

RIM's best chance was to go Android, make a safe and secure enterprise friendly flavour of it and totally own this subset within a expanding universe. Then open its own malware and virus tested Android App store (as many others are doing now), but one specifically geared to enterprise (as Cisco has done now). After all in Android, Google's isn't the only flavour allowed.

Unsurprisingly Google has imperfections too. Fragmentation and a feeling of wild west. Then again develop for BlackBerry and the wealth of devices (i.e. screen resolutions) and OSs makes development painful and expensive.

BUT BlackBerry hardware (it's the best, it's their software that has unravelled them) with the Android OS and Android developer tools, AND TAT design and UI leadership AND BES Fusion and RIM enterprise facing salesforce would have been a perfect marriage and would have given RIM access to a huge pool of talent and catapulted it back into contention.

Instead it has been too proud and gone it alone (badly so far).

Good isn't good enough. It's time for greatness.