Blackberry’s Mistake

We have all heard the saying, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.  I think Blackberry should have listened to this quote and taken it to heart.  Don’t get me wrong, I think they have done a good job with their operating system.  It’s not an operating system that I would like to use but I’m sure there are still people that would like to use a Blackberry device.  I think that instead of buying QNX, Blackberry should have taken a que from Amazon and developed their own custom flavor of Android.

If Blackberry wanted to, I’m sure they could have worked with the interface of Android to have it mimic a Blackberry device and include their services in the OS.  They could have gotten a lot of benefit from doing this.  Firstly, people who want a Blackberry look and feel for their device wouldn’t have sacrifice the app catalog.  Many people who still buy a Blackberry device do so because of the hardware.  It would have taken a lot of work for the developers to change the interface of Android to look like a Blackberry but they did the same for QNX.  Secondly, they would have access to the app catalog that Android currently offers, which is a big deal.  A phone OS is only as good as the apps you can install on it.  Thirdly, they could have included all their services on their device and use it as a competitive advantage over other Android manufacturers.  It could even be the go to Android flavor for business.  Instead, they are going to have to challenge Samsung that is already making a push in that space with SAFE.  Finally, Android is open source, no one is stopping them from doing anything they want to do to the OS.  Blackberry already has services that people are willing to pay for.

Blackberry felt they were making the right decision by buying QNX but I really think this couldn’t be farther from the truth.  Windows Phone has been on the scene for a while and hasn’t made any dent in the market and I don’t see any reason that Blackberry will be any more successful.