Research in Motion CEO Thorsten Heins admitted recently that RIM seriously considered switching to Android. The company eventually decided to go with their own BlackBery 10 OS, but the news is interesting. Did RIM make the right choice? It doesn't appear that way now, but time will tell.
Even though the news for RIM has been bad for a long time, and their stock has lost over 90 percent of its value, RIM still holds out hope that BlackBerry Messenger will be compelling enough for people to stick with RIM. Can they grow their userbase? It's very doubtful at this point.
“We took the conscious decision not to go Android,” Heins said. “If you look at other suppliers’ ability to differentiate, there’s very little wiggle room. We looked at it seriously – but if you understand what the promise of BlackBerry is to its user base it’s all about getting stuff done. Games, media, we have to be good at it but we have to support those guys who are ahead of the game. Very little time to consume and enjoy content – if you stay true to that purpose you have to build on that basis. And if we want to serve that segment we can’t do it on a me-too approach.”
Even though the news for RIM has been bad for a long time, and their stock has lost over 90 percent of its value, RIM still holds out hope that BlackBerry Messenger will be compelling enough for people to stick with RIM. Can they grow their userbase? It's very doubtful at this point.