Surviving in the Mobile Space

As Prof. Schwarz posted on his blog this week, the world of mobile devices is in a period of rapid change and innovation.  It appears that both Microsoft and RIM are at inflection points with their mobile platforms, and their actions in the next year or so (possibly less) will determine their viability in this increasingly competitive market.  Point in case, Palm would have been forced to declare bankruptcy had HP not come in and acquire them at the last minute.  While their WebOS operating system was widely considered to be one of the best, if not the best, on the market, they made poor decisions when it came to hardware design and their selection of carriers. 

Although Microsoft and RIM have much healthier balance sheets than Palm did, they both risk being squeezed out of the market if they don't innovate.  The article Prof. Schwarz linked from cio.com talks about how companies are increasingly giving their employees choice when it comes to their mobile device.  If this trend continues, I can't help but believe that this will spell disaster for RIM.  As someone who suffered for three years with a company-issued Blackberry, I must say that there's no chance I'd ever purchase such a device for myself if given the choice.  The OS is clunky, outdated and sometimes downright unpleasant to use.  There were high hopes that the revised OS on the BB Torch was going to change all that, but alas it didn't.  Furthermore, if a mobile device company wants to survive in today's world, it needs not only an attractive and intuitive operating system but also an ecosystem built around that operating system. 

Apple does a good job of this by integrating iTunes and iBooks into iOS.  Tomorrow Apple will be announcing a new Apple TV tomorrow and I'd be shocked if that isn't integrated as well.  Because I'm a Google fan, my device of choice is, of course, an Android device.  When I purchase the device I was amazed at just how easy it was to get up and running.  Upon first turning on the device, it asked for my gmail login and I was off and running.  It had imported all my gmail contacts, google calendar, gchat friends and emails into my phone without me having to do a thing.  And of course, all these things are continuously synced between the phone and desktop applications.  I just can't envision how RIM can compete with such ecosystems when all they do is produce the Blackberry.  Microsoft, on the other hand, is better positioned and may have a fighting chance given the opportunity for Office and XBOX integration.  Not to mention its experience with enterprise systems and ability to throw mountains of cash at the effort.  Now it only has to overcome the stigma of its products being "uncool" (props to Apple for that).