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Comment by protomyth | Hacker News Reader

Given the people who bought Blackberries, it would seem like an ARM-based netbook with a really awesome keyboard and 3G would have been a better idea for a first step outside the cellphone market. It really seems like the Storm and Playbook were me-toos instead of looking at what makes RIM great and pushing that.

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> Given the people who bought Blackberries

Depends on the country, Blackberries are mostly (to solely) corporate in the US, but in Europe it tends to be used a lot by teenagers and young adults for extensive messaging thanks to BBM + good keyboard.

On the other hand, I don't see how they'd get that demographic a BB tablet, so you probably have a good point.

Their new market is heavy texters. Corporate US has all but given up on the platform, with an avalanche of switching to Android and iOS.

If you want a cheap phone with an inexpensive text-messaging plan, RIM is your go-to device.

but in Europe it tends to be used a lot by teenagers and young adults for extensive messaging thanks to BBM + good keyboard.

Actually the same is true in the US for people who want cheap plans.

A lot of companies that are still using blackberries are eyeing alternatives that they want to start using once their contracts run out. Several smaller companies I have spoke to used to be entirely Blackberry shops, but have recently switched to iPhone's and Android devices.

People buy the RIM devices for their keyboards. To go and make a touchscreen tablet without one is misguided and blind to their customers.

That being said, the utility of a keyboarded-tablet is somewhat dubious at best. It'd feel like a hobbled netbook.

That's pretty much why I said make a real netbook. QNX would have made an interesting OS for a netbook. If they were going to go along with the crowd, they should have copied the Air instead of the iPad.

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