Spot on. People loved their CrackBerries because of the messaging services (and maybe the keyboards), not the tired phone software. iOS and Android devices dominate the enterprise now, but RIM could retain a server-side position BES. IT departments might like a single enterprising message service that can they can standardize across the variety of Android and iOS devices they will have to support.

Remember when people were screaming at Apple to get out the hardware game in 1997?

It is just as hard to see how you coukd build a long term sustainable company based on BES though. In the end selling it to Microsoft would seem the only sane outcome, so it can be part of a Windows offering.