Ask HN: What would you do if you were RIM's new CTO?

RIM's lost the ecosystem war already so they need to abandon the burning platform. I would either use Windows Phone or fork Android depending on Microsoft's willingness to give up source. After deciding on the OS I would do deep integration with 1) Cloud storage 2) BBM 3) Social 4) Docs.

Imagine having a screen on your phone that has all the newest docs that your team has created, and being able to comment on one right from there. Imagine a screen that shows you what everybody on your team is working on and who's waiting on what. I would work with up and coming enterprise software companies and try to close bus dev deals that give us an advantage, and I would offer our data centers for doing the heavy lifting.

Their advantage used to be their integration with e-mail. Now they have to embrace cutting edge collaboration tools.

It should be entirely possible for them to use a modified version of Android like the NSA one. Starting from scratch again with QNX does not seem to be going well for them. The blackberry OS was based on java, so I presume it should be easier to keep some of their old code base than to start over.

I definitely don't want to be in that guy's shoes!

Drop the harware business, and focus on getting the complete device management software solutions that companies can't live without. (from cloud backup to security enhanced android forks)

Start making the best Android phones possible for business users.

Fire people on April 1. They don't know if they really lost their jobs till Monday, 4/3.

(At a startup where a lot of people I care about work, the CTO just left, and the VP/Finance is moving against star engineers because, perversely, it benefits her if the company fails a key deliverable. I am in a shitty mood right now.)