RIM Must Choose: Carriers Or Consumers

Going through the troubled RIMM's quarterly earnings conference call I hear "it plans to focus on “incentivizing” (read: subsidizing) carrier partners and consumers to purchase BlackBerry 7 handsets".

Unfortunately, you cannot do both. I mean, it is either carriers, or consumers. RIM has always been keeping the carriers' side. But today, as Apple and Google have shown us, the carriers no longer control the market. The power has shifted and is now in the hands of consumers. And being good to the carriers, you are bad to consumers.

Let me explain.

I was a BlackBerry user for more than two years. I had Blackberry Bold, Curve and Torch handsets. I loved them as devices. But my overall experience was crippled by the carriers. I broke my contract with T-Mobile just a few weeks after I signed it, paying the agreed penalty. The reason? The BlackBerry on T-Mobile's network in Poland was useless. Why? Because T-Mobile allowed just a few selected applications to run over its blackberry.net data APN. I could not use Facebook. I could not use Gmail. I could not use Glympse. And many more.

I moved over to Orange and most of the applications started working, just by changing the carrier. Orange allowed more. Even more. There was UMA - meaning I could use WiFi to make and receive regular calls on my primary phone number. Abroad UMA meant no roaming charges (the phone was tunneling via WiFi to Orange's servers). At home UMA meant coverage (I have no GSM signal where I live, but I have my own WiFi). I was a happy, very happy BlackBerry / Orange customer. But then Orange turned off UMA, citing the small user base. I lost the incentive my carrier was giving me. At the same time more problems surfaced. I went for holidays to Peru, where Orange had no data roaming agreement. There was WiFi everywhere (including long distance buses), but I could not use my BlackBerry over WiFi. Because Blackberry requires carrier data to let you use WiFi! As they explained to me "we have to make sure you have a proper Blackberry data plan active". Yeah right. Go and do that in the middle of the Amazon jungle, where the only network is a WiFi hotspot connected to a satellite dish.

The BlackBerry OS has a concept of "Service Books". They are controlled by carriers and in turn control what applications are allowed over the carrier data. Yes, your carrier decides, on per-app basis, whether the app you buy from the BlackBerry App Store works or not. If you are an iPhone or an Android user, you probably do not believe me. But yes. This is true. I bought a number of apps that simply do not work. Do not work in my environment. Or - to be precise - the environment my carrier set up for me. Would you, as a user, live with that? Or would you switch over to iOS or Android, where the only thing you need from your carrier is the data connection? And you - the user, the owner of the handset, the person paying for the app, decide whether you want to buy and use a particular app? In BlackBery world it is the carrier that decides (you may realize this after you have already purchased the app).

Dear RIM. Let me repeat this. You cannot be good to both consumers and the carriers. You have to choose. Apple and Google have already chosen, if this tells you something.

Dear RIM. You say you want developers. I bet! So please explain to me, as a developer, why should I take the effort and build an app for your platform, when I have no guarantee will be allowed to run by a carrier X, Y or Z?

Dear RIM. You have to understand the carriers no longer control the market. The power has shifted and is now in the hands of consumers. And being good to the former, you are bad to the latter. Trying to be good to both is a flawed strategy.

From Android, with love.