The future of RIM

Don't get you hopes up. I saw the 'Blackberry is dead' bandwagon pull up a good few miles back and I refused to jump on board. Yes the OS is dated, the App World is pitiable, the company's shares have fallen to their lowest price since 2004 and I'm pretty sure I saw a homeless guy making a shelter out of discarded playbooks but as they say, the night is always darkest before the dawn.

I don't have the same scathing hatred for RIM or their Blackberry devices that other phone junkies seem to thrive on. I think that for the most part they have delivered quality devices consistently and are fantastic when it comes to their core functionality, which lest we forget is communication. Their Blackberry messaging service is still in my opinion the best out there provided you can find somebody that has a Blackberry and is older than fourteen to message.

We all know where they went wrong in the past. We know that whoever was calling the shots was clearly out of touch with the ever changing, ever progressing mobile world, but as a wise animated Meerkat once recited 'You've got to put your past behind you.'

So what for the future of Rim? Well as I'm sure you've all seen the guys over at Crackberry.com have posted the supposedly leaked design of the new, highly touted Blackberry London which is set to feature the all new Blackberry 10 OS and, I've got to say, it looks pretty fucking awesome. The chassis looks slim, premium and considered and what we can see of the UI actually looks contemporary and dare I say it, fresh.

The spec sheet also is nothing to scoff at. From what we hear the bods over at RIM are apparently testing TI OMAP5 and Qualcomm dual-core processors clocked at 1.5GHz. This is alongside a rumoured 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal memory, a 2-megapixel front facing camera and a 3.7 inch touchscreen, devoid of the (in)famous Blackberry physical Qwerty keyboard.

There is also rumour that the OS will be compatible with Android Apps. This would be a huge plus for RIM and their measly App World as this could potentially open the door to hundreds of thousands of quality apps and games and would be a great leap forward (not the controversial communist kind) for the platform and no doubt help it gain ground on it's competitors.

Now from all of that it seems the guys and gals over at RIM are finally taking this whole mobile phone business seriously. The phone is impressive, however with RIM stating that there will be no BB10 devices released until Q4 2012 will these specs still be impressive upon date of release?

Of course there is more to a phone than what's under the hood and as Windows Phone has proved, a quality and intuitive UI and an innovative OS can compensate for a lack of brute processing strength but with Apple set to release another iPhone that will no doubt change the game (if only slightly and less so than they say it will) and Google supposedly testing a 'Next Gen Personal Communications Device' will RIM’s offering, not just the specs but the OS and UI also, still feel, dare I say it, fresh?

It's do or die time for RIM and Blackberry. I for one personally hope that they do.