Okay. Do you have any actual reason why you think that they'd be doing better had they elected to use a competitors laughably inferior OS over their own?

Figures.

Or children. Everything from games to stuff for school seems to require flash.

It's still better, security wise, than installing an app for every little thing. That was really my whole point.

I'll agree with the AC here, we finally have an opportunity with HTML5 to abandon Flash. It'll take a while, but we can get there eventually. It's cool (on slashdot) to put-down HTML5, but it's the best opportunity to ditch Flash that we've ever had.

Because using Android instead of the dramatically superior OS they have was the only solution? Their massive investment in developer tools means they "failed to foresee the problem"? That's as delusional as a ZD Net editorial! (For years now, their mobile platform has been the simplest platform for developers to target, while still offering the most options to developers. All thanks to a massive push by BB to improve developer tools.)

Developing for Android is still a nightmare -- just about every Android developer will tell you the same. (I stopped supporting the platform half-way through my first port. It wasn't worth the headache.) As for the user side of things, well, I'll use my wife as an example as she has twice regretting getting an Android device. Her first (and only) Android phone didn't last two months before she gave up on it and replaced it with a BB. The Kindle Fire I got her for Christmas, to replace her much-loved playbook, has already caused her no end of frustration -- all over something as simple as opening and closing apps. (Can you believe that Android still handles that so poorly? WTF? Mozilla got it right, BB got it right, why the hell can't Android?)

It's pretty clear that using Android would have been a horrible mistake. Not just in the mobile market, but in every other market RIM competes. (They do more than make mobile phones, you know.)

They have a superior product. They're right to bet their future on it. The Passport and BB Classic are getting rave reviews, which is a positive sign for them. I doubt they'd even still be around had they make the mistake of investing in a shitty OS like Android. Do you honestly believe that being another me-too player offering the same second-rate product would have been a better path?

Again, no. Go read his post.

QNX

No. Not even close. That's about as far from what Chen suggested as I could possibly imagine.

Because the quickest way to success is to switch to an inferior technology from one of your competitors?

Yes, that's exactly where I expected an idea like that to form.

You seem to have a distorted view of history.

Firstly, what a load of crap. Secondly, I think Rob MacDonald should take a break from Slashdot and actually go read what John Chen actually said.

They've already done that.

A wise decision on their part. Had they taken such foolish advise, I doubt they'd still be around.

This is still the stupidest idea ever. Using an inferior technology from a competitor would help them ... how, exactly?

That would be ... a massive step backward. Computing like it's 1994.

Time have changed, you know.

They've been WAY ahead of everyone else for years. Apple is the one you should worry about there.

This reminds me of the universal app package standard Mozilla is pushing. If other platforms were to support FFOS apps, that would be a huge win for consumers, developers, and smaller players in the smartphone OS market alike. While I don't agree that it should be legislated, Chen is right about cross-platform app compatibility being important.

Is it? Don't most hate groups like to think of themselves as an oppressed, but righteous, minority? Isn't that exactly what you guys believe?

Or do you mean that it's dishonest to compare two hate groups if their targets differ?

For an organization about harassment, skinheads sure have been victims of a lot of it.