The Rise or Fall of RIM

Only 12 days are left until RIM (Research in Motion) reveals a long over due overhaul in their line of smartphones, Blackberry 10. And I mean LONG overdue. This pending announcement is being met by a general air of nonchalance from the press, media and by extension the public. Everyone seems to be of the opinion that Blackberry is dead. I won't be surprised if this post is met with comments like 'Isn't it obvious??'. But it is simply NOT TRUE. Yes I said it.

Now I am not a blackberry enthusiast, nor am I being paid by RIM. I simply stepped back one day and looked at the reality of what is around me, and spit back up the anti-rim oatmeal that the media is feeding everyone. For the apocalyptic reports coming from the media for over two years, claiming nothing short of a disastrous collapse and blowing up a much needed reshuffle of RIM's cabinet, by now surely Blackberry's should be obsolete devices and RIM should be filing for bankruptcy! 

It is my firm believe that things with RIM aren't as bad as the media makes it out to be. I am certainly not denying the obvious shortcomings of the current slate of Blackberry devices, but how does that lead me to conclude that RIM cannot do better? 

As I close this highly opinionated piece I just want to reiterate that I am not a Blackberry die hard. In fact, I own and love an iOS device. It is a trick of these companie to create a sense of loyalty to their devices, and a feeling of betrayal if we recognize anything but shortcomings in the competing devices. We as consumers need to snap out of this trance.  Competition (or attempts at) is good.  More companies trying to bring more to the table can only mean good for us as consumers, even the die hard apple users. I welcome Blackberry 10 with open arms.

LIME and our Cloud Computing future!

Opinion

Take a trip with me into the future. Technology works in a cycle. We started out with large computers with minimal processing power to smaller and smaller machines with great processing power, now a smartphone today has more computing power than computers of yesteryear. Processing power has been moving from large machines to small machines but I predict, that the future of processing will return to large machines hidden from the user (Cloud). Nonsense you might say, but lets dive deeper into my thoughts.

Exhibit A: Cloud Gaming

There is a new trend emerging where Cloud is becoming the processing engine for games which are delivered to our various screens. On-live was the first company to venture into this business and most recently as CES 2013 Nvidia announced the Nvidia GRID (read more about this here). What am I trying to say here is simple, your mobile device will not be able to keep getting smaller and increase in power at the rapid pace it is accomplishing today hence, this is where Cloud comes in. Millions of processors crunching away to deliver your game over the connection of the internet. 

Exhibit B: Chrome OS

Chrome OS is what I categorize as a product that has the right idea but the wrong timing. An Operating System that stores everything on the Cloud. Imagine with me a Windows/Mac machine that store everything in the cloud. I say it here now, this is the future. When I get up from my laptop at home and sign in at my friends house that desktop should just transform into my pc. That is the future, where your data moves with you and there is no need for external applications like Dropbox or Skydrive. 

Now where does LIME come into this picture?

I'm a Vincentian, an angry Vincentian studying in Barbados. Let me explain my anger, when I am in Barbados I enjoy 4G (LIME's definition of such) speeds but when I take a 30 minute trip to my lovely St. Vincent, I'm greeted with EDGE. What!? 

Reality Strikes

We in the Caribbean are classified as third world. We have been able to buy our way into the first world because of the breaking down of barriers which existed in times past, the world has become so much smaller. A phone is released in the United States today, and three days later somebody in the Caribbean has it rocking. Now lets think about the future I describe where our devices are mere thin clients with the real power hidden in the cloud and the critical connection between those to entities being the internet. 

Has the the picture become clear? We will be forced back into the dark ages if companies like LIME continue to control our progress keeping their feet firmly planted on the neck of our development. It's a sad reality for a tech junkie like myself but I hope by the time this future becomes a reality something can be done so we aren't left behind again. "Nuff said"

-Maurice John