While I may recommend the iPhone to the majority of people who ask, Android is still my mobile operating system of choice. Google has created a truly amazing and innovative platform, and because it is open-source anyone can tweak it and customize it. Even devices that weren’t meant for Android, such as my HP TouchPad, can run the mobile OS beautifully thanks to dedicated third-party developers. As I spend more and more time with an iPhone, however, I realize that my love for open-source is slowly beginning to fade. While I used to believe open-source would play a huge role in pushing Android ahead of the competition, which it did, I now believe it may end up being the thing that kills it.

With the release of Ice Cream Sandwich, Google revamped Android, making it prettier and more user-friendly. If you were to ask me what the best Android smartphone is, I would confidently state “the Galaxy Nexus.” While the handset has its flaws — for example, the camera is dreadful compared to the iPhone 4S and HTC One X — it is one of the very few smartphones that runs an unskinned version of Android, not to mention the latest version of Google’s Android software. Skins are the reason 90% of Android devices aren’t running Ice Cream Sandwich.

I understand that vendors need to distinguish their devices from the competition, but forcing customers to use a clunky, battery-wasting skin is not the answer. I wouldn’t be so against Android skins if the manufacturers allowed the average user to remove them completely, and I mean without the need to root a device. I praise HTC and Samsung for making their devices developer friendly, but it would be great for them to take things a step further and give users the option of going skinless without voiding warranties.

The days of Android may be limited when you can walk into your local Kohls or Sears store and buy an “Android tablet” for between $25 and $150. These no-name tablets, that in many cases run something crazy like Android 2.2, are killing Android brand and further confusing consumers. I am a big advocate of buyer beware and I always suggest that people do extensive research before buying anything, but this might be solved with a more closed approach to the Android operating system.

If Google were to license Android to manufacturers such as Samsung, HTC, LG and Sony, little would change where the end user is concerned, but it would put an end to what I call “craplets” — off-brand, no-name, crappy tablets.

Lastly, if Android can survive the dangers of being open-source, can survive the sale of “craplets,” and doesn’t get skinned to death by vendors, there is another matter at hand — the carriers. Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint — they all do it, some more than others — pre-install apps on their devices. This “bloatware” often cannot be uninstalled and is found on just about every Android device, including my “pure Google” Galaxy Nexus.

To make matters worse, carriers and vendors sometimes enter into exclusive partnerships to offer services on certain devices. The latest example is Flipboard for Android exclusively for the Galaxy S III, and although it was eventually pulled from the device and made available for all, leaving a large portion of a carrier’s user base in the dark could end up coming back to haunt them.

Another and perhaps the worse case was when Verizon partnered with Microsoft and replaced numerous Google services with Bing as the default option. Yes, Bing was forced upon numerous Android users.

Google might be well-served to follow in Apple’s footsteps to a degree, at least, and take more control. Whether or not that means closing Android off to an extent, something must be done. The company might tell the carriers to back off with the bloatware and exclusives as well, but rumors of multiple vendors selling Nexus devices directly to end users — which Google has been considering for quite some time, as BGR reported last year — likely isn’t the answer.

When discussing the matter publicly, Google measures Android’s success in daily activations. The most recent figure sits at a sky-high 850,000. While that remarkable stat might be the best way for an advertising company to measure its success, Research In Motion and Nokia can both attest to the fact that it takes more than volume to stay on top in the mobile business.

I sat at my computer in amazement a little earlier. Most of me knew that RIM is too damaged and too slow to pivot, and just too out of touch with its customers to know it actually has a chance. But, there was this small part of me that was genuinely excited for BlackBerry World’s announcements. Then I saw Thorston Heins start off the company’s most crucial keynote ever with Salesforce and Cisco.

This company has not changed, and won’t change. The parts of BlackBerry 10 demoed are slick — capturing a series of images and combining different elements from each one before you save a photo seems genuinely incredible, though how is that done, with an EDoF camera, so no autofocus? What we saw wasn’t truly innovative, though. It wasn’t compelling enough, and it’s unfortunately too late to try and gain enough traction and support for a third mobile ecosystem.

RIM is a company that has failed to deliver for the last eight years, and it doesn’t deserve another chance to mess it up. My live-tweets are embedded below so you can follow along to my instant (rambling) thoughts.

Also of note: RIM declined to make its BlackBerry 10 Alpha device available for BGR. Coincidentally, two publications that had early access to the smartphone also have advertising campaigns from BlackBerry running.

honestly, yes, it’s possible RIM can fuck up a live stream.

— Jonathan S. Geller (@boygenius) May 1, 2012

this is so terrible.

— Jonathan S. Geller (@boygenius) May 1, 2012

same shit, same shit. security. infrastructure. business.

— Jonathan S. Geller (@boygenius) May 1, 2012

yes, when your company is dying because you missed the consumer boat, your first guest should be salesforce.

— Jonathan S. Geller (@boygenius) May 1, 2012

oh, look, cisco is on stage now.

— Jonathan S. Geller (@boygenius) May 1, 2012

camera is dope as fuck

— Jonathan S. Geller (@boygenius) May 1, 2012

probably wont work well though and will take 90 seconds to power on.

— Jonathan S. Geller (@boygenius) May 1, 2012

everyone complaining about me complaining, just remember there are less and less of you every day.

— Jonathan S. Geller (@boygenius) May 1, 2012

this is very simple. this company has failed to ever deliver in the last 8 years.

— Jonathan S. Geller (@boygenius) May 1, 2012

also they had been working on blackberry 10 for how long? 3 years and we get 3 little demos?

— Jonathan S. Geller (@boygenius) May 1, 2012

sorry 2 years ago they acquired QNX.

— Jonathan S. Geller (@boygenius) May 1, 2012

I saw from the inside and outside how RIM transformed the mobile landscape, and how the company even battled its own inner demons throughout the years. Here are my thoughts on the company’s worst quarter in five years:

RIM grew incredibly fast. It grew faster than the company knew how to manage, and RIM slowly — and then quickly — slipped as a result. This is the company that used to make users choose between a device with Wi-Fi and no GPS, or GPS and no Wi-Fi, just to have two products on the market instead of one. This is the company that refused to take the consumer market seriously for a number of years. This is the company that couldn’t see the future when it was right in front of them.

One of my high-level Research In Motion sources who I’ve known for a number of years wrote an open letter to the company a few months ago that I published on BGR. Looking back at it now, here are some of the most intriguing and timely quotes:

• Let’s obsess about what is best for the end user. We often make product decisions based on strategic alignment, partner requests or even legal advice — the end user doesn’t care.
• We need some heavy hitters at RIM when it comes to software management. Teams still aren’t talking together properly, no one is making or can make critical decisions, all the while everyone is working crazy hours and still far behind.
• The public’s questions about dual-CEOs are warranted. The partnership is not broken, but on the ground level, it is not efficient. Maybe we need our Eric Schmidt reign period.
• Just because someone may have been a loyal RIM employee for 7 years, it doesn’t mean they are the best Manager / Director / VP for that role. It’s time to change the culture to deliver or move on and get out.
• Strategy is often in the things you decide not to do.

What’s so interesting is that RIM has actually started to implement most of what the open letter said the company should do. The company isn’t releasing BlackBerry 10 until it’s happy with it, the end user has been more of a focus, the company has gotten rid of a number of executives, and the dual-CEO structure is gone. Unfortunately, it’s not enough. RIM has a fundamental problem with what the company can offer, and what the company can do best.

RIM CEO Thorsten Heins even stated yesterday during the company’s earnings call that RIM’s best-in-class enterprise integration, security and push email are no longer a huge selling point for the company. Really? It took five years to figure that out?

The enterprise loves the BlackBerry Bold 9900′s keyboard, but most BlackBerry customers want a full-touch smartphone and RIM’s all-touch smartphones are poor excuses for a phone. In fact, an iPhone 3GS or prepaid Android smartphone is a much better option for the majority of people in the market for a low or mid-range smartphone compared to a BlackBerry Torch. RIM’s average selling prices have taken a nosedive since the company’s products can’t compete on features, only price, though competitors like Huawei and others have seized this opportunity to introduce lower-priced Android smartphones.

Something I have been told from another senior source at Research In Motion is that the company is considering ditching their system access fees for all carriers. This amounts to more than $1 billion in revenue each quarter for RIM, but the company thinks it might be a way to drive BlackBerry 7 sales before BlackBerry 10 finally hits the market. It would be a radical move that could help the company sell more units in the short term, but would get them nowhere in the long term. In fact, all it would really do is buy the company time to try and get BlackBerry 10 out of the door, or buy time while it explores other options for the company’s future.

I spoke with the same inside source who wrote the open letter to RIM we published last summer, and here is what this person had to say: “RIM only has one hope. Ditch the QNX bullshit experiment that will be the exact definition of a 1.0 operating system — it can not compete.” The source went on to say, “Take on Windows Phone and negotiate with Microsoft. You need BBM on Windows Phone, get a royalty fee from all the others. Then build out the BES story with Exchange — beef that up, now there’s an interesting and unique value proposition.”

BGR exclusively reported in January that Research In Motion was pushing for a sale of a part (or entire) company to Samsung. Those talks were real. RIM has talked with a bunch of companies about licensing its software and OS, licensing BlackBerry Messenger, licensing the company’s network infrastructure, and even selling different parts of RIM flat out.

The RIM we know, is dead. The company has 12 to 15 months until it’s either acquired, or broken into pieces and sold for parts. I’m not even sure why the company still plans to launch BlackBerry 10 smartphones at this point.

Android phones have never been as impressive as they are today. They have never been as responsive, as slim or as powerful. Their displays have never been more vivid or more stunning. Their data speeds have never been as fast. Competition is now hotter than ever before in the smartphone market and consumers are reaping the benefits. At its core, each and every new smartphone that launches is an engineering feat that simply could not have existed a few short years ago. And yet as amazing as the current crop of smartphones might be, there has probably never been a worse time in Android’s brief but storied history for savvy users to buy a smartphone.

A quick glance through the smartphone catalogs of each of the four major wireless carriers in the United States reveals a terrific array of Android handsets. There is certainly no shortage of gigahertz or gigabytes, and spec sheets in general have become laundry lists of cutting-edge technology. More importantly, of course, this new breed of Google-powered phones offers performance that is far more responsive and fluid than previous generations of handsets. But as impressive as these devices are, right now is a horrible time to buy any of them.

Things are about to get a whole lot better.

For tech savvy smartphone users, committing to a two-year contract is brutal. Mobile technology moves so fast that smartphones can seem outdated just months after they launch. While this trend is bound to continue, the degree to which new generations of Android phones outdo their predecessors will always ebb and flow. Handsets have been improving at a somewhat modest pace for the past year or so, but the next crop of smartphones to hit store shelves will represent a huge leap forward rather than a few short steps.

Two leading smartphone makers, Samsung and HTC, are on the verge of launching next-generation devices that will put today’s high-end handsets to shame. HTC has already unveiled its new One-series phones, and the two high-end models it showed off at Mobile World Congress are game-changers, plain and simple.

The HTC One X is the Taiwan-based company’s flagship smartphone for the first half of 2012, and it features a 1.5GHz quad-core Tegra 3 processor, a 4.6-inch 1,280 x 720-pixel Super LCD 2 display, an 8-megapixel rear camera, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for 720p video chats, 1GB of RAM, 32 GB of internal storage, embedded 4G LTE and Sense 4.0 on top of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. All that technology, mind you, is squeezed into a gorgeous 9.27-millimeter-thick unibody polycarbonate case. The U.S. version of this handset will feature a dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor and 16GB of internal storage, but the impact of this “downgrade” on the user experience is negligible — the phone is still lightning fast and beyond smooth.

HTC’s One S is a mid-range smartphone, though the term “mid-range” is used very loosely in this case. The device sports a 4.3-inch qHD AMOLED display, a dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor, an amazing 8-megapixel camera, 16GB of internal storage, Sense 4.0 and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, all packed within an even more slender 7.9-millimeter case made of Micro-Arc Oxidized aluminum.

While Samsung hasn’t yet unveiled its next-generation flagship smartphone, a series of exclusive BGR reports paint a fairly comprehensive picture of the Galaxy S III. To start things off, we can expect the most stunning display ever to be used on a smartphone. This high-definition, 1080p-resolution, 4.8-inch Super AMOLED display will be to smartphones what Apple’s new Retina Display is to tablets. Toss in a 1.5GHz quad-core Samsung Exynos processor, an 8-megapixel rear camera, a 2-megapixel front-facing camera, 4G LTE, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and a sleek ceramic case, and you’ve got one of the most remarkable mobile devices the world has ever seen.

In short, there probably hasn’t been a worse time than right now to buy a new Android phone and get locked in to a new two-year contract.

These next-generation Android phones will set a new precedent, and handsets that launch for the subsequent six to nine months will be playing catch-up. The chips within these new smartphones are faster, smaller and they consume power far more efficiently than the silicon that came before them. And while I haven’t yet had the opportunity to test the upcoming Galaxy S III, I have handled the One X and One S, and I can confidently say that they offer an end-to-end experience that is significantly better than what we see on the market today. The cameras alone, which are powered by a dedicated chip and are capable of capturing a RAW 8-megapixel image and returning to a ready state in just 0.7 seconds, are worth the wait.

These new smartphones will be slimmer, sleeker and more capable than anything on the market today, and they will still tout better battery life and more impressive performance. With HTC’s handsets ready to begin launching next month on AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile, and the Galaxy S III set to be unveiled in April or May, Android fans would be wise to sit tight for now.

Apple, your new lock screen is terrible. It’s great that you want to make the camera even more accessible in iOS 5.1 since a lot of people didn’t know the double-tap trick, but you’ve compromised the usability of something as simple and vital as unlocking a phone. You have altered the iconic slide-to-unlock layout, and there’s no option to disable the new camera shortcut on the lock screen. Visually, an off-center slide-to-unlock mechanism isn’t appealing at all. It’s too narrow for the space and I’ve tapped the camera button by mistake more than a few times trying to unlock the phone. Give us a setting to disable this and bring back the old option of double-tapping the home button please.

Apple is a company that somehow manages to churn out an above-average amount of beautiful products, fantastic software and class-leading services. When it misses, however, it misses big. MobileMe is one example. Ping is a better one. A third example is Apple’s Genius recommendation engine, which seeks to present App Store users with a list of applications they may enjoy based on their app download history. Right now, Genius is awful, but Apple’s recent acquisition of a company called Chomp may see things change in the near future. Read on for more.

TechCrunch on Thursday evening reported that Apple has acquired Chomp, a San Francisco-based startup that develops application search and discovery software. The Wall Street Journal later confirmed the buy with Apple, suggesting that the deal was a talent acquisition aimed at improving application search and discovery features within the App Store.

Genius needs help. Here are just a few examples of recommendations the engine is currently making on my iPhone: Because I use ESPN ScoreCenter, an app that provides sports scores and news, Genius says I should download Skateboard Tricktionary, an app that names and explains over 300 skateboard tricks. At least it involves sports, I suppose.

Because I have one to-do app called NotifyMe installed on my phone, Genius thinks I need seven more that offer hideous user interfaces and far less functionality. And because I installed an app called PhoneFlicks to manage my Netflix queue, Genius says that I will enjoy Soccer JuggleBall, a game where the user repeatedly pokes at a bouncing soccer ball in an effort to keep it from hitting the ground. I could go on.

The iOS App Store is currently home to more than 560,000 applications according to third-party monitor AppShopper.com. As with all mobile app stores, the lion’s share of them are likely junk. A number of services aim to cut through the garbage in an effort to identify quality apps that users may enjoy, but Genius is not one of those services. I’m really not sure what Genius aims to do.

Chomp touts proprietary technology that “learns the functions and topics of apps, so you can search based on what apps do, not just what they’re called.” It also currently powers Verizon’s Android app searches and offers stand-alone solutions for both iOS and Android. After spending just a few minutes with each Chomp app I can safely draw one conclusion: it can’t possibly make app discovery on iOS any worse.

Just over five years ago, Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone, a device that would change the world forever. The Macworld Conference & Expo keynote in 2007 is one that will go down in history. With its announcement, Apple reinvented the smartphone and put converged handsets on mainstream consumers’ radar. The iPhone seamlessly integrated music, email, a phone, a camera and Internet access all into one great device. I personally never had an interest in smartphones until the Macworld announcement, and countless others can likely make the same claim. There was just one problem, however… Apple partnered exclusively with Cingular in the U.S. for the release of the iPhone. At the time, Cingular was the biggest carrier in the U.S. with 58 million customers  — to show how rapidly the market has grown in recent years, the nation’s largest carrier Verizon reported having 108.7 million subscribers at the end of 2011 — but I was in no way interested in moving to a new carrier and therefore I was forced to pass on the iPhone.

I carried on with a slew of basic flip phones in the two years following the iPhone’s unveiling. I also heard about this so called “Google Phone” (the G1) on T-Mobile and after further research, I was thoroughly unimpressed. Little did I know Motorola, Google and Verizon were in the midst of creating something big — the DROID. In October, the three companies teased upcoming the device with a brilliant iDon’t commercial. To this day, the commercial is as iconic to me as the 1984 Mac commercial is to Apple fans… it was the beginning of a new era. Not only was the DROID an immediate hit for Verizon, I believe it is the sole reason Android is what it is today. After the lackluster Android devices that came before it, Google bet it all on Motorola’s flagship phone and that bet paid off.

The clunkiness of the DROID wasn’t for me but with a Verizon iPhone nowhere in sight, I knew an Android device was in my future. Once the DROID X was released I snapped it up and quickly became an “Android fanboy.” With Google’s platform, the user is in control. He or she has the option to have a keyboard, a full touchscreen, a massive display, or whatever else his or her heart may desire. As a self-described nerd, I soon plunged into the world of rooting and custom ROMs, which is an endless adventure thanks to the incredible Android developer community.

But Android’s openness ultimately may be its downfall, unfortunately, as carriers and manufactures have slowly turned the operating system into something less glamorous. The Android platform can theoretically be loaded onto any device, so any no-name company can market a smartphone or tablet as “Android.” When a user inevitably receives one of these $99 “Android” tablets for Christmas, his or her experience will be less than stellar to say the least. Most of these cheap devices don’t even include the Android Market due to Google’s restrictions, leaving consumers with virtually no quality applications and further tarnishing the experience.

Even mainstream manufacturers make buying an Android device a hassle. Motorola released the DROID BIONIC in September, the DROID RAZR in November, and the DROID RAZR Maxx in January. To make matters worse, the company announced a new version of the RAZR with an unlockable bootloader not long ago. A new Android device is released almost every month from major manufacturers, often leaving consumers with severe cases of buyer’s remorse. Some manufacturers have at least promised to slow down when it comes to releasing smartphones in the future, but mobile technology advances too quickly to sit idle for very long.

Lastly, each carrier and manufacturer is looking to out-do the competition. Rather than marketing devices and services with competitive pricing, these companies fill handsets with unnecessary bloatware and custom user interface skins. The skins are supposed to “enhance” a user’s experience but more often then not, they lead to incompatibilities, error messages, forced closures, poor battery performance and lag. Switching between a Motorola device and an HTC device will give the consumer a completely different experience. Android itself has no consistent flow, although Google hopes to change that with the release of Ice Cream Sandwich.

When Apple announces a device, the company also announces a release date. The carriers don’t tell Apple when to release a product, Apple tells the carriers when it will release a product. Google might be well-served to find a way to gain some of this assertiveness; the company’s latest flagship device, the Galaxy Nexus, was announced in October. During the event, Google announced European release date but no firm details regarding a North American launch were provided. The company said it was “coming soon” — the two most dreaded words in all of technology. Verizon then delayed the handset’s launch for unknown reasons until it was released nearly two months after its unveiling. This would never happen with an Apple product.

When you power on an iPhone it works, plain and simple. The iPhone has no carrier branding whatsoever, nor does it have any bloatware. In addition, it has access to the most incredible App Store in the mobile world, hands down. The device is slick, clean and stylish, which is exactly in line with Apple’s image. I have seen kids as young as six to adults as old as 80 using the device… it is that simple.

This is why I recommend the iPhone to my family, my friends and even the majority of people I speak to — even though I am a huge Android fan and I write about the platform for a living. I can admit when a product I enjoy has its flaws, and in no way am I saying the iPhone is perfect. You can call me an iSheep, iFan, iDan or whatever else you want, but when push comes to shove, 99% of consumers don’t care about rooting, ROMs or the concept of being “open.” They just want a sleek smartphone with a wide selection of great apps that can browse the Web, check email, text and make phone calls. In this regard, the iPhone is the clear choice.

I love my iPhone. In fact, I’ve loved every iPhone Apple has launched since the first model was unveiled in 2007. Slowly but surely, Apple has introduced new features and eliminated upon almost every major gripe people had with iOS to push the limits of what we expect from a modern smartphone, and also to keep the platform on par with or even ahead of the competition. Copy and paste, MMS, background apps, multitasking, notifications, folders and much more have been added over time. There is one thing that makes me hate my iPhone every single day though, and I hope Apple is going to address it soon. I need more control over my alerts.

I really wish Apple would create an area in settings, or even add on to the notifications options, to allow users to set custom alert settings for different things. For instance, I’d love it if I could have different profile modes with settings for vibrate, ring, volume and ringtone much like how RIM’s BlackBerry phones have worked for ages. And there’s plenty of room for improvement beyond what RIM is doing in its BlackBerry OS… just look at how great Motorola’s Smart Actions feature is. Apple could totally take this one step further and allow location-based profiles for alerts, system settings, and more. When I get home, I want Bluetooth to turn off automatically, and I want my alert profile to change, for instance.

I might want my phone to vibrate for almost all alerts, and sometimes I want my phone ring as well. Sometimes I want everything to be on silent and have my phone ring only if it’s a certain person calling or messaging me. I just want more control over how my phone acts in this respect — it’s something that is half-assed in its current state. Sure, you can set custom alert tones for SMS and iMessage, and you can set custom ringers for specific contacts as well, but this is all being fed through a very rudimentary ”your phone is either on ring or vibrate, you idiot” switch.

If Apple does decide to introduce some sort of profile control, it will fix one of the most glaring holes still in iOS, in my view. We’ll get there eventually, I believe.

Research In Motion hasn’t just had a difficult time innovating since the iPhone was first introduced, the company has had trouble innovating ever since its product started to morph into something more than a simple email messaging device. RIM has always been behind the curve with regard to technology in some ways. It was still making devices with black and white displays when other manufacturers were launching devices with vibrant full-color screens. RIM was one of the last manufacturers to launch an EDGE device and it was also one of the last manufacturers to include a camera in its devices. The vendor consistently offered devices without GPS or Wi-Fi, and without a functional web browser. The problem with Research In Motion is not just that the company has failed to adapt or plan for the future, it’s that RIM hasn’t been able to accurately predict not only what the mobile landscape was going to look like down the road, but also what its customers want in a BlackBerry handset. Unfortunately, judging from what I’ve seen so far, I don’t see much changing with new CEO Thorsten Heins.

With BlackBerry 10, RIM finally has a chance to start clean with a brand new mobile operating system that’s powerful, but there are too many obstacles in my mind that will likely prevent BlackBerry 10 from being a success. For starters, RIM still can’t get BlackBerry Messenger working with more than one PIN on BlackBerry 10, and support for BES email will be replaced by ActiveSync going forward. That’s right — your corporate email, calendar and contacts will sync directly from a Microsoft Exchange server to your device. While RIM’s Mobile Fusion solution will offer many features like syncing other data, security and policy management and more, in terms of PIM it will effectively be providing a secure VPN tunnel connection from your device to your Exchange server.

Just take a second to realize what this means… RIM has no competitive product in the smartphone market, and its most widely known asset — the company’s BlackBerry Enterprise Server PIM functions — will be changing into something much less powerful in the near future because the company cannot get traditional BES working with BlackBerry 10 smartphones or tablets.

Now, let’s look at the uphill battle of launching a brand new mobile operating system and ecosystem in this incredible fast-paced and competitive smartphone market. An Android app player alone is hardly enough for RIM to compete. Plainly stated, a company that has historically had the worst developer tools, the worst developer documentation, the worst developer support and arguably the worst apps, now has to actually pull something together that entices people to want to develop for BlackBerry 10. If RIM had tools that were better than Apple’s or Google’s, it would still be nearly impossible to gain traction with developers. If that documentation and those tools are just decent and not better, the possibility becomes even more remote.

What about marketing? RIM has not even once pulled off a good marketing campaign. I have been clamoring for this since early 2004. RIM didn’t care about marketing even when it was launching its first consumer product, the BlackBerry Pearl. While RIM’s new CEO Thorsten Heins said finding a new Chief Marketing Officer and drastically changing its approach to marketing communications is a top priority, this won’t be easy. The company simply does not understand marketing.

And what does it actually understand or do well?

That’s my point here. As much as I love RIM, I just don’t know what it actually does well anymore. It makes great plastic keyboards? That’s obviously an oversimplification, but it’s true. RIM has an operating system that is being delayed (because it doesn’t work properly, not because the company is waiting for a new 4G chipset to launch its smartphones worldwide when most markets don’t even have LTE), the company has failed to attract developers for various reasons, it has failed to create powerful consumer marketing, and it has consistently shown over the last eight years that it does not know where the mobile market is going. RIM has been a reactive company since 2005 in my mind.

RIM’s new CEO lauding the company’s history of being “innovators” and “leading” the wireless industry in many ways is, well, frightening. Contrary to the path Heins laid out today, there are a few possible things I see happening with Research In Motion based upon what I have noticed:

• RIM will sell either a part of its business or the entire company. The fact that there is a new CEO and a new chairperson this late in the game is signaling to me that the company is trying to make itself look more attractive to potential buyers and partners.
• RIM will license its services like BlackBerry Messenger, leverage its NOC and data network for corporate email / encryption, and it will license its patents to other companies and manufacturers. (Look how long it took Nokia to get a phone out when it licensed Microsoft’s software, though. And the first Windows Phone it released was a phone it had already released in terms of hardware. It still took the company over a year to do this.)
• RIM will either strike a deal with Microsoft to bring BlackBerry Messenger and some other Exchange-related services to Windows Phone, or RIM will eventually use Android as its base operating system and fork the OS.

I do not see Research In Motion gaining much traction with BlackBerry 10. I don’t see the competitive advantage. This is a company that fundamentally does not understand why Apple and Google are doing so well in the market. This is a company that has played catch-up for several years in many ways, often unsuccessfully. This is a company that is going to launch its first BlackBerry 10 smartphone right when Apple’s iPhone 5 and iOS 6 are released, and around the same time Android 5.0 and Google’s latest flagship device will be unveiled alongside phones from Samsung, HTC and Motorola, with even more advanced cameras, even higher resolution displays, even more powerful quad-core processors and much more.

I remember the day I stopped carrying a BlackBerry after years of having used a RIM smartphone as my main device. Let’s see if that ever changes in the future.

Media tablets powered by Google’s Android operating system have for the most part been unable to capture consumers’ interest. With just a few exceptions, sales of individual Android tablet models have been extremely low by all accounts. Amazon’s new Kindle Fire is one such exception thanks to an attractive price point and tight integration with Amazon services. Google has seemingly taken note of Amazon’s success, and a new report suggests the company is working on a budget-priced slate of its own that will launch in the next few months. Read on for more.

Google chairman Eric Schmidt noted last month that the company was working on an own-brand tablet, but there was a great deal of confusion surrounding his comments. ”[In the] next six months we plan to market a tablet of the highest quality,” Schmidt reportedly told an Italian newspaper. A spokesman for Google in Taiwan said the company had no knowledge of plans to launch an own-brand tablet, and Google’s headquarters has remained silent on the matter.

While Schmidt did mention that quality was a big deal, the more significant news may have been uncovered in a new report Thursday morning. Citing anonymous sources from within Google’s supply chain, DigiTimes suggests that the slate will compete directly with the Kindle Fire at an enticing $199 price point.

The site goes on to report that Google’s Nexus tablet will feature a 7-inch display, and it will launch in March or April. Such a tablet would also undoubtedly be powered by Google’s new Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system, and it would be built in cooperation with Motorola Mobility in all likelihood. Google is currently trying to acquire Motorola for $12.5 billion.

It has already been widely discussed that an own-brand tablet from Google would likely cannibalize its Android partners’ tablet sales, though there isn’t much to cannibalize at this point. With prices of other Android tablets hovering around the iPad’s $500 entry point, however, a $199 tablet from Google would likely render partner offerings obsolete. Who would purchase a $500 Samsung tablet when $199 will get you a slate “of the highest quality” that will also be the first such device to receive new software updates as they become available?

Google has yet to confirm that it is working on a Nexus tablet and with the first wave of Android 4.0 devices from partners expected to be unveiled next week, it is unlikely that the company will discuss its tablet until some time after the Consumer Electronics Show. There have already been persistent rumors that multiple PC vendors plan to abandon their Android tablet efforts. Being forced to compete with a $199 own-brand tablet from Google as well as the iPad and Kindle Fire may be all the motivation these companies need to throw in the towel and wait for Windows 8.

Apple’s aggressive patent strategy has hit a few speed bumps lately. The Cupertino, California-based company won an injunction on sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia, but the ban was recently overturned. A German court then sided with Motorola in a retaliatory lawsuit, ordering an injunction on Apple’s iPhone and iPad, and declaring that European Apple subsidiary Apple Sales International pay damages related to the infringement. Finally, earlier this week, the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled that HTC devices were not infringing on three Apple-owned patents. The ITC determined that a number of HTC devices did infringe on one Apple patent, but the Taiwan-based vendor already made it clear that a simple change will allow it to avoid the related injunction. Apropos, Apple’s legal team has decided to expand its efforts beyond patents covering technology integral to the function of its mobile products. Now, it will also attack competitors over their smartphone and tablet cases. Read on for more.

Apple has filed a new complaint against Samsung alleging that cases made for the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and several Samsung phones infringe its patents, Bloomberg Businessweek reported. The lawsuit was filed in Sydney, Australia on Tuesday. It was not immediately clear which patents are covered in Apple’s new complaint, though the report states that 10 patents were named in total.

A Samsung spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Considering Apple’s willingness to spend time and resources pursuing this new complaint, the company seemingly has no plans to slow its aggressive patent attacks and it will leave no stone unturned as it continues to seek out potential violations of its protected intellectual property and designs.

As Apple looks for new reasons to sue its competitors, thus inviting new lawsuits and continuing the endless cycle of complaints and counter-complaints, we would like to remind the company that Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 charger looks suspiciously like Apple’s famous 30-pin dock connector. If this new suit over cases doesn’t pan out, chargers might be the next logical step before progressing to other key areas such as product packaging. After all, other designs are possible.

Apple is working on solutions that will help to improve the text input experience on its iOS devices. The Cupertino, California-based company has been discovered to be building an enhanced version of its autocorrect feature, the beginnings of which are currently hidden within the publicly available version of iOS 5, that adds suggested words above the iOS keyboard as users type. The functionality works much like the solutions currently found in Android or Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform, and it is viewed by many as a much-needed addition to Apple’s mobile OS. Read on for more.

IOS 5 brought with it a new notification system that combined elements from several other mobile platforms into one terrific solution. The result was welcomed by iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users with open arms, as many had viewed Apple’s previous notifications solution as one of the weakest areas of the iOS UX. We can definitely be counted among users who absolutely hated Apple’s previous notifications system.

With the notification pain point behind us, autocorrect remains as one of the biggest gripes among iOS users. It changes words to names pulled from a user’s address book when it shouldn’t. It also changes words like “yo” to “to” and “if” to “of” constantly, failing to properly utilize learning capabilities. Apple’s iOS autocorrect system does offer a keyboard shortcut feature that can help alleviate some issues, but it almost never works when you need it to. Autocorrect in iOS is so bad that a number of websites have popped up that are dedicated to sharing instances of autocorrect embarrassment.

IOS developer Sonny Dickson recently discovered the feature pictured above, however. Buried in the iOS 5 code and accessible using a quick hack, a new word suggestion bar appears above the iOS keyboard once the feature is enabled. Dickson calls the feature “an Android-like autocorrect keyboard bar” in a post on his personal blog, and he also details steps that users can take to enable the new suggestion bar with no jailbreak required.

While this Android-like suggestion bar is a good start, it is hopefully just the tip of the iceberg for Apple. As shockingly intelligent as Siri is, iOS text input sits on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. “It just works,” is a mantra Apple loves to apply to its products, and we hope we can safely use the phrase when referring to iOS text input some time in the near future.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: calling the future best-selling smartphone in the world “disappointing” is a bit of a reach. DigiTimes’ infamous anonymous industry sources are running with it, however, and they think smartphone vendors that sell Android and Windows Phone-powered handsets will benefit from the opportunity Apple’s new iPhone will afford them. “The newly released iPhone 4S lags behind some mainstream smartphones as far as specifications are concerned,” the site’s sources said, because we all know how concerned the everyman is with specs. Companies like HTC, Samsung and Nokia, the sources continued, now have a chance to “expand their market shares with innovative models.” Read on for more.

DigiTimes says Apple’s new iPhone 4S lacks the larger screen and NFC support found on current and upcoming smartphones from its competitors. The report also points out that companies like HTC and Samsung have already launched devices that support high-speed 4G LTE wireless networks, while Apple’s iPhone 4S only supports HSPA 14.4. While 4G devices have indeed been selling well for Android vendors, they haven’t managed to make much of a dent in Apple’s smartphone sales to date. Apple was the world’s No. 1 smartphone vendor in the second quarter with just two handsets on the market, the iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 4.

The report’s sources wrapped things up by claiming that Apple’s efforts to attack the low-end market with a free iPhone 3GS and a $99 iPhone 4 will be futile. “Although Apple also launched an entry-level 8GB iPhone 4 and cut the price of its iPhone 3GS, the effectiveness of such tactics will be limited as iPhone fans will still prefer to buy new models and the low-priced iPhones will not be able to compete with Android phones in the entry-level segment,” the sources told DigiTimes.

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People are disappointed. What else can I say? With all of the hype, and even our own reporting, Apple should have released a real iPhone 5. But it didn’t, and the fact that Apple is releasing the same exact model with internal upgrades is upsetting to a lot of people. You know what, though? The overwhelming majority of people probably couldn’t care less.

Let’s look outside the bubble and think about the general consumer. Apple introduced a new phone that’s upwards of twice as fast as its predecessor, has better graphics performance than any other portable gaming device, features an upgraded camera that can take photos as good as a stand-alone camera, and capture video that’s better than a Flip camcorder. One device that works anywhere in the world with even better battery life, the ability to display your photos, videos, games, web browsing and more on your big screen HDTV, and a revolutionary virtual private assistant that can find you places to eat, book calendar appointments for you, read and reply to all of your messages and emails, and look up the answer to practically any question for you.

Who’s disappointed again?

To the general consumer, Apple just made the best-selling — and let me add, best — smartphone in the world leaps and bounds better. The design of the original iPhone 4 is not only an engineering feat but a design masterpiece, and there’s no reason why we should expect a brand new case for every phone Apple releases. Has the exterior of the MacBook Pro changed dramatically in the last few years? Has the exterior of an iMac changed dramatically in the last few years?

The hype machine was out of control this time around, and many people in the tech world wanted Apple to not only hit a home run, we wanted the company to hit it out of the park because we’re used to Apple doing that. In reality however, Apple did hit it out of the park, and we’ll all get to see it in the sales numbers of the iPhone 4S, which will be the best smartphone Apple’s ever made, and best smartphone in the world.

By offering the iPhone 3GS free on contract, the iPhone 4 for $99 on contract, and the iPhone 4S starting at $199 on contract, there isn’t any reason to buy a competitor’s phone anymore. With iCloud, iOS 5 and all of Apple’s new features and services, Apple isn’t treading water, it’s making the water evaporate while its competitors still try to match its innovation in hardware, software, ecosystem, apps and services.

Being available at three major carriers in the U.S. is also huge. With AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint all offering the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S starting October 14th, in addition to the global launch, I think we’ll see that only a very small minority of people (who are probably still going to buy the iPhone 4S anyway) were disappointed. Consumers in general, however, will be in line with a latte and cinnamon swirl coffee cake waiting for the stores to open at 8:00 a.m.

Apple was a company that could do no wrong. Phones that dropped every other call… Location tracking scandals… Antennagate… A CEO who constantly parked his $130,000 sports car diagonally in handicapped spaces… Apple didn’t have to roll with the punches, the company would simply laugh at the punches or toss the press and public a few crumbs if need be. A week or even a day later, all was forgiven and Apple would continue on its path, making terrific products and mopping up industry profits while whistling to itself contently.

On Tuesday when Apple unveiled its brand new iPhone 4S, the fifth iteration of Apple’s revolutionary smartphone, things felt different. The company’s iconic co-founder was nowhere to be found, the venue was smaller, the applause seemed reticent and the product unveiled was not greeted with arms open quite as widely as they had been in the past. People seemed, in a way, bored.

Reactions from those who spent time with the device at Apple’s press conference were positive, of course, but it didn’t feel the same. What was different this time around? Members of the press and many consumers following the event felt that we were looking at a possible miss from the great Apple. Beyond nitpicking and whining about insignificant specs or other irrelevancies, many level-headed writers and pundits genuinely seemed to think that the iPhone 4S might be the beginning of the end.

Yes, investors were seemingly disappointed by Tuesday’s announcements, but this is hardly uncommon. Buy the rumor, sell the news. That Apple only closed down half a percent on Tuesday exhibits confidence in the company’s management, strategy and portfolio more than it does disappointment in the iPhone 4S.

And what about analysts? The finance crowd adores Apple, so they must have been jumping up and down in their penthouses, right?

“Apple no longer has a leading edge, its cloud service is even behind Android; it can only sell on brand loyalty now,” Gartner analyst C.K. Lu told Reuters on Wednesday. “Users may wait to buy the next iPhone; if they can’t wait, they may shift to brands with more advanced specs.”

“We had expected the company to announce two new devices, an iPhone 5 and a 4-plus,” JP Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz wrote in a note to investors. “We are disappointed that Apple did not introduce a thinner form factor, but we see the feature set improvements in the iPhone 4S and the broader pricing strategy as positives.”

Yes, we’re seeing some negative takes on the news, but have we seen any big names revise their estimates downward significantly? Of course not. Even analysts who were hugely bullish on a redesigned iPhone 5 are still confident that Apple’s reign will continue.

We’ve seen no real negative revisions on revenue projections either. In fact, Apple’s free iPhone 3GS and its $99 iPhone 4 have had the opposite effect in some cases. RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky, for example, wrote in a note Wednesday morning that Apple’s $0 3GS “may double Apple’s global addressable market, and may help address rising mid-market Android competition.”

And some analysts such as Wedge Partners’ Brian Blair had already modeled for this scenario. Blair, as some might recall, hit the nail on the head late last month. “We expect the focus of the new iPhone will be iOS 5, a speedier A5 processor and a higher resolution 8 MP camera with a small possibility of a larger 4 inch screen,” the analyst wrote in a research note on September 21st. Blair saw Apple selling 91 million iPhones this calendar year, and that staggering sum remains unchanged.

Some analysts even think the iPhone 4S and new cheaper iPhones 4 and 3GS will drive sales that exceed already-lofty projections. “While the moderate changes to the iPhone 4S might not drive the type of upgrade cycle that was seen by the iPhone 4, the lower prices of legacy models and broader availability on more carriers are still likely to deliver calendar Q4 phones sales in excess of our 21.5 million estimate,” BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk wrote on Wednesday.

But an interesting takeaway from yesterday’s announcement may simply be that Apple has fallen from grace in some respects. Apple is fallible, even if the 4S ends up being a success. A company that could do no wrong in recent history just, well, did wrong in the eyes of pundits who had previously viewed every Apple product announcement as a gift from the heavens.

It should have been bigger. It should have been better. It should have been more Appley.

There were skeptics after Apple unveiled the iPhone in 2007, and after the iPhones 3G, 3GS and 4 as well. But yesterday’s skeptics took a different tone. They didn’t wonder if Apple could succeed or nervously whine about missing features, they collectively shouted that Apple had lost its mojo.

But then there’s the imminent reality check. And from where I’m sitting, the iPhone 4S is oozing with mojo.

Apple’s iPhone 4 provides the most silky smooth user experience on the planet with the firm’s A4 processor running the show. The more powerful dual-core A5 chipset from Apple’s iPad 2 should somehow improve on that already-phenomenal experience, and it will empower Apple’s new golden child, Siri.

It should be noted that I was hugely skeptical of Siri’s significance ahead of Apple’s event on Tuesday, but I’m now singing a different tune. I think the concept and technology behind Apple’s new personal assistant service are phenomenal, and while Siri might not be a huge draw for consumers in the near term, the long-term implications are tremendous. Apple just made smartphones much, much smarter.

On the outside, there is no question that the iPhone 4S is the same device as its predecessor. It might have a revised antenna system, but the similarities are so great that Apple had to include the Newsstand icon in marketing images depicting the phone’s home screen as no distinction would be made otherwise. But is that such a bad thing? The iPhone 4 is still an engineering feat, and I’m not sure a more attractive smartphone exists to this day.

Naysayers said Apple couldn’t cut it selling just one or two smartphone models, and now Apple owns two-thirds of global smartphone industry profits. Led by Apple’s gray-haired iPhone 4, which launched in June 2010, Apple sold more smartphones last quarter than any other vendor on the planet.

The numbers will do the talking over the next few quarters, and I expect Apple’s iPhone sales to continue on the same skyward path right up to next year’s iPhone 5 launch and beyond. As of October 12th, Apple will sell three different smartphone models that range in price from free to $399. The company will address postpaid smartphone buyers from top to bottom, and rumors suggest we may even see an attack on the prepaid market in the near future. No company stays on top forever, of course, but Apple’s new smartphone lineup is hardly that of a company that has begun its descent.

Apple may have fallen from grace in a way, but until competitors can even come close to approaching the allure surrounding Apple devices and the user experiences they afford, don’t expect the company’s grip on the industry to loosen at all.