> The next generation is going to be about ecosystems. Exactly. They have probably missed the boat, but I think the right path for them would have been to cre

> The next generation is going to be about ecosystems. Exactly. They have probably missed the boat, but I think the right path for them would have been to create enterprise grade Android devices with special features (better encryption, phone integration, BBM, etc). There is a very decent space there to be exploited - and they tried - but doing it on their own was always going to a high risk venture. They at least should have hedged their bets. I'm kind of shocked to see that in the end with the Playbook they went with such a generic manufacturer that Amazon was able to walk in and say "we'd like to order one of those too". That tells me they basically ordered off the shelf and had little proprietary input in to the hardware design. Which in turn says that RIM has no core differentiating expertise there and thus is essentially doomed to compete in the commodity hardware space - but attempting to do so at premium prices.