What BlackBerry 6's Consumer Focus Means For BusinessWhat BlackBerry 6's Consumer Focus Means For Business

Research In Motion's BlackBerry Torch

Long Live the Prosumer?

RIM is not shy to call a horse a horse. "One of the things that we've seen happening," said Bocking, "is this trend of users in the enterprise driving the smartphone of choice. At the end of the day we are all consumers. Even if we work, we are consumers. All the new features in BlackBerry 6 are geared toward users."

While that's true, RIM still needs to take care to appease enterprise needs. BlackBerry 6, the Torch, and Torch-like products at other carriers will be enough for RIM to keep its basic business running. There's no doubt of that. There's enough of a difference between the way the user interface behaves on the Torch when compared to older BlackBerrys that plenty of business and consumer users will adopt the new platform. RIM still faces challenges, however.

RIM is still a relevant player, and has tremendous market share. It may not be at the front of the pack in terms of leadership and bleeding edge technology (both software and hardware), but it's not at the end of the line, either. "RIM has to kick it back up a few notches if it wants to reclaim the market leadership position," notes Garteberg.

BlackBerry 6 and the Torch were a small step to keep RIM's fervent user base happy, but the BlackBerry operating system may eventually need a major overhaul. RIM might be forced to take a more revolutionary approach not so far down the road in order to stoke the fires in developers' eyes.

If you are looking for radically different hardware and software that leapfrogs the competition, BlackBerry 6 and the Torch aren't it. However, RIM has done a fine job of crafting an easy-to-use smartphone with software that delivers what matters most to the professional and personal user alike: access to their online world.

For Further Reading

First Impressions: BlackBerry 6 Software

First Impressions: BlackBerry 9800 Torch Hardware

BlackBerry's Torch Is On Fire

BlackBerry Torch Being Sold At Steep Discount

BlackBerry Torch Cheaper To Build Than iPhone 4