Last Monday Cingular introduced the BlackBerry Personal Plan, which at $29.99/month is a bit of a bargain when the old

Beyond that, I’ve found that WM just doesn’t work that well. On the Treo 700w, it’s awful. The Palm OS version is so superior. WM, at least in my experience, seems to freeze up far more than any other OS for smartphones.

As for the Q, I agree that Moto itself can have problems. So perhaps some of the blame for the slow menu response should go to Moto, instead of MS…although, who knows? However, the organization of the menus still leaves a lot to be desired, and that’s the WM OS.

But if Moto could put out a version of the Q with the BB OS that ran as well as the BB8700, that would be one awesome device.

BB could even market their entire OS to various smartphone vendors. With Windows Mobile kind of lacking, and the Palm OS not having been developed much for a few years, there is an opportunity there as well.

I’ll say this much: If the BB OS (the entire OS…not just BB connect) were on the Motorola Q, that would be an amazing device. As it is, the Q is crippled by the Windows Mobile OS.

I really do think that RIM is very weary of creating a BB device that includes camera, memory card, etc, that looks too much like their existing models that have so much appeal to enterprise users.

I know many people have brought up one simple fact: that if you work for the govt or some industry where security is vital, that when entering these workplaces the one item that is not scrutinized is the BB, because everyone knows that the BB lacks these security-compromising features. Many enterprise users purchase BBs largely with this in mind: no security risk.

The moment RIM releases a BB that has these exciting consumer features but looks alot like another BB model, everything changes for them in the enterprise sector. All of a sudden there is potential confusion in their most valued market. I don’t think they want that.

Therefore, from an identity standpoint, BB has to be very careful. They’ve gone out of their way to create a market identity that clearly favors corporate use: stable, secure, dependable, etc. But like many things that work great for corporate users, that leaves them rather bland for consumer use.

So going back to your point, it might make even more sense for RIM to allow these other BB devices to even be sold under the brand names of these other manufacturers to avoid confusion. And that would also play into RIM’s strategy of wanting to really dominate the software side of the market, rather than hardware.

I think you make a very good point about it being logical for RIM to allow other handset makers to come out with alternative form factor BlackBerries. Why reinvent the wheel if you can just re-tread and existing one.

However, they have to walk a fine line. One the one hand they don’t want to disrupt their enterprise business, which actually favors simpler devices, no camera/multimedia features, etc. On the other hand, the only way they will win over the general consumer is by building into their phones the more exciting features that the consumer market demands: camera, media player, etc.

My guess is that if they do come out with a phone that has camera, memory, etc., they will try very hard to distinguish it in form and style from their other devices, to avoid alienating their enterprise users. One rumor that has been floating around is that they will introduce a clamshell consumer phone, built largely by Samsung. It would seem a logical way to proceed: an entirely different form factor, so the product differentiation is clear, and using a company with a history of building these consumer friendly features into phones. Time will tell.