Two months ago today Microsoft announced Windows Phone 7, the all new Windows mobile operating system that will be a lot more like the Zune than it is the current version of Windows Mobile.  Windows Phone 7 isn’t an upgrade, but, a completely new direction in mobile operating systems for Microsoft.  Even though Windows Phone 7 isn’t due out until the latter part of this year, I know all this because, to put it mildly, Microsoft has been hyping Windows Phone 7 up beyond all belief…

I’m not sure if RIM has noticed, but, a lot of BlackBerry users are dissatisfied with the BlackBerry, particularly the BlackBerry OS and its lack of general “coolness” when compared to… well… pretty much everything else.  A real problem this year for RIM will be customer churn, as long-time, die-hard, BlackBerry fanatics that automatically update to the latest and greatest BlackBerry every couple of years, are increasingly looking at alternatives like the iPhone, Android, and even Windows Phone 7.

RIM does have some new stuff coming out, but, quite honestly we aren’t really sure what all that is.  The new WebKit based BlackBerry Browser is supposed come out this Spring, but, even details about it are shrouded in secrecy, let alone cool stuff that the next BlackBerry OS will be able to do.  BlackBerry users that have contracts which expire this year have already decided, in many cases, that they are getting something other than a BlackBerry as soon as they possibly can.

It seems to me that RIM should be doing something… anything… a bit more to try to hang on to users they already have as well as woo consumers that the feel that the BlackBerry is just a work device and /or inferior to more “modern mobile operating systems”.  This leads me to the question that is the title of this post.  Why isn’t RIM hyping up the next BlackBerry OS? It isn’t too often that you will ever hear me give a compliment to MS when it comes to smartphones, however, RIM should probably take a page out of their playbook when it comes to marketing the future of RIM…