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Research in Motion's latest earnings report was such a train wreck that just looking felt wrong. "If you're betting that RIM's toast, you're probably right," writes Farhad Manjoo of Slate. Its grasps for the consumer market have failed utterly, "and it's obvious why. The BlackBerry's impending death is a turn-off." No one wants a phone without a strong company behind it—and a strong user base that attracts app developers. "I think RIM should try something radical," Manjoo suggests: It should ditch BlackBerry's OS and go with Windows.
BlackBerry 10 has been delayed until 2013, and even if it were out today, it's "way too late for any brand-new OS to challenge Apple and Google’s mobile hegemony." It's time BlackBerry focused on making innovative hardware on someone else's OS, and the thriving Android isn't the way to go in his estimation. "The world is drowning in Android phones," most of them cheap and terrible. It would be easier to make a Windows device stand out from the pack, and Manjoo praises Windows Phone as easier to use and more efficient than Android. "Yes, it's a long shot," but long shots are all RIM has left. Click for his entire column, which also explains how such a move could help Nokia, too.
