tequila bomb

“Any testing or observation of battery life to date by anyone outside of RIM would have been performed using pre-beta units that were built without power management implemented,” the BlackBerry maker said in an emailed statement.

It said development of the battery was on schedule and its performance would be comparable to competitors.

Then why is the PlayBook launch being delayed by months?

And which “competitors” is its performance going to be “comparable” to? The 10+ hours of the iPad or the 6 hours of the Tab? Or heaven forbid the 1 or 2 hours of some less successful Android tablets?

Analyst Shaw Wu of Kaufman Bros. issued a note to investors Tuesday warning that engineering issues with the BlackBerry PlayBook’s battery life could be the cause of delays. According to Wu, the PlayBook’s “relatively poor battery life of a few hours” needs improvement. By comparison, Apple’s iPad gets 10 hours of battery life and the Android-based Samsung Galaxy Tab gets 6 hours.

The battery issue could “require a bit of re-engineering,” said Wu, and is “likely why RIMM pushed out its launch to the May 2011 quarter.”

iOS and the Apple AX series of SoCs are the main components that give the iPad its excellent power management characteristics. Not to mention the huge battery which makes up most of the tablet’s innards. A well made dual core SoC can actually use less power than a single core SoC when engineered and managed correctly.

Unfortunately RIM (and they are not alone) are trying to rush to market with an acquired OS and non-specialised silicon. Some of Apple’s acquisitions and design decisions are starting to look very wise round about now.

This has relevance to what I said yesterday.

Research In Motion may have high hopes for its PlayBook tablet but it looks like the device will not go on sale until the end of the first quarter, according to comments from executives during RIM’s earnings call Thursday.

It didn’t look anywhere near ready in the demos we saw recently.

Today, there’s only one operating system: Unix. (Okay, there are two, but we’ll get to that.) This is why I contend that the OS doesn’t matter—or that we need to take another look at the word’s content, at what we mean when we say ‘Operating System’.

Jean-Louis Gassée stating the obvious. But he is right. A good read.

The only exception is Windows. Initially built on top of DOS, Microsoft painstakingly added version after version, always striving for backward compatibility while, at the same time, adding new features. It didn’t always work well (who wants to remember Windows Me and Vista?) but it worked well enough because Microsoft never gave up. They fixed mistakes that they claimed didn’t exist, and now we have the well-respected Windows 7. (Inevitably, critics will say that Microsoft wouldn’t have gotten away with such a tortuous path if it weren’t for its vigorously enforced monopoly.)

Unrelated : It’s interesting (read: irritating) to me that Microsoft are also the only Smart Phone manufacturer who are going with their own proprietary Graphics API.

Pretty graphs showing mobile operating system market share in various territories.

Sure, Nokia (Symbian) is still the biggest segment in most European graphs, but RIM (Blackberry) and Apple (iOS) alternate for a firm second place in many of them, with Android gaining too.

Nokia is barely visible in the US though, with RIM, Apple and now Android all fighting for dominance.

Nokia is in big trouble, except in Spain, Italy and Germany where they still hold between 51.6% and 72.5% of the market.

Clinton described the situation as a “complex set of issues” and said that the US was working on a solution with several countries.

It’s only complex because the US is scrambling to try and find a way to justify them keeping their unfettered access to RIM’s customer’s data, whilst giving other countries as little access as possible.

“We are taking time to consult and analyze the full range of interests and issues at stake because we know that there is a legitimate security concern, but there’s also a legitimate right of free use and access,” she said. “So I think we will be pursuing both technical and expert discussions as we go forward.”

Give them the same access as the US and UK have to the data and they’ll shut up.

It’s simple. But I doubt a politician could ever see that.

Saudi Arabia ordered a ban of BlackBerry services starting Friday, the latest government to threaten phone maker Research In Motion Ltd. over access to customer data.

…

RIM is being pressured by officials in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, India and other countries for greater access to the encrypted information sent by BlackBerry devices. The U.A.E. said Sunday it would prohibit most BlackBerry services starting Oct. 11.

…

In a statement Tuesday, RIM said it can’t give access to encrypted data and doesn’t give any one government special treatment. “Any claims that we provide, or have ever provided, something unique to the government of one country that we have not offered to the governments of all countries, are unfounded,” it said.

Do RIM honestly expect us to believe that the US and the UK do not have the ability to monitor Blackberry messaging?

Because if that is what they are saying, I don’t believe them.

The Director of the Telecommunication Regulation Authority in the UAE :

“With no solution available and in the public interest, in order to affect resolution of this issue, as of October 11, 2010, Blackberry Messenger, Blackberry Email and Blackberry Web-browsing services will be suspended until an acceptable solution can be developed and applied.”

Apparently Saudi Arabia has followed suit..

Saudi Arabia has started blocking BlackBerry Messenger at this time, but not email, web browsing, or other data services.

Should you be worried about this if you don’t live in the UAE or Saudi?

I think that perhaps you should. The reason that these countries are not happy about RIM’s services are two fold.

• On the one hand they don’t like that fact that all transmissions from these devices are encrypted, and go through Research In Motion’s own servers. Thus preventing government monitoring.
• On the other they cite cultural reasons for wanting to control these services. Loosely translated this means that they are concerned that their youth are using these devices to “socialise” electronically in un-Islamic ways.

If you live in a country that likes to exert control over the internet, or that has strict views on religion and relationships, then you should perhaps be concerned that your government might be emboldened by this move and follow suit.

India raised similar security concerns last week, and Bahrain in April warned against using BlackBerry Messenger to distribute local news. As far back as 2007, France cautioned officials about using the services.

From Reuters.

Ultimately, I think that RIM will have to setup services that allow governments in these countries to ‘snoop’ on Blackberry data.

RIM may have suffered an unintentional humbling today through a set of videos (available here, and here) demoing the yet-to-be-launched BlackBerry 9800. While showing off the new WebKit and media browsers,clips given to Salomondrin has shown what appears to be the “death grip” symptom in action: while held in certain positions, the phone drops to one or two bars. The phone is a pre-release model but is using what should be the final design.

Contrast that to RIM’s statement from the weekend…

“Apple’s attempt to draw RIM into Apple’s self-made debacle is unacceptable. Apple’s claims about RIM products appear to be deliberate attempts to distort the public’s understanding of an antenna design issue and to deflect attention from Apple’s difficult situation. RIM is a global leader in antenna design and has been successfully designing industry-leading wireless data products with efficient and effective radio performance for over 20 years. During that time, RIM has avoided designs like the one Apple used in the iPhone 4 and instead has used innovative designs which reduce the risk for dropped calls, especially in areas of lower coverage. One thing is for certain, RIM’s customers don’t need to use a case for their BlackBerry smartphone to maintain proper connectivity. Apple clearly made certain design decisions and it should take responsibility for these decisions rather than trying to draw RIM and others into a situation that relates specifically to Apple.” - Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie