- Jan 5, 2011
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This is a bit of news that is only slightly Android related, but still may be quite relevant to some of you guys. Apparently, RIM, the former pioneer smartphone company, now with one foot in the grave, is continuing to make questionable business decisions. According to a report on DroidMatters, RIM wants to avoid, what it calles the "chaotic cesspool" of piracy on Android's Google Play Store (quote from RIM), and as such, will be locking the BlackBerry Playbook to keep users from being able to side-load Android apps. Alec Saunders, VP of Developer Relations at RIM, announced these plans on Twitter. Mr. Saunders claims, without citing sources, that over 25% of Android devices are downloaded illegally. RIM plans to create the lock in a future update.
Hmmm... methinks that Mr. Saunders and his entourage over at RIM should be considering other options to keep their leaky boat from sinking before they start jabbing at other successful companies. While it can be argued that there are some piracy issues with Android, the Google Play Store can hardly be called a "chaotic cesspool" by any stretch of the imagination. Plus, RIM should learn their lessons from AT&T, who tried to do the exact same thing unsuccessfully in the past with their Android tablets. Eventually savvy users and devs developed workarounds to the lock. Also, AT&T eventually realized that blocking them didn't really help at all, so they eventually acquiesced to their customers and removed the lock.
What do you think of this strange news?
Source: DroidMatters
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