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| User Info | RIMMBurr? Uh....; entered at 2012-01-23 10:14:58 | |||
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Genesis Posts: 130673 Registered: 2007-06-26 
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Quite easily, but RIMM owns the QNX operating system now (they bought the company!) As such NOBODY ELSE in the cell space will have QNX unless they buy RIMM to acquire it. We looked at this at VideOcart for the cart-based executive back when I was working there; the firm lost on the license costs (if I recall the ask in big-number quantity was $40/per), not on the technology. It is an EXCELLENT real-time kernel that has been around for a long time and it just plain WORKS. It has MAJOR advantages in that it was designed from the ground up to be a real-time executive and to run on limited hardware. I've programmed against it in the past and I like it a lot. In fact unless you're going to write your own executive (which is what we did at VideOcart) there's nothing else that comes close -- you just can't get there in the commercial "buy it off the shelf" space. If they get the execution on this they're going to DESTROY everyone else on power budget and responsiveness-per-watt consumed out of the battery. That is a very, very big deal -- having a cellphone that lasts twice as long in your pocket between charges and yet is much snappier on the user interface is a HUGE advantage and none of the other players can compete in that space with their existing code base and technology. Both Android and Apple have gone after this problem by adding more processor power and memory to the phone. Dual-core chips and similar are all the rage over the last year or so as a result. Yes, it "works" in that it makes the device nice and fluid (I love my Samsung SGS II) but it is VERY BAD for the power budget. In a desktop nobody cares, but in a handheld EVERYONE cares. This is the secret sauce that RIMM has and nobody else does. IF they **** up the execution they're cooked but if not a year from now they'll have handsets that are just as fast and snappy as anything else in the market but last twice as long in the pocket. That's a VERY big deal and is being entirely ignored. (To put perspective on this if I actually USE my SGS II I get about three hours out of 1700mah battery before it dies, and Samsung had to go to a 1700mah battery to get there -- the older Galaxy phones were ~1400mah. This means I need to pocket a SECOND battery for a common 8 hour day if I actually intend to use (as opposed to leave on standby in my pocket) the device away from a power plug for a full work day. Apple, with it's "no user-swappable battery" design means when you're out, you're out -- literally. Now think about what happens to Samsung (and more importantly Apple with no user-swappable battery AT ALL) if THE standard for business handsets is a device with TWICE the duration.) That's what RIMM potentially brings to the table with the OS changeover. Last modified: 2012-01-23 10:19:43 by genesis
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