Full disclosure. I’m an Apple fan and an owner of several Apple products over the past years – computers, phones, and tablets.

Now that that’s out of the way, let me tell you a story. Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android come crashing into the mobile phone / smartphone space like a marauding hoard. Left in their wake are the once powerful phone manufacturers scrambling to redefine their business as they realize that what’s left of their products, technology, and marketing are nothing more than smoldering embers. Most of the survivors realized that smartphones are the future. Sony-Ericcson, Motorola, and Samsung embraced Android. Nokia got into bed with Microsoft.

Up in Waterloo, Ontario, (that’s in Canada for those not in the know) one major player didn’t seem to get the memo that the future was with Apple or Google. Research in Motion, or RIM, maker of the Blackberry, soldiered on with their Blackberry. And why not? They had a wonderful and unique product – a two-way messaging device that doubles as a phone. Brilliant! No one else had anything similar in one device. At one point, it seemed that they thought that Blackberries would always be special because enterprise customers would always buy Blackberries, would never look elsewhere and that that would be enough for them. Then something happened. Enterprise customers decided that they would no longer always buy Blackberries. It turns out that enterprise users are also people and not just accounts, and people wanted to have devices that were fun. Aside from e-mail, to-do lists and calendars, people wanted music, videos, web surfing, social networking and apps. And so it was that the folks in Waterloo got up and smelled the coffee.

RIM has been playing catch up since. Their efforts are commendable – more modern browsers, improved trackpads and keyboards, sharper screens, different form factors, an app market and even a tablet that’s running software that they didn’t make. Unfortunately, the public – or more likely the media – have not picked up their pompoms to cheer RIM on. And why would they? Just as they’re trying to put their act together, RIM keeps dropping the ball – a tablet that didn’t have native e-mail, a worldwide system outage (with some aftershocks since), and a seemingly lost marketing department that doesn’t know what the company and its products are all about. Just last week (as of this writing), their stock plunged below book value. Surely, it’s just a matter of time when RIM will join the likes of Nortel – a patent carcass waiting to be picked.

But wait! About 20 years ago, another technology company was in the same boat. They were a pioneering company that invented the first personal computers that people could buy and easily use. They also put together the first personal computers that had a mouse and a graphical interface. They had people pointing and clicking at windows and folders when their competition had customers hunting and pecking at command lines. Times were good, but then they lost their way. They kicked out their founder and started dropping the ball – too many products with little differentiation, licensing their OS to other manufacturers who beat them on performance, warming up yesterday’s technology and calling it innovation, and forgetting what made them special. In the ten years after unceremoniously removing their founder, the company was half a step from death’s door. Ring a bell? Yes? No? This is Apple’s story before Steve Jobs returned. And we all know what happened next right. With Steve’s leadership, he slashed and burned what he found after his return and drove his company to success like a mad man.

So, RIM is not in a unique situation. The question is what are they going to do about it? Apple has shown that a complete turnaroud can be done if someone (or some people) are innovative and driven enough. Does RIM have enough brains and guts to become a market innovator and leader once again?

Oh! And one more thing RIM and Apple have another similarity that no other company has in the smartphone / tablet business. These two companies own their hardware, software and service business. Some people say that this is one key factor to Apple’s success. Can RIM leverage this well enough to effect the same result?

Over the next couple of days, I’ll be living with a Blackberry 9860 from Rogers Wireless – a touchscreen device in line with current smartphone style. It runs RIM’s latest smartphone operating system, the Blackberry OS7. What I’ll be doing is determining as objectively as possible if the Blackberry is competitive to Android and iOS. I’ll ascertain where it excels and falters. I’ll attempt to prove or disprove the media eulogy that RIM has gone way beyond its best-by date. Hopefully, I’ll be able to come up with some suggestions on how I think the Blackberry can leapfrog the competition as well.