Ironic that you stated it this way. RIM made a fatal mistake when they were at the top of the world. They had THE best mobile email client on the planet. They decided to release it onto other platforms, and got to the point of the software being tested on Windows Mobile. But at the last minute they chickened out and never released it. They were afraid it would hurt their handset sales. So they kept it exclusive, and eventually the other smartphones came out and ran them out of business. Had they moved to a services model at that point, they probably would still be the dominant communications platform, but not on their own hardware. Apple, with iMessage, is kind of in a similar position, albeit a very different competitive landscape. One of the things that keeps people locked into Apple hardware is how horrible an experience iMessage makes it for anyone who isn't on Apple hardware.... particularly in the US. By not allowing iMessage to be a heterogeneous messaging platform on other devices, they are doing exactly the same thing RIM did that killed their whole business.