One year from now

Let's think about the tablet market one year from now. You might not know it, but we are going to be flooded with countless Android tablets very soon. They will be ubiquitous and cheap. Remember $200 netbooks? Soon there will be scores of $200 tablets. Remember when we used to go out and buy a Windows PC? Soon we will go out and buy an Android Tablet.

Apple will stake out the high ground when a $600 dollar tablet is suddenly considered expensive. So where does this leave RIM?

They can differentiate themselves by offering a better user experience than Apple - which they are already doing thanks to some true innovation with the PlayBook and QNX. RIM needs a mantra: "New updates often!" They can offer more choice by opening up the BlackBerry Store to RIM and Android apps.

And here's the big one: By virtue of its ubiquity, Android will be a target for hackers and malware. RIM can offer better protection against these threats by creating a secure QNX sandbox for Android apps.

"Safe Android" may become an oxymoron.

More amusing: Next year 200 tablets run Android (including one that runs QNX). One tablet runs iOS. 200 tablets support Flash. One refuses.