The assumption here is that everyone wants a SmartPhone. I don't think that's true. A telephone that also does e-mail (and IM, BBM) while offering great battery life is a totally different class of device.
Sure, but if you're a personal user using BIS the email experience on the BB is pretty poor compared to the other phones out there today. With BIS connecting to IMAP it doesn't actually do a two-way sync so if I read and delete an email on my BB it isn't reflected when I get home and check my mail on my laptop. Total fail. All because they're trying to push BES server licenses onto people. I think it's actually this pig-headedness that will kill them in the end. In fact, they're too focused on extracting BES money out of businesses to properly address personal IMAP/POP mail properly.
As a single datapoint, I admit of being almost a Luddite when it comes to mobiles. I barely have a dumbphone and I don't even get what all the fuss is about smartphones, let alone own one. If I spend most of my awake hours in front of a 24'' screen and a four core machine, what's so compelling about carrying an underpowered device with me the few hours I am (and usually want to be) offline ? And yet it seems I belong to a shrinking minority, at least for people of my generation (30ish) and younger.
Having had an iPhone for several years now, I find myself wishing I had a device that was nothing but text messaging and a WiFi hub. I'm probably just getting old, but I'm tired of trying to work on a small screen. The only thing I miss when I leave my iPhone behind is the ability to tell people that I'm early/late.
