But for each possible note of encouragement, most still find reasons for pessimism easier to come by – at least for now. Perhaps the biggest challenge RIM faces is in winning over the developers who make apps, the individual pieces of software on a phone that do everything from plotting the best local jogging route to identifying what piece of music is playing in a coffee bar.

If the design and feel of the physical phone is one front in the smartphone war, the other, and arguably more important, is ensuring your operating system and software has the largest number of apps or, to borrow the technical jargon, the best ecosystem.