AOL screwed up the initial version of the Mobile Communicator. In Motion's pocket-size BlackBerry devices, which work well and are deeply beloved by their users. Then AOL wrote software that made the devices work badly and cost too much, which is generally not a great recipe for success. Since putting the devices on the market late last year as the AOL-branded Mobile Communicator, the things have apparently sold as well as pocket watches at a nudist colony. It's been pretty much a mystery.
Analysts seem clueless.
Their reports have been all over the place. Basically, this started when AOL cut a deal to buy those 60,000 RIM BlackBerrys, which work just fine on RIM's software. Sorry, but we have to make it look and act more like the AOL experience and less like the BlackBerry experience. It has to include instant messaging because that's what a lot of AOL users really like, and there's no instant messaging on BlackBerrys. And typical AOL fanatics don't give two hoots about some of the other BlackBerry features, such as the address book and organizer.