Krakow: No Excuse for Broken BlackBerries

Research in Motion needs to be honest about the BlackBerry's hardware problem. I realize the company is coming off a bad week after missing Wall Street's second-quarter expectations and guiding below estimates for the third quarter, citing the rising cost of new, upcoming product launches.

But, the company needs to find a solution to its problems. RIM should not tell the BlackBerry fan base to try fixing the problem by moving the ball back and forth and then contact the cellular company. And Apple, while just a tiny bit more upfront about dealing with its phone problems, needs to think twice about releasing a product with so many flaws.

Words of warning to all smartphone manufacturers -- especially the big phone companies and software merchants such as Motorola (MOT Quote), Samsung, LG, HTC, Google (GOOG Quote), Nokia (NOK Quote), Sprint Nextel (S Quote) and Verizon -- instead of worrying about how many features you can cram into a device, how fast you can accomplish it, and how cheap you can sell it, maybe you should make sure that the darn thing works, for at least as long as the warranty lasts.

Consumers spending hundreds of dollars on your cell phones deserve better.