The big thing for RIM, is that they bought QNX. QNX is a real time (mostly embedded) POSIX (sorta Unix) operating system provider. That's the OS that the playbook runs, and it is a quality OS. RIM's future rests on getting that OS onto their whole product line while letting QNX continue to sell in the embedded market. (QNX is a, "it really has to fucking work AND on time" OS. Think medical equipment and your brakes.) Once BlackBerry moves most of their lines to a QNX based system with a BB type interface, the development environment gets a lot better on a very stable base, and the apps should flourish.
In the medium term BlackBerry has significant advantages in that they make pretty secure devices, have a fair amount of business lock in, and have models that have a physical keyboard. In the longer term they'll sink or swim on future product and new OS rollouts.