It's always been potatoes and gravy ...
Once upon a time ...the big boys made both device and os...
But now...things are much different.

The potatoes...
Devices now are a dime a dozen...
they all pretty much "look" the same even...
excepting a handful...
and asian manufacturers are now going toe-to-toe with the big boys ...
and doing it much cheaper...
The big boys can't do it all anymore ...
or else BB would be rolling out their own os only ...
on only their own devices...
So there it is....

The gravy...
'cause potatoes are pretty boring without the gravy...
and the gravy is the os...
There has been a winnowing -down of available os's over the years...til now there are just 3 big players (wp, droid, ipone) and everyone else struggling to get some ..if any ...market-share......buntu, tizen, sailfish, maemo, symbian, firefox..etc..
and actually the big 3 and their grip is almost monopolistic in appearance ..

Alotta companies now appear to be specializing in one or the other...
potatoes OR gravy.

I think BB shoulda stuck to os development ...
it really was what business-minded folks depended on...
the hardware is just that...
BB could have had any of countless companies make the devices for them...
but what made BB what it was....was their os.
Now...they are just another droid-pusher....