- based on QNX - specifically designed as a low-resource real-time OS, unlike the competition
- huge opening app store
- successful wooing of developers, great API's
- smooth & superior UI
- real multitasking
- new workflow paradigm
- huge effort to maintain/grow user base, esp. business

Of course, it could be designed by God and still fail in the fickle marketplace (in which case the company is toast), but all things being equal, they should make a huge difference in the market.
They are not trying to offer a simple alternative to existing platforms, they are trying to be the next step in portable device evolution.
I hope they are successful. We'll see.
btw - I have no stock, but admit I would like to see a Canadian company succeed, despite the last year of denigration by the financial and IT press, which often kills off companies prematurely.