UPDATED: RIM CEO comments on iPad-style tablets, iPhone-style phones
UPDATE: TiPb was sent a transcript of the TD Newcrest Technology Conference, including the comments by RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridi, so here they are in their entirety. On tablets:
Well. The trends we’ve been following have been an -- there’s been, over the last three to four years, organizations have discovered the value of smartphones clearly, and that’s why we’re here, and that’s what we’re talking. And smartphones are always starting to space the need for laptops, but not all laptops, and not all needs. And I know that there are risks organizations that ask their customers when they join, when get hired, do you want a smartphone or a laptop very few get the opportunity to have both. So I think that’s an important thing, those are differentiated.
So the question you have ask yourself is when it comes to tablet, what market or what opportunities still it’s solving, what problem is it solving, and is it just a replacement laptop. I think that’s a difficult one to judge. But I think again if you look at what’s happening with smartphones are getting bigger, screens are getting bigger and getting more powerful and faster CPUs, more memory, we go in the 4G networks, we’ve got Wi-Fi, it’s just got everything, the operating systems are becoming more, more powerful, the tools are becoming more, more powerful, more applications are being developed, and are being used in more and more both enterprise and consumer spaces. So, I think at this point if you have to take the whole thing into consideration, you can’t say what’s the market for tablets in exclusion of the other devices, you have to put the whole thing together and I don’t think it’s that clear yet.
On touchscreen phones:
Well, I mean, clearly the best thing to do is to provide the choice and let the consumer and the customer to ultimately decide. I think what we’re seeing in the market though is that, it’s not clear if one side fits all and it really isn’t. And you can see it because a lot of people are realizing the incredible value and lifestyle improvement that are well-designed QWERTY push messaging experience brings to table. It’s really, really important. We’re finding -- if you look at the surveys, you can see that large amount of the customers that have purchased touchscreen devices in last two years, they intend to get a device with the QWERTY keyboard on it now, right. I mean, they’ve got into a point where they’ve realize that a touchscreen alone is not enough; so that’s important.
I think with the trackpad technology is going into the BlackBerrys now, we provide a gesture and an elegance to control. Again, that’s unmatched. So, I think that is a third dimension, because you talk about touchscreen devices, you talk about QWERTY devices, but I would argue this is third, the whole control, command and control of things like well-designed trackpad technologies. I think, that’s really, really important. And I think, we continue to evolve with the research and invest in the Storm technology to make sure we get those right, we learned a lot and we continue to evolve that platform. I think that again what’s important is we provide that choice and we don’t lose sight of the fact what’s made us famous and what’s driving our sales, which is our QWERTY keyboards and our incredible track [indiscernible].
So not as cut and dried but we still have to wonder what surveys he's reading that say people want to swap their touchscreens for QWERTYs because they're not the ones we're seeing.
And again, Apple's sold 85,000,000 iPhone OS devices -- including iPhone, iPod touch, and now iPad -- to date.
[ORIGINAL STORY: Electronista via DF]
Editor-in-Chief of iMore, Executive Producer at Mobile Nations, co-host of Iterate and ZEN and TECH, cook, grappler, photon wrangler.
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Wow, this guy has to be dilusional. I only know, like, one person that has a storm and they hate it
First
Man RIM Just doesn't get it these days and I'm a fan.
whatever you say guys
unreal, I know 2 people with Storms one with a v1 and one with a v2 and they BOTH HATE THEM! I loved my iphone when i had it and really like the droid.
Poor baztard. Probably goes to church, too.
@smelly. You were second, typical loser. Anyway, RIM is rudderless right now. Only the loyalists remain and once the iPhone goes to Verizon, RIM is dead.
dumb ass Mike that's why rim is gonna turn into the old Palm.
Man, what a joke...
My wife and I both have Storm 1's, and they are total pieces of crap. I go to bed each night praying that the iPhone comes to Verizon (as AT&T coverage where I live is pretty poor).
I actually got an iPod 3G recently, and am using Skype on it, and the calls are like 300% better than we EVER got on our Storms.
Wow. I love my BlackBerry, but RIM has a very long way to go to catch up to the likes of the iPhone and iPad.
What a DBAG and i have a bb9700. There not popular that's why they have been delayed for the rest of the world. BTW I hated the ipad when it was announced but after playing with it, its marvelous and have the 3g 64gb on order.
This guy is 100% delusional. Idiot.
And I bet his money is on Palin for 2012.
This article is a bit misleading and taken a bit out of context after reading the original article from Electronista. From the Electronista article:
"Many companies ask new hires to choose either a new smartphone or a new notebook, and if the tablet is simply a substitute for a notebook it may not have an easy answer, Lazaridis said."
I think he's saying how the iPad is not a netbook or an phone replacement. We all basically know that but you all are banging heads over a non apple fanatic saying it.
About the iPhone...yea he's on crack.
Read the article first
This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs. Any question.
I just saw an article about how internet usage since april 3rd for iPad is 0.03% and RIM 0.04%. Sorry no market for iPad, no market for your phones which struggle with internet
What a complete failure he made himself out of. RIM CEO: Look at your own gadgets! Like the Storm! Tell us how surprised we were with that. Exactly,! go suck it, cause obviously you're one jealous Apple fan!
This goes to show you how much CEO'S can really be out of touch with the real world. So the 85 kazillion sold were because they were not popular? Good thing Apple did not make them popular, never would be able to make enough.
Sent from my unpopular iPod Touch
This guy is definitely insane. I mean, I already knew that, but this makes it official. He doesn't realize why his phones aren't good enough to keep up. BlackBerries will fall WAY behind if Apple ever brings the iPhone to Verizon because they just can't keep up. I bet he thinks Android is no threat to his phones either. Idiot!
There are so many idiots in the world. How so many of them become Ceo's is amazing.
Black berries r garbage. Old tech, needs a complete overhaul. iPhone r the best, but can't wait for new version.
I guess RIM will hire anyone...he is definitely on crack.
@ all Verizon fanboys : If you get your way and get an iPhone on Verizon, you might as well have a RIM device. Verizon's network can't really support the iPhone. Slow 3G & no Internet use during a phone call.
He must be blind to what goes on around him...
blackberies are probably the best messaging device. i've used bb's since 2001...must have had over a dozen of them. i tell you, what the iphone does it just can't do...not even close. even the best blackberries suck at media. they have issues managing good size media libraries...just too inconvenient. they crash often when trying to play video, the app store blows compared to the competition and that storm joke...biggest piece of dooky evar! they should really just eat the humble pie and try to learn a thing or two from apple when it comes to media features. oh yeah...google will swallow them whole soon if they don't do something. open your eyes MR CEO! if you challenge apple, make something better or at least similar..sheesh!
Is he smoking his CRACKberry
Well, his product is still the top product, so hey, let him say what he wants. His company still reigns supreme, since this is a numbers game...right?
Mike Lazaridis is clearly a moron saying that there was no market, that's what makes a company great is to create a market. In 1908 there was no market for cars and now if you don't have one it makes life a little harder.
Dear RIM, catch up or SHUT up. That's it plain and simple
I disagree with rim in saying apple isn't popular but, in defense of rim... We are comparing apples 85 million sales to rims hundreds of millions... Since the beginning of blackberry they have sold an unprecedented amount of phones.
iPhone not popular? Yea RIM, keep telling yourself that while your market share keeps dropping lower and lower. They wanna pray Apple don't bring the iPhone to Verizon, then they'll find out what the meaning of popular is.
As an avid crackberry user for 4 years who recently switched to the iPhone , I can honestly say ...... The iPhone is BETTER !!! RIM is falling behind far and fast, only a matter of time before they become palm
Mike L has just replaced Steve Ballmer as the worlds most moronic CEO.
@Steven perfectly said
@fastlane
LMAO x2. Oh the lost.....
"Many companies ask new hires to choose either a new smartphone or a new notebook, and if the tablet is simply a substitute for a notebook it may not have an easy answer, Lazaridis said."
We all know it's not a substitute. What's the deal with all of you? Did no one actually read the article?
gquaglia, that's hitting below the belt. He's got a ways to go before replacing Ballmer as the most moronic CEO. He is, however, on the fast track apprenticeship program.
PR reached out to us with a transcript of the even so we updated the post to include it, but kept the link to Electronista for context.
The comments are far more verbose and not in a clear way but he doesn't come off anywhere nearly as badly.
I had one friend that had a storm, he didn't like it and neither did I, he got rid of it
I agree this guy sounds like a douche bag but many govt agencies both federal and state use bb because it isnthe only os that allows them full control over encryptioin/decryption whereas iPhone system files are locked down even when jail broken. @yoonix out!
I'd have to agree with him somewhat on tablets like the iPad. The iPad doesn't do anything that you cannot do with a smartphone and laptop and it cannot replace either of them so you will always have a phone and a laptop/desktop for the foreseeable future. (If the iPad or another tablet made a breakthrough in natural document/textbook reading and note taking that that might be a different situation, but until then....) To me the iPad is a luxury gadget so it will be interesting to see if sales keep up after the hype has died down.
As for his ramblings on smartphones that just turned into a sales pitch. RIM is certainly still popular, especially in the enterprise market, but I think they are relying on past relationships with businesses. They used to be a clear leader in mobile email, etc but now their technological advantages are not so unique and they're going to need to innovate more to keep their market share.
Mike.....Say no to crack.
To some degree he makes a point, everyone I know that has a Blackberry, has a Curve.
Rene u r a disgrace to Canada.
@ steve woz Huh The first BB came out in 1999.The iphone came out in 2007. BB has 6 different phones out Apple has 1. The iphone came out in 2007. I would hope they sold more phones.
Market share keeps decreasing for rim day by day to apple. And this is apple only being under one carrier in the US. RIM is on every carrier.
I don't think adding ipod numbers with iphone numbers is a real indicator because most people who bought ipods was not for typing reasons. It has nothing to do with the phone market.steve jobs is obviously speaking through people like puppets . I can spin my website numbers to say oh 3milllion hits per month but in reality that's only about 20,000 unique viewers but doesn't saying 3millions hits sound better to someone I am trying to get advertising money from. How bout steve jobs say well we sold 50 million phones but 20 million are deactivated since alot of people bought iphone then 3g then 3gs so I would like to know this number. How manyactive iphone users are there. Then find out how many blackberry active users there are and see how much of a difference there really are. But a real fanboy site will never state the truth only the fanbot spin version. And for the flamers I have had two apple products so count me twice in the 85 million bit lets keep it real
Blackberries are still the most popular phones out there... There's a reason for that...
I don't even like Blackberry because of their outdated OS
Great point Ruben. Grouping ipod and pads into to sales numbers to make a point about qwerty versus touchscreen sales is disingenuous.
Touch screen devices have QWERTY keyboards.
So the iPhone has been out for three years and some of you guys want to compare it against BB sales that have been out 11 years? Uhh, sometimes I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. There have been 3 diffent iPhone models with not everyone upgrading, and three different iPod touches with not everyone buying the newest generations. And one ipad that just came out. So that's 7 products in three years. BB has more models than that right now on Every carrier. Really BB fans...really. Yep "BB reigns supreme". I'd hope so after the 11 years, every carrier and many awful models to date...not to mention all the "buy one BB, get a second BB free deals that have been done to pad the numbers.
So yeah, you're right Ruben Cruz, it's easy to spin the numbers...however it goes both ways buddy.
@baustin yes and how long have ipods been out since they are added into the count I believe 9 years already
that is big azz hand
I would always take the Apple with my eyes closed
@Ruben Cruz The iPod there adding in is the iPod touch. Which came out in I think sept 2007 right after the iPhone. They add it in with iPhone numbers because they both run the same os. As well as the ipad. If they were adding iPods in general which came out I thiink sept or oct of 2001 the numbers would be in the two hundred thousands.
^^^I'm sorry I meant two hundred million^^^^^
While I am a rabid fan of the iPhone. The fact remains that the blackberry is still the device of choice for the vast majority of executives and enterprises. While I agree they are horrible for all things non messaging, they are a messaging powerhouse, which is all most corporations want. A vast majority of the people I see using blackberries have been using them for years, love the physical qwerty keyboard and would HATE android or iPhone. They are typically older and somewhat tech phobic.
That said, as the younger generation starts to get into more senior level positions, the game will change and rim will need to evolve to stay competetive. That said, I think he knows his current market quite well even if his English is horrible!
@Noah couldn't of said it any better
@Ruben Cruz
Yeah judging from your last post I really don't think you need to debate anything with anyone...
Did you read the article? I hope for your sake you didn't so that I could at least understand a little. Listen I'm not trying to tout the iPhone as if it's the only thing that matters because frankly, I don't care. If you like your BB or know someone who likes their BB then that's fine...go for it. Just know what you're talking about before you post next time.
@ piper. At least our network can actually support phone calls without dropping every one in three
I'm sorry; I had to stop reading this. His English and grammar are absolutely horrible. I can't believe he allowed this to be quoted. What embarassment to RIM.
@so called verizon fanboy. Lol do you think everyone on AT&T has dropped calls all the time. Your a fool. I have had one dropped call in the last 6 months. Now my gf who has verizon has at least 5 dropped calls a week. And has no service on the top of her phone screen all the time. Good coverage my ass. Her 3g is slow as f**k. I'm loaded and browsing while she 1/4 of the way loaded. Her bill is $30 more a month. Nickel and dming. So don't act like the big is sweet.
These guys at RIM should only open their traps when they finally have an OS that doesn't make me yearn for the good ole days of Windows 98. What in the blue hell do these guys know about user experiences? They specialize in getting business information to your phone, which is now a commodity in the smartphone market. I don't think anyone at RIM has absolutely insight has to what the market wants. Yea, nice job getting the smartphone market started, we all really appreciate that. But they can't make an OS to save their lives and I'm supposed to care what this guy has to say about a tablet? There's a reason why so many people are so insecure about the iPhone having a non-replaceable battery, they are probably former BlackBerry users who resolved 95% of the issues with their BlackBerry by doing a battery pull.
This guy is completely unintelligible with his responses. Reading what he had to say was like doing reading comprehension for a practice LSAT. And did he seriously have the nerve to compare the input experience of a trackpad to a touchscreen? Is he nuts? Sorry Mike, I've played Brickbreaker with your beloved trackpad and typed email and navigated menus and I can do things in half the time and with a third of the button presses on an iPhone that I can on a BlackBerry. Someone with a vested interest in touch screen phones not succeeding probably shouldn't be asked to comment on them. The fact is, with as bad as the Storm and its Jello screen are, RIM should probably try to create the future instead of trying to predict it. That's really the difference between guessing how to do something and having swagger in wanting to take a risk.
RIM reminds me a lot of Microsoft, except they're even worse, because even Microsoft found a way to turn it around with Windows 7 and Windows Phone 7. RIM has yet to experience a rebirth because they have no aptitude with software, user experiences, and are only mildly competent at producing solid hardware.
I really don't think this guy from RIM actually knows what a QWERTY keyboard is. It's a shame he makes more money than most will make in a lifetime...
@gag actually palm invented the smartpgone and also holds the patent for it. That's why apple won't sue them for all the iphone features they jacked
I understand you guys are upset and all because he dismissed touch devices. But I understand where he is going with this. I am in the wireless business and I see this day in and out. I see people who have put up with their touch devices including the iPhone and after 2 years they go to a non touch screen device. Not all but quite a few people do this. Look at some of the people who have iPhones and other touch screen phones but also carry a none touch screen that has a qwerty. Touch screen devices require too many steps for some users so they simply just give up and go back to non touch screen devices. Yes, there are people who think about how many steps it takes to make a phone call. Great thing about us humans is the fact we all are different and like different things. No matter how great you think something is, someone may think other wise. To make a phone call on a touch screen device, lets take the iPhone into count is you have to hit a button, swipe to unlock it, hit an on screen icon, scroll through your contacts or type in the number. In the even of an emergency seconds count and that is just too many steps to call. Yes I know we all do not think this is important but what is not important to you is important to someone else.
So do I agree fully with his comment, no... But dealing with phones all day and seeing people go from a non touch screen to a full touch screen than within days go back. Or even seeing someone go from an iPhone/Droid and go to a Blackberry because it is simply easy to type on I some what agree with his statements. I myself have numerous phones, including the iPhone and the Droid. I carry 3 phones on me at all times and I have to always carry a Blackberry with me when I am switching phones. Out of the 3 phones one of them has to be a Blackberry because it gets the job done in regards of emails.
I just think you guys need to calm down and don't just jump on this guy because of how you feel about your phone, or touch screen devices. But think about the other people out there throughout the world. Like I said I deal with phones all day and people all day and I get to hear some of their comments about the devices some of you feel everyone should love.
Sometimes I just wish RIM would stick to what they do better than anyone else out there - and leave everything else alone.
As a Canadian (quite proud of RIMMs success) I decided to check out 4 major US Telcos (ATT, Verizon, Spring, T-Mobile). I discovered that RIMM is on ALL 4 and with multiple different phones! Apple is on one with just 2 types (3g, 3gs, second with 2 memory sizes). I wonder what happens when google and Apple phones end up on all 4 as well. What will the yearly sales figure look like then. Same is true of Palm Pre.
@Charles: a phone call can be made on iPhone by hitting a button, swiping, and tapping an on-screen icon. That's it. No need to select from a contact list. (You can store 16 icons for 16 phone numbers on a page.)
ipad got so many problems,but still can't stop people buying. Why? I guess just outlooking attract many,and some Personalize setting make you more comfortable. Specially,it never similar with any others,so if you are conditioned to use Apple stuff,you are in.
Anybody hear about that? iphone 4 is jailbreak. Jailbreak is necessary, we all love that.
i am actually an apple fan. i love my ipad very much.
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