It’s one thing for a co-CEO of a company to talk trash about another competitor’s technology. It’s a totally different thing if the co-CEO’s company also is struggling to put out the same technology. Who am I referring to?
RIM’s co-CEO Mike Lazaridis and his comments regarding Apple’s recent success with touchscreen-only devices and over the launch of the new iPad.
While touchscreen phones aren’t for everyone, blatantly (and ignorantly I might add) claiming that “touchscreens aren’t popular” is a true flag highlighting Lazaridis’ incompetence. If touchscreens weren’t popular, how are Apple as well as other contenders such as Android (and soon Windows Phone 7) demolishing the mobile segment as we speak?
As to the whole touchscreen vs. physical button argument — at some point in the future, touchscreens will take over. Maybe not next year or within the next decade, but the end result is inevitable. Touchscreens are exponentially more versatile than devices with hardware input such as physical buttons and keyboards. If RIM stubbornly ignores or half-asses their touchscreen ventures, they’re going to find themselves in the same boat as Palm. Sad to say, but it’s true.
Of course, this could all be smoke being blown in our faces until RIM’s rumored tablet device of their own hits the market. But it begs the question, if exec’s are so un-enthusiastic about touchscreen/next-gen tech, how are they supposed to develop truly inspiring next-gen devices?
**Update:
So I just received an email from RIM about the article above. Understandably, they’re a bit peeved, claiming several of the comments are taken out of context. In their defense, after seeing an actual raw transcript pertaining to the issues above, it is a bit more difficult to draw definite conclusions, especially ones that are as bold as the comments mentioned above.
Even then however, the undertones of the “anti-touchscreen” movement can be seen without too much deep thought as Lazaridis talks up the companies tried and true QWERTY keyboards and new, trackpad technologies. Is he merely tooting his own horn?
I want to draw you your own conclusions. Below are two of the questions and answers Mike Lazaridis gave at the Toronto tech conference today.
Question Let me move on to one more. In December, you gave an interview to the Financial Post, there was a really interesting paragraph that you talked about handling devices and you raised a lot of good questions about their value in what they would accomplish. You didn’t really spend as much time, I think as everyone here would want, if you want to answer me, and it was a shorter interview. Maybe you can answer some of those questions now, the markets evolved a little bit, there’s been some product announcements. What are your thoughts about that type of form factor?
Answer (Mike Lazaridis) 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.
Question In the consumer market, it seems like, in the smartphones, especially, there is a line to be drawn between QWERTY and touchscreen, and you dominate in the QWERTY space. And I wondered what you think — I think the audience by watching, what do you think about the touchscreen form factor and how that needs to evolve and what do you think you need to do?
Answer (Mike Lazaridis) 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].
What do you think?
