The Storm is a Netbook, says RIM founderWATERLOO, Canada--Even as the weather dropped to sub-zero temperatures and snow powders Research In Motion campus in Waterloo, Canada, Mike Lazaridis certainly didn't feel it. The company's founder and co-CEO whizzed into the meeting room carrying a little black box, a Storm in it, and talked passionately about BlackBerry.
RIM Campus in Waterloo (Credit: RIM) At a recent visit to RIM Campus next to the University of Waterloo, CNET Asia met several top executives to learn more about the company's vision, its upcoming services and product roadmap. The BackgroundCNET Asia: You founded the company while you were a student at the University of Waterloo. How has BlackBerry evolved over the past few years, especially since the first devices were referred to as "hamburgers"? What does a BlackBerry device mean to you now? Mike Lazaridis: When I think about our products, I don't limit my thinking to features and specifications. I think about the whole user experience and how our products and services can solve problems and create value for our customers. Ten years ago, a BlackBerry device was focused largely on enterprise email and it was designed to be a secure, easy-to-use and highly valuable productivity tool. Today, your BlackBerry smartphone stays true to the original spirit of security, simplicity and value, but now it connects both enterprise customers and consumers to a much wider world of communications, information and entertainment. What kind of technical difficulties do you think BlackBerry devices will face in the near future? Do you foresee limitations in the design or components in putting a BlackBerry together? Lazaridis: Innovation is at the core of our culture at RIM and designing products that maximize the user experience is what we do best. We must always work within the laws of physics and ergonomics of small handheld wireless devices with respect to processor speed, display and keyboard size, weight, cost, battery life, radio bandwidth, network capacity and latency. The BlackBerry solution epitomizes the highest evolution and balance possible with today's technology for both businesses and consumers. At RIM, we continue to invest in R&D to make sure we are able to maintain our lead in providing the best wireless handheld messaging and multimedia solutions globally. Would you consider Netbooks as your competitors? Lazaridis: No, I think I can put Netbooks in here [referring to the BlackBerry Storm]. These are Netbooks. They are just smaller. Besides being the first company to come up with USB charging, can you share with us other trivia about RIM which most people wouldn't know? Lazaridis: We had the first symmetric keyboard and the first real successful use of the track wheel. Other companies have tried using track wheels and they gave up. Nobody really got the ball right. The problem with the track wheel was that in the early days, the manufacturers made them very stiff. The plastic was so rigid that no matter what you did, if it hit the ground like this, it would break and the circuit board would crack. We have very sophisticated labs with high-speed cameras, electronic scanning microscopes and infrared fast frame rate transform scanners that we invested in a long time ago. What we found with high-speed photography was that there was no deflection in the wheel when it hit the surface. The wheel stayed totally rigid and that snapped it right off. There was no saunter joint, metal pin, nothing. It's so hard to manufacture and that's why most companies gave up on it because there were a few phones that had it earlier on. What we discovered and invented was a suspension in our track wheels. The suspension is rather like the moon buggies, and what's interesting about it is you can't feel it. It's so stiff you don't notice it's got suspension. But high-speed photography shows that when it hits, it bends in and doesn't break. That lowered the breakage a hundred times; not 100 percent, but a hundred times. That was a very big breakthrough for the industry, but we patented the technology. Tags: Research In Motion Ltd., Smart Phone, Netbook, RIM BlackBerry, Sales |
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