Smartphone Thoughts: RIM CEO Blasts Apple and Windows Mobile Devices

"As nice as the Apple iPhone is, it poses a real challenge to its users. That's according to Research in Motion's Mike Lazaridis, who has said that real phones need real keyboards. The RIM CEO told reporters: "Try typing a web key on a touchscreen on an Apple iPhone, that's a real challenge. You cannot see what you type". He added that he's not too impressed with the Apple iPhone, and that it won't kill off the Blackberry, The Register reported. Blackberry has some 20 million users globally and is currently the eighth biggest phone maker in the world."

Of course the iPhone won't kill off the Blackerry. I mean come on, they're aimed at a difference audience. There's always going to be some people that will use their iPhone in the office environment. Just like there are some people that buy a BlackBerry for personal use and not because there employer made them use it. To me, this statement just screams of FUD. The article finishes with a quote from co-CEO Jim Balsillie, who says "Windows Mobile isn't that big a competitor, ...They are a modest force to RIM. Microsoft should be working at services, not at distributed PCs, which is what Windows Mobile actually still is." Geez! Sounds like someone is more than a little scared about the recent Microsoft announcement about System Center Mobile Device Manager tool. SCMDM is aimed at heart of the BES server.