Netbooks are getting a great deal of attention in the tech industry because they’re seen as the stepping stone from laptop to mobile. RIM does not see the netbook as competition and will continue to make powerful smartphones that will ultimately make the netbook obsolete.
“Form factor is a personal preference but it’s got to be something that lasts the better part of the day and you can hold up to your ear and clip onto your belt,” he said in response to our question about his vision for future products. “Those are a very tight systems constraints for a netbook.”
In response to the netbook offering a keyboard and screen experience not available for mobile, Jim says:
“If you want richer keyboards and richer displays you can just use perphiperals and bluetooth.”
Bob Stutz an executive from business software supplier SAP, which delivers business applications to BlackBerry devices, went on to completely dismiss the netbook.
“We’ve been down this route with these kinds of devices,” he said, “Why we are doing this with RIM today is because these (other) devices don’t work,” he said, noting that consumers want sturdy, inexpensive and well connected devices.
“Customers really have been down the gamut … They’ve been down this path. At the end of the day what we’ve really found is that if they can do it on a BlackBerry that’s what they’ll want.”
What do you think, will you buy a netbook?
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It will be interesting to see who else, besides airline companies, will benefit from in-flight WiFi. http://bit.ly/s8Vw3
Why does Balsillie always look like he is about to whip out a knife, slice someones ear off and then eat it…
RIM? Are they the ones that made that flop called the Storm?
Rim CEO Jim Balsillie says Blackberry will make netbooks obsolete http://bit.ly/kEbc9
Were does one get a ~7″ screen peripheral for my blackberry?
I agree Netbooks are a waste with my BlackBerry, BUT having a CDMA blackberry with NO WiFi and a small screen does open the door for a 5″-7″ Netbook, give me a netbook with a bluetooth headset wifi, and GSM and I could easily see my self giving up the blackberry….
I own both a Storm and a Asus EEE PC (netbook). My battery last all day for both the functionality of a netbook is not comparable to a blackberry because Netbooks are dumb PC’s and BB’s are just smart phones although close in IQ a dumb PC is still a different species of technology.
Use both, love both, does it have to be a competition? http://tinyurl.com/rbhwna