Posted on January 2, 2009, at 2:10 pm .
Prior to the development of the BlackBerry scrollball, the BlackBerry trackwheel (found on the stalwart BlackBerry 8700 among others) was probably the best navigation mechanic of any smartphone. It was always a wonder to me how RIM could get it right where so many others failed. RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis gives us the answer in his interview with CNET Asia.
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 hits 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 sort of like the moon buggies, and what’s interesting about it is, you can’t feel it. It’s so stiff that you don’t notice that it’s got a suspension. But high-speed photography shows that when it hits, it bends in and it doesn’t break. That lowered the breakage a hundred times. Not a 100 percent, but a hundred times. That was a very big breakthrough for the industry, but we patented the technology.
Lazaridis goes onto state that RIM was also first company to come up with USB charging. Two cool pieces of trivia about what makes BlackBerrys so special.
|via CNET|
Posted on January 2, 2009, at 10:00 am .
CNET Asia’s interview with RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis contains a boatload of interesting information about where the head honcho of BlackBerry development feels the industry in moving and where it has been. However, before we get to that, we have to address something that Lazaridis said that is… somewhat weird. Here’s Mr. Lazaridis’ answer to the question of whether he perceives any threats to BlackBerrys from netbooks.
I think I can put Netbooks in here [referring to the BlackBerry Storm]. These are Netbooks. They are just smaller.
Hmmm. Wikipedia (not exactly the last word on anything, but a good place to start) defines the netbook as a light-weight, low-cost, energy-efficient, highly portable laptop suitable for web browsing, email and general purpose applications, usually at a cost of less than $400. While you can certainly purchase a BlackBerry Storm for less than $400, it will come with a carrier contract, something no other netbook features to my knowledge, and that is before taking into account the monthly BlackBerry data and telephony costs. And while the BlackBerry Storm is obviously highly portable, it doesn’t compare well to the ease-of-use offered by a netbook (or any laptop for that matter) for a broad range of functions.
However, I think that the ultimate proof that Mr. Lazaridis is off base with the netbook comparison, is the numerous amount of people I’ve seen carrying both a BlackBerry and a netbook. If you have one already, why carry a second?
UPDATE: Power User Nan Palmero just pointed me to a contract subsidized netbook, but for now this is a niche within a niche (micro-niche?).
|via CNET|
Posted on October 31, 2008, at 8:52 am .
Jim Balsillie, RIM’s co-CEO will speak at the RBC Capital Markets Communications, Media and Technology Conference in Toronto, ON on Thursday, November 13, 2008. Balsillie’s presentation begins 11:00 a.m. EST, and will be available via live audio webcast on RIM’s website (link below). For those who can’t make it or tune in, a replay of the event will also be available on the website for two weeks following the event.
Jim Balsillie Presentation Webcast
Posted on August 22, 2007, at 8:15 am .
While cruising the forums, I found a little interview with director of RIM’s Wi-Fi development, Kevin Oerton. The conversation was mostly broad strokes: why wait so long to bring Wi-Fi to BlackBerry, what technical difficulties there were, that kind of thing. Oerton geared the BlackBerry 8820 as primarily an enterprise device targeted at campus-based companies with large Wi-Fi coverage. Most notably, Oerton says that carriers’ acceptance of VoIP and Wi-Fi handoff has been the primary reason for RIM moving forward with the technology. It’s not a huge leap from there to say that had carriers been more open to it, we would have seen a Wi-Fi BlackBerry sooner. As Oerton also said elsewhere, Wi-Fi is a way of extending the carrier’s reach to areas previously inaccessible. Once again, it’s solidified that RIM serves the carrier.
