Ever wondered how Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis stay connected even as they spend so much time traveling between countries? Well they do it thanks to a company called TrueNorth Avionics, based in Ottawa, Canada. The company partnered with RIM to give them an airborne solution for their corporate fleet and have since grown the company to support all smartphones and more solutions.
Tomorrow, RIM will be announcing its results for the third quarter of fiscal 2011. A conference call and live webcast will be held beginning at 5 pm ET, which can be accessed by dialing 1-800-814-4859 or by logging on at their site. A replay of the conference call will also be available at approximately 7 pm by dialing 416-640-1917 and entering passcode 4310313#. This replay will be available until midnight ET December 30, 2010.
This quarter, we’re sure to see some positive results given the success of the Torch, as well as some talk of the upcoming PlayBook. We’re also sure to hear Jim Balsillie pronounce T-Mobile “tee moh-beel”.
Jim Balsillie gave a brief hands on demo of the BlackBerry PlayBook at the Web 2.0 Summit and the multitasking looks incredible. As Jim browsed through multiple tabs, he really showed off the power of the QNX operating system and how it can handle multiple processes that include high definition video. Another great feature of this brief demo was the way gestures were used. Jim browsed through multiple cards and flicked them away with ease. This brief demo just gave the PlayBook +1000 in the awesome department.
The Web 2.0 Summit interview with Jim Balsillie wasn’t great because it seemed like John Battelle, the interviewer, wasn’t totally educated about BlackBerry and seems like he isn’t much of a BlackBerry user. Battelle had questions such as whether the PlayBook will be available to enterprise users which we all know because the fact that the tablet is BES-ready was a central part of the PlayBook announcement.
Speaking of the PlayBook, Jim dropped that the BlackBerry tablet has an open module and there is a lot of potential for the device. It would be strange if the module he was speaking of was the radio for carrier connectivity, because this has already been announced by RIM. So what else could this module be?
One of the cooler parts of the interview came when Balsillie came to the subject of NFC chips. During the interview, he said “We’d be fools to not integrate an NFC chip. And we’re not fools.” For those who don’t know, an NFC chip is a short-range high frequency wireless communication technology that allows data exchange between devices at a range of about 10 centimeters. The chip is great for mobile payments which will open up BlackBerrys to more BlackBerry Wallet potential. I can’t wait for the days when I can completely ditch my wallet and keys for my BlackBerry.
On another note, it’s great to hear Jim Balsillie talk about the possibility of a quad-core, QNX OS BlackBerry that renders the web just as well as the PlayBook.
The Web 2.0 Summit is a conference in San Francisco that brings innovators and executives together to discuss the web and its future. The conference talks about business models on the web, and how business is being transformed by the web. Coming up at 2:40PM, there is a discussion on BlackBerry and mobile with Jim Balsillie will be speaking along with John Battelle (Federated Media Publishing).
Jim Balsillie made an interesting point recently when he compared the tablet market to the smartphone market, essentially saying there’s enough room for everyone and the market will explode in a similar fashion. It does seem to be the case that everyone is upgrading to a smartphone, and that everyone’s phone will eventually be “smart”, but does the same necessarily hold true for tablets?
At the same meeting, Jim Balsillie told reporters that the PlayBook will be priced under $500, but wouldn’t go into specifics about the exact price. Will it be $499? Or perhaps much cheaper at $300. Considering the device relies on a BlackBerry for connectivity, RIM is going to have to price the tablet lower than the competitors. Ideally, the PlayBook would come in at a pricepoint where every BlackBerry user will feel like they can afford one.
It looks like all of this will be confirmed in the next couple of months when we get close to a rumored February launch.
