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The official launch of the BlackBerry Bold 9700 took place in Germany and Mike Lazaridis was there to talk about it. He called it a “remarkable feat of engineering.”
The above video gives you a quick look at the device, and then cuts over to Mike Lazaridis, speaking at what appears to be a small press event. Nothing spectacular in the video, but the 9700 looks like a really professional device.
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Beginning October 15th, and lasting 10 days, the Perimeter Institute is hosting Quantum to Cosmos: Ideas for the Future (Q2C).
The Perimeter Institute was founded in the summer of 1999 by Mike Lazaridis, co-CEO of RIM. The Institute is a center for innovation in Canada and is helping to spread access to fascinating and important research. PI is a world renowned organization devoted to theoretical physics and it remains a source of pride for Canada and scientists everywhere.
Q2C’s extensive program features more than 50 events – including panel discussions, keynote presentations, special screenings, exhibits including the full-scale model of the next Mars Rover (named Curiosity), and recorded sessions with Honorary Festival President Professor Stephen Hawking.
To follow this amazing festival, visit q2cfestival.com and TVO.org.
Walt Mossberg of the WSJ is jumping on a trend of reviewing the Storm2 before it launches. While BlackBerry Cool has also reviewed this device before launch, it’s always best to wait for the launch date, and give both RIM and the carriers the benefit of the doubt that they may change something.
As you may remember from Walt’s conversation with Mike Lazaridis, he was not a fan of the first BlackBerry Storm. One of his questions to Lazaridis was “why wasn’t the Storm a better device?” Sort of a harsh dig considering it had one of the lowest return rates at Verizon. Yes, the device lacked WiFi, and the typing experience wasn’t stellar, but a touchscreen BlackBerry was much needed in the product line.
Well it seems Walt is convinced that the second time out the gate is a success:
Click through for more about this Verizon BlackBerry Storm 2 9550 review
RIM’s booming sales have made it Fortune’s number 1 Fastest Growing Company. Over the past decade, RIM has sold around 65 million phones to over 28.5 million subscribers. This has grown RIM’s stock market capitalization from $96 million to $42 billion in the process. BlackBerry devices continue to dominate the smartphone market with a 56% share of the $12 billion U.S. in revenue.
Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie are confident that RIM can handle their rate of growth but Lazaridis admits that “sometimes we have to put the brakes on.” He goes on to say, “We’ve shown that we can handle annual 100% growth. I’m not sure we could handle more than that.”
The history of RIM is well known but Fortune’s interview reveals an incredible sales strategy on the part of Balsillie that solidified BlackBerry as the corporate standard. As Jim made constant trips back and forth between the US and Canada, he would meet with enterprise customers all over North America. “Every time I’d go up there and present, I’d sit there and ask, ‘Who here uses Microsoft Exchange?’” he remembers. “And two-thirds would raise their hands. Then I’d say, ‘Who here would like to get e-mail on their belt for free?’” He collected business cards and sent “e-mail evangelists” — kids just out of college — back to get the bankers up and running. Within a year the BlackBerry had become a staple on Wall Street. “It was a puppy dog sale,” he says. “‘Take a puppy dog home, and if you don’t like it, bring it back.’ They never come back.”
Continue reading about Balsillie and Lazaridis’ past, current and future strategy for RIM and BlackBerry
Today in New York, the bidding starts for Nortel Networks Corp.’s largest business unit. RIM has been denied entry into the bidding process because it has failed to sign an agreement that the other businesses have signed.
Nortel CEO Mike Zafirovski, has explained to the press that RIM is refusing to sign what Zafirovski has called “a standard non-disclosure agreement before getting a close look at Nortel’s books.”
RIM has said it will continue to find ways to purchase the business unit and add it to RIM’s valuable intellectual property portfolio. If RIM does manage to purchase the business unit, they will have access to CDMA and LTE technology which will go a long way to improving BlackBerry devices and network infrastructure.
“That’s really what these guys are after,” said Nizar Assnie, vice-president of Vancouver-based IE Market Research Corp. The next-generation technology will provide carriers with the ability to offer cellphones with advanced, data-heavy features such as video streaming at ultra-fast speeds. Leading in LTE is a must “if you’re going to be a serious network infrastructure player in the wireless space [in] ten years,” he said.
There is clearly something more to the “standard non-disclosure agreement” that is causing RIM to refuse to sign. If one had to guess, the agreement probably contains some element that RIM legal, Balsillie and Lazardis, deem to be detrimental to the profitability of the purchase. Either that, or perhaps they don’t see the purchase as being a necessary step for the company, and they’re saying “take our offer or leave it, we’re not signing anything.”
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Mike Lazaridis, speaking at the Canadian Telecom Summit yesterday, said that the BlackBerry devices and smartphones that are Web-enabled are rapidly becoming the “center of how you get things done.”
Of course, all BlackBerry Cool readers already know that we’re at the cutting edge of technology and productivity, but the prediction is going to make some brick and mortar organizations rethink their direction.
Among Mike’s predictions is that the North American market for smartphones will more than double in the next few years. “There is a conversion happening. More and more consumers are not just trading up to a newer phone, they’re trading up to smartphones. I call this the smartphone revolution and it’s occurring right now.”
Rogers’ CEO Nadir Mohamed could not agree more. In the opening keynote address, he said that cutting-edge devices are redefining how consumers view Internet and use it. “The notion of Internet at home [or] Internet at the office is changing to: your Internet, wherever you are,” he said. “It’s very powerful.” Mr. Mohamed estimated by 2014 more than three million Canadians will use smartphones such as the BlackBerry.
With the market shifting towards smartphones, and these devices becoming increasingly more powerful, we’re seeing a progressive evolution towards Every Laptop Left Behind.
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Both Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis are incredible philanthropists. Their contributions to the social sciences, sciences and academia have really helped advance our understanding of this world. These philanthropic ventures require an incredible amount of cash and equity on a regular basis in order for these ventures to succeed as planned.
Recently, RIM’s executives Jim and Mike adopted what are called Automatic Securities Disposition Plans or ASDPs. ASDPs are plans that will allow Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis to sell shares of RIM at a predetermined interval, regardless of whether or not they are under a “blackout” period. A “blackout” period, would include such times as when quarterly financial reports are released. Normally, an executive would be barred from selling shares during a financial report release, due to concerns over insider trading and how their selling of shares would affect the market.
WIth the ASDPs in place, charitable foundations will be able to rely on the vast amount of funds being sent their way from RIM’s top executives. One example of this includes Jim Balsillie’s weekly share donations of up to C$100 million over 24 months to a charity he founded. Balsillie will also donate another C$57 million of shares to the Center for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), an Ontario-based think tank. Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis is matching Jim Balsillie’s contributions with about C$190 million over 22 months to his charitable foundation.
To learn more about ASDPs and how they affect trading regulations, see Gowlings.
Click through to read the official press release regarding the adoption of new ASDPs
In order for App World to be a real success, we’re going to need to see it preloaded on upcoming BlackBerry devices, as well as pushed by carriers to all their BlackBerry subscribers. The reason we’re not currently seeing this, is because the carriers are threatened by App World, and concerned with losing a major revenue stream.
From the carrier perspective, App World is both a blessing and a threat. App World is promoting a surge in data usage which directly translates to extra revenue for the carrier. The threat from App World for the carrier comes down to competition with the carrier content portal. In a content distribution taste test, the carriers will always lose to App World, but this doesn’t matter to them. All the carrier cares about is owning the sale of content and owning that revenue stream. App World threatens to eat the carrier’s lunch, as more subscribers realize that the content download experience is much better through RIM.
Not only are carriers preventing App World from reaching more users, they’re also preventing subscribers from getting access to the content we want. The carriers have always tried to impede tethering and VoIP applications which keep our bills low and stay connected. This is just one reason why the carrier content portal needs to bow down to App World.
In the end this is all going to come down to a CEO showdown. Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis are going to have to show some incredible leadership in order to convince the carriers to get out of the way. Behind closed doors, RIM executive will sit down with the likes of Randall L. Stephenson of AT&T and Ivan Seidenberg of Verizon. Their negotiations will hinge on some of the following points:
Continue reading about how RIM will take down the carriers with App World
As we have said before, WES 2009 is not the place for device launches. As much as we wanted to see the BlackBerry Niagara launch, this conference is not about hardware. The major news is BES 5.0, security updates, an alliance with HP as well as the release of RIM’s push API’s to developers.
As Mike Lazaridis took the stage, part of me was hoping that he would talk hardware for just a moment but it wasn’t going to happen. Mike took us through some figures, reflecting on the success of the BlackBerry over the past 10 years. Some measures of success include:
Mike Lazaridis focused his keynote on the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) 5.0. The latest updates to BES help organizations make push services work for them more efficiently, and ultimately save organizations costs.
The part I enjoyed most about Mike’s keynote was when he quoted Rove’s ELLB movement almost verbatim. At one point Mike Lazaridis said, “what if you could leave your laptop behind?” This idea truly embodies the direction and vision at RIM. Your mobile device is become so feature rich and powerful, that eventually your laptop will become obsolete.
Mike Lazaridis’ favorite development at RIM? App World. Mike talked about how he started his career as a developer, and the development community is what makes this device so robust. App World is helping developers make more money for their work, and get their apps in front of millions of potential buyers. App World also fosters competition, encouraging developers to make better and cheaper applications.
WES has some great news for developers and enterprise but this conference has moved away from the consumer space. Perhaps device launches are going to be left in the hands of carriers.
In an interview with Laptop magazine, co-CEO of RIM Mike Lazaridis said the company is planning more touch-screen BlackBerry devices and thinks its brand and push technology can help it weather the economic slowdown.
Although the BlackBerry Storm has got a lot of negative feedback, it was a crucial step for RIM to enter the consumer market with a touchscreen device. The SurePress technology took a new spin on touchscreen phones and it definitely helps the typing process.
“I think there’s some truth to the fact that these devices are becoming much more complicated, and of course we do a lot of testing every time before releasing these devices,” Lazaridis said about the Storm. “And I think it’s unfair. … That’s our first touch product, and you know nobody gets it perfect out the door. You know other companies were having problems with their first releases.”
Lazaridis also hinted that the company will be coming out with other touch-screen smartphones, but did not confirm reports that RIM is already planning a “Storm 2″ later this year that will have Wi-Fi and a new input method. Additionally, there’s speculation that the company is working on a BlackBerry that has a full QWERTY keyboard and a touch screen.
Here at BlackBerry Cool we know the Storm 2 is on its way. Whenever there is this much internet hype about something it usually happens. Plus, even if it isn’t called the Storm 2, from this interview as well as a host of rumors, we’re sure a Storm-like device will be hitting the market soon.
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