Phones will have more success than netbooks, at least if Jim Balsillie has anything to say about it.
Balsillie, CEO of Research in Motion – which produces the BlackBerry, said he plans to focus on the company’s core business in phones. Balsillie’s statement comes as some computer makers are starting to produce phones and phone companies, such as Nokia, are looking into netbooks.
“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 told Reuters. “Those are a very tight systems constraints for a netbook.”
In essence, Balsillie is focused on developing new versions of the BlackBerry phone. He said if a phone’s dimensions seem too cramped, they can be suplemented with peripherals and Bluetooth.
Bob Stutz, an executive from SAP, a business supplier that delivers business applications to BlackBerry devices, shares Balsillie’s thoughts.
“We’ve been down this route with these kinds of devices,” he said, referring to “iPaqs, fliptop notebooks and other specialist devices. Why we are doing this with RIM today is because these (other) devices don’t work.
“Customers really have been down the gamut,” Stutz added. “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.”
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Tags: BlackBerry, RIM