Research In Motion CEO Mike Lazaridis live from D7
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted May 27th 2009 5:23PM
posted May 27th 2009 5:23PM
Thanks to our editor-at-large and gdgt co-founder Ryan Block for handling photo duties during the show!
3:08PM Well, we tried to ask Mike about the Storm 2 that we've seen, but has no click screen. And... Walt wouldn't go for it. Why Walt, why?
2:57PM And now... questions. Well that was a snoozefest.
2:57PM Walt and Mike, two guys who just can't seem to agree about anything. Still, as far as conversations go, this is one staying-the-course situation we could do without. Mike will not budge from his party line, and Walt won't stop needling him.
It would be entertaining if it wasn't so sleepy.
2:55PM Walt: Does Microsoft understand this situation?
Mike: I don't think anyone understands it as well as we do.
2:55PM Walt: How are you going to stop your customers to believe that the networks can't handle it when your ads say otherwise. That has nothing to do with compressing text email. That's not what your ads show. Certainly not what Apple's ads show. They're using this like their laptops.
Mike: Every one of those applications needs to be optimized.
Wow, he really, really wants you to compromise here folks. And now... back to how totally radical push technology is, particularly when it comes from RIM.
2:52PM Walt: AT&T says they're doubling the speed. I'm not trying to cause a fight between you and AT&T. Does that mean I'll be able to use it like a laptop?
2:52PM Mike is using streaming a baseball game as an example of how your selfish network use is destroying the world. I hope you're happy, gadget lovers.
2:51PM Walt: So we now have millions of users with full res video, cloud based stuff, streaming... talk to me about the networks. These are all on cellphone networks.
Mike: This is the elephant in the room. We've been talking about this over a decade. We made BlackBerrys work on very low level networks, we compress the data in innovative ways... The fact is, that if we don't get ahead of this problem, that we're designing applications to be scalable... what's necessary is for the industry to get together, and build towards a vision that's realize-able (?).
That's not a word.
2:47PM Walt: Do you think the Kindle is a successful idea?
Mike: I think ebooks are inevitable. If you asked me years ago if I'd have a VGA screen in these devices... and that's happened in the last few years. That's the progress of technology.
Man, they're all over the place.
2:46PM Walt asked about tablets. Mike wants to know what the benefit would be over a laptop. Walt's running down the possibilities. This is kind of weird -- who wants a BlackBerry tablet?
Mike: We went through this in the industry, tech has evolved and perfected. We have offshoots of technology trying to fill in perceived gaps. A lot of times that ends up being in the middle. Keyboards are smaller, but too small to type on. There's always a market, but is it the mainstream?
2:44PM Mike: This was an innovative step for us. We put out an innovative screen. It's been the missing link in touchscreen technology. We wanted to get to place where you didn't have to think about it.
Walt: There are rumors all over the web that your next device will not have a SurePress screen that moves. Are those rumors correct?
Oh hey -- I wonder what they mean.
Mike: We don't comment on rumors. But SurePress is here to stay.
Well things are heating up now folks.
2:43PM Bam!
Walt: What happened with the Storm?
Mike: It's the number 3 best selling smartphone in America.
Walt: I didn't ask you about sales. I asked what happened.
Mike just tried to turn it towards Curve sales. Yow, this is a bit hot. Walt cut him off again: "I didn't ask about Curve sales."
2:41PM As you can tell, this is not thrilling stuff. Ryan just looked around and says there are quite a few people actually asleep here. No joke. Though to be fair, it is right after lunch...
2:40PM Walt: But isn't there a possibility of conflict between that, and the kind of open API thing that Apple, Google, Palm is pushing?
Mike: The people we're working with are far more sensitive (police, government, etc.)...
Walt just cut him off. "But my question was something different. You have built this fortress platform. Does that constrain your developers on building consumer level apps?"
2:37PM Walt: So the competition. Windows Mobile, Apple, this Palm thing. How do you look at those guys?
Mike: For the longest time we've been working at perfecting this thing called push email.
Walt: Other people can do it too...
Mike: Not as well as we can...
Walt: Well, maybe.
Mike: If you go back to the birth of BlackBerry, I talked to CIOs about the concept of push email, and they didn't understand the value of it. Every single one of them told me it better be secure, scalable, and manageable.
2:36PM Mike: We got it right. (on smartphones)
Walt: Yeah, but it's not like you're alone. Talk about the iPhone as a competitor? How do you read this explosion of apps -- what does that mean?
Mike: Well what's interesting for me is that all this buzz is increasing the consumer's appetite for these services. There's clearly a transition to smartphones, and now it's kicked in faster. When we launched App World, developers and partners have been calling us about the success they've already had in a short period of time.
Hmm... he kind of dodged the question there and brought it back to their products. Well done, Mike.
Mike: My Dad was sitting at the dinner table downloading a golf game. That's amazing.
2:33PM So far this is pretty dry stuff -- if you're looking for any exciting product news, there's a good chance we won't see it here. Still, somewhat interesting to hear Lazaridis' attitudes on this stuff. Though we'd like to see him whip out a Magnum. The phone, that is.
2:32PM Walt: But what are you cutting back on?
Mike: Well we're not cutting back on R&D. We knew this was coming.
2:31PM Walt: I want to talk to you about networks. The lifelines that tie this together, but first I want to talk about the economy. I feel like there's an optimistic vibe in the crowd, thinking past the recession. How is this effecting you?
Mike: Well RIM's been around for 25 years. We started in a recession. It's one of the reason I started RIM in the first place... I couldn't get a job. No matter what the short term situation is, it always gets better. High tech keeps driving value, adoption, and change. I have faith in high technology to keep creating value.
2:30PM Mike: Everyone is talking about convergence, that's just a side effect. This is a new computing platform. It's one that we wear, it's a personal one. It has to represent our values and our style. Each of us is going to have a different set of needs -- so it's not going to be a one size fits all. The amount of choice has never been seen before.
2:28PM Mike: Today we've got over 50 percent markshare in North America. The opportunity for smartphones is incredible.
Walt: Do you think that a primary function of these devices is still making a call? Or are all these data things... how do you see the balance?
Mike: Well the important thing is, what do people want to do with these things? These devices are becoming something people are dependent on. Push email is vital, a voice call is important. You want to be able to do these basic things. You want to be able to organize your day, and you want to be able to communicate with people.
2:26PM Oh by the way, we're on west coast time, in case you were wondering.
2:26PM Mike and Wal Mossberg are out -- and Walt is pontificating on the angle of this D, "Web 3.0". Yow.
Thanks to our editor-at-large and gdgt co-founder Ryan Block for handling photo duties during the show!
jay leno's uncle from hell
he kinda looks like hes got lizard skin actually
Hey all you Nerds, Bweebs and Pointdexters eating this up and wacking off?
look its 2 old men sitting down! How exciting!!!
Excelent pictures Paparatzi
You know, James, if it wasn't for guys like those two old men sitting down, you wouldn't have the ability to be such a dick on the internet..
What Ted Kennedy doing at D7?
Mossberg is such a douche.
You're right. Exactly which "open api" thing are Apple doing? Do I have to wait for an NDA to be lifted before I'll find out?
YOUR A DOUCHE!
Just because Mossburg egts on his knees and sucks every industry leader's D**K just to be in the know does not mean...
I'm not a big fan of Colonel Sanders either.
lol "this palm thing"
He could whip out a magnum (the gun) for show and tell. That'd be fine by me too.
....only if he stuck it in his mouth and pulled hard on the trigger.
I literally LOL'd when I read that part about whipping out a Magnum! Of course, that may have something to do with not being particularly fond of Walt... NOT that I condone violence!
BTW, why not have Jim Balsillie there? He's more interesting. Of course, he'd probably show up in a tux and bow tie... yeah, OK, Lazaridis is probably the right guy.
Why is Apple's biggest nut licker Mossberg interviewing someone from RIM? Did he ask him if they were going to make more iPhone clones? Did he tell him the Storm is nice if you're stuck with Verizon, but it's no iPhone? How could he talk with Jobs' balls planted firmly in his cheeks?
Jeez, is Walt there on direct orders from Apple?
"Walt asked about tablets. Mike wants to know what the benefit would be over a laptop. Walt's running down the possibilities. This is kind of weird -- who wants a BlackBerry tablet?"
The answer: no one! Walt is trying to bait him into saying something positive about the generic idea of a tablet so Apple can use it later in a quote when they invent it. Why else would he be asking about that?
"Walt: What happened with the Storm?
Mike: It's the number 3 best selling smartphone in America.
Walt: I didn't ask you about sales. I asked what happened."
I don't remember Walt needling Jobs like this when no one in San Francisco or New York could make a freakin phone call last more than a minute before it dropped, or any of the other numerous growing pains the iPhone had when it was released.
Mossberg and his outdated KFC goatee can suckit. That man's opinions are as tainted as my BVDs.
LOL walt is doing a good job of keeping him on subject
I really can't stand the way you guys put these posts in reverse order. Who the hell had that bright idea, I can't see the logic in reading backwards, and it's definitely a pain in the ass skipping to the bottom an then scrolling up to read (counter intuitive anyone?). I understand it allows you to refresh every two seconds and read what new but y'know here's a thought, take a pill and read it all when it's over. Anyways.... yay RIM. Hopefully they talk about hockey at some point... not.
me wants new storm
Wow, this was a serious disappointment to me. I think this makes a pre/iphone purchase to replace my curve accelerated. Who wants to hang around for perfect push email when what it does is 10x more than good enough.
I want more fun stuff to do and waste my brain on.
Foghorn Leghorn rocking the interview...
where'd the pink fluffy speaker thing story go? i was gonna make a funny comment about the pope and raquel welch...
I can hear rim guy saying "we fired storm designers ,we in the middle of cloning iPhone app store ." "we just waiting to see what jobs has up his sleeves for June 8, so we can clone that too"
bb users, no new info on storm 2.
i just wasted 5 minutes of my life that i'll never get back, but i did it for you.
RIM has high sells because of reputation and availability on Verizon and Sprint, which are important to businesses in the US. As soon as Sprint has the Pre out, and Verizon gets a smartphone other than a berry, you're going to start seeing a decline in sales. They could maybe remain strong at the low end with offers of 99 dollar smartphones, somewhat how the pearl and the palm centro were recently positioned. I don't think we are going to see a resurgence in RIM like we've seen with Palm, especially after reading this interview, they don't seem to get it.
The reverse chronological sequencing may (arguably) have some merit when covering something like a keynote, but for a 1-on-1 interview like this, it really sucked. Please keep it in chronological order - no one is refreshing every 10 seconds to get Mossberg's most recent sentence....
I'm sorry to be (again) the pain in engadget very unbiased writers's ass but the guy HAS a point :
-what happened with the storm ?
-It's the number 3 best selling smartphone in America.
This seems like a fair response to me...
I mean the only argument in favor of the app store is 1 billion apps downloaded, and that's apparently enough to convinced most people, but when some canadian folks take num 1 and 3 of the top 5 selling smartphone charts it means nothing ?
The storm was (no sorry IS) a commercial success and it's a very good device.
It's exellent manufacturing, up-to-date technology, innovative, and apparently very well marketed since so many people buy it.
So what does this question means ?
The correct answer would've been :
-well you know, we came up with a great device and we're making piles of money on it. suck on that.
Jeez, is Walt there on direct orders from Apple?
"Walt asked about tablets. Mike wants to know what the benefit would be over a laptop. Walt's running down the possibilities. This is kind of weird -- who wants a BlackBerry tablet?"
The answer: no one! Walt is trying to bait him into saying something positive about the generic idea of a tablet so Apple can use it later in a quote when they invent it. Why else would he be asking about that?
"Walt: What happened with the Storm?
Mike: It's the number 3 best selling smartphone in America.
Walt: I didn't ask you about sales. I asked what happened."
I don't remember Walt needling Jobs like this when no one in San Francisco or New York could make a freakin phone call last more than a minute before it dropped, or any of the other numerous growing pains the iPhone had when it was released.
Mossberg and his outdated KFC goatee can suckit. That man's opinions are as tainted as my BVDs.
I can vote you up twice!
i have no idea what d7 is
i seriously thought it was a new nikon camera.
But seriously...
What the fuck is D7?
Does anyone know what kind of chairs those are?
I think he purposely didn't bring any new devices with him, he knew this Walt guy wasn't really going to care much at all about that.
1. Blackberry is not a computer company. They are a handheld company. Why the H-E-double-hockeysticks do they need to be thinking about tablets? After attempting to use a tablet PC... the only thing they're good for is college / university student note taking and very little else. They're not excellent communications devices by any means, and communication is all that RIM is about.
2. If a device is the #3 selling handheld device in America... either something was done right, or... well I can't really state the other thing, that wouldn't be nice and I know Americans aren't stupid anyways. Heck, even if they are making a 2nd version this quickly... they're making a second version period and building off the minor faults of the starting unit (I know Verizon Storm owners want to scream at me over the words "minor faults"... but let's face it, it's just Verizon's pickiness that kept 'em from nabbing an update at some point, I've tried countless Storm units with no complaint).
3. If a company has already addressed another company's success with apps... why on earth does it need to be brought up as if they ignored it? In fact, RIM and WinMo both technically have app stores. They just aren't managed by RIM or Microsoft directly. Apple is the only one that decided to say "you come through us and only us to get your applications".