BlackBerry CEO: Tablets will be dead in 5 years BlackBerry chief Thorsten Heins reckons slabs will be dead in half a decade, by which point his firm will be the front runner in mobile computing. Two predictions in a Bloomberg report, both of which might come back to the haunt Heins, who replaced former joint CEO's Jim Balsilie and Mike Lazaridis at the start of 2012. The …
It does flash, email, web & GPS. Has 64 GB of flash storage to which you drag & drop video or any other files to over a Wifi network from Windows, Macs or Linux boxes just using Samba so nothing to install.all for the price of the cheapest iPod 135 quid at Currys. Whats not to like ?
sell sell sell that RIM stock then... One to go down in the list of greats:
“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” — Ken Olson, 1977
“We will never make a 32 bit operating system.” — Bill Gates
“There is practically no chance communications space satellites will be used to provide better telephone, telegraph, television, or radio service.” — T. Craven, 1961
“The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys.” — Sir William Preece, 1878
“The world potential market for copying machines is 5000 at most.” — IBM, 1959
“Fooling around with alternating current is just a waste of time. Nobody will use it, ever.” - Thomas Edison 1889
“Television won’t last. It’s a flash in the pan.” - Mary Somerville 1948
"640K ought to be enough for anybody." - Bill Gates (maybe)
And by far my favourite
“Home Taping Is Killing Music” - BPI, 1980s
Blackberry had a real opportunity early in the mobile game. They basically owned corporate sales the way that IBM owned corporate backend at one time. They both fell for the same reason, content with the large amount of money they were making they stopped innovating. A few years ago I loved BB handhelds and thought they were great pieces of tech. Today my 16 year old cousin has a more advanced handheld then what Blackberry has to offer. Not to mention that their enterprise server is a terrible muddy mess.
Sorry Blackberry but I don't forsee you dominating anything anytime soon.
Blackberry got dragged down by the pirates NTP. Whether they might otherwise have continued as a successful innovator is now one of those might-have-beens. But a non-US company that is a market leader is always going to be particularly vulnerable to piracy in the US courts: that's why so many companies originating in Europe (including not least my employer) move their registration and head offices to the US.
Got one for my wife a couple years back while she had a blackberry. Sad to see that two years later the coaster really hasn't changed much. She only uses it to take pictures now.
Not surprised Thor has shrugged over this. The Praybook is a relic from the two buffoons who drove the company into the ground, a sound reminder that they were dabbling in nonsense when they should have been focusing on the future of Blackberry handsets.
No future for tablets, Thor? My Transformer Infinity disagrees. But then again I can at least run Netflix on mine.
"I see BlackBerry to be the absolute leader in mobile computing - that's what we're aiming for…I want to gain as much market share as I can, but not by being a copycat"
I know he has to say that but I pray to God he doesn't really believe it, or they really are dead. The only way to be #1 is by chasing consumers and that's never been what RIM was about.
/rant
Why can't companies be content knowing who they are and owning their own corner of a market? Why do they all believe it's world domination or nothing - and then proceed to drive a profitable business straight into the ground just to prove it?
/rant
The CEO of a company that has no real presence in a market they tried and failed to enter announces that market will be dead in five years.
Maybe Ballmer should try that. Instead of banging his head against the wall trying to make a smartphone people actually want, he should announce the smartphone will be dead in five years. Then maybe people will quit paying attention to Apple, Google and Samsung and start talking about PCs again!
Conventional wisdom would suggest that designing and manufacturing products in a market segment that consumers and businesses are clamouring to buy is a logical move. Blackberry have certainly found a "point of differentiation" with a strategy of turning their back on the fastest-growing segment of mobile technology.
That certainly carves out a unique niche that only they will occupy (that of making products that nobody wants, and not manufacturing the products that everybody wants.) As long as there are plenty of customers who are as crazy as Thorsten Heins, they will have the entire market segment to themselves!
Still, he may well have a point. Firstly, technology changes and five years is a long time. About as long ago as netbooks first appeared for instance, and they're no longer taking the market by storm either. Secondly, do you really need more than one 'intelligent' device? Keep your phone in your pocket connected wirelessly to whatever "dock" you want to connect it to; be it a dumb terminal tablet-style or laptop device, a TV or whatever. I think I'd rather like something like that.
Given his statement one can presume no tablet will be forthcoming from RIM (of course that depends on what tablet means - size ? form factor ? touch only interface ? ).
Maybe they will create a new category - the capsule.
The desires of the enterprise market are different from the consumer market so in that regard he may not be wrong. It's not that tablets can't be used for business but they are primarily viewers.
Of course a smart phone is a viewer too albeit a lousy one due to the small screen size.
There is not much we are doing with these devices that we haven't done before except we can now do them while driving down the road or performing brain surgery.
Much of my time is keyboard time as well as some graphic editing so I still am stuck in the stone-hinge age
of laptops.
Of course the list of things people said would never make it is still far shorter than the list of things people thought would make it. We don't see all the failures. Like some rare species they appear for a moment and then hastily become extinct in the non-conducive environment in which they find themselves. Timing is far more important than functionality. We are still wedded to keyboard layouts from the mechanical age and Xerox was too ahead of its time to take advantage of all the things we now use as a matter of course in computing.
CEO's are just like politicians. What are they going to say - "I have no idea what the hell I'm doing".
That's a sure way to see your golden parachute not open as they toss you off the plane.
5 years ago most people had pcs, now the chance is you have a laptop.
5 years ago most homes were still in transition to flat tvs, but they were expensive
in 5 years time he thinks there will be big display units in every room that you connect to wirelesly and the thing you will be using to connect will be a blackberry
one of those 2 predictions might be right
I have a desktop, a laptop a netbook and a tablet.(and an Android phone). I don't own a TV.
These days I only use the laptop for work, and the tablet at home.
Although screen mirroring may be useful, I doubt that using a huge screen with a phone will be a useful way to work.
Not everyone wants a screen in every room.
I doubt that the tablet will go the way of the netbook, but it may evolve.
Coming from a man that sells a device which gives you a headache whilst doing its stated design purpose of reading emails?
The only reason Blackberry ever got any sales was because of the ease of using your own companies emails on the device, when no other system could do it (so simply). For them to be still releasing handsets with that tiny screen now is laughable.
I'm not sure who made the point in the article about the HP and Viewsonic tabs being left in the mud, is this not just that they were shit compared to the Samsung and Apple versions? Who in their right mind would buy a bit of kit from these boys given the alternatives?
Much the same as a blackberry. Who in their right mind would choose to use a blackberry (if choice they have)
Paris, because RIM or something
The answer to his problem with tablets is STOP MAKING TABLETS that are undifferentiated, proprietary and expensive. Tablets won't die in 5years just because BB has been bad at making them, they just been making the wrong ones.
The advantages are they are mobile with larger screen estate. So most likely the hybrid market (Laplet or TabTop ) which provides both Tablet and Laptop capability will be the norm....
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