back to article RIM boss joins queue to kick Jobs

Research in Motion co-CEO Jim Balsille ripped into Apple CEO Steve Jobs after the Cupertinian worthy took aim at RIM's BlackBerry smartphones and upcoming PlayBook tablet on Monday. "As usual, whether the subject is antennas, Flash or shipments, there is more to the story," blogged Balsille steamily, "and sooner or later, even …

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  1. Matthew Barker
    Happy

    Ooooooooooooooh

    Balsille is getting a might tetchy!

    I was rather hoping for a larger-than-ten-inch tablet. It would save me from getting reading glasses.

    1. Monty Burns
      Thumb Up

      then get a tablet pc....

      if all your concerned about is your eyes, you need a tablet laptop. These have existed far longer than the "all new" tablets of Apple, Samsung and Rim - mine must be about a year old now. Oh and they generaly don't have restrictive O/S's either....

  2. Michael Xion
    WTF?

    My Time Machine beats your Distortion Field

    "Balsille snarked back: "For those of us who live outside of Apple's distortion field, we know that seven-inch tablets will actually be a big portion of the market and we know that Adobe Flash support actually matters to customers who want a real web experience," he said.

    "We think many customers are getting tired of being told what to think by Apple," Balsille snapped."

    So RIM ups the ante on Apple's distortion field by knowing in advance that 7-inch tablets will be a big portion fo the market. Mr Pot, Meet Mr Kettle...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Grenade

      FANBOI ALERT

      So... in the distortin field then ?

    2. Paul M 1

      Re.

      You might want to Google "non sequitur".

    3. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
      Linux

      Thing is, I think he's right.

      OK, it's only a prediction, but I've been saying for a while that 7" tablets will be a lot handier for those of us who travel a lot, which defines the business market quite handily. And I'd like to see a 12" tablet for home use, with higher resolution than the iPad. Which leaves 10" devices looking to be a bit of a compromise.

      Of course, I got downvoted mightily last time I said this, presumably by people who thought I was criticising The Holy iPad. I wonder if those people have developed better comprehension skills in the intervening period? We shall see....

      GJC

      1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

        @Geoff Campbell

        +1 internets, sir.

        12" tablet @ 1377x768. With a USB port and full-size SDHC slot (or two!). Please and thank you. Still waiting...

  3. Garibaldi
    Linux

    Who is he (Balsille) kidding?

    Seriously, this guy needs some serious help. First he started fight with countries (India, Middle-East, and even European). Defending security BS under the notion of democracy, and other Orwellian labels. Of course it was RIM arrogant which forced many European governmentto switch to iPhone, and Android.

    As an iPhone user I can tell you why I would not use BB. It's very hard to sync with computer -- specially when you compare with iTune. Software is very bloated, and not very intuitive. Also lets not forget the games, audio books, and of course music!

    Mind you I am a Linux user -- one of those who compile their own kernel -- so I can tell you BB has long way to go assuming it doesn't end up like Palm. Palm was a powerful company but their arrogant forced users to switch, sell dried up and HP bought them.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Coffee/keyboard

      Lol

      You mention iTunes and then complain about _RIM's_ software being bloated and counterintuitive? Hmmmm. Quite odd coming from someone who is apparently "one of those who compile their own kernel" (whatever accolade that's supposed to imply).

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      YMMV

      I've had no problems with my BB. In fact, it suits my (admittedly slightly unusual) needs far better than the iPhone does.

      I've had 0 problems syncing it with any of my boxes. Gentoo, Windows or Kubuntu. I didn't need to do any tweaking to install the BB software under wine, so I can only assume you're doing something wrong!

      Games, audio books, music? None of these are remotely important to me. I may move the odd MP3 from my PC to the BB, but I aint gonna be buying it online to download straight to my phone.

      How is encrypting _your_ data security BS? Would you rather RIM dropped their trousers, bent over and let any interested party intercept your data? If so, you might find that Smartphones aren't really suited to you. I assume you also still use Telnet instead of SSH?

      Given the quality of your grammar, I assume you use one of the nice new GUIs to configure your kernel? There's no way you'd do it from a CLI if you cannot comprehend the simple difference between arrogant and arrogance!

      In my day, compiling the kernel was the easy bit. Too much riff-raff being let in now(!)

      Anon cos I'm at work

    3. frank ly

      @ Garibaldi

      "...under the notion of democracy, and other Orwellian labels."

      That's what I call an Orvillian statement.

    4. Daniel B.

      bloated?

      If you're talking about Roxio Media Manager, I agree; though RIM dumped that POS in their latest Desktop Software update. The sync software itself isn't bloated at all; it is pretty lightweight even compared with Palm, and much more lightweight than iTunes.

      The BB is secure, the "BS" isn't BS, which is why those gov'ts are trying to beat RIM into submission.

  4. A. Coatsworth Silver badge
    Unhappy

    So, who coined the phrase...

    "Reality Distortion Field", referring to Apple?

    I honestly thought it was an El Reg creation, but it seems it's even bigger than that...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Reality distortion field

      I don't know, but I saw a link to an old MacRumors forum the other day where people back in 2001 were discussing the newly announced iPod, and the Reality Distortion Field was mentioned there.

      "All that hype for an MP3 player? Break-thru digital device? The Reality Distiortion Field™ is starting to warp Steve's mind if he thinks for one second that this thing is gonna take off. "

      (Oct 23, 2001, 01:37 PM , from http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=500 )

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Bud Tribble.

      At Apple.

      In 1981.

  5. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

    "Customers are getting tired of being told what to think by Apple."

    *points at sales figures*

    No they're not. Say what you want about a lot of things, but the hoi polloi want nothing to do with cross-comparing the version of this with the specs of that and determining who supports what, when and why. I’d go so far as to say that in a lot of ways, people are sick of choice – at least in high tech.

    Some of us aren’t, but it really is a lot like cars. There will always be a significant chunk of the population who are gear heads. They should not be ignored; indeed, to do so is suicide. These folks know enough about cars to be discriminating. They carefully choose their cars and accessories based on their research, preferences and prejudices. They defend their choices fiercely.

    The majority of the buying public cares about what the costs, what colour it is and how much it will cost to keep it fuelled. These “regular folks” however often ask the gear heads about their opinions before buying. They really don’t care what the car /is,/ they only care that it does the job and their gear head friends think it was the “right choice.”

    Translated into the mobile arena this effect is the same. Nobody cares what the phone runs, how open it is, how fragmented the platform, how many apps there are or any of the rest of that pap. They care how the phone looks, what their rate plan is and whether their nerd friends think it was the “right choice.”

    See a pattern?

    Average people love to be told what to think. The question is simply “by whom?” In Apple’s case, they’ve managed to make quite a tidy sum by essentially marketing themselves /as/ the “nerdy friend” who can tell you what techno-widget is the “right choice.” It’s a huge thing; difficult to pull off but highly rewarding.

    If you want to combat this, you will never do it by telling the milled masses what to think…Apple (and to a lesser extent, Google) have already established themselves as the “nerdy friend” that RIM, Microsoft or HP will simply /never be/. If you truly want to combat this you need to do it the old fashioned way: you need to earn the custom of the real life, meatspace “nerdy friends.”

    It is only once the normals see their RL “nerdy friends” rejecting Apple or Google that they will start to question if they have been led astray. Marketing won’t save you, and neither will pretty speeches. For all the sound bites you could level at Apple, against their marketing department noone has a prayer.

    Cease and desist with the lame attempts at damage control. Reach deep into your corporate well of humility and admit that you screwed up. Admit that it’s time to go back to basics and come out fighting. Give up trying to be “just like the other guys” and come out with something unique; an advantage all your own.

    Unlike gear heads, nerds are fickle. If you want to win “Nerdy Friends” – and with them the bulk market share of normals – you have to make us fall in love with you all over again. So RIM, Microsoft…everyone else; I’m game. Let’s see what you got. Give me a reason to recommend you over the competition.

    Something that’s more than just words.

    1. Chigaimasmaro

      RIM's response

      I enjoyed that alot. Thank you. I also enjoyed Steve Job's comments over the past couple of days. I personally think he's in this business to keep his competition on its toes. That if he stirs them up, that he (Steve Jobs) will stay on fire.

      But I agree, instead of having a pissy-fit about September versus August's numbers instead of working on new devices is not how you win over the competition

  6. bazza Silver badge

    Blimey

    "includes sandpaper so that the user can sand down their fingers to around one quarter of their present size."

    I'm glad I haven't got an iPhone then. I value my fingertips.

  7. Rupert Stubbs

    Well said, Mr Potts

    Can Trevor Potts take over writing at El Reg? It's almost a shock to read something here that is coherent, distinctive and engaging...

    1. Tim Parker

      Mr Potts

      I actually do agree, although what that has to do with this story by Rik Myslewski i'm not _entirely_ sure...

      1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

        @Tim Parker

        I am not sure my comment really had much to do with the article. I had a terrible day yesterday and wanted to rant. A lot. When I feel all ranty, I end up posting long comments on El Reg...not all of them contextually applicable to the topic. I love writing, but my personal blog (http://www.trevorpott.com) has two readers and a goat. That leaves writing long comments which drive Sarah insane* on El Reg as my only real outlet.

        *Sarah, I have not forgotten that I owe you flowers for being a monumental pain in the ass this year; any particular species you prefer?

    2. Peter Gathercole Silver badge

      In the processs

      In case you hadn't noticed, his sysadmin blogs are already being carried as articles. Stirred up some interesting comments as well.

    3. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

      Well, shucks.

      What a nice thing to say! Indeed, as previous commenters have pointed out, El Reg did have me writing a sysadmin blog here for a while. They took me on as an experiment; freelancer for a contract of 61 articles. Could a random commenter such as myself be taught enough to actually write for magazine like El Reg?

      The success – or lack thereof – of that experiment is not something I am qualified to judge, but I will say that I had a whale of a good time. The initial part of the experiment was El Reg’s “you the expert” articles. Here, prolific commenters would be asked to participate as “reader experts” and contribute some content to an article on a given topic. Somehow my participation in the first round of these articles landed me a gig writing a few articles, but to my personal delight as a dedicated reader and commenter of El Reg they have continued the practice!

      I don’t know if any further “reader experts” will be asked to pen articles on their lonesome. I do get the feeling that we will continue to see reader contributions in some form or another to regular articles…and I think that’s grand.

      As to more writing by yours truly – only time will tell. To my continued astonishment, I was indeed asked back to write a “sysadmin blogger” article as part of a larger group of articles on a specific topic. I have no idea what the future holds beyond that…but I’m hopeful! I really enjoy writing for El Reg. Perhaps if I keep at it I will finally be able to cut the length of my articles down enough to make my editor happy. So much to learn – writing for a magazine is a completely different skillset than any I have had to exercise as a sysadmin.

      In any case, thank you for the compliment – I hope to write more here, and one day to be as good a writer as the regulars whose work I personally admire.

  8. Ian Davies

    2 things...

    1. I want to know where this "overwhelming majority of web sites that use Flash" is that he also mentions in his statement (not quoted by El Reg)

    2. How can he expect to be taken seriously as a competitor to the iPad when the Playbook's so-called product "launch" consisted of video of mocked-up interface interaction, and no actual working demos? Say what you like about Apple, but when they announce something, it's always a real, working product, not some mockup or test concept. It's either shipping the day of the announcement or they tell you when it will ship.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    go potts!

    A well delivered summary of the current state of affairs.

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