RIM's president calls BlackBerry Storm a small netbook

by Darren Murph posted Dec 31st 2008 at 6:49AM

Clearly, Mike Lazaridis has the chops when it comes to running a business. What he clearly lacks, however, is a firm definition of the term "netbook." To his credit, we still feel the exact boundaries for netbooks have yet to be determined (fret not, Psion Teklogix is hammering out those details), but calling a BlackBerry Storm one is -- how do you say? -- a bit of a stretch. During a recent sit down with RIM's president, CNET Asia heard the bigwig answer like so when questioned about viewing netbooks as competitors: "No, I think I can put netbooks in here [referring to the BlackBerry Storm]. These are netbooks. They are just smaller." Wait, Mike -- don't you think smartphones are more like MIDs or UMPCs? Or do we just have you all wrong here?

[Via phoneArena]

Filed under: Handsets, RIM, EV-DO, CDMA

Tags: blackberry, blackberry storm, BlackberryStorm, exec, Mike Lazaridis, MikeLazaridis, netbook, RIM, storm

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

MidnightDT @ Dec 31st 2008 7:50AM

well lets see. the storm can; Surf the web, Get Email, Organize your life, Create edit and view MS Powerpoint, Word, Excel documents, Create edit and view PDF documents, listen to music, watch movies, stream music/movies online, play games. etc

why is calling it a small netbook so out of line?

Highly Ranked

roach @ Dec 31st 2008 8:36AM

Because netbooks don't suck and they do those things you listed about WELL.

Neutral

roach @ Dec 31st 2008 8:37AM

*above

wow. luckily I was able to edit that....

/sarcasm

Highest Ranked

Jeff @ Dec 31st 2008 9:45AM

Netbooks have full complete operating systems. XP, Vista, Linux - this has a mobile OS. And nothing really that different than previous Blackberry OS's.

Netbooks run full versions of word, powerpoint, excel, or similar programs - this runs basic, edit on the fly, type versions. I dare you to do a complete document with full graphics, or a full spreadsheet with charts, etc... and do it with ease while sitting in an airport.

Netbooks have large drives for storage or usb ports to allow extra storage. Netbooks have CD drives or usb ports allowing for external drives. This has a memory card slot. This does not have have 120 gb of storage.

Netbooks have fully operational browsers that allow for flash, ajax, and many other technologies. This browser can't even compete with the iphone browser - which doesn't even allow for those things.

Blackberry Storm - not a netbook.

Highest Ranked

Dan @ Dec 31st 2008 9:00AM

No flash support on the web yet and you can't burn cds or dvds which is one of the main things I use my laptop for which netbooks also do.

Neutral

Sara @ Dec 31st 2008 9:27AM

I hate Blackberry even if the word "book" was added to it.Blackberrybook, a very dumb name for just a regular iPhone.

Neutral

Jeff @ Dec 31st 2008 9:44AM

"Bit of a Stretch"? THAT'S a stretch...

I played with one last night at Verizon - and this is FAR from a netbook.

Can we buy him a netbook and send it to him to compare?

The Blackberry Storm is nothing more than a touchscreen Blackberry. Maybe a better browser than before, that's it. And I'm not sure I'd call it a touchscreen. You have to actually PUSH the screen to get it to do something. It's more of a pushscreen, or a giant button.

Meh

Highly Ranked

Shawn @ Dec 31st 2008 10:36AM

Don't netbooks have WIFI and full qwerty?

Neutral

vvtopkar @ Dec 31st 2008 12:30PM

Isn't small netbook sorta' redundant?

Neutral

Ardak @ Dec 31st 2008 1:14PM

People are always the best critics, just Google "Blackberry storm review" and you'll see people are NOT as happy as BB or Verizon claim! End of story.

Highest Ranked

Nate @ Dec 31st 2008 2:13PM

A Smart car is a bus, only smaller.

Neutral

Rick @ Dec 31st 2008 10:30PM

I returned my Storm today, so I'm back to my 8703e - love blackberry, hate the Storm
The Storm is a lot of things, but useful/productive, it is not

Highly Ranked

Cassini @ Jan 5th 2009 8:48AM

To: Mike Lazaridis

Dear Mike,

Please, get yourself a huge cup of black coffee and wake up.

Thanks.

Sincerely,

Everyone Who is Based in Reality and Who Actually Understand How Products are Differentiated.

Neutral

rass moss @ Feb 3rd 2009 6:53AM

Well ''RIM's president'' , please get the browser right, wap steaming right,video mediaplayer right, youtube application right, maybe the browser should be like (''SKYFIRE'') Then alone can you call it a ''netbook''.. the blackberry storm is the best phone ever but get the OS Firmware upgrade right pleaseeeeeeeee. ''Blackberry Developers'' I know you can do it ,,,,,,,,WE NEED THE BEST OS FIRMWARE UPGRADE FOR THE BB Storm..........come onnnnnnnnnnnnn..