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RIM: Smartphones will dominate netbooks
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Research In Motion co-CEO Jim Balsillie said that, despite the current hype around netbooks, smartphones will end up ruling the day due to their pocketable design. The comments are notable as they come a day after Verizon Wireless announced it will launch an HP netbook. Nonetheless, Balsillie said smartphones like RIM's BlackBerry would win out. "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 said in an interview with Reuters. "Those are a very tight systems constraints for a netbook." Article
Comments
Posted by Anonymous | May 15, 2009 - 8:14pm
I don't buy Jim Balsillie's argument. I'm waiting for the next generation of netbooks and then I'm buying one. I'll take the netbook with me when traveling and leave the Blackberry at home. That way I can offload my photos, use Skype and surf the web on a decent sized screen.
Posted by vstartron | May 16, 2009 - 9:30am
Re : Anonymous
so you are fulfilling your requirements with a Laptop substitue. Not a Smartphone supplicating a laptop *(i.e what the article is about)
And please enlighten me, how are you planning to actually talk via SKYPE running on your netbook. Yeh it would be REALLY convenient, everytime sometime called you and you had to pull out your Netbook and your headset from your bag. lol
Posted by Kim Spence-Jones | May 17, 2009 - 4:31am
I disagree with Jim Balsillie too. I personally have never seen the point of smart phones -- they never seem to do what I need, and are painful to use for almost anything other than phoning (although the iPhone is modifying my view somewhat).
Personally, I use a phone for phoning, and I carry both a huge laptop (1920x1200 screen) which is also my main work machine, and a netbook running Linux which I use for work on trains, planes etc, and for taking to meetings. With a big battery, I get 5+ hours on the netbook, which makes it great for long journeys (and long meetings, for that matter :-).
My conclusion is that netbooks and smartphones are fundamentally different beasts. Netbooks are a threat to low-end laptops, not to smartphones.
Incidentally, having tried Win XP on a 1GB netbook, I am totally convinced that anyone who says it performs comparably with a Linux book has clearly not tried both! Although I do run Ubuntu, not the seriously broken Linpus stuff.
Posted by Kim Spence-Jones | May 17, 2009 - 4:36am
Hmm. Having re-read my comment, I realise I didn't make my point clearly.
I think the threat to both laptops and smartphones is this: for many people, dumbphone + netbook is a better answer than smartphone + laptop. I guess that is a threat to smartphones, after all.
(And please can we have a 'preview' mode for these comments :-)
Posted by Phil Peterson | May 17, 2009 - 9:07am
Weed whackers to dominate push mowers... oh wait.
Posted by Anonymous | May 18, 2009 - 12:45pm
I think one should not sell RIM short...Balsillie and Lazaridis (Lazaridis is genius and a visionary) have been at this game a long time. They are pioneers and I for one will and continue to buy RIM stock. Tech haters love to bash BlackBerry, not being able to use skype on your handheld is function of the carrier not allowing it.
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