Every once in awhile Jim Balsillie amazes me and shows that RIM has balls. In July he did it by responding to Apple’s Antennagate claims. He did it again in September with his comments on keeping up with Apple and Google. According to the latest from Kevin over @CrackBerry he has done it again in response to Steve Jobs and his statements during yesterdays Apple earnings call about how 7” tablets cannot succeed.
For those of us who live outside of Apple’s distortion field, we know that 7" 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. We also know that while Apple’s attempt to control the ecosystem and maintain a closed platform may be good for Apple, developers want more options and customers want to fully access the overwhelming majority of web sites that use Flash. We think many customers are getting tired of being told what to think by Apple. And by the way, RIM has achieved record shipments for five consecutive quarters and recently shared guidance of 13.8 – 14.4 million BlackBerry smartphones for the current quarter. Apple’s preference to compare its September-ending quarter with RIM’s August-ending quarter doesn’t tell the whole story because it doesn’t take into account that industry demand in September is typically stronger than summer months, nor does it explain why Apple only shipped 8.4 million devices in its prior quarter and whether Apple’s Q4 results were padded by unfulfilled Q3 customer demand and channel orders. As usual, whether the subject is antennas, Flash or shipments, there is more to the story and sooner or later, even people inside the distortion field will begin to resent being told half a story.
– Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO at Research In Motion (RIM)
Those are some pretty well worded responses. Kudos to Jim for responding and not letting Steve Jobs “distorted” view of the world reign unaccounted.
What do you think?
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