In the fight for market share, BlackBerry has gone onto the offensive: Ahead of the Australian launch, the company CEO Thorsten Hein said the Galaxy S4 and other recent smartphone releases — BlackBerry included — have left Apple’s iPhone in their wake.
“Apple did a fantastic job in bringing touch devices to market … They did a fantastic job with the user interface, they are a design icon. There is a reason why they were so successful, and we actually have to admit this and respect that,” Mr Heins said speaking with the Australian Financial Review (via AllThingsD).
“History repeats itself again I guess … the rate of innovation is so high in our industry that if you don’t innovate at that speed you can be replaced pretty quickly. The user interface on the iPhone, with all due respect for what this invention was all about is now five years old.”
“The point is that you can never stand still. It is true for us as well.”
Given BlackBerry’s current position on the market and its recent moves, Hein’s words are direct from his and the company’s own experiences. With BlackBerry 10, RIM has redesigned the mobile OS and also launched two new handsets, which were mostly received favorably. Yet most reviewers are wondering if they have enough power to reverse BlackBerry’s position on the market.
