Former BlackBerry co-CEO Jim Balsillie said Tuesday that Apple’s introduction of the iPhone and BlackBerry’s rushed attempt to match it was devastating for the company.
It was the second time he went public in the span of weeks, and he continued on a theme he raised in a May 8 editorial for the Globe and Mail. Balsillie said Canada was producing world class tech talent, but not fostering an environment for its entrepreneurs to succeed.
Balsillie says that he knew BlackBerry couldn’t compete after the iPhone’s introduction in 2007 and after BlackBerry’s buggy touchscreen device called the Storm had a “100 percent return rate.”
At the Empire Club in Toronto he said that the impact of rushing it out was devastating. He said Verizon, their largest customer, fired them over it.
Balsillie made the remarks in a question-and-answer session with Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff, the authors of the new book “Losing the Signal. The Spectacular Rise and Fall of BlackBerry.”
“With Storm we tried to do too much. It was a touch display, it was a clickable display, it had new applications, and it was all done in an incredibly short period of time and it blew up on us,” Balsillie said.
“That was the time I knew we couldn’t compete on high end hardware.”
Asked what smartphone he now carries, Balsillie said he still uses a BlackBerry Bold.
“You’ll have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands,” he said.
Balsillie had praise for the “Losing the Signal†saying that “80 or 90 RIM People†emailed him about the book.
“They said wow, it’s the true story, and everybody has said it’s the truth.â€Â
