Hi Mr. Roques (Jorge),

Schools and other organizations would have to figure in the cost of phones and their peripherals (external keyboards, monitors, storage, cloud services, etc.) plus training, maintenance and repair, and compare those criteria to the value/performance of phones versus desktops, laptops and tablets.

Desktops still win from a price/performance standpoint and tablets (like Google's Nexus 7) costs $200 in single quantities, which is the same as a high end smartphone. And tablets can run many more advanced applications. Also, there are Chromebooks which come with a relatively large screen, keyboard, ports, etc.

So there are many considerations. Would it make sense for organizations to purchase peripherals so students could insert their phones into a dock to function as a computer? It's an interesting, but difficult equation to consider.

Many enterprises could afford to keep a variety of peripherals for phones, but would it make sense rather than, say, plugging in tablets.

Hi nathanwosnack,

Most of my friends and sources for many years at RIM are either gone or in other positions inside the company. My sources aren't as numerous as they once were, but then, neither are the number of employees, unfortunately.

If RIM's entire ecosystem -- devices, apps, multimedia content, cloud services, etc. -- can't compete in the consumer market, RIM is in serious trouble and will be relegated to a niche player, if it even survives intact. With the iPhone and Android phones capturing something like 80 percent of the market -- with their appealing already with consumer and enterprise features -- and the huge BYOD trend where employees demand their phones function as great personal devices first, if RIM can't make it in the consumer space, well, so long RIM as a major player.

And I'm sure you've read the articles about some U.S. government agencies switching to the iPhone and/or Android. It's not a massive tidal wave, but the water is moving away from RIM.

If Microsoft didn't have Windows Phone, RIM would have a much better chance, of course. But even though Windows Phone still hasn't captured much market share, Microsoft has so many resources plus its huge ecosystem of hardware, software, applications, cloud services, etc., etc., that RIM simply has to capture the hearts and minds of consumers or Windows Phone will likely do it eventually.

(This week I read a report [Gartner? IDC?] that predicted Windows Phone would become platform No. 3 by the end of this year.)

RIM has been talking about its QNX/BB10 platform for "mobile computing," which ties into phone-as-laptop-replacement, but will it even get the chance to develop? I really hope so. I'm anything but a RIM basher, and I'd love to see the Waterloo-ans (ugh!) pull rabbits out of their hats.

Hi mtechie (Michelle),

You and I are in the minority when it comes to the joys -- rather, the lack thereof -- of typing on glass. I hate touch screens for entering more than a sentence or two. Using Swype is okay, but it still can't compare to the best smartphone physical keyboard: the BlackBerry Bold.

There are advantages to touch screens, but not for text entry. That's why I typically carry at least two phones, a BlackBerry and another phone (usually a high end Android) for everything besides text entry. It will be very interesting to see if the new BlackBerry 10 phone with only a touch screen is any better than other touch screen phones.

Unfortunately, carrying a touch screen phones and an external keyboard is a bit much, even for me, although I will carry a keyboard for my iPad, if I don't instead take a laptop.

So...phones can replace laptops for a varaiety of functions, but text entry is one of the major negating features and I don't see that situation changing for the foreseeable future.

Alan, I was thinking about ICT solutions for emergent markets. In those countries, most people have phones (rapidly changing to smartphones), and those phone's capabilities far exceed computer's capabilities from 5 - 10 years ago. 

If we could have peripherals in schools and houses (at a minimum cost, and most importantly, with no need to upgrade every couple of years) and subsidize users phones, we would have a powerful solution.

I know that goes against everything we are used to but what do you think of it?

I have high hopes for BlackBerry 10 OS. I have a friend who was part of the development team for RIM and I also have friends who have beta tested the operating system, who responded to my queries with a balanced view. OS 10 will not compete with the consumer devices out there, but they'll completely appeal to the SMB and enterprise customers, as well as government. Perhaps OS 10 will have a trick up its sleeve... releasing the world's first holographic mobile devices allowing for screens as large as one wants.

"moving the cursor around by touch is not always simple."

Hi abdlah,

Using a phone instead of a laptop is also dependent on the person's phone. Is it a high end smartphone with a large screen, fast microprocessor and lots of RAM and storage or a low end phone with a small screen and slow performance? Obviously, a better phone is more useful for laptop-like applications, which is why Samsung's Galaxy Note and Galaxy Note II have become surprisingly popular.

I wonder if Thorsten Heins or other RIM executives say anything else about replacing laptops with phones. Heins has said this in a few interviews I've read. It's not a short-term goal, but it's interesting to speculate about how phones are and could be used in enterprises instead of laptops.

Alan Reiter, you and I are on the same page. Yes, I do enjoy receiving some emails on my phone and being able to compose quick replies with them. However on my usual work tasks, I do find the phone wanting in a lot of areas.

That is why I say the complement each other - and I think that will be the case for sometime to come. It is true that some people are comfortable doing quite a bit on their phones.

Hi Kim Davis,

If you need someone who's counter-intuitive, I'm your man!

Cellular phone capability in tablets certainly has value, but how many people want to use a tablet extensively or even entirely for making phone calls? Very few. It's just too awkward with a seven-inch or ten-inch tablet to attach a headset, and using a Bluetooth earpiece still brands one in many people's eyes as a dork (he says with hand raised and earpiece in ear).

However, there's the middle ground, the tweeners -- phablets -- with 5-inch to 5.5-inch screens. Although they still look sort of ridiculous when used as a phone, they are usable and portable, and the larger screen is far superior for data viewing and entry.