Ultra-thin and ultra-light laptops are great. Apple helped evolve this trend with the MacBook Air, and Intel has been pushing Ultrabooks. With SSDs, rather than regular hard disk drives, and chicklet keyboards that have "shallow" key travel, we're seeing a lot of thinner and lighter laptops.
Unfortunately, these laptops aren't ultra-inexpensive -- except for Google's Samsung Chromebook at $249, which I discussed.
I, too, must have a good keyboard and a large enough screen, although pairing an external keyboard with a large-screen phone could work in a pinch, as Michael P. Kassner has discussed in his comments.
Still, for applications that don't require a big screen or keyboard, cellular phones certainly are able to supplement laptop computers for many functions.
Alan, so for a comfortable work, we need more an ultra thin Lap top rather than a smart phone plus keyboard plus... I don't really think that a smart phone can substitute a lap top. Ever. Unless, a mind reading technology is created.
RIM did change the future of phones, but so have Apple and Google in other ways.
Less stress than Apple and Google? Hardly.
RIM has decreasing market share in many parts of the world, an obsolete operating system, outdated hardware, generally poor marketing, competition from Windows Phone 8 and one last chance to succeed against Apple and Google which have something like 80 percent of the global smartphone market.
I'm not writing off RIM, but let's see what is released on January 30 with the major BlackBerry 10 announcement. Perhaps there will be some good surprises.
RIM has many years of success and the major competitors, especially Microsoft, wasn't able to touch them for their hardware, e-mail and IT options. Mike Lazaridis who saw the future of wireless e-mail wasn't able to see the future of wireless Internet and the type of products that would be necessary.
The problem is RIM was successful for a relatively long time and became arrogant, as did Nokia. RIM certainly didn't learn from the past about pride and falls.
Heins is definitely a techie with a master's degree in science and physics. He has held senior positions at Siemens and at RIM for product development.
As for being out of touch with target customers, perhaps one way to get an idea is to see what type of marketing RIM launches when the BlackBerry 10 handsets are available, perhaps in February. RIM desperately wants to maintain its current user base, but expand more into the consumer market.
I'd suggest you consider upgrading to something besides a Galaxy Nexus because it's getting rather long in the tooth from a specs standpoint. The new Nexus 4 is nice (although it's not perfect), but it's quite difficult to find because of its popularity. I like the Samsung Galaxy S III and the Galaxy Note II and the reviews for the HTC Droid DNA have been excellent.
But who am I to tell you how to spend your money?!
I think carrying an external keyboard for a phone definitely is a bit much, although it can make sense when paired with a tablet. It's too bad none of the lighter weight external keyboards are very good, and the good external keyboards are relatively heavy and awkward to carry.
I am shocked that RIM is wanting that. I would assume this would have been Apple andGoogle's goal more or less. However, out of all 3 I will say RIM has changed the working world's cell phone forever and while it may sound like a far dream for them, they might be able to crack it. After all, they have less stress on them than both Google and Apple do, so who knows what they are possible of doing while no one is looking.
RIM's was blinded by their short-lived success thinking they were invincible. They simply chose to ignore market signals and focus ion past success instead of investing in future innovation. They had a lot of models that came before them, DEC, Wang, among others.
Mr. Heins sounds like a telecom engineer to me. Maybe chauvinism is too strong, but certainly a CEO out of touch with his customer constituencies. Not a surprise RIM's in the position they're in.
I always learn something new from you. I have only one phone, the first generation Motorola Droid. It's keyboard is pretty good but I'll be upgrading soon to a Galaxy Nexus (probably). Carrying an external keyboard for a phone isn't something I thought of before now. It sounds a bit much but I might actually try it when I don't have a physical device keyboard.
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