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Tech Monday, March 18th 2013 at 1:30 pm

Blackberry CEO Calls iPhone Outdated, Redefining Situational Irony

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Thorsten Heins, CEO of Blackberry, which was a popular business accessory back in the early 2000s, said in an interview he feels the Apple iPhone was outdated. This doesn’t even count as a “pot calling the kettle black” situation. This is a whatever historically pre-dated the pot calling the kettle black and it’s awfully big talk coming from a company whose stock is trading at about three percent of Apple’s.

Heins said in an interview with the Financial Review:

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.

I actually agree with Heins about the iPhone being stale. It’s why I switched to a Galaxy S3 with my last upgrade after being a long time iPhone user. The advances from my iPhone 4 to the iPhone 5 didn’t impress me enough compared to what else was on the market, so I ditched Apple and haven’t looked back.

You know what I didn’t consider buying? A Blackberry. Ever. You bet on touch screens being a fad, and people not wanting to part ways with your messenger app or physical keyboard, and things didn’t pan out in your favor. You get nothing. You lose. Good day, sir.

We get that there’s been a bit of a wave of people dumping on Apple lately, but Blackberry is the last company that should be calling anyone outdated. Don’t fight above your weight class, Blackberry. Maybe go pick on Palm for a while.

(via Business Insider, image via Blackberry)

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  • mdhawki

    Seriously? Does the new BlackBerry Z10 ring a bell? Full touchscreen device with completely revamped QNX based OS? I am not saying it is THE smartphone of all smartphones, but for you to take this stab at BB without even mentioning their new phones/Blackberry 10 operating system is just a little asinine.

  • http://geekvariety.tumblr.com/ GeekVariety

    “it’s awfully big talk coming from a company whose stock is trading at about three percent of Apple’s.”

    And you fell for it. Not only does this guy already realize his company is in the shitter but he figured out a way of stirring that black pot and getting peoples attention and getting a ton of free press. Now people are tuning in to see what the commotion is about and in some cases the BLACK BERRY brand is now in the forefront of peoples minds again as they remember how much they liked them at one time. Mission accomplished.

    Sometimes the oldest tricks are the best tricks.

  • Steve

    At least Blackberry have actually tried to innovate their way out of trouble. Not the biggest Blackberry fan myself, but I’ll choose one over the company who’s only real innovation comes from the lawyers who dream up outrageous lawsuits against companies who dare to release better products than them.

  • Martin Brochu

    I tested the last BB and I was amazed to find out that I could actually use it on a daily basis. I am sold to Google but… who knows, I like the idea to have 3 players in this competition.

  • Fail

    yes then those people looking see that it’s Blackberry and ask themselves “wow people still use Blackberries?”

  • pglusmc

    It’s popular to jump on the BB hater bandwagon so Glen’s article doesn’t surprise me. The BB’s of yore were a bit tough to get started on if you were technologically challenged. RIM/Blackberry’s biggest mistake was not realizing that the consumer devices were moving into the business world. I still use a BB to this day. For me, it’s been the most reliable device and most of the gimmicky features on the newer phones are just that, gimmicks. Completely useless in the business world. As a messaging device, it’s topnotch. I will agree that it is weak in the multimedia arena and the browser is lacking. I am optimistic about the new devices, we’ll see how they stand up…