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@ 2013/05/01Blackberry CEO Thorsten Heins has said he believes Blackberry will be "the absolute leader in mobile computing" in five years, while also claiming that the business model of the tablet will be dead within five years.
"In five years I don't think there'll be a reason to have a tablet anymore," Heins said in an interview. "Tablets themselves are not a good business model".
In recent years, Blackberry has not had a phenomenal track record with its prophecies, having been forced to play catch up to the well established app ecosystems of Apple and, later, Android.
Heins has previously stated that he would consider a sequel to the Playbook, RIM's flop of a tablet, if the tablet model proved profitable. His comments suggest the company will be taking a wait-and-see approach to the expected influx of cheap-and-cheerful tablets.
The Blackberry CEO also declared last month that Apple's golden age was over and that the iPhone model is essentially dated.
In a Bloomberg interview, Heins said that he intends to create as much market share for Blackberry as possible, but "not by being a copycat".
Blackberry's Q10 debuted in the UK over the weekend, at Selfridges, and early reports say sales were positive. Claims from Detwiler Fenton & Co. that its devices had high return rates are disputed by Blackberry, and the firm said it would approach securities regulators over what it dubbed 'false' information to manipulate the stock market.
Heins mentioned that the company has "very, very good first signs already after the launch in the UK", and boasted that the new models will be going into the user base of over 70 million blackberry users. "We expect several tens of millions of units," Heins said.
Blackberry's most recent quarterly figures were not exactly phenomenal, but didn't arrive in time to be a decent indicator for the possible impact of Blackberry 10 devices.
Analyst house Ovum reckons that results for the present quarter will provide better insights into the company's future.
"In five years I don't think there'll be a reason to have a tablet anymore," Heins said in an interview. "Tablets themselves are not a good business model".
In recent years, Blackberry has not had a phenomenal track record with its prophecies, having been forced to play catch up to the well established app ecosystems of Apple and, later, Android.
Heins has previously stated that he would consider a sequel to the Playbook, RIM's flop of a tablet, if the tablet model proved profitable. His comments suggest the company will be taking a wait-and-see approach to the expected influx of cheap-and-cheerful tablets.
The Blackberry CEO also declared last month that Apple's golden age was over and that the iPhone model is essentially dated.
In a Bloomberg interview, Heins said that he intends to create as much market share for Blackberry as possible, but "not by being a copycat".
Blackberry's Q10 debuted in the UK over the weekend, at Selfridges, and early reports say sales were positive. Claims from Detwiler Fenton & Co. that its devices had high return rates are disputed by Blackberry, and the firm said it would approach securities regulators over what it dubbed 'false' information to manipulate the stock market.
Heins mentioned that the company has "very, very good first signs already after the launch in the UK", and boasted that the new models will be going into the user base of over 70 million blackberry users. "We expect several tens of millions of units," Heins said.
Blackberry's most recent quarterly figures were not exactly phenomenal, but didn't arrive in time to be a decent indicator for the possible impact of Blackberry 10 devices.
Analyst house Ovum reckons that results for the present quarter will provide better insights into the company's future.
