Both of RIM’s co-CEOs have reputations for being pretty opinionated dudes, and we feel like Mike Lazaridis in particular would go to the ends of the Earth to support BlackBerry’s business model — but at the cost of one of his own products? Speaking at a tech conference in Toronto today, Lazaridis apparently said that the long-term viability of the tablet market ( iPad included) is in doubt, especially as smartphones get more powerful; that would probably serve to quash the rumors from a few days back that the company is working on its own large-display device for release later this year. More interestingly, though, were his comments that full touchscreen phones like the iPhone “aren’t that popular” — that’s news to us — and that many that end up buying them ultimately go back to a physical keyboard handset. You know, like a Bold or a Curve , for instance. Whether Lazaridis is conveniently forgetting the existence of his own Storm and Storm2 , suggesting that touchscreen devices don’t have a long-term future at RIM, or just saying that they’ll remain a niche play for the company going forward is unclear — but any way you slice it, we’d say it’s a pretty significant dis for the Storm series and its owners. Looking at the bigger picture, it might also be a sign that these guys are still very much on the fast track to becoming the next Windows Mobile — dinosaurs paralyzed by their own past successes — but who knows? Maybe there’ll always be limitless demand for an endless array of barely iterative hardware paired to a decade-old user interface. Update: We’ve received the full transcript of Mike’s session from the conference relating specifically to the touchscreen phone and tablet comments, and the reality is quite a bit different from the summary we’d been working from before. As tablets go, he says that “you can’t say what’s the market for tablets in exclusion of… other devices” — a fair argument, considering that the iPad’s ultimate target demographic still isn’t totally fleshed out — and actually never disrespects touchscreen phones outright, instead saying that the “QWERTY push messaging experience” is still “really, really important” while acknowledging that the company “[continues] to evolve with the research and [investment] in the Storm technology to make sure we get those right.” Follow the break for the transcript. Continue reading RIM’s Mike Lazaridis makes the case for QWERTY keyboards on phones, says market for tablets not ‘clear yet’ RIM’s Mike Lazaridis makes the case for QWERTY keyboards on phones, says market for tablets not ‘clear yet’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Apr 2010 20:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink