Steve Jobs doesn’t often speak at Apple earnings conference calls, but yesterday he did. Boy did he ever. Taking shots at competitors RIM and Google, he suggested that 7″ Tablets should come with a nail file for users, Jobs wanted to be very clear that he takes the competition seriously enough to mock them in public. Today the never boring CEO of RIM, Jim Balsillie, fired back at Jobs:
“As usual, whether the subject is antennas, Flash or shipments, there is more to the story and sooner or later, even people inside the distortion field will begin to resent being told half a story,” Mr. Balsillie, RIM’s co-CEO, said in a statement Tuesday.
via RIM’s Balsillie bites back at Apple – The Globe and Mail.
I don’t know if we’re getting half the story, but Apple does want to put their own spin on things. Will a smaller tablet be successful? Is it harder for Android devs to work with multiple handsets?
This much I know. Having had to develop mobile friendly websites, any handset that could have one of several versions of the OS, each with their own browser quirks, irks all but the most calm devs. I’ve had a chance to use a BB Torch for a few days and, yeah size does matter. Just the little bit more screen on the iPhone (and therefore similar sized Android devices) helps a lot when browsing sites. As far a tablets, Balsillie might have a point about smaller tablets. The iPad is a great for a lot of things, but it does seem big sometimes. Of course compared to lugging my laptop around, it’s a dream. The real proof will be when people get to use the smaller tablets for a period of time and how well the OS makers make use of the screen area that they have.
For the reality distortion field, my iOS devices are keeping my field generators at maximum and I’m looking forward to hitting new heights of Apple Warp Field effect with 10.7 and iOS 4.2.
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