RIM has to be feeling the pressure. They were the undisputed leader in the smart phone market prior to the coming of the iPhone. They even had a free endorsement by President Obama during his campaign run.

But now that Apple has sold 15.8 million iPhone’s in the US alone in 2010 and the release of Nexus One with it slick touch screen interface, it’s clunky Storm touch screen (their only touch screen product) is looking pretty dated.

The iPhone interface has raised the bar around consumer expectations – business users are now getting iPhones in growing numbers and are now used to the slick and responsive interface.

If RIM can come up with a comparable interface, they can quickly gain the momentum again. It will be interesting to see what they come up with.

–Walter Perdigao

Alright, so the release of the iPad was a little disillusioning. Okay, maybe that’s an understatement – techno-geeks have been kicking the crap out of its short comings (no multi-tasking, no camera, etc.).

And the name itself. iPad? Really? They couldn’t have come up with anything more exciting? I liked the rumoured iSlate name, but hey – who am I to question Apple on marketing.

So, ignoring the fact the iPad is basically a big iTouch/iPhone, the important point is that it’s officially ushered in the era of the “smartbook”. And as much as I would have preferred it to be driven off of OS X, it is a pretty freaking cool gadget.

It’s fast. It’s slick. It has that incredible surgical grade glass and vibrant display. And Apple will only improve on the version 1.0 release. The bottom line is that they have the strength of their hard core Applemaniac followers that will buy anything as long as its shiny, silver, and has an Apple logo on it.

It’s a given they will sell millions of these things and spur on competitors to up the ante on features and lower the price of this new type of ultra portable called the smartbook.

–Walter Perdigao