Mike Lazaridis discusses BlackBerry "super phones" and RIM's 10 year plan

The BlackBerry "Super Phone" is coming, just maybe not tomorrow. Mike Lazaridis sat down with PCMag at CES 2011 to discuss a bit about RIM's future and what we can expect in the coming years. During the interview Mike confirmed the plans to bring QNX to BlackBerry smartphones, but also said that current multi-core processors aren't quite what they need to make this happen. “Battery life, size, weight, thickness, cost” are all factors here, and until those are all up to par for what RIM has planned, it doesn't look like we'll be seeing QNX on our devices. Future QNX devices are coming, just no word on when exactly. RIM isn't in a hurry. "First they made RIM a global business, now they're delivering the PlayBook, and super phones are on the to-do list", he said. Mike alluded to the next 10 years of BlackBerry, and the growth they are preparing for in BlackBerry both in handheld devices and tablets.

We spent the last three years building a global company. Putting in all the infrastructure, building the relationships, building the supply channels, the infrastructure, the distribution, the manufacturing capacity, that's what we did! And we continue to grow, right? What we're setting up is for the next 10 years of BlackBerry. We just finished the first 10 years, actually closer to 12 - the first decade of BlackBerry. Now we're setting up for the next decade of BlackBerry. Right? That's what we're doing.
I think it's because we're always thinking ahead, we're always planning ahead. I think in this kind of business you have to have a lot of planning. It's one thing to take a reference design and package it. It's another thing to build a platform that can grow with your customers' needs, that can grow with where the market is going as opposed to where the market is today. To provide that uncompromised performance for enterprise, for government, for large corporations as well as provide an experience for the consumer that's unique. 

So how do you feel about these statements? Are you optimistic for the future of BlackBerry, or are you starting to get impatient? With RIM re-branding WES to BlackBerry World, all of us on the CrackBerry team are hoping we'll see RIM use this event to announce some BIG things for BlackBerry Smartphones (not just tablets) this May. Maybe Mike L is just setting us up to blow us away. I for one am excited to see what RIM brings us this year, and for years to come. They definitely have a solid foundation world-wide to build on, and I can't wait to see where they go