RIM CEOs Blast Critics For Lack Of Appreciation; PlayBook Will Be Focussed Attack Not iPad All-Rounder

RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis has struck out at critics, questioning "why there's this negative sentiment" within the industry which maintains the company has lost its momentum. "Why is it that people don't appreciate our profits? Why is it that people don't appreciate our growth?" the outspoken exec asked the NY Times. "Why is it that people don't appreciate the fact that we spent the last four years going global? Why is it that people don't appreciate that we have 500 carriers in 170 countries with products in almost 30 languages?"

"What I've learned is you've just got to prove it over and over and over" Lazaridis concluded, a sentiment co-CEO Jim Balsillie seems to concur on. Denying some analyst claims that he and Lazaridis had "behaved like idiots," he insisted that RIM was well prepared for the evolving mobile market. However, he did admit that the delay in announcing the BlackBerry PlayBook may have cost RIM momentum in the tablet ecosystem.

The 7-inch slate was first delayed after RIM switched from chipset provider Marvell to rival Texas Instruments, six months into development, and more recently it has been claimed that the company would have launched up to a month earlier had Apple not soaked up the lion's share of touchscreen supplies. With consumer rivals to the iPad still in relative disarray – the latest predictions suggest the Apple slate will continue to dominate through to 2015 – RIM will be looking to its more solid enterprise base to jump-start the PlayBook.

That, Balsillie suggests, is part of being satisfied with a chunk of the market rather than demanding all of it. "To be pretty blunt about this: how many people in the world have computing devices in phones, and how many do we have to sell to ensure that we're a rip-roaring success over the next five years?" the exec asked rhetorically. "You'll find that you don't have to be all things to all people."