Friday, June 29, 2012

iPhone turns 5. I write RIM's obituary.

Five years ago today, Apple started selling the iPhone. At the time, RIM owned the smartphone market, and co-CEO Mike Lazaridis at the time dismissed the new device as a toy, saying people wanted security, robust messaging and keyboards. Touchscreens and fun, he said, weren't what people wanted.

My, how five years can change empires. RIM is now sliding into oblivion while Apple is the most valuable company on the planet. Hmm, toy?

Anyway, the media storm that erupted yesterday kind of spilled into today. In addition to the two published articles (Toronto Star and Yahoo), I spent a lot of time either in front of a camera, in a radio studio, on a phone, or zinging myself from place to place as I counted every minute and prayed I wouldn't be late for anything. Here's the chronological order of events:

  1. CTV Canada AM - 2 interviews with Marcia MacMillan (video here)
  2. Newstalk 1010 Toronto - John Moore
  3. CBC Ontario Morning - Danielle Harder
  4. CTV Morning Live (Regina) - with Molly Thomas and Jonathan Glasgow (video here)
  5. 570News Kitchener - Michelle Dyer
  6. AM980 London - Jeff McArthur (Podcast Part 1, Part 2)
  7. CHML Hamilton - Bill Taylor
  8. CBC Ontario Today - Hallie Cotnam and a cast of phone-in listeners. Got to do this one from the CBC studios here in London, with Garry Ennett as always making me sound like I knew what I was talking about. (Audio here)
  9. CJAD Montreal - Weekly tech segment with Ric and Suzanne (Podcast here)
  10. Sun News Network - Caryn Lieberman (and, yes, I taught her to swim a few moons ago)
  11. CBC television cross-country newscasts - Aaron Saltzman
  12. CBC The National - Adrienne Arsenault

What do I remember most about the day? I left the house at 5:20 a.m. to get to the studio in time for my first Canada AM hit. As I stepped off the porch into the dimness of the slowly brightening sky, I felt like the 11-year-old me, delivering the Montreal Gazette before the rest of the world was awake. I could practically feel those early mornings with my stack of newspapers teetering precariously in my wagon. Then as now, the wind would blow just a little, the humidity hanging off the leaves, the shadows of the trees softly painting the ground below. You felt this time of day as much as you saw or heard it, and I hadn't realized, until this morning, just how deeply those memories were imprinted.

I got into the car and slowly eased out onto the street. Once again I found myself actively recording the journey. Once again I didn't want to forget what this experience felt like. I do that on days that feel like they're going to be significant in some way. I want to live them, feel them, remember why they were special.

Today was special. The news may have been challenging - especially for the thousands affected by the layoffs - but in my little world of tech journalism, something changed. For the better.

Onward...

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More links and video to follow. Will update this entry as I find more.


3 comments:

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

I shoulda bought that apartment I used to rent in Manhattan, too.

*sniff*
~

rashbre said...

I used to prefer the positive keyboard on a blackberry compared with working with an iPhone for business, but the rest of the capabilities have gradually surpassed the basic massaging advantage.

I suppose RIM has had to decide whether to use its own stuff or swallow the Microsoft pill the way Nokia did.

Fascinating in Europe everyone in biz had Nikons, then Blackberries and now its progressively more iPhone with iPad and cloud links also sneaking into quite a few meetings.

rashbre said...

nb Massaging = Messaging (although they probably both do both by now)