RIM’s wonderfully outspoken CEO Jim Balsillie has hit back at Apple and its ridiculously successful iPhone.
“You don’t need an app for the web,” he said on-stage at Web 2.0 Summit in California. “We believe you can bring the mobile to the web but you don’t need to go through some kind of control point.”
Not sure we exactly agree with you there, Balsillie, but tell us more:
“It is really not about a set of proprietary rules or about appifying the web. The web needs a platform that allows you to use your existing web content, not apps.”
Interesting that a platform with notoriously over-priced and relatively unsuccessful app store should say such a thing. We’re sure the 13.5 million iPhone owners would perhaps disagree – apps are so much more than simply web access.
Despite that, the point that Apple shouldn’t necessarily be the gatekeeper of all apps is a valid one – but we’re not sure we can agree with Balsillie’s prediction that the era of smartphone apps will “pass real quick”. [AFP]
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