I had a business meeting at the RIM office in Toronto in late 2005. I asked the lead technical guy i met with casually after we had rounded up after the session, when they were planning on launching a camera with their phone, not really expecting an answer. The answer I got I will never forget. "Why would RIM want to add a camera to its phones, we make business products, not consumer gadgets". In hindsight, RIM had likely already started adding a camera to their coming phones in development projects, but this relatively senior guy must have been unaware of it. But it was quite telling to me and showed clearly the mentality of a company which had found it niche and business model and refused to innovate.
Slashdot Mirror
I had a business meeting at the RIM office in Toronto in late 2005. I asked the lead technical guy i met with casually after we had rounded up after the session, when they were planning on launching a camera with their phone, not really expecting an answer. The answer I got I will never forget. "Why would RIM want to add a camera to its phones, we make business products, not consumer gadgets". In hindsight, RIM had likely already started adding a camera to their coming phones in development projects, but this relatively senior guy must have been unaware of it. But it was quite telling to me and showed clearly the mentality of a company which had found it niche and business model and refused to innovate.