BlackBerry Chief Thorsten Heins Says iPhone’s User Interface is Old

By: Zain Nabi  |   March 18th, 2013   |   Apple, News, O Canada, Smartphones

One of the main reasons behind Apple’s dominance in the smartphone industry was the company’s innovative approach in terms of designing and launching new products. The credit, without any doubt, goes to the company’s co-founder Steve Jobs (late). Jobs’ departure has raised many questions on the ability of the present management of the company to come up with the same approach as Apple has not been able to live up to the expectations.

 

This trend has been observed by other industry players as well and now everyone has openly started talking about Apple’s lost innovative approach. Recently, BlackBerry chief Thorsten Heins also shared the same views when he paid the due respect to Apple for introducing smartphones in the market, but maintained that now other players are also eager to gain the market share. In an exclusive interview to The Australian Financial Review, Heins said that many other smartphones, including the recently released Samsung Galaxy S4, have hurt Apple’s progress. He said:

 

“Apple did a fantastic job in bringing touch devices to market … They did a fantastic job with the user interface, they are a design icon. There is a reason why they were so successful, and we actually have to admit this and respect that. History repeats itself again I guess … the rate of innovation is so high in our industry that if you don’t innovate at that speed you can be replaced pretty quickly. The user interface on the iPhone, with all due respect for what this invention was all about is now five years old.”

 

BlackBerry itself is also reportedly enjoying the success of its recently launched Z10 smartphone that is going to be launched in the U.S. in the next few days. The new BlackBerry phone, whose launch is termed as make-or-break move for the company, is available in many international markets, but its launch in the U.S. was delayed. It is expected that the phone would do a strong business in its prime market. Heins remained optimistic that the new smartphone of his company would do well in the U.S., and maintained that the overall sales figures are very encouraging. He said:

 

“In the context of the financial viability of the company that is where I shake my head sometimes and wonder what everyone is talking about. The company has no debt, I will report pretty good cash position by the end of March in my earnings call, so I think we did a really diligent job in, not just keeping the company afloat, but also bringing it back to health.”