Research in Motion has seen some good times this year, with a strong trio of QWERTY smartphones and the first clamshell BlackBerry Pearl Flip all making strong splashes. But is it a fair analogy for RIM founder and co-CEO Mike Lazaridis to posit the BlackBerry Storm as being essentially a small netbook? When asked by CNet Asia if he felt netbooks were competitors to the company's line of flagship business handhelds, Lazaridis replied "No, I think I can put Netbooks in here [referring to the BlackBerry Storm]. These are Netbooks. They are just smaller."

We think that what RIM's head honcho is getting at is the digerati's universal and largely unfulfilled desire for some sort of super-portable-yet-full-featured device that perfectly fills the middle ground between cell phone and laptop. The industry has seen myriad experiments in this magical realm dating back to the Apple Newton, and as we get ever closer to the always-on, ubiquitous computing society prophesied by science fiction long before manufacturing fact stepped in, we're seeing that desire manifest in smartphones, netbooks, ultra-portable PCs, PDAs, internet tablets, the often-rumoured Apple tablet seemingly forthcoming any day, and more. But to say explicitly that the BlackBerry Storm is a netbook is a bit of a stretch, no? Smartphones have certainly filled a lot of the raw horsepower gap in recent years but can anyone conscionably consider the Storm an actual (underpowered, but still) laptop replacement? What do you think — true statement, hyperbole, or just wishful thinking?

 

 

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