1. What's the future of the smart-phone industry? The closest parallel would be the emergence of the colour TV compared to the black and white set in the early 1960s-there's a growing market, but there's also a big substitution element. The U.S. cellphone market overall has shrunk by about half a per cent a year over the past five years, but the smart-phone market has grown by 58% a year. I think that substitution effect is going to carry on, and it puts a lot of responsibility on us to try and keep growing.
2. How will the downturn affect RIM? There is clearly an unprecedented adjustment at play right now. Does this fundamentally affect the long-term strategy of RIM? No. I don't want to be glib, but if it's snowing out, do you manage your day differently than if it's sunny out? Yes. But does it change the way I fundamentally live my life? No. As a company, we factor that in, and we pay attention to it, but we're not prisoner to it. We have a strong balance sheet, an excellent product set, an excellent management team and an exceptional market opportunity, so we're very blessed. Our responsibility is to stay tight with our strategies and pursue them to the fullest of our abilities.
3. How can we make sure Canada is producing other potential RIMs? For sure, we have to have a number of engineers and the like. But I agree with Roger Martin [dean of the Rotman School of Management]that we have to assess our business innovation skills also, because in many respects in the technology business, it's more about management skills that are particular to technology than the technology itself. The mistake we make is that we think the key to having good tech businesses is a lot more scientists, but that's like saying, "To run this race better, we need a stronger left leg." The truth is, you need two strong legs. And this is a shocking insight to many policy makers.
4. You've been trying to bring a second NHL team to Toronto. Why is that a good idea? Uh, I gotta go in a minute. Do you have any other questions?
5. Okay, what's the coolest thing about being the co-CEO of RIM? The coolest thing for me is that we work with 400 carriers in 150 countries, we have 125,000 corporations on BlackBerry service and 1,000 application partners. And of course we have this very high-performance, up-tempo team. In many respects, we feel like Venice in the 1300s-all travellers somehow crossed through Venice, and they all cross through BlackBerry, they intersect, they interface with us. To be relevant to everything that's going on in technology and telecom is an enormous privilege. Everything we work with is intellectually stimulating, creatively interesting, personally fascinating. People think of the growth and the money. But it really is the excitement of the environment. For a tradesman's son from Peterborough to be in that context, that by far is the best part of having the job that I have.