RIM Redux

Following up from yesterday's post, I have now listened to all of Jim Balsillie’s comments during his presentation at RIM’s Capital Markets Day, May 12, 2008, I wanted to offer up some of his quotes.

I’ve tried not to take these comments too far out of context, but basically Mr. Balsillie is bullish on UMA. About 29 minutes into the presentation (slide 24), he talks of their UMA-enabled products:

“The Wi-Fi UMA is going remarkably well.”
“I’m hard pressed to not see this as inevitable, for most if not everyone.”
“This is happening and it’s happening fast”.

In his Q&A section (slide 33), a gentleman from Integral Capital Partners asks:

“Can you comment on the carrier’s adoption, or in some cases, the lack there of, of the UMA option?”

Mr. Balsillie: “I think it’s a fair comment. I think a lot of carriers were keen on it, some were less keen on it. It’s hard to find a carrier that isn’t keen on it now. Some saw it as a threat, I saw it as an enabler, an inevitability. In a sense, it’s hard to find a carrier that isn’t excited about it now. … I think it’s just so compelling and so inevitable. It’s not going to take out the cell phone. It’s a complement.”

I couldn’t agree more.