In a case of what many might consider the pot calling the kettle black, BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins called out Apple's iPhone during a recent interview for being outdated. Speaking with the Australian Financial Review, Heins made it clear that he believes Apple is falling behind other handset makers (BlackBerry included) with regards to innovation.
The BlackBerry chief said Apple did a fantastic job in bringing touch devices to the market and did a bang up job with the user interface. He noted that Cupertino is a design icon and there is a reason they are so successful but because the rate of innovation is so high in the industry, you can be replaced pretty quickly.
To that end, Heins said that with all due respect, the interface on the iPhone is now five years old. He likened the recent move of launching BlackBerry 10 to putting the company on the starting grid of the wider mobile computing grand prix. Now, the Canadian firm just needs to win the race - a daunting task when you are already several laps behind the competition.
In related BlackBerry news, Heins believes his company will have 100,000 native apps ready for the Z10 by the time it hits retail in the US later this week. When the first wave of phones launched on the new platform in January, there were only 70,000 apps available. That's a respectable number and far more than were available when Microsoft launched its Windows Phone OS but it pales in comparison to what's offered in the App Store and on Google Play.