left: blackberry storm right: blackberry curve 8900

blackberry is the world’s second leading smartphone maker, which typically caters mostly to executives, with U.S. president obama being its highest-profile user. at the recent annual general shareholder’s meeting at canada’s research in motion (RIM), the creators of blackberry, a child asked ‘are you going to make a phone more for kids so that my mom will get me one?’

RIM co-chief executives jim balsillie and mike lazaridis answered vaguely. ‘there’s lots of opportunity, and, you know, if the current blackberries aren’t acceptable to your mother, hopefully the next ones will,’ lazaridis said.

having spent the last 25 years catering to highly demanding industries, we’ll have to wait and see if they’ll move in a new direction.

blackberry for kids research in motion (RIM) president and co-CEO mike lazaridis (left) and co-CEO jim balsillie (right) pose for cameras before the annual meeting of shareholders in waterloo, ontario, canada, july 14th, 2009 image courtesy of reuters

blackberry for kids a mimic of a ‘blackberry’ by leapfrog which produces educational toys. the device for children comes with a full qwerty keyboard, LCD screen, pretend SMS service, calendar and game – perhaps a bit of training before owning a real blackberrysource: reuters