“Former BlackBerry co-chief executive Jim Balsillie said Tuesday that Apple’s introduction of the iPhone and BlackBerry’s rushed attempt to match it was devastating for the once iconic company,” Rob Gillies reports for The Associated Press.

“Balsillie said in his first public remarks since leaving the company in 2012 that he knew BlackBerry couldn’t compete after the iPhone’s introduction in 2007 and after BlackBerry’s buggy touchscreen device called the Storm had a ‘100 percent return rate,'” Gillies reports. “He said at the Empire Club in Toronto that the impact of rushing it out was devastating. He said Verizon, their largest customer, fired them over it. Balsillie made the remarks in a question-and-answer session with Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff, the authors of the new book Losing the Signal. The Spectacular Rise and Fall of BlackBerry.”

“‘With Storm we tried to do too much. It was a touch display, it was a clickable display, it had new applications, and it was all done in an incredibly short period of time and it blew up on us,’ Balsillie said. ‘That was the time I knew we couldn’t compete on high end hardware,'” Gillies reports. “‘It was difficult. It was a real shock to the company,’ Balsillie said.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: The BlackBerry Storm was RIM’s biggest piece of garbage ever – until they released the PlayBook, that is.

RIM is a dead company walking. – MacDailyNews Take, August 23, 2010

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “BD” for the heads up.]

SEE ALSO:

Verizon slashes BlackBerry Storm price in half in attempt to compete with $99 Apple iPhone 3G – July 20, 2009
Only one storm drags down D.C. Republicans and Democrats alike: RIM’s awful BlackBerry Storm – March 06, 2009
PC World: It’s official, Blackberry Storm is no Apple iPhone killer – January 27, 2009
RIM’s big response to Apple’s iPhone, BlackBerry Storm, falls flat – January 26, 2009
ChangeWave: Apple iPhone’s ‘very satisfied’ rating more than double that of RIM’s BlackBerry Storm – December 22, 2008
Yale Daily News: The Storm isn’t an iPhone killer, it’s a Blackberry killer – December 10, 2008
Innovation and Entrepreneurship Professor reviews RIM BlackBerry Storm: ‘Disappointing and awful’ – December 05, 2008
NY Times’ Pogue reviews RIM’s BlackBerry Storm: ‘I’ve got a better name for it: BlackBerry Dud’ – November 26, 2008
InformationWeek reviews RIM’s BlackBerry Storm: ‘Tiresome, slow, severe bugginess and problems’ – November 24, 2008
TIME Mag reviews RIM’s BlackBerry Storm: ‘Novelty screen feels cheap; steer clear of this storm’ – November 20, 2008
Chicago Tribune reviews RIM’s BlackBerry Storm: ‘Can’t compete with Apple’s iPhone’ – November 20, 2008
Gizmodo reviews RIM’s BlackBerry Storm: ‘Heavy, laggy, sluggish, unstable, clunky, and tiring’ – November 20, 2008
Engadget reviews RIM’s BlackBerry Storm: ‘Frustrating, inelegant, uncomfortable; a disappointment’ – November 20, 2008
PC World reviews RIM’s BlackBerry Storm: ‘Awkward, disappointing; a failed experiment’ – November 20, 2008
BlackBerry Storm: No Wi-Fi. No iPod. No iTunes App Store. No sale. – November 14, 2008

Former half-CEOs Balsillie, Lazaridis pocket $12 million in ‘entitlements’ from beleaguered RIM – June 15, 2012
Beleaguered RIM misses badly on revenue, EPS, unit shipments; Former half-CEO Balsillie resigns; CTO, COO also out – March 29, 2012
Beleaguered RIM looking for developer to ‘create exciting iOS enterprise apps’ for Apple iPhone, iPad – March 22, 2012
Beleaguered RIM BlackBerry loses top spot to Apple’s iPhone in Canada – March 22, 2012
Beleaguered RIM names new CEO; half-CEOs step down amid struggle to answer Apple – January 22, 2012
Beleaguered RIM’s half-CEOs: Portrait of pathetic – December 16, 2011
Beleaguered RIM’s earnings fall 71% amid weak sales – December 16, 2011
Beleaguered RIM misses on revenue, issues grim guidance, stock drops again – December 15, 2011
Citi on beleaguered RIM: ‘It’s worse than you think’ – December 2, 2011
Beleaguered RIM misses its revenue forecast; takes $360 million bath to clear unsold PlayBooks; shares plummet – December 2, 2011
Apple ousts beleaguered RIM’s BlackBerry as top business smartphone – November 16, 2011
Beleaguered Sony shares sink on massive loss forecast – November 2, 2011
Beleaguered RIM’s U.S. sales cut in half last quarter as consumers abandoned BlackBerry for Apple iPhone – September 20, 2011
Apple’s iPhone 4 absolutely slaughtered beleaguered RIM’s Blackberry – September 16, 2011
Beleaguered RIM hemorrhaging market share faster than some analysts expected – September 16, 2011