All Things D is starting to roll out full videos from their D: Dive Into Mobile conference form last week.  A full current list of videos can be found here, as well as the aforementioned Mike Lazaridis and Andy Rubin videos embedded below.  Both are must-watch, but for different reasons.  Walt Mossberg may be thought of in the industry as “Uncle Walt” and someone who speaks to the mainstream, but the guy is definitely on top of the cutting edge issues and quick on the draw with questions that challenge his interview subjects.

Andy Rubin talking “openness, Gingerbread, and Honeycomb”

Mike Lazaridis under fire

It can’t have been a good day for RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis.  Upon taking the stage Tuesday evening at D: Dive Into Mobile, Lazaridis seemed lost and unable to articulate any point that would resonate with the audience.  He is in a tough position, for sure, what with Blackberry OS 6 and the Torch failing to make any dent in people’s perceptions that RIM is falling behind in innovation.  His solution seemed to be to focus on the Blackberry Playbook which at least looks interesting and has a current UI.  The problems, though, began as soon as Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher began asking him real questions about where the company is going.  One area where he wasn’t making any sense was in answering any question that related to when the outdated Blackberry OS was going to resemble the more attractive QNX platform the Playbook runs.  His standard answer was  a convoluted response that they designed the new platform around dual-core processors, something that wouldn’t be in smartphones until next year.

One wonders whether someone should approach him about this philosophy next year when dual-core becomes relatively common in phones.  This seemed like the most transparent stalling tactic imaginable.  To evolve your software platform to the level that it isn’t embarrassing compared to the competition doesn’t require technology that no company is yet deploying.  What’s more, if the limiting factor is whether or not dual-core processors are available, perhaps Lazaridis would like to explain why that limited their flagship Blackberry Torch to a poor-quality, low-resolution screen and a 624 MHz Marvell processor that is not even close to the class used by competitors.

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