Speaking with a reporter sometime during the WES 2008 event last week, RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis shared some of his views pertaining to the increasing ubiquitous smartphone. When it comes to the touchscreen, which received a shot in the arm from Apple's implementation on the iPhone, Lazaridis noted that he has used numerous touchscreen devices since the mid-90s--including the very first ones found on devices from Sharp, NEC and Palm.

He was unanimous that a full Qwerty keyboard is still "the most exciting mobile trend" to date. More than email alone, the Facebook and instant messaging generation are likely to walk away from a shop with a BlackBerry as a direct result of its superior keyboard interface. Lazaridis said, "What I watched was the whole industry eventually had to license our keyboard technology." 

For more on what Lazaridis has to say:
- check out this ZDNet article [1]