BlackBerry Storm, iPhone Actually Netbooks, Really, Really Small Netbooks

Contrary to popular opinion, Research In Motion’s (RIMM) Blackberry Storm is not a smartphone. It’s a Netbook. So says Mike Lazaridis, the company’s founder and co-CEO, who apparently hasn’t seen an Eee PC lately. Asked by CNet Asia if he viewed Netbooks as a competitor to RIM’s BlackBerry devices, Lazaridis, referring to the Storm, said, “These are Netbooks. They are just smaller.”

Now, leaving aside for a moment the fact that the Storm is clearly not a laptop replacement, Lazaridis’s comment is interesting because it mirrors Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs’s remarks about the iPhone this past October. Responding to a question about Apple’s plans for the Netbook market, Jobs suggested that the iPhone and iPod touch are essentially diminutive Netbooks. “One of our entrants into [the Netbook] category, if you will, is the iPhone for browsing the Internet and doing e-mail and all the other things that a netbook lets you do,” Jobs said. “Being connected via the cellular net wherever you are, an iPhone is a pretty good solution for that, and it fits in your pocket.”

Great minds think alike, I guess…