RIM Co-CEO: Sorry We're Late

By most accounts, Research in Motion co-CEO Mike Lazaridis’s appearance at the company’s Capital Market Day Monday was a largely uneventful affair, a rehashing of RIM’s history, its competitive advantages and yet another sales pitch for the PlayBook.

There was an interesting moment during the Q&A that followed, though. Asked why RIM was caught off-guard by the developing tablet market and what it’s doing to ensure that it will be prepared for other technological shifts that might occur in the future, Lazaridis apologized.

“If you want an apology for being late on some of our products, I can give that to you, but it’s not because we weren’t working hard,” he said. “It’s because we wanted to bring the best possible product to market….If we could go back in time, maybe there are a few things we could have done differently….But we did our best, we really did….The world is changing and we’re doing all we can to prepare RIM for it.”