It's about time BlackBerry showed that it's no idle passenger, as Apple (News - Alert) and Google vroom along on the road to smartphone-world domination. BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins took passionately to his soap box on the on the eve of the BlackBerry (News - Alert) Z10 launch, declaring that the iPhone is “passe” and that Apple has lost its innovative edge.

Them's fighting words!

Heins told USA Today that the BlackBerry Z10 launch, which took place last Friday, is a “major milestone” for BlackBerry, and insists that innovators behind the Z10 system developed not just a new product, but “a new platform.” We sure hope so! When users are admittedly “ashamed” of using your product – as is the case with BlackBerry – you probably need to rethink, if not drastically reinvent your product, or call it quits altogether.

Heins faces the fact that BlackBerry needs to “earn [its] laurels back,” and that the Canadian-based company has “a long way to go.” The new operating system could help BlackBerry get its head back above water, but probably not much farther. Larry Levy, CEO at Appinions, a marketing data analyst for Fortune 500 companies, points out that BlackBerry 10 offers around 100,000 apps, while Android (News - Alert) and Apple have about 700,000 each. That's a lot of catching up BlackBerry needs to do.

“[BlackBerry] is out of the influence circle,” said Levy, “behind Apple, Google (News - Alert), and Microsoft.” Behind Microsoft? Ouch. Just Google search the phrase “Microsoft smartphones suck” and you'll see why that's a painful reality.

What's more pointedly aggressive than Heins' words, which could be perceived as sort of desperate, is BlackBerry's invasive ad campaign. The company has commissioned a series of ads that are taking over screens of iPhones and Android devices over this week, demonstrating the function of key features available only on BlackBerry 10.