New chair to present new vision in weeks.
Thorsten Heins was made CEO a few days ago after the long-expected departure of the previous co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie.
He told Reuters he plans to present his new plans to the board in a matter of weeks. And the US, where BlackBerry is getting hammered by iPhone and Android, is a massive priority,
"In general I wouldn't consider RIM as a turnaround candidate. It is a turnaround candidate in the US," he said.
"We lost market share in this market quite substantially. That is something that we have to address."
That won't be easy given that RIM had to announce in December that it is delaying the launch of phones based on next-gen BlackBerry 10 platform until the later part of 2012.
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So that means working with the current range, which has clearly failed to capture the consumer's attention. Indeed, only 20 per cent of US BlackBerry users have the company's latest phones. Indeed, some of these users are two generations behind, Heins conceded.
One strategy to address this is a new upgrade plan with US operators to promote phones with the BlackBerry 7 system.
Then there's the beleaguered Playbook, which RIM will attempt to reinvigorate with a high-speed wireless connection based on LTE shortly.
Elsewhere, Heins rejected the idea of a sale of a split-up for RIM as "it would tear the company apart."
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Although I do admit I was excited to hear the possible acquisition of RIM by Amazon, I am even more excited to hear that they will not be selling their company and instead be focusing on their core products. I am so curious to see the upgrades made on the new os as well as the new advancements on their touch screen phones.
Glen Suh
www.tapit.com
Glen Suh Jan 31st 2012 at 2:04AM
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