April 15, 2011 3:46 PM PDT RIM CEO: We've still got it by Marguerite Reardon NEW YORK--Research In Motion co-CEO Jim Balsillie defiantly believes his company hasn't lost its mojo. Sure, it's lost market share over the last year, and its corporate-friendly smartphones are losing the marketing war with Apple's iPhone and the many different Android phones. But with a list of new handsets and the new PlayBook tablet hitting shelves next week, Balsillie said in an interview here with CNET Thursday night that there's plenty of reason to believe his company is on the upswing. So far, the 7-inch tablet has largely gotten lackluster reviews, but Balsillie is undeterred about its prospects, calling the device's architecture "future-proof." And he's even more upbeat about the company's soon-to-be-refreshed smartphone portfolio. He said RIM is planning to announce several new handsets in the coming months, some of which will be 4G-enabled, and all of which will be sporting enhanced processors and improved software. "It's going to be a newsy summer for us," Balsillie said at a party celebrating the PlayBook's launch. "And a very newsy BlackBerry World in a few weeks. Let's just say I like what we've got." Balsillie conceded that RIM, which once led the U.S. market in smartphones with its BlackBerry, has lost some ground in North America over the past year. The company hasn't had a major handset launch since the introduction of the BlackBerry Torch in August last year. Meanwhile, multiple Google Android phones have popped up at every U.S. carrier. In the three months ending in February 2011, for the first time more U.S. consumers bought a Google Android phone than a BlackBerry, according to Comscore. Balsillie justified RIM's slip in U.S. market share by explaining that the company has been focused more overseas. "We have been rapidly expanding our business in 180 countries," he said. "We have been focusing on the other 93 percent of the global market. We do need great products in the U.S., but this is a global business." Indeed, RIM has made a big push outside the U.S. And with good reason, says NPD analyst Ross Rubin. "RIM is placing far more emphasis on the value of its network operation centers," he said. "Emerging countries are key to RIM's business because its network architecture allows BlackBerrys to be more efficient." Read more: RIM CEO: We've still got it | Signal Strength - CNET News
I plan on sticking with a BB when I can upgrade next year. So hopefully they will continue to make some positive changes.
I played with RIM's new Playbook Tablet at my local Staples store last night, and I was very much impressed with it. Hopefully it will do well and give the Apple iPad some much needed competition. Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5
The Android market has blew up on its competitors, but RIM still does have a chance at making a come back. They've created the Blackberry and the signature track ball, which used to be the coolest thing ever!
