RIM boss: I acknowledge company’s weakness

Following recent poor financial figures and widespread media speculation concerning the future of Research In Motion (RIM), the company’s CEO admitted the extent of RIM’s suffering to shareholders.

Thorstein Heins said yesterday (Wednesday 11 July): “I am not satisfied with the performance of the company over the past year.

“We recognise that this is a difficult period for our shareholders, and that many of you are frustrated with the time it is taking to make our way through this transition.”

RIM, producer of the BlackBerry smartphone, which has fallen behind leading industry rivals including the Android-powered HTC smartphone series and the iPhone, must become a “real nimble, lean, mean hunting machine”. Heins has pledged to turn it into exactly this.

Heins agreed that RIM is “not as competitive in the full touch segment” while arguing that the company’s comparative weakness in the US, Canada and UK was indicative of the “competitive nature of the global smartphone market and the impact associated with the platform and product transition we are going through right now”.

The CEO appears to have the support of a majority of RIM shareholders, and promised them a “plan that ensures the BlackBerry 10 platform gets launched.”

Heins added: “We are running in parallel a comprehensive review of RIM’s operational and strategic opportunities.” This appears to point to cost-reduction – or streamlining – which Heins admitted would affect both the handset range and the company itself.

By having a smaller number of devices on sale, RIM is looking to reduce development and marketing costs, and target specific sectors.

Meanwhile Heins described the 5,000 job cuts at the company as “critical for our future” and “an incredibly difficult decision to make”.

“[The CORE – Cost Optimisation and Resource Efficiency – programme] is designed to bring cultural change to how we do things at RIM, which we believe will benefit the company for years to come”, Heins added.

Answering questions on the delay to the BlackBerry 10, Heins stated firmly: “I will not deliver a product or platform to market that is not ready to meet the needs of our customers or provide anything less than an outstanding user experience with the quality I expect the BlackBerry platform to have.

“As I have said before, there will be no compromise on this issue.”

Read the full Mobile Business Briefing article here.