Right now listening to statement from Barbara Stymiest, the new chair of Research in Motion's board, saying that Mr. Heins hiring was approved unanimously.
by Shane Dingman 1/23/2012 1:06:39 PM
Ms. Stymiest notes both Mr. Lazaridis and Mr. Balsillie are staying with company as directors on its board, and Mr. Lazaridis will head new innovation committee
by Tim Kiladze 1/23/2012 1:07:45 PM
Thorsten Heins, the new CEO, is on RIM's conference call now. He's talking about how the company has strong financials and now needs to focusing on execution. He says they've hit some "bumps in the road" but that he's proud of the team moving forward.
by Iain Marlow 1/23/2012 1:08:36 PM
Heins talking about how RIM needs to hire a new chief marketing officer. He talked about this in our interview on Sunday in Waterloo, how the public perception of the company is out of line with the company's financial and market position. Him and Barbara Stymiest, RIM's new board chair, are about to take questions from analysts. Should be interesting.
by Iain Marlow 1/23/2012 1:11:24 PM
For your information, the other folks in today's liveblog are Iain Marlow, technology reporter for The Globe and Mail. Also listening in is Tim Kiladze, reporter for Globe Investor and blogger for
Streetwise.
by Shane Dingman 1/23/2012 1:11:31 PM
Mr. Heins talks about building a culture that looks at both short-and-long-term growth and one that makes people "accountable for their actions"
by Tim Kiladze 1/23/2012 1:11:59 PM
Heins is talking about RIM's international growth. "The U.S... is a bit different... We need to be more marketing driven, more consumer-oriented..."
by Iain Marlow 1/23/2012 1:12:43 PM
Plans for U.S.: “We need to be more marketing driven. We need to be more consumer driven.”.... “We need to engage more with the consumer base.”
by Tim Kiladze 1/23/2012 1:13:28 PM
Let it be said that RIM is a huge presence and a valuable, untarnished brand in emerging markets and the global south, where smartphone growth is in its early stages and has huge potential.
by Iain Marlow 1/23/2012 1:13:52 PM
"Execution has to be really precise," Heins says. "You're never perfect, you always strive to get to perfection. But I'm pretty sure this will really help us a lot."
by Iain Marlow edited by Shane Dingman 1/23/2012 1:14:44 PM
Amusing moment when Heins enthusiastically greets an analyst "Hey Richard, how you doing?" Analyst kinda brushes his greeting aside and piles ahead with his question... about low end smartphone market and the app ecosystem.
by Shane Dingman 1/23/2012 1:16:49 PM
Analyst asking about RIM moving down the value chain into more low-end devices. The eternal question: Should RIM try and be Nokia? "You call it the low-end market... I call it the entry level smartphone segment," Heins says, and referring to RIM's attempts to get entry-level, first-time smartphone users, he adds:
"There's still a lot of feature phone users out there."
by Iain Marlow 1/23/2012 1:17:03 PM
To get people in Asia buying RIM smartphones: “You need to give them a good landing point that allows them to really experience the smartphone capabailites on a blackberry.”
by Tim Kiladze 1/23/2012 1:18:00 PM
Internally, RIM refers to the process of convincing people to upgrade their phones to smartphones as "onboarding”. Heins wants to be a major player in entry level smartphone segment so the transition is easy
by Tim Kiladze 1/23/2012 1:19:10 PM
Talk turns to QNX: "Frankly, I give big kudos to Mike Lazaridis for acquiring QNX and understanding how big this was.”
by Tim Kiladze 1/23/2012 1:22:14 PM
Analyst asking why Heins has so much faith in the new QNX-based BlackBerry 10 operating system, which will run on RIM's next batch of phones, given the analyst thinks its a "me-too" operating system that will only move RIM up to par with its competitors.
by Iain Marlow 1/23/2012 1:22:55 PM
Question about QNX - is it a me-too OS, What about BB10 will convince users to come back to BlackBerry
Heins answers this way:
It is an existing OS, did you know all the core routers of the Internet run QNX, 'it is a proven OS' allows "true" multi-tasking.
by Shane Dingman 1/23/2012 1:22:55 PM
“My view on RIM is a very, very clear view.” Heins says device-only segment “is a cutthroat price and cost business.” You need to have an entire ecosystem. “I will not in anyway split this [company] up or separate this into different businesses.”
by Tim Kiladze 1/23/2012 1:24:46 PM
Heins said he's open to talking to licensing RIM's BB10 operating system to other handset manufacturers, though it's not his focus.
by Iain Marlow 1/23/2012 1:25:19 PM