CEO Thorsten Heins says RIM may yet sell the hardware division

BB10 will survive beacuse its a true innovation with careful precision and avoiding all the patent crap. they did alot of research and hard work to get up to here. and i wish them best of luck especially cause alot of people lost their jobs due to their fall down.

but they will bounce back hard and better because creativity is respected.

now nokia can maybe learn a thing or two and actually go help those ex-employees starting that software and adapt and build on it.

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RIM's Heins: iOS is a downsized PC platform, BB 10 is true mobile computing

RIM CEO Thorsten Heins is on the hot seat, and as the days get closer and closer to the January 30th 2013 introduction of BlackBerry 10, his job has changed. From exhorting his teams inside RIM to get things done on time, Heins' job now is to be the evangelistic leader who spreads the word to the media, trying to make believers of those who have been let down by the Canadian manufacturer dating back to the half-baked software on the BlackBerry Storm 9530.

The BlackBerry Storm fiasco occurred under a fairly weak leadership that suffered from a lack of vision and couldn't embrace the touchscreen era that was thrust upon them by the launch of the OG Apple iPhone. But Heins believes that the role is now reversed and that the upcoming BlackBerry 10 is ahead of iOS. He calls iOS a downsized PC operating system compared to BlackBerry 10 which Heins describes as a "true mobile computing platform".

The RIM executive says that carriers are glad to see RIM being competitive again. He adds that you can't be a global leader in the industry without being strong in North America. Heins believes that BlackBerry will get support from U.S. carriers who are looking to offer more than just two strong platforms. He notes that Android is dominated by Samsung and sees the Korean company becoming the strongest player in the Windows Phone 8 market. Heins adds that other manufacturers can't compete with Samsung because of the latter's ability to source in-house, and even purchase displays from "corporate siblings". Carrier support will be one of the things Heins will be counting on to make BlackBerry 10 a success in the U.S. and Canada.

Earlier this year, Heins was criticized for aiming low with his comment that "we have a clear shot at being number three," behind iOS and Android. But Heins said that he had to be truthful. "Make no mistake, my aspiration is to win,” he said Thursday. "But I can’t sit here in front of investors and partners and say we will be number one." For those who have followed RIM for years, this is a refreshing change from the often outlandish statements made by the old regime, which had a problem with denial.

Where Heins has done his job is with getting everyone interested in seeing what BlackBerry10 is all about. There is anticipation for a BlackBerry device for the first time since the failed BlackBerry Storm launch. And for the first time in years, there is the sense that RIM is actually listening to the marketplace. Consider the specs for an device rumored to be RIM's first high-end BlackBerry 10 model, called the BlackBerry Aristo. Rumored to have  a 4.65 inch screen with 720 x 1280 resolution, a quad-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064, LTE connectivity, and 2GB of RAM, these are undeniably high-end specs that would match-up nicely with the current high-tech models now in the market.

source: GIGaom

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RIM CEO Heins: One minute sales pitch is all that is needed to snag BlackBerry 10 buyers

Now that a date has been given for the launch of BlackBerry 10, it is up to CEO Thorsten Heins to sell the last chance BlackBerry has to the public via the media. With this in mind, the boyish looking CEO paid a visit to the New York Times. Discussing RIM's all or nothing bet on BlackBerry 10, he says that he doesn't expect "things to get much worse,"  which could be a relief for long-suffering BlackBerry fans and RIM stockholders. As expected, there is nothing different in the hardware other than the lack of a home button and the inclusion of an LED light that alerts you to notifications. There will also be a model with a physical QWERTY.

Discussing the lack of a home button on the BlackBerry 10 handsets, Heins points out that Android and iOS devices need the button because users need to switch to different apps when performing different tasks. BlackBerry 10 consolidates part of the information that separate apps carry on other operating systems. For example, BlackBerry 10's messaging center can display emails, Facebook updates, LinkedIn messages, texts and tweets. This allows BB10 users to reply to a Facebook post with a quick thumb click, without opening the Facebook app. Additionally, going through one's contacts can show off recent email sent by that person along with news about the contact's company.

While it might sound complicated to some, Heins says that the whole OS can be explained with a sales pitch of less than a minute. Also at the meeting with the Times was RIM’s chief marketing officer, Frank Boulben, who made it clear that RIM is counting on getting business from Corporate IT departments like in the old days. Bouldben said that only half of companies are allowing employees to select their own smartphone models. Bouldben also sees the trend toward returning to the old days when corporate IT departments decided on which phones a company would offer to employees. He sees this happening as a way for companies to save money on tech support costs. And whether or not RIM's CMO is just not being honest with himself, it is apparent that RIM once again is counting on corporate business.

To allow employees of a company to use the same smartphone for work and play, BlackBerry 10 will allow companies to separate personal apps and content from the company's information. This way, if some one quits or is fired, the corporate content can be wiped leaving personal pictures, contacts, etc. Heins predicts that in three to five years, no one will carry laptops as all the computing power needed will be on a smartphone, preferably a BlackBerry.

source: NewYorkTimes

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