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BlackBerry's rebirth: how a fallen smartphone giant plans to remake itself
BlackBerry has stopped bleeding -- officially, at least. In a memo leaked to Reuters, CEO John Chen tells staff that three years of job cuts are over, and that the former mobile legend can start building itself back up rather than salvaging what's left of its smartphone empire. But how did it get to this point? And more importantly, how does it plan to bounce back in an era when even many of its corporate customers have moved on to Android and iOS? As you'll see in our gallery below, BlackBerry is only getting to this point after some grave errors and painful decisions -- but it at last appears to have a strategy that, while imperfect, at least acknowledges a difficult reality. [Lead image credit: AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim]
Inside look at BlackBerry reveals failed 'SMS 2.0' push, qualms over Z10 launch
We're familiar with much of BlackBerry's history, but there are a few unanswered questions: why did Jim Balsillie resign his board position, for example? And why did the Z10 launch ahead of Q10, to disastrous results? Thankfully, The Globe and Mail has addressed some of these mysteries through a detailed exposé. We now know that Balsillie left the board after BlackBerry axed an "SMS 2.0" plan that would have replaced carriers' text services with BlackBerry Messenger. Thorsten Heins wanted the company to remain focused on hardware, according to the newspaper. As for the Z10? Heins reportedly prioritized the all-touch phone over the objections of board members like Mike Lazaridis, who saw the Q10's keyboard as necessary for standing out in a crowded market. There's even more to the story than these two revelations, so you'll want to visit the source link if you're wondering just how BlackBerry ended up in such dire straits.
Jim Balsillie sells his 5.1 percent stake in BlackBerry
Jim Balsillie, the former co-CEO of Research in Motion (now known as BlackBerry), has been until recently the third-largest shareholder in the company with 5.1 percent ownership. According to Financial Post, however, he's cut his stake in BlackBerry altogether, now reporting a grand total of zero shares. Balsillie stepped down as co-CEO in January and resigned from the board in March; this next big move away from the company will likely lead to speculation that his interest or faith in BlackBerry's future is waning, though his successor certainly would beg to differ.
RIM: A brief history from Budgie to BlackBerry 10
Listen to much of the chatter about Research in Motion today and you'll hear the launch of BlackBerry 10 described in almost apocalyptic terms. All-or-nothing. Live-or-die. Make-or-break. There's some truth to the extreme language, but BlackBerry 10 is really just the latest in a series of transformational moments for a company that has frequently had to adapt to survive. In that sense, the appreciation for crises and opportunities is almost as natural as breathing for RIM. What's less certain is whether or not the company in 2013 is as capable of wholesale shifts in strategy as it was for much of its not quite 30-year history. Read on to see why reform is possible, but won't be quite so easy.
Reuters: RIM could open up BlackBerry network to others, join up with Ballmer
The Q1 earnings news from RIM of layoffs and a delay in its next generation of handsets has unsurprisingly led to some rumors from the usual "people familiar with the situation," according to Reuters. The options reportedly being considered by the board probably also won't shock you, like the possibility of following former co-CEO Jim Balsillie's plan to open up its network to others and / or or sell it outright. An alternative path comes from Microsoft and Steve Ballmer, who has reportedly been putting a full court press on the folks in Waterloo to pull a Nokia and bring their arms to the Windows OS camp. That choice is reportedly less attractive because it would mean giving up technology independence, but we'll see how long that feeling lasts if future earnings projections remain similarly dismal.
Former RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie's very different rescue plan revealed
Sources close to former RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie have revealed his plans to save the company before he was shown the door, a plan that didn't involve handsets. He'd entered into talks with AT&T, Verizon and several European carriers to offer them use of the company's BlackBerry-exclusive network to provide limited data plans to featurephone users that included social networking and BBM -- with the aim of reducing the cellphone operators data burden and coaxing users to upgrade to smartphones. The company was working on Mobile Fusion; software that allowed enterprise and government users on iOS and Android devices to join RIM's system, which reportedly earns the company $1 billion per quarter. However, while talks progressed, company execs grew nervous and ousted him in favor of Thorsten Heins with a mandate to focus on BB10 and new devices rather than turning RIM into a service company. However, given that it's still losing money on its handset business, Heins has reopened the door to Balsillie's plan. It's just a shame Balsillie himself is keeping quiet, as we'd love to hear his thoughts in an executive-level edition of How Would you Change.
RIM announces Q4 2012 earnings, Jim Balsillie resigns from board, company plans to refocus on enterprise
We've already seen a bit of big news slip out ahead of RIM's earnings announcement, and the company's now dropped another bombshell itself. Former co-CEO Jim Balsillie has resigned from his position on the company's board of directors. In a statement, Balsillie said simply: "As I complete my retirement from RIM, I'm grateful for this remarkable experience and for the opportunity to have worked with outstanding professionals who helped turn a Canadian idea into a global success." RIM also confirmed that CTO David Yach would be retiring as well, and that COO Jim Rowan has "decided to pursue other interests," but it hasn't offered any indication of a broader shakeup beyond those three departures. As for the fourth quarter earnings, RIM is reporting revenue of $4.2 billion, down 19 percent from the third quarter, and a GAAP net loss of $125 million. Total BlackBerry shipments for the quarter dipped 21 percent to 11.1 million units, while PlayBook shipments totaled 500,000, which is actually a new high water mark for the tablet (1.3 million were shipped during the fiscal year). This is also notably the company's first quarterly earnings under the leadership of new CEO Thorsten Heins, who admits that the RIM faces some "significant" business challenges over the "next several quarters," and says that he's "taking the necessary steps to address them." That includes "increased management accountability and process discipline," as well as what he describes as a "comprehensive review of strategic opportunities including partnerships and joint ventures, licensing, and other ways to leverage RIM's assets and maximize value for our stakeholders." On the company's earnings call, Heins further added that he intends to refocus on the company's enterprise business, and not try to be "all things to all people." He went on to offer an even more frank assessment of RIM's current state than he had earlier, stating that these are "difficult times" and that there's "no guarantee of success," while also adding that he's open to exploring "all opportunities." That includes the possibility of licensing BB10 which, incidentally, will apparently address the company's current LTE deficit "later this year." Asked on the call whether he would consider getting out of the hardware business altogether, Heins says that he prefers an "integrated" approach, but left the door open a little to that being done through partnerships instead of completely in-house -- he also repeatedly noted that he wants RIM devices to be high-end, "aspirational" products. In short: the company's focus now is on BB10 and enterprise, but it's seemingly leaving just about everything on the table.
RIM CEO Thorsten Heins clarifies comments on change, rejects Android speculation
Freshly anointed RIM CEO Thorsten Heins sat down with Crackberry this week to discuss his vision for the future of BlackBerry, his thoughts on Android and, most strikingly, his recent comments about maintaining the status quo. Shortly after his appointment, Heins issued a video address in which he implicitly claimed that RIM doesn't need an overhaul. "If we continue doing well what we're doing, I see no problems with us being in the top three players worldwide in the next years in wireless," the exec said. At the time, we and many other observers read this as a sign that the Heins era would look a lot like the Balsillie-Lazaridis era, but according to the new CEO, that's not the case. "I was talking about drastic or seismic changes," he clarified. "What I was trying to address was that there was some suggestion that RIM should be split up or should even be sold. My true belief is that RIM has the strength and the assets that we can really succeed in this market." Heins went on to claim that there's already "a lot of change" going on at the company -- citing the company's adoption of QNX as a prime example -- and that there's "no standstill at any moment here at RIM."During the same sitdown, Heins also reiterated his belief that RIM shouldn't outsource its software needs to Android, because BlackBerry, in his view, is a hallmark of differentiation. "Just take a look where the Android OEMs are," Heins said. "Take a look at their recent announcements and what you will immediately see is there is just no room for differentiation because they are all the same." The exec acknowledged that RIM may be taking the road less traveled, but seemed confident in its ability to rise to the challenge -- even if there are some bumps along the way. "This is not baking cookies," Heins elaborated. "This is building high tech products. From time to time your aspirations and your development timelines hit some bumps in the road that were not foreseen."
RIM stock falls eight percent following CEO transition
We rarely meddle with stock news around these parts, but this was a pretty significant piece of meat to chew on. After Research in Motion introduced Thorsten Heins as the new CEO last night and again in a conference call this morning, the company's stock price tumbled a whopping 8.47 percent. When it comes to what kind of difference the transition will make for the struggling company, we haven't had a high amount of confidence; while we hope for the best and want to see RIM turn things around, the falling stock appears to indicate that we're not alone in expressing concerns about this morning's events. Here's some food for thought: when rumors that Samsung was interested in purchasing RIM flooded the internet, the latter company's stocks spiked by nearly ten percent.
RIM's Thorsten Heins formally introduced: liveblogging the media call
If you missed it, RIM attempted to interrupt the Giants vs. 49ers matchup last night by dropping a wee bit of news: it's co-CEOs are gone, and taking the solo CEO badge is former COO Thorsten Heins. The new head honcho will be formally introduced in a media call slated to begin at 8:00AM ET on January 23rd, 2012, and we'll be liveblogging every moment of it for those who can't tune in. We've already learned a fair amount about the gentleman's plans courtesy of an introductory video, but we'll be listening in for any hints as to future QNX plans, PlayBook ambitions or BlackBerry wizardry. Join us after the break for the play-by-play! January 23, 2012 8:00 AM EST
Editorial: RIM's new CEO isn't the shakeup it needed
For a brief moment, I had hopes that RIM had made a move that would unseat it from the funk it's been sitting in for years. And then I watched the introductory video of newly-appointed CEO Thorsten Heins. Anyone who assumes that a simple CEO swap is the answer to all of RIM's issues is woefully misinformed, or worse, just blinded by false hope. Sure, removing Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis -- both of which have been rightly criticized for not responding to market pressures quickly enough -- is a start, but it's not like they're gone. In fact, the two are still situated at a pretty fancy table within Research in Motion's organizational chart. RIM, we've been here before RIM seems to be as lost as my BlackBerry Dear RIM, I'm your customer and I don't wear a suitHave a listen at this: Mike is hanging around as the Vice Chair of RIM's Board and Chair of the Board's new Innovation Committee. You heard right -- the guy who has outrightly failed to innovate at anything in the past handful of years is now championing an innovation committee. Sounds right up his alley, no? Jim's staying put as an outright director, and if you think anyone at RIM is going to brush aside the input of the founders, you're wrong. Jim and Mike may have new titles, but they're still here, and I have no reason to believe that they'll act radically different going forward than they have in the past. Oh, and about Thorsten Heins? Let's go there.
RIM's Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis are out, new CEO Thorsten Heins may license BlackBerry 10
After months upon months of investor backlash, RIM's making some significant changes. And by "significant," we mean the co-chief executives (and founders) are out. As of tomorrow, both Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis will be stepping away from the top posts, enabling "a little-known company insider" to take over, according to The Wall Street Journal. Purportedly, this is all part of "a board and management shuffle," with COO Thorsten Heins (seen above) to step into what many expect to be an impossible role to thrive in. The Globe and Mail asserts that he'll be immediately seeking a Chief Marketing Officer to polish up the company's severely damaged brand, and he "will not rule out licensing RIM's new BlackBerry 10 operating system to other handset manufacturers." In an interview with the outlet, he stated that he'll be executing "flawlessly" and with vigor -- not unexpected, but still, bold words.Startlingly, Heins also asserted that he's "confident" in the existing lineup of BlackBerry handsets and the software update recently made available for the PlayBook; call us crazy, but he'd be wise to just spout out reality and make clear that RIM's existing lineup is nowhere near competitive in the grand scheme of things. As for Mike and Jim? The former will become "vice-chair of the board with special duties to examine innovation," with the latter becoming a traditional director. In an interesting move, outgoing co-CEO Lazaridis stated the following: "I think it's that unwillingness to sacrifice our long-term value for short-term gain. That's why we didn't choose Android. That's why we decided to build the future on QNX." So wait, RIM had the chance to choose Android... and didn't? No time like the present to reach back and shake things up, Mr. Heins.Update: Catch an introduction video to the new CEO just after the break!
Financial Post report suggests RIM's Balsillie and Lazaridis may be out as chairmen of the board
Nothing is official just yet, but Canada's Financial Post is reporting that RIM co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis may soon be relinquishing their positions as co-chairmen of the company's board. According to the paper's sources, RIM board member and former TSX Group head Barbara Stymeist is the leading candidate to replace the duo. Notably, the report makes no suggestion that there would be any change to Balsillie and Lazaridis' status as co-CEOs, as some have also been pushing for, although it would still be a fairly big change for the company. As the paper notes, Balsillie and Lazaridis have long resisted previous attempts to divide the Chairmen and CEO roles and, if appointed, Stymeist would be the company's first ever independent chair.
RIM reports Q3 2011 earnings: $5.2b revenue, $265m net income and 14.1 million handsets shipped
News out of Waterloo isn't all bad today, as Research in Motion has revealed its financial results for the third quarter of 2011. While the company previously had to scale back its earlier earnings projections of $5.6 billion in the quarter, it's apparent the firm came close to meeting that mark. After close of the markets today, RIM reported $5.2 billion in revenue with $265 million in net income and 14.1 million handsets shipped. The company was only able to eke out 150,000 PlayBook tablets during this time frame, however, which no doubt contributed to these reduced numbers. Unfortunately, the market hasn't taken so kindly to the revelation, as RIM's stock has fallen seven-percent in after hours trading. In a small bit of positive news, the firm reports that its subscriber count is up 35-percent year-over-year, which now totals 75 million subscribers. Looking forward, the company expects to bring in between $4.6 and $4.9 billion in revenue for the next quarter, where it hopes to ship between 11 and 12 million units. Co-CEO Jim Balsillie referred to the last few quarters as among the most trying in the company's history, and promised to re-evaluate RIM's product portfolio, R&D strategy and to "leave no stone unturned" as it seeks to regain prominence in the smartphone world. Meanwhile, co-CEO Mike Lazaridis reaffirmed the commitment to the PlayBook OS 2.0, which remains on track for a February launch. As for the QNX-based BlackBerry 10 smartphones that we've been looking forward to, Lazaridis said to not expect anything until late 2012. Apparently, its availability will be hampered by a critical chipset supply that's not expected to become available until mid-next year. In other words, unless consumers develop a love for BlackBerry 7 OS real quick, 2012 may sadly be another ugly year for the folks in Waterloo.
BlackBerry Tag: touch-to-share for... multimedia?
Research in Motion's Jim Balsillie's currently in Dubai, gassing about how amazing the latest update to BlackBerry 7 OS will be -- probably between trips to the beach. When it arrives, those crackberries equipped with NFC (Bold 9900 / 9930 and Curve 9350 / 9360 / 9370) will get BlackBerry Tag. You'll be able to tap two phones together to share contact details, multimedia content or add new friends to your BBM. RIM is planning to open up the relevant APIs so developers can use the facility in any number of interesting ways, like bringing touch-to-share to the system. Considering the speed constraints of NFC, it's difficult to believe that big files like images could be carried by the technology -- it's more likely that NFC will pair the devices and then send your files down a larger pipe, like Bluetooth. There's an enigmatic press release after the break, and hopefully the company will explain how this works in a little more detail before the update arrives.
RIM's Q2 earnings report: $329 million in net income, not enough to fend off critics
The first quarterly earnings report post-Wake Up Call have just been published for Canada's own Research in Motion, and while the cash is still flowing, investors and analysts alike aren't feeling too rosy about the future. Despite Q2 revenue of $4.2 billion and a GAAP net income of $329 million, RIM's stock plummeted nine percent following the news. Why? That reality was at the lowest end of estimates, and as we've seen, it takes a blowout quarter to please the folks on Wall Street. Nevertheless, the company's touting a subscriber base that ballooned 40 percent year-over-year (surpassing 70m total), and while it's quick to trumpet the rollout of seven new smartphones, not a one of them managed to astound the QNX-desiring critics. The report also notes that 10.6 million handsets were moved in the quarter, around $780 million was invested as "part of a consortium of companies that successfully bid to acquire intellectual property assets from Nortel," and it's forecasting that BlackBerry smartphone shipments in Q3 will grow between 27 percent and 37 percent compared to Q2. Sadly, the company only "shipped" 200,000 PlayBook tablets, with the prevailing thought being that it actually sold far fewer. Moreover, nary a forecast was given for future PlayBook sales.As for thoughts from the head honcho(s)? Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO, stated that "overall unit shipments in the quarter were slightly below our forecast due to lower than expected demand for older models," further noting that his firm will "continue to build on the success of the BlackBerry 7 launch to drive the business as we focus our development efforts on delivering the next generation, QNX-based mobile platform next year." Next year is a long, long way away, though, and there's no doubt whatsoever what kind of competition will be in place by the time 2012 rolls around. We'll be hopping on the analyst call here in a few, and you can look beyond the break for any notable mentions.
RIM: PlayBook email client 'very very soon,' 3G model this summer
Lately, anything goes when a RIM CEO gets in front of the media. Fortunately, it was the other CEO, Jim Balsillie, talking to Bloomberg this time delivering a calm, cool rebuttal to all the lukewarm PlayBook reviews. His consumer defense is largely based upon the PlayBook's ability to receive software updates (we received three in the brief time we had our review unit) throughout its lifetime. Jim, as you can imagine, preferred keeping the conversation focused on how the PlayBook is fully functional today when used in combination with a BlackBerry handset in business environments. Balsillie did seem to hint that the consumer experience could improve relatively quickly, saying, "We'll have an over the air email client to announce very very soon. We have BlackBerry World -- our user conference -- in a couple weeks. Stay tuned for all capabilities we have coming out on this stuff." See the man dance on the hotseat right after the break. Update: In a second interview, this time with the Wall Street Journal, Balsillie says that the standalone email client is scheduled for an OTA release within the next 60 days.
RIM BlackBerry 4G PlayBook tablet now in delicious LTE and HSPA+ flavors (updated)
Count 'em, because RIM has now announced four varieties of its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. As of today, we've got the PlayBook with WiFi + LTE and WiFi + HSPA+ models joining the previously announced PlayBook with WiFi and PlayBook with WiFi + WiMax. As such, there's a pretty good chance that your carrier will have a 7-inch dual-core PlayBook with the QNX-based BlackBerry Tablet OS on offer at some point in the future, no matter how it chooses to define "4G." Unfortunately, RIM says that its LTE and HSPA+ models won't be coming until the second half of 2011. Update: RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie was particularly chatty after the announcement of the new 4G PlayBook models. The takeaway is that RIM expects to price that BlackBerry tablet at less than $500 (WiFi-only model, presumably) -- much less with any carrier subsidies. He's also expecting to followup the Sprint deal in the US with similar signings of AT&T and Verizon Wireless. "All of our carrier partners want [PlayBook]," said Balsillie, referencing the 580 carrier partners that RIM enjoys in 165 countries. While Balsillie refused to comment on the PlayBook's rumored ability to run Android apps, he did confirm that RIM's new tablet was on track for a March or April release.
RIM's Jim Balsillie says 'you don't need an app for the web,' rejects Apple's appification of the internet
It's no secret that RIM doesn't exactly agree with Steve Jobs' characterization of the company's prospects, and Jim Balsillie has some more to say on the Apple vs. RIM front, particularly where it comes to apps. It's hard to imagine RIM catching up with Apple's 300,000+ apps, but Jim doesn't think that's the point: "We believe that you can bring the mobile to the Web but you don't need to go through some kind of control point of an SDK, and that's the core part of our message." The statement was made at the Web 2.0 Summit a couple days ago, and on further prompting Jim made it clear he rejects Apple's "appification" of the web. RIM's strategy is obviously riding on highly portable Adobe AIR apps and Flash support in the browser (much like Microsoft's Silverlight app strategy for Windows Phone 7), and we look forward to seeing just how well that playbook plays out in the PlayBook. Of course, "there's not an app for that, but our browser is fully capable of performing that functionality" isn't quite so catchy...
BlackBerry PlayBook first hands-on! (video)
RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie actually declined to show off the his company's tablet today on the Web 2.0 Summit stage, but in private he was more than kind, treating us to a nice long glimpse at the BlackBerry PlayBook in a quaint hotel hallway. We only got to heft the one-pound slate for a few seconds, but we got the basic feel of the device in the hand -- warm to the touch, solid if a little plasticky, with a responsive glass touchscreen up top and a bottom that's mildly rubberized. Balsillie didn't bother to locate the "module cavity" for us, but he did try to explain where those 5300mAh lithium ion cells might hide -- we suspect the CEO exaggerated only slightly when he told us "it's all battery and glass inside." He then wrenched the device forcefully from our unprepared hands (at least that's how we like to think it went down) and proceeded to let us film a brief film showing off the QNX and Air-based OS juggling a spreadsheet, photo gallery and some beautiful underwater footage all at the same time. Hit the break for that hastily-shot video.
