RIM Shuffles the Deck
- First Posted: Jan 24 2012 08:33 AM
- Updated: 2 days ago
A panel of experts offer their take on whether the BlackBerry-maker's fortunes will change under the direction of new CEO Thorsten Heins.
With the media (and market) buzzing after RIM announced its long-time co-CEOs were stepping down, The Mark reached out to tech and mobile experts, posing the question on everyone's mind: "Can the shakeup at the top of RIM change the tide for the faltering Canadian company?"
Darren Murph, Managing Editor, Engadget.
It's a new CEO, same as the old. As much as it pains me to say it, RIM's new leader is cut from the same cloth as outgoing execs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis. His introductory video gives me no indication at all that he gets why Wall Street is frowning. His remarks on the media call – particularly the bit about "no drastic changes" being planned – are further proof that he's totally fine with the status quo. My guess is that RIM isn't even going to try to rival Google and Apple in this space, and that it'll end up being completely comfortable in fourth or fifth place overall. I'm taking a North American viewpoint, but there are obviously millions of users in emerging markets that are more than happy to buy RIM's products and services.
Unlike Stephen Elop, who pushed tradition aside and made a painful decision to change the entire trajectory of Nokia, Heins strikes me as complacent. So far as I can tell, he's simply not interested in making products that outshine Android and iOS. The fact that he thinks PlayBook 2.0 is a huge success is proof of his disconnection with reality, and while BlackBerry 10 is sure to be an improvement over BB 7, it'll likely be too little, too late. Ecosystems are king. Apple and Google have had years to get people entrenched in their ecosystems, and every day that RIM waits on launching its new platform, another potential customer will become loyal to one of its rivals. And sadly, I see no sense of urgency in Heins to address precisely that.
Kevin Tofel, Mobile Editor and Senior Writer, GigaOM.com.
For now, it appears that RIM replaced two people with a strategy with one person who plans to continue that strategy. In other words, nothing that RIM's new CEO has said or presented indicates any change from the company's current path, short of more marketing.
It's possible that RIM does have an excellent strategy, although I believe it's quite late. A unified, modern platform between smartphones and tablets is positive, but, at this point, it would only bring one attribute of parity between RIM and both Google and Apple. In addition, these markets have moved quickly and RIM was caught unaware. Without a big change and sense of urgency, RIM faces a fate similar to Nokia from a year ago and risks irrelevance. Ironically, Nokia had an arguably solid strategy with Symbian, but, like RIM, couldn't execute it in time.
Devin DeCiantis, Finance, Strategy, and Policy Adviser.
It's certainly a welcomed sign of life from RIM. In recent years, the company's instinct for self-preservation seemed strangely non-existent, so at the very least it's nice to see a pulse. Not only did RIM let a massive first-mover advantage go to waste, its co-CEOs seemed either unwilling or unable to admit that it was even happening. Whether a hand-picked insider like Heins can foment a "turnaround" will depend entirely on the degree to which he is able to reinvent RIM's culture – shifting the goalposts away from battery life and toward feature-rich QNX-enabled devices that consumers (and investors) have been craving since Apple first sparked their imaginations nearly five years ago.
Early signs suggest that Heins understands the value of an integrated hardware + software solution to adequately compete in the highly competitive smartphone and tablet space. Unfortunately, he also seems to share the same lack of urgency as his predecessors. During his first conference call as CEO, he revealed that he doesn't "think there is some drastic change needed. We are evolving, we are evolving our tactics ... this is not a seismic change, this is scaling the company further.” Judging by the 8.5-per-cent plunge in RIM's share price in his first day at the helm, Mr. Market enthusiastically disagrees.
Jamie Lendino, Senior Mobile Analyst, PCMag.com.
The apathy surrounding RIM's announcement is palpable, probably because pundits have been suggesting that Lazaridis and Balsillie step down for many months now. It was the right move, but it's late.
The big question is what Thorsten Heins will do now that he has the reins: Will he attempt a comeback, or set up the company for licensing or even sale? Signs are pointing toward the former, if you go by what he's saying. But we won't know for sure unless we see action on the product side – especially phones running the long-awaited BlackBerry 10. Even the new PlayBook OS 2.0 is lacking in core features like BlackBerry Messenger and BlackBerry Enterprise Server compatibility.
Photo courtesy of Reuters.
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