New RIM CEO says ‘no drastic change needed’

Research In Motion have struggled to compete against Apple and Android devices and 2011 was a disaster for the Canadian organisation. The situation was that bad that Co CEO's Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis stepped down to hand the reins to a new leader. They needed a CEO with fresh ideas and a new, exciting direction. Thorsten Heins was the man the company selected to lead them into 2012. Many analysts are wondering if they made the wrong choice.

Heins spoke to analysts for 30 minutes about the upcoming transition and the new direction. He said “I don't think that there is some drastic change needed. We are evolving … but this is not a seismic change.” He doesn't seem to think that a new direction, or strategic change is needed. Analysts were less than impressed.

This was reflected on the market. Rim fell 9.11% to $15.60 (CND) on the Toronto Stock Exchange. On Nasdaq they fell $1.44 to $15.56, which was a 8.47% drop. There is no faith in the CEO maintaining the same strategy, which failed so miserably in 2011.

Heins added that there was no interest in adopting Android, instead directing the conversation to Blackberry 10 OS. This is an unproven operating system that faces severe challenges from Google Android and Apple's IOS.

Writer Ed Hansberry feels that RIM have undermined their 10 OS “Secondly, I believe RIM has pulled the rug out from under prospective BlackBerry 10 buyers by supporting Android apps. If you are a software developer and you can support three platforms by writing for two, why in the world would you spend the time and effort to learn a third platform and develop a native app for it? Sure, RIM will make sure that some native apps are written, but I'd be surprised if a significant number would be.

That means future BlackBerry 10 handset owners will largely be running Android apps. How does that differentiate BlackBerry from Android? Where is the competitive advantage?”

Kitguru says: ‘No Change needed'. We thought they had lost over £40 billion in 4 years. What does it take to warrant a dramatic shift in policy for RIM?

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