Thorsten Heins, RIM President and CEO presenting significant plans to RIM board in the next two weeks

Posted by Ryan on Jan 28, 2012 in Apps | 0 comments

During the first few days of Thorsten Heins taking on the position of RIM’s President and Chief Executive Officer, there were a few quotes pulled from his interviews. One in particular struck a chord with many in the market and while Thorsten later went on to clarify what he meant, that wasn’t the closing of the questioning. In speaking to Reuters, Heins elaborated further on the matter and took the time to note an upcoming meeting he has planned with RIM’s board:

"I will have time with the board in two weeks to present my ideas and changes," Heins said.

Heins hasn’t been blind to the situation at RIM, knowing full well that their U.S. market share has rapidly been slipping, and while they’re still making plenty of headway in emerging markets, it’s not enough. In the past, RIM has relied heavy on their relationships with carriers to create promotions and that once again looks to be the game plan. Right now, only 20 percent of U.S. BlackBerry users are making use of newer devices while the rest remain on the previous generations hardware – some even two-generations behind. 

When BlackBerry 7 was released, RIM began working with carriers in the U.S. in an effort to get newer devices into people’s hands. The problem is — no one seems to have noticed. Some insight offered by Heins shows the ramp up for that hasn’t even really begun, and while he wouldn’t divulge the full details, it was noted:

"All the plans are ready. The carrier agreements are all ready. Now we have to get off the starting grid. Now we need to execute that upgrade program," Heins said.

The information about carriers is rather interesting and really plays a bigger role here. It’s been suggested in the past that some carriers may have been holding back on RIM products due to their lack of LTE implementation – something that RIM is also addressing starting with the BlackBerry PlayBook. Come Spring, RIM has plans to launch an LTE equipped BlackBerry PlayBook that will serve as their first foray into LTE, with BlackBerry 10 devices also getting LTE treatment later on. In the meantime, we’ll have to see what comes about — one thing seems certain though, we’ll be seeing more BlackBerry promotions through carriers soon.

Source: Reuters

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Get ready for Super Bowl XLVI with BlackBerry apps, games, wallpaper and themes

Posted by Ryan on Jan 27, 2012 in Apps | 0 comments

Football fanatics! You know what’s on next weekend- Super Bowl XLVI (that’s 46 for you non-roman numeral reading folk)! By now, you should have made your plans already. Hopefully you’ve made friends with the guy at work with the 65 inch TV at home. Or maybe you’re the one with a big TV who is suddenly popular. It’s a day jam-packed with tailgate parties, unhealthy food eating, crazy commercials and an entertaining half time show. Okay, there’s a hopefully amazing football game in there, as well. Before you plaster on the face paint, set up your BlackBerry smartphone and PlayBook for game day. Regardless if you’re rooting for the New England Patriots or New York Giants, we’ve got you covered. After the jump you can get into the game with quick access to apps, themes and wallpapers.

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RIM’s New CEO Addresses CrackBerry Nation “Give us feedback; help us always get better!”

Posted by Ryan on Jan 27, 2012 in Apps | 0 comments

Part V and Conclusion of CrackBerry’s Interview with RIM’s New CEO

As we concluded our first Q&A with RIM’s new CEO, I quit with the questions and opened things up for Thorsten Heins to address CrackBerry Nation directly. For all our longtime members, readers and BlackBerry fans around the world, this is for you… an address to CrackBerry Nation, from the CEO of Research In Motion himself:

First, I want you to be our #1 Fan Club, that’s for sure. Second, give us feedback. I want you to be with us, I want you to help us to always get better, and give us credit for what our people are doing. Understand how much and how hard the people here are working and I think you’re doing a good job of this. I’m ready to stay in touch with you Kevin and your base. We will make this a journey together, and it’s going to be fun. 

Honestly, it’s hard for me not to get emotional reading those words. When CrackBerry.com went live in February 2007, I really didn’t know what the future would hold for us. All I knew was that I was hopeful and excited for the future of BlackBerry and CrackBerry. As Resesarch In Motion enters a new era, I’m having the same feelings again as I did five years ago. Hopeful and excited. Let’s Rock & Roll This CrackBerry Nation!!

Read CrackBerry’s 1st Interview with RIM’s CEO

• Part I: Let’s Rock & Roll This!
• Part II: There is a LOT of Change
• Part III: Licensing and Cross Platform BBM
• Part IV: Delivering Products on Time
• Part V: RIM’s new CEO Addresses CrackBerry Nation

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Updated BlackBerry 2012 Roadmap

Posted by Ryan on Jan 27, 2012 in Apps | 0 comments

Since we first posted our 2012 BBX BlackBerry Preview some new info has come to light that changes things up a bit. For the most part we knew what was coming device-wise but our timeline was a bit off. Now some other devices have come into play and some dates have been shuffled around a bit. We can expect to see some new BlackBerry 7 devices in the Curve line, a new updated BlackBerry PlayBook as well as at least one BlackBerry 10 (oh yeah, RIM changed the name of BBX to BlackBerry 10 too) phone hit before the end of 2012. Keep reading and we’ll take a look at what to expect in the coming months.

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BBGeekcast: January 27th, 2012 – Episode 171

Posted by Ryan on Jan 27, 2012 in Apps | 0 comments

RIM has a new CEO, and he’s talking up a storm. This calls for a podcast. Today I’m talking Thorsten Heins and his words upon ascending to the company’s top position. Plus, plenty more in the world of BlackBerry.

So click on over here to hear the BBGeekcast (9 min, 2 sec)

And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast so you won’t miss future episodes!

You can also subscribe to the BBGeekcast in iTunes.

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“We Were Not Disciplined Enough” RIM’s new CEO explains how they will deliver products to market on time

Posted by Ryan on Jan 27, 2012 in Apps | 0 comments

Part IV of CrackBerry’s Interview with RIM’s New CEO

Let’s face it. Delivering products to market on time has never been one of Research In Motion’s strong points. When we asked CrackBerry readers for questions to ask RIM’s Nnw CEO, an overwhelming number of you wanted to know exactly how will RIM change their ways to become a company that can deliver products to the market on time.

RIM’s Thorsten Heins acknowledged that the company was not disciplined enough in the past, spending too much time tweaking products already set for production. Heins put the blame solely on the management structure and was clear "that has nothing to do with our people, they have worked day and night and are totally enthusiastic." Heins intends to keep the start-up mentality and innovation coming, but in a more scalable way, "by putting small teams together, assigning them dedicated tasks, making them accountable, and giving them funds to fulfill their tasks rather than being distributed over 3-4 programs. That happened in the past, and that led to programs getting omitted frankly."

On the people front of the transition from BlackBerry OS to QNX, Heins says RIM "figured out pretty fast that those [QNX] resources are not sufficient enough", so the company has been working to realign their Waterloo-based BlackBerry OS coders over to the new platform. It’s definitely a challenge for those programmers who have worked on one platform to learn something new and Heins noted that he is really happy to see people taking it on. "We have now rearranged all the resources properly, all the leadership is clear, all the team’s tasks are clear, and people work together, so we have achieved a different level of efficiency now in that part of the platform development."

I’m hoping this new structure works for RIM. I’m jonesing for a BlackBerry 10 phone! You can listen to the audio above and read the full Q&A below for more details. 

Interview Part IV – Delivering Products on Time

Kevin: What are some of the specific changes to make sure that RIM delivers on time? Is there reorganization, what else is there?

Thorsten: There is a lot of change that has happened and that will happen. We can talk about this for probably an hour in itself, but let me give you in a nutshell. First is resource planning. What are my [staff's] skills sets, where do I have it and how many people, the names of the people, and then you assign those people to dedicated teams.

In start-ups everybody does everything. Start-up mode is great because you need speed and just need to get stuff done. That doesn’t scale, that’s the problem with it. So the way you keep start-up mode is you put small teams together, assign them dedicated tasks, make them accountable, and give them funds to fulfill their tasks rather than being distributed over 3-4 programs. That happened in the past, and that led to programs getting omitted frankly.

Secondly, there is some discipline to the process that once the product is defined, [keep it] defined and go out and build it. Our approach was that we would have this kind of idea for a product and we continuously changed the product for the better, not the worse, but we constantly disturbed the development process in turn. That kind of wears people out because they just worked on something and then we come in and say "hey you know what we want this just a little bit tweaked." That’s what I mean with processes. It has nothing to do with lack of innovation. We will innovate. I want a whole area of people that have enough freedom and room and money to innovate. When they’re ready and say, "you know this is really cool", then we put this into product and once it’s product it doesn’t change anymore.

Kevin: Right, lock it down and get it out.

Thorsten: Yeah and we were not disciplined enough. Again, this has nothing to do with our people, they have worked day and night and are totally enthusiastic. We’ve put them really through their paces with BlackBerry 6, 7, and the same thing again with the PlayBook and BlackBerry 10. I just want to make really clear it’s not their fault, it’s just the management structure we need to put in place and it’s what we have been doing and what we’ll continue to be doing.

Kevin: Speaking on people, obviously again big platform change from BlackBerry OS to BlackBerry 10, which involves language changes at the coding level, are you finding your people are migrating from the one side to the other? Is it working as smoothly and fast as it needs to happen?

Thorsten: That’s a real good point, because actually that was one of the big changes that nobody talked about that happened and is still happening. We started with a core of QNX around the new OS and the new platforms. We pretty fast figured out that those resources aren’t sufficient enough and we have our BlackBerry resources here in Waterloo as well. So we migrated a lot of R&D development from BBOS OS as we call it internally over to the QNX OS. 

I’m really happy to see people taking it on actually, we did this prior to the Holidays, and we have now rearranged all the resources properly, all the leadership is clear, all the team’s tasks are clear, people work together, so we have achieved a different level of efficiency now in that part of the platform development. 

Keep it locked to CrackBerry… more from RIM’s new CEO will be hitting the blogs soon!

CrackBerry’s 1st Interview with RIM’s CEO

• Part I: Let’s Rock & Roll This!
• Part II: There is a LOT of Change
• Part III: Licensing and Cross Platform BBM
• Part IV: Reorganization and Delivering on Time
• Part V:

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Official OS 6.0.0.723 For The BlackBerry Bold 9700 From SK Telecom

Posted by Ryan on Jan 27, 2012 in Apps | 0 comments

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