There’s a New Sheriff in Town! RIM’s Co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis Have Stepped Down
It’s been a long time coming and now it’s official. Research in Motion’s co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis have officially called it quits. Both are being replaced by Thorsten Heins whom previously held the title of COO. Though denied by Balsillie, this change in leadership lines up with the rumored demands of unhappy stockholders. As RIM restructures, their game plan will remain the same, with the f0cus being on releasing BlackBerry 10 and possibly licensing the new software in the future.
With a new skipper at the helm, but a similar strategy still in motion, is this a case of too little too late? We’d like to appeal to the BlackBerry owners and former BlackBerry fans out there and ask, does RIM have a chance? If you currently own a BlackBerry device, are you truly happy with it? If you’ve jumped ship to another platform, would you actually consider going back?
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Source: RIM
What I find annoying is that both these morons couldnt do the job that one CEO might be able to do, yet both stay on the board, and one heads some innovation department. Keep in mind, BlackBerry hasnt innovated much of anything other than secure push mail and a lot of server failures. BlackBerry only became a consumer item once Sidekick started to take a dive, and BBM caught on. Prior to that, it wasnt a consumer friendly device in the slightest. Currently, it looks archaic and outdated and honestly, once again consumer unfriendly now that Android and iOS hit the scene.
If BlackBerry wants to keep itself alienated and alienate the customers, past, present and future, they should keep going down the same road and keep the same people they currently have on the board. If they want to be innovative, first thing is first… Have handset manufactures license out to make BlackBerry (Motorola, Samsung, HTC, LG, etc). Next put some of the great BlackBerry things we come to love into other phones and OS systems, mainly BlackBerry Messenger. Allow any smartphone to communicate though RIM servers on BBM, and dont hack down the functionality, make it FULLY functional with a seamless experience on ALL platforms. Next offer BlackBerry the ability to utilize another OS apps, like allowing Android on Blackberry apps, this would include offering hardware that meets the standards Android currently meets.
Just a thought. I know not all of it is perfect by any means, but it gives a general idea of what would make me drop my Nexus and go back to BlackBerry full time.
Blackberry needs to do waht android is doing or its going to fail
I bailed on Blackberry in 2010. And by the way, Balsillie and Lazaridis didn’t leave the company, they just went to the board where they can pull the puppet master strings of their new puppet (Thorsten Heins). How do we know this? Heins sings the party line and is using the same failed strategy that the “clown twins” were using. Installing a puppet to do exactly the same things, isn’t going to work. Who’s going to license Blackberry OS? HP? Nope? HTC? Don’t think so. Samsung? Forget it. How funny would it be if APPLE bought RIM. LOL!!!! Doubtful, but I call BS on this whole “Step down/New CEO” nonsense. They just want to make it appear that the company is turning around so they can sell their stock options and get rich before it’s bought.