TechCrunch article

[Oniberry]

New RIM CEO: “I Don’t Think There Is A Drastic Change Needed” | TechCrunch

RIM’s new CEO Thorsten Heins has only been at the reigns for an evening, but he did a very “BlackBerry” job of presenting himself to the media this morning on his introductory media call.

It felt a lot like the media calls of yore, with Balsillie and Lazaridis at the helm. Especially when Heins referred to Apple as “the other fruit company,” noting the two companies shared strategy of vertical integration. Unfortunately, vertical integration of software and hardware is about all that these two fruits have in common.

Remember folks, Heins is coming off of a four-year stint at RIM. At the relatively young company, Heins worked under founder Mike Lazaridis and his partner in crime Jim Balsillie. That said, you can basically hear Lazaridis-style hubris in Heins’ comments.

When asked if there was anything Heins wanted to do in the past, but was held back from by his position, Heins confirms that he (along with the freshly removed prior leadership) doesn’t see much wrong with RIM.

“At the time, the company was growing but still acting as a startup,” said Heins. “But startup processes don’t scale. Every company goes through that phase. I had the opportunity to learn about RIM here. I don’t think that there is a drastic change needed. We are evolving our tactics and processes. I don’t feel that I was held back in any way to do what I needed to do.”

So, let’s just parse this out, shall we? Heins, as COO, was never held back in executing operational decisions or strategies. That means that anything he has wanted to do to help grow (and likely save) the brand, he could’ve already done. In other words, don’t expect a brand new BlackBerry or a brand new RIM.

But the new CEO had plenty more to talk about, namely that he has no plans to split the software and hardware businesses. So you can kiss dreams of an Android-powered BlackBerry out the window for now.

No, it’s BB 10 all the way, courtesy of QNX. When asked whether QNX is really “the thing,” Heins responded by saying that “QNX is not developing an OS. It’s an existing OS. It’s used already. It’s a multi-threaded OS. What that allows us to do is true multitasking. You can have many apps open at the same time and really run them real-time in parallel.”

He finished his shpeel by noting that QNX is “an extremely competitive OS today.” Of course, we have no way of judging that until RIM fiddles around with it, makes it usable on a smartphone, and then finally releases it.

Heins also mentioned that he’d be open to licensing BB 10 to other manufacturers, “if it makes sense strategically and tactically.” But again, other manufacturers would likely need to see consumer reaction to the OS before anything like that went down, which brings us back to RIM’s most pressing and important near-term goal: get BB 10 to market quickly.

[Blackberry_boffin]

I do not ever want to go to that site ever (to raise their traffic) if ever you are to quote them please paste what they spewed directly.

[christenmartin]

I always wonder about post promoting a website or organization especially on that is some what negative. Got me to look!

[moonfalle]

engadget's sister site with ties to time warner, who have a vested interest in the success of itunes

[Knightcrawler]

Heins is right....a drastic change isn't needed. RIM has been on the right path for a few months now, but dont expect an instant delivery. Their problem has been an outdated OS that can't do what the consumers are expecting them to do.....they've addressed that by using qnx and bb10, but they can only be judged on those changes AFTER they've been implemented.

That's like if someone is having a 16 hour operation done, and you start yelling at the doctor after 3 hours for not fixing the patient and continuing to operate on him....you wouldnt tell him to try another surgical method, would you? Let him complete the surgery, and if the patient doesn't get better, then you can yell at him all you want. But until he's done, hold off on the criticism.

Also, Techcrunch has an Apple hard-on, so what did you really expect from them .

[TBone4eva]

What's funny to me is, they act like moving to a whole new platform isn't drastic! Mike and Jim already started that drastic change 18 months ago. The problem was, with all the delays and credibility issues, there was no faith they could execute it properly. So, with the drastic change in full motion, all Hein has to do is concentrate on execution, making sure that PlayBook OS2 and BB10 get out on time with the features and innovation consumers want, then marketing the out of it so consumers can know about it and it can be successful. That's a lot of work and it would be kind of idiotic to suggest his comments mean that he intends to do everything the same way Mike and Jim would have.

[bbpandy]

I have less respect for TechCrunch then I do for BGR, so I don't care what they write.

I was so discusted with their drunken RIM interview/ambush @ CES that I will never go there again for news

[llllBULLSEYE]

Yeah man after they Bashed RIM at CES I was done with them.
Please I hope nobody clicks on the link and lets just quote their
reviews no links please.