New CEO for Research In Motion (RIM)
Canada's mobile giant Research In Motion (RIM) known for the BlackBerry resigned earlier this week after a year of lows for the company.
New CEO, Thorsten Heins, promises change and to restore RIM to its former glory. Plans for 2012 include the release of PlayBook OS 2.0 and phones running the BlackBerry 10 operating system towards the second half of the year. The first few months will not see any major product launches as RIM extends its efforts to market the existing BlackBerry 7 product line.
Mr Heins has worked with RIM for four years has promised to input new life into the company with more innovations and updates in the first half of 2012.
Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis (RIMs Co-founders) have experianced a few operatioal problems during 2011 hitting BlackBerry's once untarnished reputation. With their prized product range being linked to the London riots and suffering a major system failure in October limiting access to e-mail and instant messaging services, customers were left questioning their loyalty to the brand. Further setbacks included its uncompetitive tablet launch at the Mobile world Congres in Barcelona.
In its early days, the BlackBerry gained unprecedented popularity among business users for its e-mail applications. Through innovation and its strong competitive edge the device earned itself a stable market position and the nickname CrackBerry. In recent years its makers have struggled to compete with current market leaders Apple and Google with their operating systems iOS and Android, respectively.
