Mobile and Wireless: RIM CEO: Where BlackBerry Went Wrong, How It Can Be Saved

 
 
By Michelle Maisto  |  Posted 2012-08-24 Email Print this article Print
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
NEW YORK—Research in Motion CEO Thorsten Heins is very tall, and on a recent August day seemed also tired, possibly sick and most definitely hungry, as eWEEK sat between him and a very delayed delivered lunch. But Heins and other high-level RIM employees have been tirelessly engaging with the press, working to keep the BlackBerry brand and trickled details of the upcoming BlackBerry 10 platform and smartphones in the news—it has been suggested that RIM could fold before it reaches BB10's now twice-delayed launch date—so he ignored his waiting sandwich and patiently answered our questions about where RIM went wrong and what it's now doing right, whether the Ontario-based company is open to licensing BlackBerry 10 to other smartphone makers, if it would sell off a portion of its company, if RIM has addressed the lousiness of past BlackBerry touchscreens and what exactly we can hope for in 2013. The BlackBerry experience was once so addictive it earned the smartphones a special nickname. Can RIM get us hooked again?
 
 
 
  • 1 of 11

On Where RIM Went Wrong

"When 'bring your own device' started—the consumerization of enterprise—it made us lose some [market share]. When the consumer hit the enterprise with BYOB ... there was the thought, 'They're going to go back to corporate liable, it's not secure enough.'"
On Where RIM Went Wrong
 
 
 
 
 
Michelle Maisto has been covering the enterprise mobility space for a decade, beginning with Knowledge Management, Field Force Automation and eCRM, and most recently as the editor-in-chief of Mobile Enterprise magazine. She earned an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University, and in her spare time obsesses about food. Her first book, The Gastronomy of Marriage, if forthcoming from Random House in September 2009.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Manage your Newsletters: Login   Register My Newsletters























 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Rocket Fuel