BlackBerry 10 Devices To Be Released In January; RIM Optimistic About Success

Research In Motion (RIM) CEO, Mr. Thornsten Heins, who was visiting London, recently continues to be optimistic about the company after what he saw there. As a guest at a lot of summits and meetings and even the Olympic games on the invitation of British Prime Minister, David Cameron, Mr. Heins claims that a lot of the people he met were using a Blackberry, which is quite impressive according to him for a company that has recently been labeled as being in a “death spiral”.

The CEO has been optimistic about the company since quite a while and he has some figures to support his optimism. He is not wrong in the fact that the Blackberry has sold 45 million devices but he chooses to ignore the fact that Blackberry sales are merely 1/8th of the Android sales. In addition, the company’s share which was $140 at its best is now a meager $7.25. Moreover, the company doesn’t seem willing to change its OS the way Nokia did. Considering the trouble it was in, Nokia chose to develop devices running Windows Phone OS but RIM continues to develop generation after generation of its own OS as it continues to cut jobs; it has 11,000 employees now.

However, there are some salvaging aspects for the company. For starters, with 80 million devices out there, it cannot be a sheer failure and its signature service, the Blackberry Messenger (BBM), continues to impress. Mr. Heins had recently announced that the next generation of devices, the ones running Blackberry 10 OS will be out in January. He is also very optimistic about the next generation OS saying that the product is nearly ready and it is undergoing heavy testing. According to him, developers are working round the clock and he personally uses a device running it that has never reset on him.

To its credit, the Blackberry is quite a secure device and it has its set of loyal followers across the globe. RIM should target these customers with its new OS that the CEO claims comes with a “once in a decade” change that is going to ensure that the company stays on top for the next few years. RIM is also looking to enter the market with lower priced devices to target a larger audience. However, it appears that the key to survival in developed economies will be to offer 4G LTE devices.