Tag Archives: RIM
Struggling RIM hires new executives
TORONTO (AP) — BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. said Tuesday that it has hired two new senior executives, including a marketing chief, as the company looks to regain market share lost to Apple’s iPhone.
RIM said Frank Boulben will be the new chief marketing officer, a job RIM’s new CEO Thorsten Heins described as critically important for the struggling company.
Boulben, 45, served as executive vice president of strategy and marketing at LightSquared, a wireless company that has been struggling since U.S. regulators moved to kill its proposed nationwide broadband network. Boulben also held senior positions at wireless carriers Vodafone Group and Orange.
Kristian Tear is the new chief operating officer. Tear, 48, was executive vice president of Sony Mobile Communications, a unit of another struggling technology company, http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/usatoday-TechTopStories/~3/B_vyZ4G-BJs/1
RIM chief: BlackBerry keyboards not going away
The highlight of Research in Motion’s BlackBerry World Conference might not be what’s new — BlackBerry 10 — but what was absent.
As they unveiled new details on the upcoming mobile operating system and its hardware prototypes, it seems one important feature was missing: the physical keyboard.
For the BlackBerry fans fearing a descent into full touchscreen madness, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins says — as reported by CNet — the signature keyboard isn’t going anywhere.
“We know what our strengths are,” Heins says. “And it would be plain wrong to get rid of the physical keyboard.”
A prototype smartphone showcased during the BlackBerry World Conference featured a full touchscreen and a predictive text option that displayed the next potential word of a message on the virtual keypad.
Heins says devices with physical keyboards will be part of the roll-out of BlackBerry 10, but did not specify whether
Article source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/usatoday-TechTopStories/~3/ZC8Fk8IB3pw/1
BlackBerry-maker RIM unveils prototype
Thorsten Heins, who took the CEO job in January, revealed features of the BlackBerry 10 operating system running on a prototype device at the company’s BlackBerry World conference in Orlando, Florida. He provided no update on the software’s launch date.
Heins, who is trying to rally developers to make applications for the new operating system, promised that each developer at the conference will go home with the prototype BlackBerry. In a speech that was broadcast on the company’s BlackBerry World website, Heins stressed that the device is not the finished product.
The once iconic company has had difficulty competing with flashier, consumer-oriented phones such as Apple’s iPhone and models that run Google’s Android software.
Heins made his first major speech since replacing longtime chiefs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis in January. Lazaridis announced a month earlier that the often-delayed operating system would
Article source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/usatoday-TechTopStories/~3/XlJLlnFE48s/1
Video: A closer look at BlackBerry 10
Research In Motion has posted a video that offers the first peek inside its latest operating system for BlackBerry.
It’s brief, but does offer a couple of hints at what the smartphone interface for a BlackBerry 10 device will look like.
Perhaps most interesting is a predictive text feature with a series of guesses displayed on the virtual keyboard, allowing users to press one button to type it out.
RIM unveiled the OS and prototype smartphone during an event in Orlando. The first devices with BlackBerry 10 launch later this year.
Article source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/usatoday-TechTopStories/~3/Ajd_NdinywI/1
Apple must heed past tech-giants’ failures
Tuesday, it became the second company ever to cross $600 billion in market cap. Microsoft did it back in 1999. Apple did it just six weeks after passing $500 billion.
“Apple will stay successful if it keeps its values in check — being innovative, thinking big, challenging the status quo — and doesn’t let its market cap go to its head,” Jonathan Rettinger, TechnoBuffalo president, told CNBC’s Street Signs.
But investors need to look no further than the tech graveyard of once-dominant companies as a warning of just how far and how fast the giants can fall from grace.
Take Yahoo. Its stock is down more than 80% from all-time highs at the end of 1999. Tuesday, the company held an all-hands-on-deck staff meeting, following the layoffs of 2,000 employees last week.
Shares of Sony are also down more than 80% from all-time highs in March of 2000. The
Article source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/usatoday-TechTopStories/~3/_nDm6BFaUCs/1
