Wow. Not just investors bailing anymore.

Considering how the Playbook has been plagued since launch, this is not surprising...

Maybe the PlayBook could use a new project manager? Too bad though, this guy did a great job at the major consumer electronics shows last year launching the PlayBook.

hmm... didn't see this coming

Austin or Dallas? His profiles says "soon to be Dallas". See my eyes! Eagle eyes!

Just the beginning of key people jumping from a sinking ship.

I don't understand why Samsung is going to RIM for marketing people when it is clear that RIM's marketing department has not quite shown stellar performance lately. In my opinion, RIM's barely existent marketing strategy is just as responsible for the current state of Playbook sales and RIM bashing as the actual product line. The old addage 'A good salesman can sell an icecube to an eskimo' still applies, although no one knows what RIM is selling! RIM - either let the creative minds you still have in-house do their magic, or find new minds, but either way - get your product in the public eye!

I will take his job at RIM

I say this just shows that other companies want what RIM has, both in product and personnel.
Can't quite by the 'Playbook sucks so let's go hire the Product Manager of the Playbook and give him all of product marketing' theory.

Should show up on BGR with a wicked slant in 5....4....3

Well, he was everywhere before launch and noticeably absent after launch. Probably a good time to have someone else be a product manager for the PB given its lackluster marketing...

RIM's marketing department has been garbage for a while. I guess I don't see this move as shocking.

I guess Samsung want's there marketing to be like RIM... sh1tty lol

now wondering whether I made a mistake,,,

BOLD 9000
PLAYBOOK 16GB

ONCE YOU GO BLACK(BERRY) YOU CANNOT GO BACK....

I can see why Ryan jumped ship to Samsung. I did the same thing lol. Got my Samsung Galaxy S2, Wow what a difference over the 9700. I can see why RIM is so far behind. I know I am comparing a 1.5 year old phone with a new phone but it's night and day to anything RIM has to offer. Amazes me at the differences and advances in technology.

I'll just say this, Ive had the pleasure of meeting Ryan, and he really is a great guy, with great ideas. This is a definite loss for RIM. I dont think RIM used him to his full potential, so he had to do what was best for him. I hope he does well in his new position.

At least he is still using a BlackBerry, his tweets are from T4BB

they can have these guys that are leaving they havent done anything

CAPTAIN!!! da ship, she is a sinking.

I seriously don't know why this is making into a big deal? Executives at this level changes all the time. Why don't we say that Samsung is also suffering because their employee went to Citigroup? Perhaps we are looking way too deep than we should...
just my two cents

Who really lost in this, RIM or Samsung...

Did anyone on here see Apple's earnings? Over 20 million IPhones sold in the latest Quarter and they sold EVERY IPad they could produce. RIM is sinking and fast. Two years from now they won't exist. I am not an Apple lover or BB hater. Just observing what is so painfully obvious. Those 2 assholes running the company are pathetic and they deserve to go down the tubes.

All i can say is OUCH!!!

I'm trying to understand this, some people say that RIM does a terrible job of marketing their products. Then when a marketing executive leaves, people say it's a bad thing for RIM. That line of reasoning doesn't seem to make sense.

Not that I am going to Apply as I am sure it will be an Internal promotion
But I would love to be a Project manager for the Playbook moving forward for RIM, so much potential, so many avenues to move forward,

Product management can be so rewarding

I love all of the fanboys who are making is sound like RIM fired the guy...from the looks of it, he left RIM, not the other way around.

Wether this guys fault or not, what happened to the PlayBook marketing? Flash ads? Commercials a couple months ago.

C-ya Ryan!

Ok, here's my take. Executives com and go.They go where the opportunities are. RIM is terrible at marketing. They are so tied to their business customers, which are still their bread and butter. In that realm, they don't have to market too much because they've been proven and established. Along the way, they got into the consumer market, which is way more fickle. RIM doesn't know how to effectively market to consumers. RIM may have stifiled/may stifile their marketing folks. Who knows. Fact is, we see where they are and they need marketing help. RIM is stable enough between their business clients to survive. Even if they had to give up on the consumer market, as they got along solely in the business market for years. Frankly, if they were to get the Playbook OS onto a phone platform, they'd probably have the best platform on the market. However, if you can't market it, the "consumer" won't get that. We are flooded with Android and Apple ads all the time. How many Blackberry ads do you even see? They rely too much on word of mouth and in the consumer market, bombardment works/helps. At best, you see ads around launch times from Blackberry, and those are slim. No large scale press events for devices like Apple and Jobs does for any iDevice they launch. The point is, RIM needs to get some folks who understand the consumer market and utilize them to market their stuff. We have no idea how hogtied any RIM folks may be by the top brass. RIM just needs to realize that they are failign at marketign to the consumer market. You can't market to consumers the same way you market to a business. Period. Until RIM realizes that, they will not only lose good people, but will never really draw top marketing talent. They need to address that first before any progress can be made. I wish Mr. Bidan good luck. If he makes any major strides at Samsung, then we will have the answer to the question of it it was him or RIM holding him back. If he seems to push on from Samsung soon, then we know he is not the marketing genius he tried to say he was, either. Either way, ultimately, RIM needs to learn to be a bigger cheerleader for themselves, or watch their consumer market continue to simply crumble.

People keep saying this is not a loss: The marketing team are leaving left and right because their voices aren't being heard by the management at top. Mike and Jim want to continue with the same song and dance and it's clear by the letters from internal employees that many people are unhappy.

Samsung, who is about to become the number 1 smartphone maker, is snatching these people up because they obviously have talent that is not being used. Clearly.

Better paycheck maybe ? It happens all the time , I sure would do it also .

Kevin now there's a spot open for you at RIM...

It would seem that it is possible even likely, that the good talent at RIM is just tired of hearing fromJim and Mike " What YOU need to understand is this" instead of listening and taking some ideas and advice from within their own company.

It is not "just bad luck" that these people are leaving. If you get tired of banging your head against "the wall" you go looking for a new wall.

Again, Jim and Mike are not getting it and need to be told" What YOU TWO need to understand is this!" Your stock is dropping, your App World is messed up, your PB is not making it yet, you can't release an OS right now to save your soul, you lied at the last stock holders meeting and you haven't hit a "self set" deadline yet! All the while they praise themselves on how good the BB phone sales are going in Cambodia!

God save RIM. Send Mike and Jim packing.

Tim

RIM sucks at marketing...Wallace leaves

PlayBook has a rough launch...Bidan leaves.

I say let this trend continue.

samsung is a cell phone maker, not a platform provider. he will be better off there. most likely this was in the works for quite some time already. flush out a few more and get some new blood.

The guy was a great personality. However looking at this now, he was the product manager for the Playbook, and I think we can all say that the past 90 days haven't produced much for this product. If he was a part of poor decisions made in the past 90 days then this could be good. Maybe he is good a marketing products and not managing the products themselves. Who knows. If the RIM seemed to have their act together with the Playbook then I would say this is a bad loss, but since they didn't, I'll just say that hopefully the new Playbook product manager can take the ball and run with it.

Having followed RIM since their very first phone, my comments are as thus: does RIM even have a marketing team? Let's be blunt, the marketing of any RIM product, not just the Playbook, is an utter disaster and failure.

Some of the members on the Crackberry site, I am sure, have been able to sell more RIM products by themselves through their support and believe of the product line at rates higher than any of RIM's own self promotion.

Case in point - I went to the Playbook Tour Vehicle in Coquitlam, BC (outside Staples) this afternoon: ten visitors were in the trailer; three workers with blue playbook shirts were inside. Two of these workers were knowledgeable, polite, and dressed well. The other individual had food coming out of his mouth and on his face; looked unkempt; and could have served as a bouncer at a rowdy biker bar. His appearance aside, it was clear that he knew nothing about the Playbook, was unable to communicate about the device, and was, in general, unfriendly. No class. That's not how you create interest in a product as he was a total turn-off for the device.

Yet he exemplifies, exactley, the ineptitude, arrogance, and ignorance, of RIM. RIM's own worst enemy is themselves and their inability to properly connect with the public and even its own products.

How is this a loss? Given the total failure of PlayBook messaging pre-launch and today seems more like he got while the getting was good.

Is it time to send the Co-CEO's packing, maybe. Is it time for a shake up at RIM in most senior management, yep starting with marketing. RIM see's that it has huge market potential in developing markets where their sales are huge and strong. They are hoping that this along with large and medium size corporates keep them going until QNX. We can all hope, but if they let QNX phones flop, they would/should be bought. RIM needs to focus on its core businesses and possibly do it with two "divisions" business and consumer. RIM does not sell itself well to consumers. When my wife wanted her first BB it was because all of the other management had them not that she liked it or knew anything about it. I thought that BB's were only for executives and sales. We moved on to the Palm Pre and then iPhone but I always wanted a BB. I got one and now I am hooked. I want RIM to succeed along with Apple, Android, and HPalm. Why, because when one tops the rest if forces the others to do better, except BB in the past. They may have learned their lesson as we see with the 9900/9930 getting a processor upgrade, that is a sign of hope.

Hopefully they replace him with someone who can market the products in a way it deserves. He was great at talking the talk but did he walk the walk? I don't think so.

RIM should stick with phones.. Classic!

Samsung needed someone, he probably thought that it might be a better job, maybe a bit more pay.

Maybe his hands were tied up at RIM, he is a great marketing person but still Playbook Marketing was minimal.....frustrated from such working environment he may have decided enough is enough......

Anonymous letter from an Employee, was it Ryan?

This doesn't have to be a bad thing you know. i see it as out with the old and in with the new. Maybe these guys were dead beats who didn't believe in the brand anymore. Who wants to keep a paper weight like that around. get new blood in man, is what i say. people wanna prove themeless, i say let 'em. We'll see in six months if my enthusiasm is warranted.

Worst case scenario, Dell buys Rim to compete with HP and WebOS. Excuse me while I go hang myself.

Adieu RIM!
Why waste your time with a Company which you know is sinking and refuses to face the issues that it needs to tackle? This guy is gone simply because there is nothing left to do while working with RIM. The best RIM does these days is release OS updates which are buggy and have to be pulled from its servers!

“BlackBerry smartphones will never have cameras because the No. 1 customer of ours is the U.S. government,” Mike Lazaridis would say in meetings. “There will never be a BlackBerry with an MP3 player or camera.”

“BlackBerry will never do that, it will always be a model number,” he said to executives. “A BlackBerry with a name is ridiculous.”

“One of the main reasons RIM missed the mark with the browser was because
they were always proud of how little data usage a user would use,” a former executive said. “There was no three-year plan at RIM.” RIM would be proud of the fact that someone would only use 1MB of data in a month in 2005, and as a result, there wasn’t ever any extensive R&D done within the browser space.

“Mike Lazaridis couldn’t imagine that consumers would be spending hours watching and streaming video to their devices, he couldn’t understand it,”

This is why we don’t see RIM excelling in spaces like camera technology, or displays — because the company never even attempted to anticipate the smartphone trends we’re seeing today. “RIM is a reactionary company.”

“When you hear Mike talk about the latest and greatest, it’s been the same thing for ten years: security, battery performance, and network performance.

“Mike is convinced people won’t buy an iPhone because battery life isn’t as good as a BlackBerry,”

These are quotes extracted from the article "Inside RIM:..." at BGR, said by actual and former RIM employees. Just read'em and you will instantly know that it isnt the marketing which is shitty, its just the lack of innovation.

Why are you show-casing this man? Didn't he leave RIM?

Pu-leeze!

Peace...

People leave companies for a higher position job all the time and it doesn't mean they're jumping ship... it just means they got offered a better job with, more than likely, more money... like Apple iCloud Product Manager who left Apple recently as well. Someone taking a better job elsewhere happens all the time.