CrackBerry talks to Thorsten Heins

Part II of CrackBerry's Interview with RIM's New CEO

After breaking the ice and throwing a couple of straight forward questions at RIM's new CEO in our Part I Interview,  we tackle some of the hot topics surrounding Research In Motion and their current BlackBerry strategy. 

You'll want to listen to the interview above and/or read the Q&A below as we get passionate straight talk from Thorsten Heins. Seriously, if you haven't been won over by the new BlackBerry Chief yet, this may be the interview that does it.

We really are entering into a new era for Research In Motion here. This is a CEO who admits RIM has missed on commitments in the past, admits RIM is choosing the harder way (as compared to building upon Android), but 100% believes in the strength of the company and the current strategy they have chosen to execute on. 

Interview Part II - There is a LOT of Change

Kevin: On the topic of change, on the conference call you said, "We don't think significant change was needed." Obviously there is a lot of change already in progress with the migration (from BlackBerry OS) up to the BlackBerry 10 platform, but I'm seeing that the media and financial community are not in total agreement about that message. Can you clarify and explain why you don't think you need change?

Thorsten: I think this got into a little bit of the black and white zone. I was talking about drastic or seismic changes. What I was trying to address was that there was some suggestion that RIM should be split up or should even be sold. My true belief is that RIM has the strength and the assets that we can really succeed in this market.

There is a LOT of change. There is a lot of structure change, there has been already a lot of change in terms of our software, our software platform, bringing QNX in. There is no standstill at any moment here at RIM.

What I wanted to make clear to the market is that we believe in our own strength, we are BlackBerry, we are an integrated solution, hardware, software, services, and network.

Just do yourselves a favor and look where the other OEMs are that are just handset providers. I tell you, I've been in that business before. It's cut throat price and cost competition. And why would I throw the value away of differentiating myself against the others? 

Kevin: I keep reading these articles that BlackBerry should build on Android, but I just don't understand them. 

Thorsten: Just take a look where the Android OEMs are. I leave this to you. Take a look at their recent announcements and what you will immediately see is there is just no room for differentiation because they are all the same.

What we choose is the harder way. I get it. Did we miss on some commitments? Yes, I admit that. That happens in high tech. This is not baking cookies. This is building high tech products. From time to time your aspirations and your development timelines hit some bumps in the road that were not foreseen. But I think going down that path is exactly right for BlackBerry and its customers.

Keep it locked to CrackBerry... more from RIM's new CEO will be hitting the blogs soon!  

Read CrackBerry's 1st Interview with RIM's CEO

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