It's been a few weeks since Jim Balsillie resigned from his position on the board at Research In Motion. Until now however, it was unclear as to just what ultimately led to the decision. Reuters is reporting that Balsillie "sought to reinvent the BlackBerry smartphone maker with a radical shift in strategy" before he ultimately stepped down. Apparently Balsillie had come up with a plan to allow North American and European carriers to use the RIM network for non-BlackBerry devices. The carriers would in turn be able to offer limited messaging plans and inexpensive data plans to customers. There was disagreement over Balsillie's plan on many levels, however, and he ultimately stepped down from the board.

The plan, which would have been beneficial for carriers, consumers and RIM alike, would have allowed consumers to purchase lower cost, entry-level smartphone plans that included social media, messaging and most importantly -- BBM. The service would allow other devices to run on RIM servers which are located across the globe, breaking RIM's BlackBerry-only history.

RIM currently offers low-cost BlackBerry plans in emerging markets that provide basic messaging and social media. While they had developed software in which to provide these services to both Android and iOS users, the plan was rejected by new RIM CEO Thorsten Heins in favor of BlackBerry 10 devices. While he was originally against the idea of selling or licensing their software at all, after the March earnings call, Thorsten Heins has recently stated RIM may now be looking for partnerships or licensing.

Source: Reuters

As RIM rolls out Q4 2012 financial earnings, they've also gone ahead an announced some recent changes within the organization and ultimately their Board of Directors:

"As I complete my retirement from RIM, I'm grateful for this remarkable experience and for the opportunity to have worked with outstanding professionals who helped turn a Canadian idea into a global success," said Jim Balsillie.

"On behalf of the Board and everyone at RIM, I would like to thank Jim for his 20 years of service to RIM," said Barb Stymiest, Chair of RIM's Board of Directors. "His energy, drive and enthusiasm helped build one of the most successful technology companies of our time."

In addition, David Yach will be retiring from his role as CTO, Software after 13 years with the Company and after 4 years with the company and following an open dialogue on the future of global operations, Jim Rowan, COO, Global Operations, has decided to pursue other interests. The Company is currently undertaking a search to hire a single COO with responsibilities to run the Company's operations.

"RIM would like to thank David Yach and Jim Rowan for their years of service and many contributions to RIM," said Thorsten Heins, President and CEO. "We wish them well in their future pursuits."

RIM has no doubt had a rough year but it wasn't rough enough the 200 people polled to vote them as the worst tech CEO's of 2011. That dubious glory has been handed to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings after single handedly increasing subscription prices and irritating customers further by starting an initiative to split up Netflix's DVD-by-mail and subscription services. Reed Hastings took 58% of the votes while Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis took 19% of the vote but we, of course are curious how BlackBerry owners feel about the votes.

Sure, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis have taken some missteps along the way but it's always easy to be an armchair critic and say how things should be run from afar. Are the missteps RIM had this year enough to have them ousted from the company they built -- remember, RIM has had a great run for the past 10 years and 2011 is just one year, one that was noted on many occasion by those in charge that it would be a year of transition and the road ahead would indeed be a bumpy one.

While appearing at the Web 2.0 summit today, RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie was placed on the spot to answer questions surrounding Research In Motion, their upcoming products and finally their future. A lot of questions were asked near the end, one that stuck out was a reference to when Research In Motion was going to bring a better experience to their line up of BlackBerry smartphones. This is where things get interesting; Jim Balsillie then referred to the BlackBerry PlayBook and its tablet OS making the statement  "It's not the hardest thing in the world to repackage these things". When reading between the lines that could really be another way of saying that QNX will be the next operating system for BlackBerry smartphones.

While most of us upon seeing the PlayBook figured that was likely to happen, Kevin's been saying since WES that the future of BlackBerry smartphones phones lies in the QNX OS. With statements such as the one from Balsillie today being made, it only leads to reason that eventually we'll be seeing QNX arrive in a smaller than 7" packaged form and personally, that kind of thinking makes me excited for the next BlackBerry platform. In addition to all the "non talk" talk about future devices, Balsillie was also asked about any upcoming NFC integration for BlackBerry smartphones. His reply to that was simple, of course RIM will be looking at NFC integration. "We'd be fools not to have it in the near-term, and we are not fools".

Hot off the Twitterverse comes word from @blackberry that RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie will be speaking live today during the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. At 2:40pm EST he is scheduled to go on and you can watch live here. The session is titled A Conversation with Jim Balsillie, CEO, Research In Motion. While we're not totally sure what topics will be covered, you can be they'll be some PlayBook talk among other things. Hit the link below to check out the live feed.

• Web 2.0 Summit Live Feed >>

left: Apple iPad; right: BlackBerry PlayBook... the tablet wars are heating up!

It looks like the tech game is starting to turn into a bit of a tech soap opera thanks to El Jobso. Following up yesterday's comments by Steve Jobs dissing 7" tablets, Research In Motion's Co-CEO Jim Balsillie has fired back.

Here's the official word from Jim Balsillie:

"For those of us who live outside of Apple's distortion field, we know that 7" tablets will actually be a big portion of the market and we know that Adobe Flash support actually matters to customers who want a real web experience. We also know that while Apple's attempt to control the ecosystem and maintain a closed platform may be good for Apple, developers want more options and customers want to fully access the overwhelming majority of web sites that use Flash. We think many customers are getting tired of being told what to think by Apple. And by the way, RIM has achieved record shipments for five consecutive quarters and recently shared guidance of 13.8 - 14.4 million BlackBerry smartphones for the current quarter. Apple's preference to compare its September-ending quarter with RIM's August-ending quarter doesn't tell the whole story because it doesn't take into account that industry demand in September is typically stronger than summer months, nor does it explain why Apple only shipped 8.4 million devices in its prior quarter and whether Apple's Q4 results were padded by unfulfilled Q3 customer demand and channel orders. As usual, whether the subject is antennas, Flash or shipments, there is more to the story and sooner or later, even people inside the distortion field will begin to resent being told half a story."

- Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO at Research In Motion (RIM)

Nicely said Jim. I like that RIM isn't taking any of this crap sitting down and is firing back. Anybody want a used iPad? I don't think I want mine anymore... I can't wait for RIM to release the BlackBerry PlayBook! 

On Monday it was announced that RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie will be joining the United Nations Secretary-General’s 21 member panel regarding Global Sustainability. The members include high-ranking government officials and civil society representatives from developing and developed countries.

“I am pleased to help this esteemed group develop new ideas for prosperity in a low-carbon world,” Balsillie said on Monday. “This is a critically important initiative for all countries, and integrates perfectly with the work CIGI is undertaking to address the international governance challenges of climate change.”

He will be the only Canadian on the panel, as well as the only private sector representative. Mr. Basillie is also the CIGI’s (The Centre for International Governance Innovation) chair; which he founded in 2002. For more information on CIGI, head over to www.cigionline.org

The purpose of this panel is to discover a “new vision” when it comes to sustainable growth. With the accelerated rate of changes in the climate in mind, this vision will tackle issues that include poverty, discover and maintain workable consumption/production levels and achieving a greener economy. A report from the panel is expected to be made by December 2011.

I wonder if the panel will receive BlackBerrys to aid them in their research?

• Read the official press release from the United Nations >>

As the Canadian Press proclaims, Research In Motion's co-CEO, Jim Balsillie, has been named business newsmaker of the year. Jim and his team at Research In Motion had its ups and downs but still came out of 2009 looking pretty good if you ask me. The Canadian Press announcement focuses more on Jim's attempted Phoenix Coyotes take over purchase this past year, moreso than his involvement with Research In Motion and the making of BlackBerry Smartphones.

In any event, a lot of 2009's news segments were indeed dedicated to much of what Balsillie was up to on all fronts be it the NHL, BlackBerry outages or just simply Research In Motion's stance in the wireless market. Jim Balsillie made plenty of headlines in 2009 and the award seems quite fitting to me. Congrats on the award Mr. Balsillie, but as a BlackBerry user I can only hope there will be less outages in 2010 for news outlets to report on.

• Read The Full Article Via The Canadian Press Website >>

Last week we at CrackBerry reported the accounting woes of RIM and how Jim Balsillie stepped down as Chairman (he remains co-CEO). But we are thinking he probably isn’t losing a lot of sleep. On Friday, Forbes Magazine published their annual list of the world’s richest people and guess who showed up?

The founders of Research In Motion, and the creators of the BlackBerry, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie made the Forbes billionaire list for the first time. Lazaridis, was tied for No. 583 on the worldwide rankings, with an estimated net worth of $1.7-billion.

Balsillie, however, was way behind and was logged in at the pitiful ranking of 618 and an estimated wealth of a paltry $1.6-billion.

Forbes has Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, with a $56-billion bank account, as the world richest man with investment guru Warren Buffett second. These two are good friends and have pledged to give away large parts of their fortunes through their foundations to various cause. My address is…

It is good to see the guys doing so well and with the BlackBerry poised to take advantage of the growing PDA market we can only see them shooting up the list.