It seems like just about everyone has weighed in on what's best for Research In Motion, and how they can turn their current situation around. Analysts have analyzed, bloggers have blogged, and everyone else has tweeted, commented, or Facebooked their feelings on the future of the BlackBerry maker. It only makes sense that celebrity chef and TV personality Gordon Ramsey would have an opinion on the matter and share it directly with new CEO Thorsten Heins. Watch the video above to see just how it all went down. 

Of course this is a spoof, that's not really Gordon Ramsey or Thorsten Heins. This clip appeared recently on CBC's "This Hour has 22 Minutes". Thanks for posting it in the forums AWDragon200!

Source: CBC

if you missed our coverage of the BlackBerry DevCon Europe General Session Keynote yesterday, not to worry. RIM has posted up a replay of the entire keynote for your viewing pleasure. Some good stuff to be had within as Thorsten Heins, Alec Saunders, Chris Smith and many partners took the stage in Amsterdam to show off some goods. If you have a few hours to kill it's definitely worth checking out. So grab a cup of coffee (or beer if that's more your thing) and hit the link below. Be sure to keep following all of our coverage from BlackBerry DevCon Europe.

Check out the BlackBerry DevCon Europe General Session Replay

Here it is folks, BlackBerry history! CrackBerry was on hand in Amsterdam to witness (and record) the first BlackBerry event keynote presentation by newly-minted CEO, Thorsten Heins. You can hit play on the video above to watch his full 25 minute debut at BlackBerry DevCon Europe.

On the announcement front, there wasn't really anything in the way of BlackBerry news. But honestly, we didn't go to the show expecting any. Mobile World Congress is coming up at the end of this month, which makes a much more strategic time and venue to officially release PlayBook OS 2.0 (and maybe announce some PlayBook models with radios inside). And as for learning more about BlackBerry 10 phones, knowing they won't hit until later in the year it makes sense that BlackBerry World in May may be where we get a bigger glimpse. 

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RIM's new CEO, Thorsten Heins, has been a busy guy doing media interviews over the last couple of weeks. But yesterday he took some time to chat with Bay Street sell-side analysts in Toronto who cover the stock.

What did he say? We've had a chance to read through some notes from analysts who attended and here are the big points:

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In a recent interview with FireceWireless, AT&T chief marketing officer David Christopher weighed in on the current situation at Research In Motion. Christopher noted that AT&T believes consumers want choice, which is why they hope that RIM will bounce back. "We want RIM to succeed. We like choice," Christopher said. "They have a strong base. But they have to innovate quickly and execute.". Currently AT&T carries five BlackBerry smartphones, all of which are the latest BlackBerry 7 devices (Bold 9900, Torch 9810, Curve 9360 and Torch 9860) with the exception of the older Curve 3G. 

With the upcoming release of BlackBerry 10 devices like the BlackBerry London, things should certainly pick up across the board for both RIM and the carriers. If the things we've heard and seen thus far are any indication, the next generation devices from RIM will no doubt be strong sellers against the likes of the iPhone and Android devices. Newly branded RIM CEO Thorsten Heins has already said in his interview with Kevin that there are new structures in place which will help greatly in bringing products to maket on time -- so combining the new strategy with BlackBerry 10 phones, RIM should have no problem with either innovating or executing as we move forward. (Take THAT AT&T!)

Source: FierceWireless

During the first few days of Thorsten Heins taking on the position of RIM's President and Chief Executive Officer, there were a few quotes pulled from his interviews. One in particular struck a chord with many in the market and while Thorsten later went on to clarify what he meant, that wasn't the closing of the questioning. In speaking to Reuters, Heins elaborated further on the matter and took the time to note an upcoming meeting he has planned with RIM's board:

"I will have time with the board in two weeks to present my ideas and changes," Heins said.

Heins hasn't been blind to the situation at RIM, knowing full well that their U.S. market share has rapidly been slipping, and while they're still making plenty of headway in emerging markets, it's not enough. In the past, RIM has relied heavy on their relationships with carriers to create promotions and that once again looks to be the game plan. Right now, only 20 percent of U.S. BlackBerry users are making use of newer devices while the rest remain on the previous generations hardware - some even two-generations behind. 

When BlackBerry 7 was released, RIM began working with carriers in the U.S. in an effort to get newer devices into people's hands. The problem is -- no one seems to have noticed. Some insight offered by Heins shows the ramp up for that hasn't even really begun, and while he wouldn't divulge the full details, it was noted:

"All the plans are ready. The carrier agreements are all ready. Now we have to get off the starting grid. Now we need to execute that upgrade program," Heins said.

The information about carriers is rather interesting and really plays a bigger role here. It's been suggested in the past that some carriers may have been holding back on RIM products due to their lack of LTE implementation - something that RIM is also addressing starting with the BlackBerry PlayBook. Come Spring, RIM has plans to launch an LTE equipped BlackBerry PlayBook that will serve as their first foray into LTE, with BlackBerry 10 devices also getting LTE treatment later on. In the meantime, we'll have to see what comes about -- one thing seems certain though, we'll be seeing more BlackBerry promotions through carriers soon.

Source: Reuters

Part V and Conclusion of CrackBerry's Interview with RIM's New CEO

As we concluded our first Q&A with RIM's new CEO, I quit with the questions and opened things up for Thorsten Heins to address CrackBerry Nation directly. For all our longtime members, readers and BlackBerry fans around the world, this is for you... an address to CrackBerry Nation, from the CEO of Research In Motion himself:

First, I want you to be our #1 Fan Club, that's for sure. Second, give us feedback. I want you to be with us, I want you to help us to always get better, and give us credit for what our people are doing. Understand how much and how hard the people here are working and I think you're doing a good job of this. I'm ready to stay in touch with you Kevin and your base. We will make this a journey together, and it's going to be fun. 

Honestly, it's hard for me not to get emotional reading those words. When CrackBerry.com went live in February 2007, I really didn't know what the future would hold for us. All I knew was that I was hopeful and excited for the future of BlackBerry and CrackBerry. As Resesarch In Motion enters a new era, I'm having the same feelings again as I did five years ago. Hopeful and excited. Let's Rock & Roll This CrackBerry Nation!!

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

Let's face it. Delivering products to market on time has never been one of Research In Motion's strong points. When we asked CrackBerry readers for questions to ask RIM's Nnw CEO, an overwhelming number of you wanted to know exactly how will RIM change their ways to become a company that can deliver products to the market on time.

RIM's Thorsten Heins acknowledged that the company was not disciplined enough in the past, spending too much time tweaking products already set for production. Heins put the blame solely on the management structure and was clear "that has nothing to do with our people, they have worked day and night and are totally enthusiastic." Heins intends to keep the start-up mentality and innovation coming, but in a more scalable way, "by putting small teams together, assigning them dedicated tasks, making them accountable, and giving them funds to fulfill their tasks rather than being distributed over 3-4 programs. That happened in the past, and that led to programs getting omitted frankly."

On the people front of the transition from BlackBerry OS to QNX, Heins says RIM "figured out pretty fast that those [QNX] resources are not sufficient enough", so the company has been working to realign their Waterloo-based BlackBerry OS coders over to the new platform. It's definitely a challenge for those programmers who have worked on one platform to learn something new and Heins noted that he is really happy to see people taking it on. "We have now rearranged all the resources properly, all the leadership is clear, all the team's tasks are clear, and people work together, so we have achieved a different level of efficiency now in that part of the platform development."

I'm hoping this new structure works for RIM. I'm jonesing for a BlackBerry 10 phone! You can listen to the audio above and read the full Q&A below for more details. 

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

Continuing along in our interview series with RIM's new CEO Thorsten Heins, we asked the question that so many smartphone users have been asking for a long time now. Will we ever see BlackBerry Messenger on other Platforms? The BlackBerry Chief said "you should never rule this out" adding "there is a time where this might make sense".

The topic of cross-platform BBM has been debated often on CrackBerry. Our last poll on the subject put the community at 71% in favor of RIM putting BlackBerry Messenger onto other mobile operating systems, but with BBM being such a strong hook keeping users tied to BlackBerry it's definitely not a clear cut business case. At least we now know this is something RIM is definitely looking into.

On the hot topic of licensing out the BlackBerry OS, Heins says people should not put this into a black or white category. Heins is "open for licensing if it makes sense". Heins made it clear that he "was not hired to build a licensing company" but rather was "hired to take BlackBerry to new heights" and plans to do just that with his team.

Listen to the audio above, read the Q&A below and let us know in the comments where you weigh in on this one!

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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. 

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Part I of CrackBerry's Interview with RIM's new CEO

Just as the news became public Sunday night that Thorsten Heins was named the new CEO of Research In Motion, I received a phone call from him letting me know personally that he won the leadership race and it wouldn't be CrackBerry Kevin and a Ham Sandwich at the reigns of RIM in 2012. It was a classy gesture and a clear signal that RIM moving forward will be more engaged with its user community. On that call Thorstein promised he'd give us a few more minutes of his time this week so we could actually throw a few questions his way (as you can imagine, I was completely unprepared for the first call!). RIM's new CEO delivered on his first promise to CrackBerry Nation and on Wednesday I was able to connect with Thorsten again.

Between Monday's RIM conference call, the official BlackBerry youtube videos, and the various television interviews Thorsten has given this week to other media outlets, we've already seen and heard a lot from the new BlackBerry Chief. A lot of the things said have given us plenty of reason to get excited for this new era of BlackBerry, while some of the messages making their way out into the media seem to already be shooting the new leadership direction down before it has even had a hint of a chance to execute. So I took this opportunity to get clarification on some of the mixed messages that have been making their way out there and dig deeper into other topics that have been covered this week. We cover a lot of things and found Thorsten to be great to talk to -- personable and a straight shooter with a sense of humor. In true CrackBerry fashion we will be be bringing the goods to the blogs here in a series of posts, so you'll want to keep it locked to CrackBerry. 

But before we get to the heavier hitting questions we start with a couple of easy ones... listen above or keep reading as we break the ice and get the ball rolling on CrackBerry's first interview with the CEO of Research In Motion. I've been waiting five years to do one of these, so yeah... we're going to rock and roll this!!

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So here we are, after two full days of digesting the RIM CEO switchover to Thorsten Heins. The stock declined almost 13% in that time, although it's recouping some of that loss today.

A few weeks ago I got an email from a friend. There were rumors of a change of leadership on the board of directors and the market was reacting positively. The email from my friend said, "Wow, imagine what kind of reaction we'd get if Mike and Jim stepped down!"

It seemed logical enough to me. Investors wanted change and the rumors were causing investors to cast stock market votes with their dollars. So when the news broke on Sunday night, I thought we'd see a positive reaction when the market opened on Monday.

I wanted to write this article to address the problems that Wall Street has with the changes that RIM has made. I'll offer my perspective, and I'll raise some questions that I have.

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While the general BlackBerry fan knows plenty about both Jim Balsille and Mike Lazaridis, not many know just who the new head honcho of Research In Motion is. In what seemed like a whirlwind night, long time co-CEOs Balsillie and Lazaridis stepped down as 4-year RIM employee Thorsten Heins took over as CEO. If you're a BlackBerry lover, fan or enthusiast you'll certainly be curious to know a bit of the story behind RIM's new Chief. Keep reading and we'll take a look at a bit of the history behind Thorsten Heins.

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[Youtube link for mobile viewing]

RIM has already taken the time to introduce Thorsten Heins, as their President and CEO and since the announcement, there has been a lot happening and many questions remain unanswered for now. But if you're looking to learn more about Thorsten Heins, RIM has posted up smaller portions of a larger interview held with him.

In the videos you get to hear his thoughts on RIM's strengths, PlayBook 2.0 and where RIM is heading in the next five years. There is a total of seven videos for you, just jump on past the break to watch them all.

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