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.
Being the first BlackBerry developer conference held in Europe, Heins took the opportunity to address the crowd of almost 2,000 European developers in attendance. Heins kept the focus on the region and reaffirmed RIM's pledge to developers to ensure the ecosystem and support that developers need to be successful is there. Speaking to some conference attendees following the keynote, it definitely felt like Heins did a good job of getting developers re-engaged with RIM.
As for Heins' presentation and presentation style itself, I thought he did a solid job for his first go as the BlackBerry Chief. No, he's not an over the top personality like Microsoft's Steve Ballmer nor a straight up smooth talking exec like Nokia's Stephen Elop. And that's ok. Heins comes across as very straight up and real. He's likable and personable, and as I noted in a tweet, he makes you feel very comfortable being in the audience (which I hate to say it, is a welcome contrast to RIM's previous Co-CEOs.). You can tell in addition to being smart, Heins is a calm, cool and collected kind of guy. Even during a slight demo malfunction, Heins took it in stride and never missed a beat. He definitely came across as confident over his duties of being the new leader of Research In Motion.
Enough typing though. Watch the video above and sound off in the comments with your reactions to the BlackBerry DevCon keynote!
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