RIM chief eyes 'significant' plans for BlackBerry

Research in Motion (RIM)’s Thorsten Heins plans to waste no time in his new job. The BlackBerry maker’s chief executive said he would present the board with his plan for the company’s future in just a matter of weeks.

The German-born executive, who took over from two longstanding co-chief executive officers (CEOs) on Saturday, said his plans for RIM would be “significant”, though he did not divulge details in an interview with Reuters. “I will have time with the board in two weeks to present my ideas and changes,” Heins said. But the executive, who was promoted from the role of chief operating officer, said he had already done groundwork to tackle his company’s most pressing problem - persuading the US market to covet the BlackBerry again.

While RIM is growing in other countries, Heins conceded its US business was in need of a major revival after losing out to rivals like Apple Inc’s iPhone at US service providers and corporations, where it once had a clear advantage among employees heavily dependent on its email service. “In general, I wouldn’t consider RIM as a turnaround candidate. It is a turnaround candidate in the US,” he said. “We lost market share in this market quite substantially. That is something that we have to address.”

While US operators such as Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc have helped BlackBerry with heavy advertising and promotions in the past, these operators have been much more focused in the last few years on devices like iPhone and smartphones based on the Google Inc operating system. Heins’ quest to regain ground with these operators has been complicated by the fact that RIM had to announce in December it was delaying the launch of phones based on BlackBerry 10 — its next-generation software — until the later part of 2012, as it was awaiting the availability of a high-powered chip.

The executive would not say when exactly these phones would hit the market, but implied these would arrive in time for the year-end holiday-shopping season in the fourth quarter. So, in the meantime, Heins will concentrate on getting the most current BlackBerrys into more consumers hands. He noted only 20 per cent of US BlackBerry users had the company’s latest phones, which he says are competitive with rival smartphones.

The rest of RIM’s US customers have devices with older RIM software, some of which are “two generations behind,” he said. To overcome this, RIM has devised a new upgrade plan with US operators to promote phones with the BlackBerry 7 system, which was launched in August last year.

While he did not want to disclose the specifics about the new agreements, Heins said RIM could look at new ways of bundling different devices together or offering carriers smartphones with a package of pre-loaded applications.

“Is RIM up for sale, is RIM up for a split-up?” He rejected those possibilities as “a drastic, seismic change because it would tear the company apart.” Heins, who has been with RIM for four years after spending over two decades at German engineering group Siemens, became the chief operating officer, responsible for software and products seven months ago.

Some analysts have worried whether Former co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie would have too much of a say in the future strategy of the company because of their position on the board. Heins said it would be an advantage to be able to tap into the experience and company knowledge of RIM founder Lazaridis, but he made it clear he would be the one calling the shots. “What I do with the company is my decision. The CEO runs the company.”