And RIM’s post-earnings PR offensive continues. This time, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins sat down with the folks at CIO for an in-depth interview about himself and the company’s future, and as you may expect he had a few juicy tidbits to reveal.
The most notable of those little revelations has to do with the company’s forthcoming BlackBerry 10 smartphones. Last month RIM infamously delayed the launch of their first BB10 devices until “Q1 2013” and left it at that. Interestingly, Mr. Heins seems to have put a finer point on that launch window.
When asked how long it would take for RIM to prove that it’s still a real contender, Heins offered up the following (emphasis mine):
“Faith in RIM and the financial expression of that are two different things. I’m not happy with the situation at RIM either. Who can be happy and satisfied with where we are? What I am satisfied with is that I know we have a path to the future with BlackBerry 10, because I see it. In January with the full touch device and the QWERTY coming, I think we will reinstall faith in RIM.”
That seems like a pretty strong indicator (assuming he didn’t misspeak) that RIM is planning something big involving their first, full-touch BlackBerry 10 device in January 2013. Exactly what that something is remains to be seen — a launch is certainly possible, but so is a big media event meant to whet our appetites before devices hit shelves.
Heins also dives a bit into why the delay happened in the first place, noting that it was because the team was “overwhelmed” by the process of integrating “feature components and building blocks.” Such are the drawbacks of trying something drastically different from their norm, something to which RIM’s US chief Richard Piasentin would likely agree. In a brief chat with TechCrunch, he was quick to note that the company wasn’t interested in just “iterating an existing OS” like its competitors:
“Our corporate mission is to build a new mobile computing platform to empower a people in a way they didn’t think possible,” he continued. “It’s much more important to get it right than to get it done fast.”
But will the slow and steady approach ultimately help RIM inspire faith once again? That remains to be seen, but for now Heins, Piacentin, and the rest of RIM are intent on putting what positive spin they can on things and getting some work done. Hopefully, Heins’s cheerleading doesn’t get the company into any more trouble than it’s already in.
[via Engadget]