To say that RIM has had a tough time these past few months is an understatement, and today’s news probably won’t help raise the morale around Waterloo. According to AppleInsider, oilfield services giant Halliburton will soon be migrating their BlackBerry-toting workforce to run exclusively on a new fleet of iPhones.

I can also imagine the conversation now. “Sorry RIM, it’s not you, it’s us… alright, fine, it really is you.”

The news was sent out via an internal newsletter, which mentions that the reason for the switch was because the company “determined that the iOS platform offered the best capabilities, controls and security for application development.” It goes on to offer a basic timeline for the process — all 4,500 of Halliburton’s employee-operating BlackBerrys will be swapped for iPhones over the course of the next two years.

So what does this development mean for RIM? Not much at all, if Halliburton was the only company to jump ship. It’s clear that they’re not the only ones in search of some greener pastures — Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer pointed out during the company’s Q1 2012 earnings call that nearly all of the top Fortune 500 companies “now approve and support iPhones on their networks,” including Credit Suisse, Kimberly Clark, St. Jude Medical, and Nike.

Of course, that hardly means that all or even most of them will transition their workforce from one platform to the other. Still, it clearly shows that these companies are considering different, more compelling mobile options to help conduct their business. And with the first BlackBerry 10 device not slated to ship until much later this year, RIM may not have too many chances left to show off what they’re really capable of.

In the meantime, RIM continues to illustrate how serious they are about the enterprise market with the launch of initiatives like BlackBerry Cloud Services, which allows businesses using Microsoft Office 365 more fine-grained control over devices and their data. It’s clear that RIM isn’t going to give up their hard-won enterprise segment without a fight, but if their recently leaked roadmap is any indication, they’re running awfully low on bullets right now.

Update: RIM updated their blog to state that the images and characters in question are were meant to be a bit of fun, and not the vanguard of the company’s new marketing plan.

Way back in December, before a management shakeup saw him and his partner leaving RIM’s top posts, co-CEO Jim Balsillie lamented the state of the company’s marketing efforts. They hadn’t “achieved the desired results” as he put it during RIM’s Q4 earnings call, and promised big things to come on the marketing front come 2012.

Things seemed to start off well — you couldn’t watch Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve without getting an eye-full of BlackBerry logos imploring you to “be bold” in in the new year.

Then the Bold Team happened. Somehow, when RIM’s marketing department was brainstorming ways to get people to take them seriously as a worthwhile competitor in the smartphone market, the concept of using small ethnically-diverse cartoon superheroes not only came up but stuck.

Let’s meet the team, shall we?

Look, it’s not as though I don’t understand what RIM is going for here. The implication is that BlackBerry users don’t fit the corporate drone archetype that people associate with the brand. They’re active, they’re motivated, and yes, they enjoy a good ninja movie just like the rest of us.

RIM is trying to humanize the brand (or in this case, super-humanize) in an attempt to show people that using a BlackBerry isn’t a mark of the tragically uncool or the hopeless workaholic. All of this in hopes that people who would have otherwise written off BlackBerrys would give it a second thought when it came time to extend their contracts.

“Trying,” of course, is the keyword.

It’s not as though they don’t deserve credit for giving something new a try. RIM took a… ahem… bold step here by trying to shake off their business-oriented pallor, and while I don’t expect them to gain much headway if they try to play up the Burger King Kids Club, at least it shows that they’re open to taking some risks.

The bigger issue in play here is that while pumping up the BlackBerry brand is a necessary move for RIM, their product lines don’t seem quite up to snuff yet. With a leaked roadmap pointing to the first BlackBerry 10 device hitting the streets in September, it’ll be quite a while before RIM gets the fresh start they’ve needed for so long. Meanwhile, with hardware revamps and middling handsets peppering the first half of the year, even BlackBerry faithful will have to live with a considerable dry spell.

With any luck, this was just a one-off promotional effort, and we’ll never see these little creatures again.

Whether a “drastic change” is needed or there is already “a lot of change”, former RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis (the same one who flipped out on the BBC during an interview) still believes in the BlackBerry.

Forget the fact that the company’s balance sheet is half they were at the beginning of 2011, and never mind the fact that the stock dropped 8 percent on the first day after new CEO Thorsten Heins started. Lazaridis still thinks an out-of-pocket $50 million investment in RIM stock is well worth it.

In an interview with The Record, Lazaridis said “I absolutely know he will take this company to new heights,” referencing Heins. Heins replaced Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie as CEO last week after shareholders became fed up with poor stock performance in the past year.

Despite the fact that shareholders have been grumbling, Lazaridis claims that the decision to put Heins in charge has been in the works for over four years, calling the alternative of choosing leadership outside of RIM “a guess.” For now, Lazaridis will be an investor in the company, and the head of a newly formed “innovation committee” at RIM.

Microsoft and BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) are teaming up today on the public release of BlackBerry Business Cloud Services for Microsoft Office 365, a name which surely Microsoft itself had a hand in creating. The new service will allow corporate customers to manage their deployed BlackBerry devices using Exchange Online, the hosted version of Microsoft’s messaging platform.

The addition comes at no extra cost to current subscribers of the Office 365 suite or the standalone Exchange Online offering, and supports any BlackBerry devices, whether on a business or consumer data plan.

Once enabled, the managed BlackBerry smartphones will be able to sync with Microsoft Exchange Online email, calendar and organizer data. BlackBerry Balance, a new technology that helps admins manage the corporate data on the device, while leaving personal data untouched, will also be available with this new offering. I.T. will be able to manage the phones using a web-based console, but employees will have access to self-service tools for password and device resets, remote lock and remote wipe functions.

BlackBerry Business Cloud Services is live now in 50 countries. More info is here.

Partnerships like this are one of the reasons why some mobile industry insiders believe that RIM could be a viable acquisition target for Microsoft. The companies are already working so closely together to integrate their technologies, and both share a similar end user customer base: the enterprise market. Reports that RIM has even engaged in takeover talks with Microsoft emerged in December, but nothing has yet to come of that. Instead, the company’s recent moves like the co-CEO step-down and (misguided) statements from new CEO Thorsten Heins (“I don’t think any drastic change is needed”) imply that company is attempting a turnaround, not putting itself on the auction block. At least for now.

On Monday of this week, RIM’s new CEO made a statement that set off a bomb on the blogosphere, and I’m not sure he understood its repercussions at the time. “I don’t think any drastic change is needed.”

If you’ve been paying attention to RIM and its numbers, you know that what the company desperately needs is change. Sales are declining, platform market share is dwindling, and the BlackBerry brand, to a large extent, has lost the power it once had behind it. So in a recent interview with CrackBerry, Heins made sure to clarify exactly what he meant by “no drastic change is needed.”

I think this got into a little bit of the black and white zone. I was talking about drastic or seismic changes. What I was trying to address was that there was some suggestion that RIM should be split up or should even be sold. My true belief is that RIM has the strength and the assets that we can really succeed in this market.

There is a LOT of change. There is a lot of structure change, there has been already a lot of change in terms of our software, our software platform, bringing QNX in. There is no standstill at any moment here at RIM.

What I wanted to make clear to the market is that we believe in our own strength, we are BlackBerry, we are an integrated solution, hardware, software, services, and network.

Perhaps, Mr. Heins makes a point. RIM is clearly trying to change. We just haven’t seen it yet.

A QNX-based BlackBerry 10 operating system is a huge step in the right direction, but it was announced in April 2010 and won’t be ready until the second half of this year. Quite the wait, if I may be so bold.

Then there’s the PlayBook 2.0 OS that’s supposed to make its way to us next month, and refreshed hardware to go along with it which hasn’t been given a clear release date. Again, these are solid changes. PlayBook 2.0 brings everything that the first tablet OS was lacking and does it in a seamless, elegant manner. But… the original PlayBook should’ve launched with this version of the OS, even if it meant the launch would be a bit later. Another case of attempted change, but poor execution.

Another change we’ll soon see from RIM has to do with their launch strategy. RIM usually puts out two or three new phones all on the same day. It’s like a BlackBerry explosion. But according to a leaked roadmap, the company seems to finally realize that a staggered approach is the only way to give each device a moment in the sun. It’s a smart move, we just need to experience it.

Finally, the BlackBerry London. Despite the fact that RIM’s bread and butter lies with its full QWERTY keyboard, the company is expected to debut BlackBerry 10 on an all-touch device, codenamed London. I have to say I applaud RIM for this choice, for now.

RIM’s core audience enjoys the full QWERTY, no doubt, and the company will likely continue to be the de facto when it comes to communication and QWERTY handsets. But (yep, another but)… the world is moving to all-touch whether RIM likes it or not. This is the company’s chance to tap into a different, younger segment of the market.

Of course, the London will need to be just about perfect in terms of hardware to get the ball rolling again, especially since RIM’s found itself in an uphill battle.

Long story short, RIM certainly is in the midst of a change. Whether it’s big enough or coming soon enough is an entirely different story.

For the second time over the course of a year, it would seem as though Sprint’s ready to kill the BlackBerry PlayBook. A new version of the PlayBook OS is set to debut in February, but according to an EOL (End of Life) report out of SprintFeed, Sprint isn’t prepared for the wait. Not even for a week.

Of course, the WiFi-only PlayBook will still be available at various office stores like Best Buy and from RIM directly, but Sprint’s execution of the PlayBook marks the end of the product’s life on a carrier shelf.

At least for now. Rumors of a new BlackBerry PlayBook have been swirling around as of late, and just a couple days ago former CEO Jim Balsillie confirmed the existence of such a device. Still, it’ll likely be a while before PlayBook 2 hits the market and I’d be comfortable assuming that, even with the price cuts, RIM still has quite a few tablets it’d like to unload.

That said, getting the boot from Sprint likely isn’t great news over at Waterloo, but the good news is that it’ll hopefully be replaced by a tablet with a 1.5GHz processor, an NFC chip, and support for 42Mbps HSPA+.

Maybe specs like that will fare better.

It’s only been one full day since former COO Thorsten Heins has taken the top spot at RIM, and we may already be privy to the company’s game plan for the next 15 months. According to reports from BGR‘s always-willing sources, RIM is hard at work on a series of new product launches that will culminate with the launch of their first BlackBerry 10 device in the latter half of this year.

For a company that gets nearly consistent praise for their physical QWERTY keyboards, they’re taking a risk by making the all-touch BlackBerry London the first BlackBerry 10 device to be pushed out the door. The London is reportedly on track for a September launch despite the kerfuffle surrounding their 4G chipsets, but a release so late into 2012 will pit RIM against a crop of strong competitors.

The London’s September launch should be followed by a hybrid touch/keyboard device (along the lines of the Bold 9900) roughly a month later. There have also been internal rumblings about a BlackBerry 10-powered QWERTY slider handset (a new Torch?), which is rumored to be released in Q1 2013.

Of course, RIM plans to ship a few new BlackBerry 7 devices between now and when their platform makes its long-awaited debut. Enter the EDGE-only BlackBerry Curve 9230 and the HSPA-friendly Curve 9320, neither of which will likely turn many heads when they see the light of day.

Along with RIM’s spate of new smartphones, a revamped BlackBerry PlayBook is also said to be in the works. The jury is still out on design and dimensions, but the new PlayBook is expected to sport a 1.5GHz processor, an NFC chip, and support for 42Mbps HSPA+. This itself isn’t much of a surprise — former co-CEO Jim Balsillie confirmed the existence of a refreshed PlayBook to the Wall Street Journal yesterday — but it’ll be interesting to see if this one fares any better than the original.

Some of the info matches up to previous leaks, and so far the new RIM seems centered around two things it can’t afford to bungle: the revival of the PlayBook and (more importantly) the BlackBerry 10 launch. Let’s take the Blackberry 7-powered Curves out of the equation for right now, as no one expects those to turn things around for RIM.

Credit where credit is due, taking a more restrained approach to product launches strikes me a smarter move than what they’ve done in the past. RIM’s devices releases have are often lumped together — consider this triple whammy of AT&T BlackBerrys from August, and this pair of new handsets from November. Staggering these new releases gives these devices room to breathe and hopefully hit their stride before being joined by other models.

Still, a thoughtful release timeline won’t mean anything if the products themselves aren’t up to snuff. One real fear I have is that BlackBerry 10 won’t be enough of a step forward, even after they’ve spent all this time on it. The new CEO doesn’t do much to assuage my concerns — Heins noted yesterday that he didn’t see much need for a “drastic change” for the company, though others may see it differently (quick aside: RIM’s stock has dipped yet again).

Whenever a company appoints new leadership here in the tech world, the blogosphere seems to unanimously post about what the new top dog needs to do to make his or her company better. I promise, you’ll see dozens of headlines today talking about what Thorsten Heins must do in order to save BlackBerry.

In many cases, I agree with what’s being said. RIM’s in trouble, and without a new vision the company risks slipping even further behind the competition. You know… “the other fruit company.”

So rather than list out all of the things Heins needs to do to save the company (which, we can all agree, would take a really long time), I’m going to tell you guys the five things that Mr. Heins absolutely must not, without a doubt, under no circumstances… do.

That is, if RIM wants to keep selling smartphones.

Be Complacent

In less than a day at the post, Heins has proven himself to be quite the quote machine. My favorite: “I don’t think there is a drastic change needed.”

Alright, Mr. Heins. In that case we have a problem.

First, let’s just take a look at RIM’s numbers over the course of 2011. According to comScore, RIM slid from an 8.6 percent market share in January (as far as mobile phone OEMs go) to a 6.5 percent share in November. Where smartphone OSes are concerned, the dip was much more pronounced. RIM’s 30.4 percent share in January fell to almost half that, 16.6 percent, by November.

If these numbers can tell us anything, it’s that a drastic change is in fact needed. Yes, the BlackBerry brand did make a huge impact on the mobile landscape, and sure, there are still plenty of people in the Middle East and Europe (and even here) that heart their little BBM-machine. But whatever mind share the brand used to have is dwindling, just as the numbers are.

Sure, a superphone with killer specs would be great. A solid operating system? Yep, the company needs that too. But until leadership over in Waterloo realizes that enterprise-level security on messaging and a physical keyboard are no longer bringing in the “ooohs” and “aaahs”, nothing will change.

Lose Track Of Time

Anticipation can be deadly, as can forced urgency. RIM has struggled with both in the past year.

The company first announced it would be transitioning over to the QNX OS in April of 2010. It’s now 2012. Granted, the BlackBerry PlayBook is enjoying its QNX status (although the PlayBook has its own problems), but when we focus on smartphones the company has yet to offer or even announce a QNX-powered (BBX, or more formally BB 10) BlackBerry.

A big part of the mobile realm has to do with timing. If you know Apple’s about to release a new iPhone or that Google is about to pop out a new version of Android, you aren’t going to run out and pick up a new phone. No, you wait. It’s a fact these companies need to embrace.

If I’m a BlackBerry owner in April of 2010, and I hear that an entirely revamped, much more powerful OS is in the works, I want to wait to upgrade my hardware. But over the course of the year, Google launches Ice Cream Sandwich and Apple releases Siri and the iPhone 4S. And what do you know? RIM’s market share tanks to half of what it was. Obviously QNX wasn’t worth the wait for many.

I’m not saying the move to QNX is a bad decision. The opposite, in fact. But if you’re going to bet the company on a brand new OS, get yourself in gear and make it happen. And in the meantime, shut your lips about when it’ll be available and how awesome it is. You’re only frustrating your loyalists and asking potential Android/Apple defectors to come and check out… well, nothing.

But rushing is just as fatal, which is the story of the PlayBook. No need to relive that nightmare, but you know the important parts: no email, no contacts, no calendar, no PlayBook owners. It’s quite simple: If it’s not ready, we don’t want it.

Neglect Developers

RIM is more than just your basic OEM. The company provides services and, to an extent, builds out its own software. It’s an ecosystem, which is what every electronics company strives to be. But RIM’s ecosystem is one with a serious lack of wildlife — a tundra, if you will. Especially compared to the jungle of iOS and Android.

Developers take what is usually a very fundamental system and make it do everything and anything. Without the App Store, my iPhone is actually quite limited. That’s what owning a BlackBerry is like.

Compared to two app stores with well over half a million apps each, RIM’s BlackBerry App World boasts just 38,363. Unfortunately, at least 5,000 of them are visual themes. RIM’s own services like BBM are great but compared to other platforms, such a small selection (even with BBM) is a tough sell.

The good news is that any app built for PlayBook 2.0 will also run on BB 10, so in that way, RIM can double up on developers. Still, you need developers to build before you can run their app on both tablets and smartphones, and if I were a developer I’d already have lost interest. RIM needs to take note of this and create some incentives quickly.

If you have an iPhone or Android device, there’s probably an app for that.

Ignore Employees

Perhaps the greatest mistake that former RIM leadership made was to ignore the folks that comprise the company. I say it may be the biggest because who knows what kind of mind-blowing ideas and game-changing opportunities RIM has passed up under old leadership. In the past year, numerous open letters from both curernt and ex-employees have pointed to the same thing, over and over again: Mike and Jim didn’t listen to the lower level.

RIM has plenty of young guns, I’m sure, who are much more in tune with what today’s consumer wants from their smartphone. In fact, many of them probably grew up in a world where mobile phones were ubiquitous and smartphones are the growing norm, which can’t be said for Mike, Jim, or Thorsten.

But that’s not really the point. The point is that every single one of his new employees will be looking to see if he’s Mike/Jim’s new puppet (especially after this morning’s comments). They’re all waiting, likely pregnant with ideas on how to better the company, to see if he’ll turn an ear to them or not.

Hopefully he’s got his listening ears on.

Follow

It’s easy to follow when you’re already behind, but Mr. Heins must resist. It would be easy to follow Apple and Android because that’s largely what the company has been doing since 2009, when it launched a competing app storefront a year after Apple launched the App Store. But I’m less worried about that.

After the comments he made earlier today, namely that no change is needed, it would seem that Heins is already on Lazaridis and Balsillie’s team. The problem is that they refused to look forward, instead focusing on their glorious past. By saying that no change is needed, Heins is basically agreeing with them and telling the board, investors, and BlackBerry owners that the company has no real plans to compete in this landscape.

While the spec is dead (and megapixels don’t really mean that much in terms of picture quality), I remember the names Titan 2 and Xperia S because HTC and Sony hooked up these phones with 16- and 12-megapixel sensors. In the past year every flagship has had an 8-megapixel camera, and while I don’t think that either of these phones are a huge upgrade, they’re still the first of their kind.

It wouldn’t hurt RIM to try to be first at something. The company has likely forgotten the feeling of being first, which means they’ve likely also forgotten the value of it.

But everyone, most importantly the consumer, loves to be first.

Good news: You’ve been promoted to CEO! Bad news: Public perception of your company has tanked over the past few years, and your stockholders are looking at you to save the day. What ever you do first, just hope that you don’t give the world that sound bite that suggests you think everything is okay and that nothing at the company needs to change. Whoops!

Less than 24 hours after RIM’s executive shakeup, the company is already seeing its first “drastic change”: its stock price.

After opening the day at $17 (down from $62.69 a year ago, a drop of about 75%), the effects of the incoming CEO’s first (surprisingly defensive) teleconference call began to spread. To put it gently, it was not well-received. By closing time, the stock had dipped another $1.44. That’s a drop in the bucket for most mammoth tech companies — but for the already bruised RIM, that works out to another 8.5% lost.

I’m actually surprised it didn’t tank further. If I was someone who still had money in RIM (un-disclaimer: I’ve got no money in anything), I’d have lost my last shred of hope by noon today. If RIM’s new CEO really thinks that something doesn’t need to change, he’s probably just about the only one left.

RIM’s new CEO Thorsten Heins has only been at the reigns for an evening, but he did a very “BlackBerry” job of presenting himself to the media this morning on his introductory media call.

It felt a lot like the media calls of yore, with Balsillie and Lazaridis at the helm. Especially when Heins referred to Apple as “the other fruit company,” noting the two companies shared strategy of vertical integration. Unfortunately, vertical integration of software and hardware is about all that these two fruits have in common.

Remember folks, Heins is coming off of a four-year stint at RIM. At the relatively young company, Heins worked under founder Mike Lazaridis and his partner in crime Jim Balsillie. That said, you can basically hear Lazaridis-style hubris in Heins’ comments.

When asked if there was anything Heins wanted to do in the past, but was held back from by his position, Heins confirms that he (along with the freshly removed prior leadership) doesn’t see much wrong with RIM.

“At the time, the company was growing but still acting as a startup,” said Heins. “But startup processes don’t scale. Every company goes through that phase. I had the opportunity to learn about RIM here. I don’t think that there is a drastic change needed. We are evolving our tactics and processes. I don’t feel that I was held back in any way to do what I needed to do.”

So, let’s just parse this out, shall we? Heins, as COO, was never held back in executing operational decisions or strategies. That means that anything he has wanted to do to help grow (and likely save) the brand, he could’ve already done. In other words, don’t expect a brand new BlackBerry or a brand new RIM.

But the new CEO had plenty more to talk about, namely that he has no plans to split the software and hardware businesses. So you can kiss dreams of an Android-powered BlackBerry out the window for now.

No, it’s BB 10 all the way, courtesy of QNX. When asked whether QNX is really “the thing,” Heins responded by saying that “QNX is not developing an OS. It’s an existing OS. It’s used already. It’s a multi-threaded OS. What that allows us to do is true multitasking. You can have many apps open at the same time and really run them real-time in parallel.”

He finished his shpeel by noting that QNX is “an extremely competitive OS today.” Of course, we have no way of judging that until RIM fiddles around with it, makes it usable on a smartphone, and then finally releases it.

Heins also mentioned that he’d be open to licensing BB 10 to other manufacturers, “if it makes sense strategically and tactically.” But again, other manufacturers would likely need to see consumer reaction to the OS before anything like that went down, which brings us back to RIM’s most pressing and important near-term goal: get BB 10 to market quickly.

[via Engadget]

It was a big day for football fans, with both the AFC and NFC Championships taking place this afternoon and this evening. The games grab more than a few eyeballs every year — last year’s championships grabbed 54.8 million and 51.9 million viewers, respectively. While the numbers aren’t out yet for today’s games, the viewership is expected to be equally as enormous.

That’s why so many in the Twittersphere have been so quick to point out that, nestled quietly behind a hotly contested NFC Championship between the New York Giants and the San Francisco 49ers, and an equally great game over in the AFC, was a fairly huge announcement for the maker of BlackBerry, Research In Motion. During Championship Sunday, RIM quietly released a statement saying that its co-CEOs, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, are stepping down and will be replaced by current COO for products and sales, Thorsten Hein.

It’s certainly no accident that they would make such a statement during a highly-publicized and much-watched event like the NFC and AFC Championships — even if they did benefit from close games, with one that ended in sudden death overtime. Thus, we’re calling it taking advantage of the “The CEO Sneak,” in honor of football’s time-honored play called the Quarterback Sneak. The CEO sneak is not employed as often as the quarterback sneak, so it’s good to see RIM taking advantage of the diversion to sneak in their announcement about its leadership changes.

And, again, this obviously big news for RIM, whose co-CEOs have been leading the company for the better part of decades. Unfortunately, RIM has been struggling mightily of late, and when a once-enormous public company falls on hard times, lays off thousands of employees, and loses large chunks of its market share to the competition, investors and shareholders are bound to get antsy. Many have called for new leadership, management overhauls, and even the sale of the company to a larger entity.

In fact, last year, several large investors in the Canadian mobile device company floated a proposal seeking to break up RIM’s co-CEO duo, arguing that operations (and chairman and chief executive positions) are best managed by one person. Pardon the bad joke, but you might see it as the officials throwing a flag for too many CEOs on the field.

The co-CEOs managed to retain their dual leadership, but today the pressure was too great. Both former leaders are saying that they were not forced out by the board of directors, but instead made the decision themselves, recommending that the board make Thorsten Heins the new CEO. It was a bold move to mollify its dissenters, especially in naming a new CEO that many are, at least to date, somewhat unfamiliar with in Heins. However, the new CEO will still have to contend with the shadow of the former leaders, as they will be staying on at RIM in board positions, with Lazaridis becoming vice chair.

If the former CEOs did in fact step down under their own volition, then there was no better time to let the news trickle out than on a Sunday — during the NFC Championship, when many would be distracted yelling at their TV screens and spilling beer on their remotes. And it’s certainly better than having to wait for the Super Bowl, which won’t be played until February 5th. There’s already been one notable Super Bowl Shuffle. Points to whomever comes up with the best spoof of the Super Bowl Shuffle for RIM.

If the company is confident in its new CEO and the management changes that are afoot (more in our latest post here), why hide it behind football? Why not do so proudly and boldly on a slow news day? (Granted, Sunday can be just that.)

So, what do you think readers, was this a smart move? And more importantly, do you think this management shuffle bodes well for RIM going forward? Will its stock jump on this Hail Mary, or fumble and dive? Weigh in and let us know. Let’s hope that the future of RIM is bright and won’t require a post like this.

Read RIM’s release here, and our coverage here.

And, as a bonus, here’s the guy who was leading the sneak, or being snuck, if you prefer. Can Thorsten Heins become RIM’s Tim Cook? Hard to believe so based on this video, but it is early in the game.

Image credit: AP Photo/Julio Cortez

I suppose some might have seen this coming. In December, Research In Motion (RIM) released their third quarter earnings, which were yet another disappointment for the struggling maker of BlackBerry. RIM Co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis announced subsequently that they would only draw yearly salaries of $1 to help combat the company’s financial woes.

Today, it seems the pressure has become too great, and a management shuffle is under way. The Globe has reported that the co-CEOs, after a year of pressure from investors and stockholders, have stepped down from the position. Company insider and current COO Thorsten Heins will be replacing them as the new chief executive.

Lazaridis and Balsillie have both led the Waterloo-based company for decades, as Lazardis founded RIM back in 1984 and later brought on Balsillie. Balsillie stepped down from his role as Chairman in 2007, but retained his position as co-CEO along with Lazaridis. Today, the founder will become vice chairman of the board along with chair of the board’s new “Innovations Committee”, and Balsillie will remain a board member — but with no functional operating role in RIM going forward, according to Bloomberg.

RIM Director Barbara Stymiest is to take over as chairman of the board, and Thorsten Heins, the current COO is now the top dog. Heins joined RIM four years ago from Siemens AG, where he was the CTO.

The struggles of the Canadian mobile device maker have been well-documented. BlackBerries reached a point of ubiquity over the last decade, especially in corporate environments, but RIM has had a difficult time keeping pace with Apple and the meteoric rise of Android. The company has also struggled to produce a viable tablet alternative, with sales of its PlayBook declining — it shipped 150,000 of these devices, the company said in its third quarter earnings, down from 200,000 in Q2.

Since laying off 2,000 employees in July of last year, RIM has gotten aggressive with its promotions and price cuts for PlayBook, but the competition continues to eat into the company’s market share, as its portion of the smartphone market dipped to 11 percent — down from 15 percent the previous year.

It’s been a very rocky road for RIM, and really it’s a sad story to watch unfold, as RIM has been one of the most valuable companies in Canada, and has ranked in the country’s top 100 employers. It also experienced one of its worst outages in history in October, and some of its top investors pushed the company to split up its co-CEO leadership last summer, which was later withdrawn.

Now, it seems, RIM’s investors have finally gotten their way, and RIM has opted to replace the Co-CEOs with an insider. Heins was previously the chief operating officer for product and sales, a position he took in August, charged with overseeing engineering, hardware and software.

In a statement released by RIM tonight, the founder said of Heins’ appointment:

There comes a time in the growth of every successful company when the founders recognize the need to pass the baton to new leadership. Jim and I went to the Board and told them that we thought that time was now. With BlackBerry 7 now out, PlayBook 2.0 shipping in February and BlackBerry 10 expected to ship later this year, the company is entering a new phase, and we felt it was time for a new leader to take it through that phase and beyond. Jim, the Board and I all agreed that leader should be Thorsten Heins.

Even though he has the full support of Balsillie, Lazaridis, and the board, Heins has a tough road ahead. Sure, many are hoping that he can help RIM turn itself around, myself included, but both RIM and Heins will have to assure investors, customers, and everyone in between, that he is not operating in the shadow of the former CEOs and will be given the necessary room to implement structural and product changes, and start catalyzing the growth and development that can help them regain lost ground.

In terms of potential for RIM moving forward, Heins said in a statement that the company still has a strong balance sheet, with $1.5 billion in cash at the end of last quarter, and little to no debt. Revenues were $5.2 billion in the third quarter, and it’s undeniable that RIM has a strong BlackBerry subscriber base — currently over 75 million.

If RIM can gain some traction with PlayBook 2.0 and BlackBerry 10, there may be a silver lining. RIM gave a sneak peak of PlayBook 2.0 at CES this year, and Devin included the company in our list of winners for this year’s CES, saying that they’re still showing that they are a “force to be reckoned with in some respects”, and that the “PlayBook is a far better tablet than it was, and that Google and Apple should take a look at some of their clever and powerful gesture and UI work”. Let’s just hope it’s not too late.

BlackBerry 10 has been delayed, leading many to speculate that there have been some problems with its development, in integrating that software with its global network, but Heins hinted to the New York Times that he wants to see BlackBerry 10 released at some point this year. After 18 months in development, it seems clear that RIM has been handicapped in its decision-making process, and unfortunately, it puts all the more pressure on the new OS to shine when it arrives. They missed with the first release of PlayBook, and have been scrambling to iterate quickly. Devin’s impressions show that it may be working, but initial poor reviews may have put the kibosh on that one.

At least it seems more determined now to play to the concerns of its detractors, rather than ignoring the problems. This may instill some confidence going forward, and with Heins in the big chair, it looks like stay-the-course is RIM’s new motto, and those buyout rumors will quiet down — at least for now.

As an addendum, I’ll say that it’s interesting to note that RIM released this news right in the midst of the NFC Championship — a highly watched TV event and one that sparks an enormous amount of coverage in traditional media and on the Web. (More here.)

Keep an eye on RIM’s stock tomorrow.

We will continue updating.

Peter Rojas published a thought-provoking piece about RIM and BlackBerry 10. He said, in short, that the Canadian company should wipe out Blackberry OS and run Android or Windows or, barring that, sell out completely and offer a software package running on another OS. While both of those are logical positions, I think RIM will end up in far worse shape than those options allow.

RIM is popular for three reasons: the keyboard, BBM, and the back-end software. For most of this decade, IT shops have been able to send out fleets of BlackBerry products without concern simply because there was nothing better for email and messaging. Over the past three years, however, that claim has gone completely out the window. I would reckon that a nice IMAP server install is far easier and cheaper than any BB Enterprise Server ever was and, given this screenshot from the actual BBES “purchase” page, there is a lot of sales pressure involved.

What needs to happen (and what probably will happen) is fairly tragic: a major player, probably Microsoft, will buy the company and fold whatever patents and IP RIM has into its own cache. The buyer will pay lip service to the promise of a “bold new BlackBerry” and then, like Danger and the Sidekick, it will flatten the organization after all of the major talent leaves. BlackBerry will end up a footnote, BBES turned into Exchange, and WinPho 7 will make a “best-of-breed” keyboard phone. Given the improvements in batteries and materials, it should be hard to make a clone that runs as long as everyone with a BB expects it to. Plus, you’ve got the might and majesty of Microsoft behind it.

So, in the end, the question is not how BlackBerry will survive but when will it die? I’m bearish on the company – have been for years – and as good as those phones have been to millions of users, nothing bodes well for our cellphone neighbors to the North.

[Image: Asturianu/Shutterstock]

When RIM first launched the BlackBerry PlayBook last spring, we were all rather shocked to find that RIM’s stand-out core services — secure messaging and productivity related apps like calendar and contacts — were… absent. The company promised an update to fix it, and after eight months said update has finally been unveiled here at CES.

Truth be told, the new PlayBook OS is much better than expected, but I guess you start to set the bar low when the first time around was so disappointing. We got a chance to go hands-on with the new system here at CES, and recorded a video just for you fine readers.

In it, you’ll see the new unified inbox which I find to be the best new feature. I also like the fact that you’re not bombarded with a home screen full of pre-set app tabs, but can now customize tabs to hold whatever apps you like. Everyone organizes themselves differently and on a tablet specifically designed for the productive professional, there shouldn’t be any restrictions to how you set yourself up.

The only problem is that this is exactly what PlayBook 1.0 should have been, as Matt points out. RIM was relatively early to the tablet space, and flopped entirely. It would’ve been better to enter the tablet space now (with 2.0) than to try and regain consumer interest in what has become a rather crowded segment.

As RIM navigates some particularly rough seas, it appears as though the company may soon kick-off a good old-fashioned corporate governance shakeup in order to please their shareholders. Although they’ll retain their positions as co-CEOs, the Financial Post reports that RIM’s Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie may soon be ousted from their positions as chairmen of the board.

The sordid tale began this past summer, when shareholder Northwest & Ethical Investments LP proposed that the CEO and chairman positions should be split citing the need for “increased board oversight.”

RIM was quick to answer at the time by saying that the chairman position helped Lazaridis and Balsillie generate business for the company. Northwest & Ethical retracted their proposal, on the condition that RIM could have six months to prove that letting the co-CEOs keep their titles as chairmen would benefit the business.

Time is quickly running out, and if the FP’s sources are to be believed, there really isn’t reason for things to stay the way they are. As a result, RIM is reportedly eyeing independent director Barbara Stymiest to take over as chairperson of the board, but we may have to wait until January 31 before anything becomes official.

That initial proposal must feel like an eternity away for RIM’s top brass, as the company has suffered crisis after crisis since then. Anemic PlayBook sales, a world-wide service outage, and a pair of drunk (and possibly superhuman) executives raising hell on a plane are just a few of the things that the company has had to weather recently, which could explain why Lazaridis and Balsillie may not be putting up much of a fight.

They’ve already offered up their joint mea culpa by slashing their salaries down to $1/year, so relinquishing their chairmen roles could be their next step in appeasing the shareholders. It seems to be working, at least temporarily — at time of writing, RIM’s stock price has jumped 8.5% since the market opened.

The bigger question that this whole situation raises is how exactly this affects RIM’s future. Both men will retain their roles as co-CEOs unless something terribly drastic happens, and hopefully the shakeup is enough to shock the company into trying something new. Even so, RIM’s foreseeable future is looking dicey — the company’s first BlackBerry 10 devices have already been pushed later into 2012 than expected, and PlayBook price tags are being slashed left and right in an effort to move product. Lazaridis and Balsillie don’t seem to be men who like sweeping change, but here’s hoping a change in corporate structure will have them making some bold new plays.

Well, if you were hoping to snag a BlackBerry PlayBook on the cheap, it looks like now’s the time to act. In what seems like a move born of desperation, all models of the PlayBook are now going for $299 on RIM’s online store.

Previous PlayBook sales have set the beginning price point at $199 for the 16GB model, but this time you’ll be able to purchase a 64GB PlayBook for the same price as a 16GB model. Not too shabby, especially if you didn’t jump on a local truckstop special.

Of course, that supposes that there are enough of them to go around — with every variant sporting the same price tag, I expect RIM to sell though their 64GB PlayBooks before long.

RIM is no stranger to PlayBook price cuts, but this new promotion is slated to run through the beginning of February, which would make it one of the longest, most drastic price cuts in the tablet’s troubled history. With PlayBook OS 2.0 scheduled to hit devices sometime next month, it could be a ploy to move units into people’s hands ahead of the update.

Then again, RIM’s most recent earnings statement shows that the audience for the PlayBook is slowly dying, with shipments slowing considerably throughout 2011. It’s beginning to look like the only way people will buy one of these things is with some hefty discounts involved, which doesn’t exactly bode well for RIM’s financial position. Still, their loss is your gain — the PlayBook is a flawed tablet to be sure, but this is a solid deal if you’re already stuck using a BlackBerry.

I swear, it never ends — not long after a U.S. court passed down a judgment that saw RIM change the name of their new operating system, the company has once again gotten themselves into a tiff over trademarks. This time, the name in question is “BBM,” RIM’s preferred shorthand for their popular BlackBerry Messenger service.

The lawsuit comes courtesy of BBM Canada, a not-for-profit broadcast and audience measurement organization that’s been in business considerably longer than RIM has. Originally known as the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement, the group was originally founded in 1944 and took on the BBM moniker in 2001 — well before RIM’s BlackBerry Messenger service came to be.

RIM has gotten quite a bit of mileage out of BBM, and went on an advertising spree a while back in order to drum up some public interest for it. While using the BBM mark is totally admissible here in the States, the company filed for and was denied a trademark for BBM in their native Canada.

“We want our name back,” said BBM Canada CEO Jim MacLeod. “I find it kind of amazing that this wouldn’t have been thought about before they decided to use the name. The same thing goes for BBX.”

MacLeod seems strangely apologetic about the whole thing — he has made efforts to accomodate the much larger company, even going so far as offering to rebrand the group entirely in order to avoid making a scene. Those overtures were met with silence from RIM, which has led to the sticky situation these companies are embroiled in.

RIM hasn’t yet responded to these allegations, but when they do, I imagine that they’ll say there’s no conflict since both companies operate in different fields. Then again, since they tried that line during the BBX case to no avail, RIM’s legal team may need to work out a different approach. If this sort of thing keeps up, the company runs the risk of looking, well, incompetent. And really, the last thing RIM needs now is for their top brass to look foolish, lest their stock price take (another) dive.

If you’re a BlackBerry user and you’ve been waiting for a music service that’s just a bit more compelling than BBM Music, then you may be in luck — emphasis on the “may.” Spotify for BlackBerry was officially released today, but you’ll only be able to use it under some specific circumstances.

According to Spotify’s blog, the newly released app will only work for users with the following BlackBerrys: the Bold 9780, Bold 9700, Curve 9300, Bold 9000, and the Curve 8520.

If none of those handsets sound terribly familiar, I can’t say I blame you — the newest of the bunch (the 9780) was released more than a year ago. Spotify doesn’t explicitly mention whether or not the app works with newer BlackBerry 7 devices, but a Spotify rep told the owner of a newer Bold 9900 that he could “be sneaky and try it anyway.”

Even then, the sneaky approach won’t work for everyone. Spotify’s blog mentions that CDMA BlackBerrys aren’t compatible at all, and neither is the Torch 9800. That said, BlackBerry owners with flashier hardware may still want to give it a whirl — some users on CrackBerry have apparently gotten the app to work on both a Bold 9900 and the ostensibly verboten 9800.

To say that RIM has had it rough these past few months is a understatement, but according to a new report from Reuters, it may not have had to go through these trials alone. In a surprising twist, Amazon was reportedly considering a RIM acquisition as recently as this past summer.

According to Reuters, Amazon had tasked an investment bank with exploring the possibility of a RIM buyout, although their sources don’t mention how far both parties were from finalizing a deal. The talks seemed to be largely informal in nature so it may have been nothing more than an open-ended meeting of the minds, but man — what a deal that would’ve been.

The real head-scratcher here is why Amazon would want with RIM in the first place. Analysts from Citigroup predicted last month that an Amazon-branded phone could see the light of day some time next year, and acquiring RIM would certainly give them a platform to work off of. Then again, Amazon made their interest in Android apparent in March when they officially launched their own Android app store, not to mention the fact that they were probably already working on the Android-powered Kindle Fire.

Patents then? RIM holds their fair share of wireless patents many of which could come in handy if Amazon ever chose to pursue a stronger presence in the mobile space. It’s a definite possibility, but with both parties keeping quiet on the subject, we may never know for sure.

Amazon apparently wasn’t the only one floating the notion of a RIM acquisition: Reuters mentions that bankers have tried to convince HTC and Samsung to make a move, although they made the obvious choice to ignore their ailing competitor.

Now it appears that RIM is looking to brave the market alone once again, as the company’s board has told co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis to forget the idea of selling parts of the business. The company also seems to have begun a campaign of bright-eyed optimism in an attempt to convince people that the best is yet to come. Their most recent quarterly financials were filled with such bright-eyed gems as “we are more determined than ever to capitalize on our strengths,” and the company’s pair of CEOs announced shortly afterward that they would reduce their salaries to $1 per year.

Whether or not these maneuvers are enough to ease shareholder concerns is still up in the air, though a quick look at their stock performance shows that it doesn’t seem to be working so far. With share prices plummeting and the release of their next-gen BlackBerry 10 devices being pushed later into 2012, I can’t help but wonder if RIM regrets rebuffing Amazon’s advances.

Wow!

They must be breaking mirrors, opening umbrellas and walking under ladders over at RIM because this is starting to get unbelievable. A big rig, carrying around $1.7 million worth of BlackBerry PlayBooks, was stolen in Indiana.

The PlayBook has been a rough product for the Waterloo-based company. While RIM did quite a bit right with the little tab, lack of native email and calendar support made it a tough sell. The price tag didn’t help either, though RIM’s done what it can to squash that issue. In fact, PlayBook sales are actually looking up compared to what they’ve been.

Of course, the truck had no tracking software included, so at this point your guess as to where it may be is as good as mine. But the FBI’s guesses are a bit more informed, and they think that the truck may be headed to Miami, a popular spot for stolen goods.

So if you happen to see about 5,000 BlackBerry Playbooks being sold in a shady store in Miami, call the cops. Not out of the moral goodness in your heart, but out of sheer sympathy for RIM. The company has already lost around $485 million due to PlayBook inventory write-offs (translation: we can’t sell ‘em), but according to Electronista, this extra $1.7 million can’t hurt that bad.

But embarrassing screw-up after embarrassing screw-up? That can sting like a b-word.