As RIM and
BlackBerry head onwards into a future they've forged themselves, we tag along
to find out what they have in dreams, and what they'll be fulfilling
Thorsten
Heins, president and chief executive officer of RIM, giving the opening keynote
address
The place was on the sunny grounds of
Orlando, Florida, and the event was the BlackBerry world 2012 conference, which
was held on the 1st of May and into the 3rd. We were there, along with people
from 150 countries worldwide, with the same question in our head: Where is
BlackBerry headed towards? Research in Motion stands facing an uncertain
future, a promise of a path in ahead. But is it headed to the right direction?
Or is the future more certain than it seems?
This was the question, and BlackBerry had
us there so they could answer it.
The keynote address
BlackBerry world began, naturally, with a
keynote address, and president and CEO of RIM, Thorsten Heins, took the stage
to tremendous applause. "This is a unique moment for me. This is my first
BlackBerry world as CEO of research in motion," said Thorsten. He was
named president and chief executive office of RIM in January 2012, and had
previously served as chief operating office, product engineering, overseeing the
BlackBerry smartphone portfolio worldwide. "I am here because I believe in
the unique value that BlackBerry delivers to our customers every single
day."
"I've spent much of the last three
months talking to as many people as you can imagine; consumers, enterprise
customers, developers, carriers, partners, and our passionate employees,"
he continued. "And like you, these are connected people. People who lived
for a purpose. These are the people that BlackBerry is focused on serving: the
BlackBerry people."
Now what does that mean? RIM's studies has
shown that their customers are "hyper connected". 63% of smartphones
users do social networking every day; 87% of BlackBerry users also do the same
thing. 65% of smartphone user access organisation tools (calendar, task-lists)
on a daily basis. BlackBerry? 91%. And 22% of smartphone users download apps
every day; BlackBerry users, on the other hand, has 34%. This tells that
BlackBerry users are far from the average smartphone users, that they are
people of purpose. "You mobilise other people. You don't just dream -- you
make your goals happen. You get more done in a day."
Clarence So, senior VP for Strategy, salesforce.com (left), talking to Thorsten
on their success story with BlackBerry
Thorsten then questions the true unique
value of BlackBerry. Is it an entertainment machine? Thorsten believe that
they've done a good job, and that entertainment is important. But they needed
to go beyond, as people demand more in a smartphone.
RIM CEO Thorsten Heins told the audience at
BlackBerry World 2012
Is BlackBerry's core being a productivity
tool? Thorsten believes so, certainly ("Of course it does, it's a
BlackBerry!"). And with 55 million BBM subscribers, this is a clear
statement that social integration is important to their users.
Still, according to Thorsten, BlackBerry is
"all about success. You're more productive and competitive. You can
respond faster. You're agile, you're nimble, and you can stay ahead. BlackBerry
lets you create your own success." This, Thorsten says, is the core value
of the company. There are 77 million BlackBerry users across the globe, and
BlackBerry has been there to provide them with great support, data efficiency,
good battery life and security. "We're dedicated to leveraging all aspects
of this unique architecture to make mobility more simple."
Clarence so appears on stage, and joined
Thorsten. He is the senior vice president for strategy at salesforce.com, and
he was there to talk about his company's success story with BlackBerry.
"We wouldn't be as successful we are today without BlackBerry," he
said. "We run our company on BlackBerry devices". He said that they
are focused on enabling social enterprise, and helping global companies by
making Salesforce.com available on all devices, and running it on the upcoming
BlackBerry 10 platform by the end of the year.
Thorsten reveals the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha device
Thorsten then invited Chuck Robbins, senior
vice president for the Americas at Cisco, on stage as well. Chuck talked about
Cisco's alliances with BlackBerry, and confirms that they are working on app
development for BlackBerry 10, as well as WebX and AnyConnect.
And the subject was then on BlackBerry 10,
with Thorsten saying that they want to be sure they got it right. "We had
a tough decision to make: what would the platform for the BlackBerry 10
development? We started looking at analytics, trying to figure out what
BlackBerry is all about. We realised we needed to take a separate route.
“We took the hard road by deciding to
deliver our own platform, quietly acquiring assets like QNX abd bringing them
into BlackBerry 10's mobile computing platform. We're making incredible
progress working on it."
At this point, Thorsten showed us the
BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha device. "And it's working. It's working
well."
