RIM’s Former co-CEO Sought Strategy Shift Before Resigning

Posted on Apr 13 2012 - 11:30am by Editorial Staff

The BlackBerry maker Research In Motion back in late March announced its fiscal fourth quarter results which was far grimmer as expected resulting in company’s co-CEO Jim Balsillie and other top executives leave the company. Reuters is reporting that Balsillie before leaving sought strategy shift for the company. Citing “two sources” familiar with the matter confirmed this to the publication.

The plan would have let the carriers use the RIM network to offer inexpensive data plans, limited to social media and instant messaging, to entice low-tier customers to upgrade from no-frills phones to smartphones. But the talks with carriers led to discord at the highest levels of the troubled Canadian company, and Balsillie resigned from his position.

Balsillie’s plan may have heralded a broader strategic move by RIM to define its high-margin network services – which bring in around $1 billion a quarter – as a business that’s distinct from building and marketing the BlackBerry.  RIM took a first step toward establishing the network as a standalone operation late last year with its Mobile Fusion software that gives corporate and government customers.

This gives an option of linking iPhones and Android devices to their existing BlackBerry management systems. But that does not offer outsiders the unique technology that encrypts data and pushes it out to the BlackBerry. Hope what Balsillie holds before leaving the current management will take benefit of it and try to bring the company back on track as since the time it announced the results, one after another execs resigning.

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