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RIM CEO: BlackBerry is a differentiated product, Android OEMs 'are all the same'

RIM CEO: BlackBerry is a differentiated product, Android OEMs 'are all the same'

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In an interview with CrackBerry, RIM's new CEO Thorsten Heins has clarified his recent comments about the company's strategy for the near future.

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RIM BlackBerry_640
RIM BlackBerry_640

In an interview with CrackBerry, RIM's new CEO Thorsten Heins has clarified his recent comments about the company's strategy for the near future. One of the major quotes from Thorsten's first comments after becoming CEO was that RIM doesn't need drastic change, which many have interpreted to mean he'll keep the same course as already set by his predecessors, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis. That was our reading of the matter, too, but Thorsten explains that what he meant was that he doesn't believe RIM needs to split up into smaller parts or be purchased by another company to be successful. Such "seismic" change isn't on the cards, as far as he's concerned, but there's "a lot of structural change" already ongoing, including the move to QNX on the software side, and we're assured that "there is no standstill at any moment" at RIM.

Heins is also emphatic in his rejection of the idea that RIM should focus on building hardware and develop for an established software platform, such as Android: "Just take a look where the Android OEMs are ... there is just no room for differentiation because they are all the same." So, if RIM's new leader has his way, the company will remain a standalone, differentiated mobile competitor, with change taking place in its internal workings rather than through partnerships or mergers with other big names.