One of the questions on everyone's mind at BlackBerry World has been how RIM is dividing its focus between enterprise users and regular customers — where does the company see BlackBerry devices being used? CEO Thorsten Heins told a group of reporters during a press briefing that while RIM's still focused on consumers, a core place for growth is going to be in business settings. In response to a question asking essentially how the company feels about enterprise, Heins simply responded that "it absolutely matters. Right now, the external focus on the company is mostly driven by our handset and devices business... There's much more to RIM than just devices." Not only do businesses matter, he said, but it's the among the most important pieces for the company, "because that's where BlackBerrys live best, that's where they really flourish."
"We want to be number one in mobile enterprise. It's as simple as that."
Enterprise has long been the company's bread and butter, but Heins was clear that there's plenty room for improvement. "When we look at the organization, in the enterprise business, we have a lot of fragmentation across different functions. RIM was not entirely well-connected the way it should have been." He mentioned products like Mobile Fusion as also critical to the company's success, saying "we will push the throttle pedal a bit more. This is clearly an investment area — I just want to be number one in mobile enterprise. It's as simple as that, and that's where BlackBerry 10 becomes important, pushing BlackBerry 10 into the mobile enterprise." He was careful to reiterate that RIM is not leaving the consumer business, but it certainly sounds like the company's also identified another, maybe more valuable, direction.