Anyone who knows what a BlackBerry is might be familiar with their makers: Research in Motion. If you've kept up with the tech world or even taken a look at what smartphone your friends are buying, BlackBerry's are becoming an increasingly rare sight to see. Despite the company's financial struggles however, CEO Thorsten Heins still believes the company is headed in the right direction -- and has a few opinions to share about the gameplan of Microsoft and Nokia.
In an interview with The Verge's Joshua Topolsky, Mr. Heins compared RIM to Nokia and somehow believes their company is not in the same exact predicament as the former número uno. He also went on to say that RIM would not consider a platform that is "at the directive of [its] provider", so maybe the company isn't considering Windows Phone as a backup plan after all. Here's the Nokia-related quote:
"I think we're in a different position, we have 80 million users today — Nokia doesn't have that, they're not in the service play, they have no value on top of the handsets."
Meanwhile, CNET also had the opportunity to speak to the still-new chief executive and he once again took a few subtle shots at Microsoft and Nokia. Talking about how RIM would compete to be the Number 3 ecosystem in the smartphone market, Heins said that Microsoft's strategy with Windows Phone 7.x and Windows Phone 8 is "confusing at the moment". He blames Microsoft's communication for the confusion, which we'll give to him that the company poorly explained the upcoming relationship between 7.8 and 8.
Just to let you know, Mr. Heins, Nokia did have more than 80 million users of its handsets at one point, but unfortunately lacked the vision to move fast enough to a next-generation platform. Hence the famous "burning platform" memo, and it's the number one reason why you're hemorrhaging money right now. Plus with BlackBerry 10, RIM will have to begin work on a new ecosystem from zilch nearly six years after the original iPhone kicked off the smartphone craze. Microsoft may have been behind, but they weren't that behind and Windows Phone will have more than two years and 100,000 apps under its belt by the time RIM's new smartphones hit retail.
It's hard for us to remain objective about this, but if we were to strip away our Windows Phone-favoring for a moment, it's still shocking to see that Heins believes his company is better off than Nokia. Is Mr. Heins really that out of touch, or is he sweet-talking to make light of their issues? Also, does BlackBerry 10 stand a chance against Windows Phone 8? Let us know your thoughts in the comments thread below.
Via: WPCentral
Source: The Verge, CNET
