It's tough times for Research in Motion. That was the clear message from RIM's newbie CEO, Thorsten Heins, during a call about quarterly company earnings this afternoon.
Not only are revenues down -- $4.2 billion from $5.2 billion last quarter -- but former co-CEO Jim Balsille has now officially left the company, resigning from the board of directors. COO of Global Operations Jim Rowan and CTO David Yach are out, too. Heins repeatedly emphasized there was "a lot of work to be done" and that the coming months and possibly years would be "challenging."
[More from Mashable: RIM Confirms the PlayBook Will Get BlackBerry 10]
However, Heins also detailed his plan to turn the company around. Saying that the company "cannot succeed by trying to be everybody's darling," Heins revealed that RIM would refocus on its core strengths: enterprise devices and services. Building a platform that emphasizes security, manageability and the company's popular BlackBerry Messenger service will be key areas RIM hopes to build on, he said.
Given the new focus, Heins said consumer-oriented functions such as media consumption (think Netflix, Hulu and Flipboard) would no longer be a priority for the company.
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Heins said he did his own "reality check" on where the company stands, and that RIM's future depends on a successful and smooth launch of BlackBerry 10 devices. The launch, planned for later in the year, is on schedule, he said, and carriers have already responded positively to the first as-yet-unrevealed BlackBerry 10 phone.
That phone would address RIM's lack of a "high-end" phone to match the likes of the iPhone and top-tier Android devices, and it would also be equipped with high-speed LTE connectivity, Heins said. RIM will launch BlackBerry 10 prototype devices to developers at the coming BlackBerry World trade show, which begins in late April. Deeper carrier involvement would follow in the summer.
RIM sold about 500,000 PlayBook tablets last quarter, or about the same number of iPads Apple sold in the first 12 hours after the launch of the new model. Heins remained bullish on the tablet, though, saying RIM had moved 1 million PlayBooks to date, and that the tablet provided it with a way to build a high-quality user experience prior to BlackBerry 10's release.
What do you think of the state of RIM and Heins's chances of turning its ship around? Have your say in the comments.
This story originally published on Mashable here.
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