Research In Motion is set to lay off at least 2,000 staff worldwide as part of an aggressive plan to revitalize the company. The layoffs will encompass various departments, from HR, finance, sales, as well as other senior positions in the company.

It’s been a while coming, but RIM CEO Thorstein Heins looks to finally be coming to his senses and realizes that a company-wide shake up is what RIM really needs. But it remains to be seen if the company will be able to compete with the likes of Apple and Android devices which are currently dominating the market. While the company is putting everything into the launch of its Blackberry 10 OS and devices, some argue that it might not be enough to make an impression on consumers.

(source)

While RIM struggles to get back on its feet amidst poor sales of its devices, it’s just been dealt another blow.

Patrick Spence, Head of Global Sales based in the company’s London office, decided to leave the company after a 14 year stint with them. Spence originally joined the company back in 1998, but was only in his current position of SVP and MD of global sales and regional marketing for the past 10 months. “Patrick will be taking on a leadership position in a different industry,” a RIM spokeswoman commented in an email. “The sales function will report directly into Kristian Tear, our newly appointed COO when he starts this summer. In the interim, the sales function will report to [CEO] Thorsten Heins.”

Spence’s departure comes at a time where RIM continues to lose market share against other mobile players such as Apple and Samsung. While the company has looked to international stores as a way to boost its dwindling sales, the company’s internal structure is preventing it from making any true progress. The recent reveal of the Blackberry 10 OS, the company’s next update to its smartphone OS shows promise, however it will be a while before it’s ready to hit the market.

(via WSJ)

Research In Motion (RIM) today announced the launch of its most affordable BlackBerry 7 smartphone for customers in the UAE, the BlackBerry® Curve 9220.

Sandeep Saihgal, Managing Director, Middle East at RIM, said, “The new BlackBerry Curve 9220 is a great upgrade for current feature-phone users looking for their first smartphone. It delivers all the unique messaging and social-centric features that people love about the BlackBerry solution and at a wonderfully affordable price.”

Running BlackBerry® 7.1 OS, the BlackBerry Curve 9220 supports the full complement of BlackBerry services. It features a dedicated BBM key, social media apps for Facebook and Twitter, as well as Social Feeds 2.0, which allows customers to post updates to multiple social applications simultaneously. It also includes a built-in FM radio, allowing users to tune into local stations without incurring any data charges.

RIM is touting the 9220 with the longest lasting battery life of up to 7 hours of talk time or up to 28 hours of FM radio listening or music playback on headphones.

Starting this weekend, BlackBerry® smartphone users in the UAE will be given the opportunity to upgrade to the all-new BlackBerry OS 7.1 while they shop at various malls in Dubai and Abu Dhabi through the summer.

Taking only 30 minutes and at no cost, customers can borrow a ‘courtesy’ full-touch BlackBerry smartphone, together with a SIM card, to allow them to continue shopping and stay connected to friends and family while they wait.

With BlackBerry 7.1, BlackBerry smartphone users will now be able to share information and content by simply tapping their NFC-enabled BlackBerry smartphone against another NFC-enabled BlackBerry smartphone. BBM invites, contact information, documents, photos and other content can now be shared with a simple tap.

BlackBerry smartphone users can visit an upgrade station at the following locations:
- Axiom, Jackys, Plug Ins and Sharaf DG at Dubai Mall: 11 May to 02 June; 08-30 June

- Jumbo Electronics at Mall of the Emirates: 11-22 May; 09 June to 07 July

- Sharaf DG at Deira City Centre: 13 May to 07 July

- Plug Ins at Abu Dhabi Marina Mall: 10 May to 02 June; 08-30 June

- Axiom at Mirdif City Centre: 10 May to 10 June

BlackBerry smartphones that can be upgraded to OS 7.1 include the BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900, BlackBerry® Torch™ 9810, BlackBerry® Torch ™ 9860, BlackBerry® Curve™ 9360, BlackBerry® Curve™ 9380 and the Porsche Design P’9881 smartphone from BlackBerry®.

Research In Motion announced today that its latest attempt to win over consumers in developing markets with the introduction of the BlackBerry 9220.

The 9220 will launch in India first, at a retail price of about INR 10,990 (approx AED 850). It features a 2 megapixel camera, BlackBerry OS 7.1, and will only operate on 2G/EDGE networks. It’s almost a desperate attempt by RIM to woo consumers over from the iPhone and Android fanbase, and with an affordable price point they just might be able to convince a few people to join the BlackBerry bandwagon.

RIM has had to go some serious changes recently to try and get back some of its slipping market share in Western markets. It’s announcement to launch a flagship store in Dubai is an example of how the company is looking to other international markets to keep itself going until it can figure out how to tap back into a market that it used to dominate at one point.

Still, it remains to be seen if the 9220 will do well at all – there are a good number of low-cost Android devices already on the market, so it will be interesting to see if this ‘bold’ move will prove helpful.

There has been a lot of talk on whether RIM should exit the consumer market and focus purely on the enterprise- a segment that they are really good at. While it’s true that RIM’s market share in consumer devices has globally been shrinking, it is still the best messaging device out there.

It’s no secret that I’ve been an advocate of BlackBerry Smartphones for a while and yes, I feel the pain of users who are envious of the slick UI and Apps that the iPhone and Android devices sport. So like most users in the UAE, I carry two phones with me and one of them is always the BlackBerry. The other phone keeps switching between an iPhone and whatever device that I am currently reviewing but the BlackBerry is a constant.

The reason I do that is because, as I mentioned in the intro, nothing comes close to being as good of a messaging device as a BlackBerry. The keyboard on RIM’s devices are insanely good and come in very handy, especially in a non-English speaking world where you mix and match words from multiple languages. Even my two year old iPhone doesn’t always get it right with auto-correction and no matter what one says, a full hardware keyboard continues to offers the best typing experience.

There is no denying that RIM is awesome on the enterprise-side, especially with their compression and security which not only helps careers utilize less bandwidth but also makes your device less expensive to use (through data charges) and makes the battery last longer due to lesser usage. That kind of technology would be incredible on an iPhone- especially if you add BBM to that mix, but do keep in mind that the reason that Apple does so well is because their control the entire software and hardware aspect of their products. RIM needs to continue doing the same.

So I don’t think RIM should exit the consumer device space. Their numbers might be shrinking in the rest of the world but they are doing really well in the Middle East where BBM has replaced text messaging for most. For a slick UI and apps, we need to wait for RIM to release the BlackBerry 10 OS and hope that they really hit one out of the park. And make a device that looks like the concept picture posted on top. I still have faith.

To offset somewhat slippery sales in the Western market, Research in Motion is set to launch a flagship store in the Middle East, starting with Dubai.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Sandeep Saihgal MD of RIM’s Middle East Business said that the company was in the final stages of negotiating on a flagship store that covered around 1,500 square feet. “We’re getting the first one up and running and then we’ll be looking at other cities across the Middle East — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar,” said Saihgal.

Axiom, which is one of the largest mobile phone distributors is also coming on board to help customize the look and feel of the store (please no more orange?).

Traditionally sales of the Blackberry devices have done quite well in the Middle East, with telecom operators offering competitive packages for both consumer and business models. The allure of Blackberry Messaging (or ‘BBM’) has also seen a surge in Blackberry usage amongst youngsters, some as young as seven years old.

Over the weekend news came out that two of RIM’s top executives have apparently left the company. Alan Brenner, a senior vice president for the BlackBerry platform, will leave after a transition period, and Alistair Mitchell, a vice president for the BlackBerry Messenger service, has already left the Canadian smartphone giant.

These two executives come after several others have also left RIM in the last week after posting the $125 million net loss for Q4 2012. Once a global smartphone leader, with their highest share price recorded in February 2011 at $70 a share, RIM has lost a lot in the face of stiff competitions from Apple and Android; their share price closing at $12.67 on Thursday last week.

A part of their internal restructuring, RIM’s new CEO Thorsten Heins, who took over in January after Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie resigned in January this year, has said that moving forward the company is reconsidering their strategic options. These new options include partnerships and joint venture deals with other firms, licensing out software technologies, and even outright sale of the firm is not outside the realm of possibility.

Time will tell how the BlackBerry manufacturer will fare in the uphill battle against industry giants such as Apple, Android and Nokia (with Windows Phone).

While I’ve only just recently got my hands on a Blackberry PlayBook of my own, other users of the tiny tablet have given it quite an average reception.

But the company’s push to PlayBook OS 2.0 has greatly improved the user experience on the tablet, and RIM recently announced another boost for the diminutive tablet by releasing the Mini Keyboard for the PlayBook.

While the Mini Keyboard is nothing remarkable as it’s also available from other vendors, it nevertheless makes text entry on the PlayBook much easier, even similar to using a netbook. The Bluetooth keyboard comes with its own case, doubling as protection for the PlayBook as well. The device makes using apps such as Citrix Receiver (as seen in the video below) a breeze to use, and according to RIM offers up to 30 days of battery life on a full charge.

Check out the video below for a demonstration from RIM:

The long awaited Tbreak Developers Conference starts off today at 10am.  The agenda for Day 1 of TDC is as follows:

- 9am: Welcome and on-site registrations
- 10am – 10:05am: “Introducing the Tbreak Developer Awards”, Abbas Jaffar Ali, Publisher, Tbreak Media
- 10.05am – 10.15am: “Opportunities with Nokia Store and business models”, Praveen Prabhakaran, Head of EDX, Middle East, Nokia
- 10.15am – 10.25am: Blackberry Keynote
- 10.25am – 10.35am: Google Keynote
- 10.35am – 10.45am: Qualcomm Keynote
- 11am – 12pm: Discussion Panels
- 12pm – 12:30pm: Developers Choice Awards
- 12.30pm – 1.15pm: Lunch Break
- 1.15pm – 5pm: Classroom Sessions

The whole day is jam packed with interesting panels and informative classes from some of the leading experts in the industry. In case you haven’t registered and think you can make it down to the Knowledge Village Auditorium, head on down there as we’re also accepting on-site registrations. Today’s highlights, apart from the Developer Awards, will include the keynotes from Nokia, RIM, Qualcomm and Google.