RIM recently posted a dismal quarter in which its handset sales plunged, it posted a loss, and it yet again delayed the launch of BlackBerry 10, its QNX-based platform that's a delay or two away from gaining official vaporware status. RIM's new marketing chief Frank Boulben -- a former top executive at now-bankrupt LightSquared -- however, argues that all is well and that missing the holiday season is no big deal.
He comments in a Reuters interview, "The short delay is not detrimental if the quality is there when we launch early next year. We will have much more attention and focus and ability to leverage our carriers."
Mr. Boulben believes that BlackBerry's fans are so in love with BlackBerry 10 that he doesn't even need to do much to promote it, simply relying on social media word of mouth. He comments, "The most natural thing to do from a marketing standpoint is to put that experience in the hands of our fans and let them do the marketing job, so to speak."
For the marketing RIM does do, he says he wants to unify RIM's previously fragmented message, but offered no clues in his published quotes as to how he intended to do that.
The commentary follows a radio interview with CEO Thorsten Heins who insists there's "nothing wrong" with RIM. Mr. Heins believes that BlackBerry 10 devices will be better than the sixth generation iPhone, Windows Phone 8, and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean devices.
In an opinion piece Canada's Globe and Mail he writes, "[BB 10 will] empower people as never before. We do not believe RIM is a company at the end. RIM is a company at the beginning of a transition that we expect will once again change the way people communicate."
