Today is BlackBerry Jam, RIM’s developer conference or WWDC
equivalent. It’s RIM’s moment to redefine, rejuvenate, and re-establish
itself in the world. Whether or not the company can pull it off,
however, is an entirely different matter.
BlackBerry 10, RIM’s brand new platform, has been delayed, run into naming issues, and seen the transfer of power go from the company’s co-founders, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, to long-time employee Thorsten Heins. The conference will prove whether or not RIM is now adaptable — something for which the company has been publicly flogged for the past year.
We took a trip up to Waterloo to speak with some of the employees
ahead of the event, namely Vivek Bhardwaj, Head of Software Portfolio
EMEA for RIM, and as I walked away I felt less sure of who RIM is and
what the company is about than I ever have before.
See, one of the first things we heard walking in the door was that
RIM has changed with Heins at the top. When I mentioned the past year
and described the company as “lacking flexibility,” Victoria Berry,
senior manager of PR and social media went ahead and threw out the word
“arrogant.”
“Yes,” I said. “Exactly.”
