You may remember that back in March, Research in Motion’s then chief marketing officer, Keith Pardy, resigned for personal reasons.  Well, earlier this week RIM announced that Jim Balsillie, co-CEO of RIM, would be taking over the top marketer spot, becoming Chief Marketing Officer while maintaining his co-CEO role.  Adding more mix to the pot, RIM yesterday announced that it has also recently named Roger Baxter vice president of brand and marketing communitcations, replacing Paul Kalbfleisch who resigned from the vice president of brand creativity after 11 years at RIM…

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Research In Motion Makes Key Marketing Changes is a post from: RIMarkable, the Unofficial BlackBerry Weblog...

Research in Motion announced yesterday that it has acquired cloud-based calender and scheduling management services provider Tungle.me.

Tungle is a leading provider of cloud-based calendar and scheduling services that makes it easy for users to share their availability and schedule appointments regardless of their choice of desktop, mobile or cloud-based calendar. Tungle connects users on Google, Yahoo!, FaceBook, TripIt, Plancast, Outlook, iCal, LotusNotes, LotusLive, and WindowsLive.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, however, Tungle has raised more than $6.36 million in funding, and, with more than 40% of Fortune 1000 companies using the service, it is probably safe to assume that the purchase price is well North of that…

[Read]

Research In Motion Acquires Cloud-Based Calender And Scheduling Services Provider Tungle.me is a post from: RIMarkable, the Unofficial BlackBerry Weblog...

Research in Motion had a very big presence at both CES and Mobile World Congress this year.  The company behind BlackBerry, however,  is not a listed exhibitor at CTIA Wireless 2011.  With BlackBerry World, formerly Mobile World Congress coming up in May, we wonder if RIM is skipping CTIA to focus more on their own show?

Is Reserach In Motion Skipping CTIA? is a post from: RIMarkable, the Unofficial BlackBerry Weblog...

Research in Motion has announced via BlackBerry Beta Zone that they will now offer consumers from the US, Canada and the UK the ability to download beta version of BlackBerry 6 for select devices and carriers…

Beginning early this year, we will be providing consumers from the US, Canada and the UK using particular wireless networks the opportunity to participate in beta programs dedicated to BlackBerry 6.0 Device Software.

We are excited to open our doors to you for beta testing the latest BlackBerry Device Software and we look forward to your continued involvement in our programs as BlackBerry Beta Zone grows.

To prepare for these upcoming programs, we ask that you please take the following actions to ensure your eligibility*:

In your BlackBerry Beta Zone profile, please update the following information:

1. In the “Contact” tab, update to the current BlackBerry smartphone model and PIN you are using, as well as your Country
2. In the “BlackBerry Smartphone” tab, ensure you have provided the most up-to-date carrier information

These programs will have limited capacity for participants and registration will end once the spots have been filled.

Your feedback has been instrumental in helping us to improve the site and our programs. We encourage you to continue voicing your opinions and sharing your ideas with us.

Best Regards,
The BlackBerry Beta Zone Team

Currently U.S. T-Mobile subscribers with the BlackBerry Bold 9700, Curve 3G 9300, or the Bold 9780 can download beta versions of BlackBerry 6.  There are, however, a limited number of spots in the beta program, so, you need to act fast if you want to get in.

[Source]

RIM Now Offereing Beta Builds Of BlackBerry 6 In BlackBerry Beta Zone is a post from: RIMarkable, the Unofficial BlackBerry Weblog...

Back at BlackBerry DEVCON Asia Research in Motion announced the BlackBerry WebWorks SDK for BlackBerry Tablet OS which provides developers with an additional mechanism for writing applications for the BlackBerry PlayBook.  A series of 4 webcasts for the BlackBerry Weborks SDK for BlackBerry Tablet OS which will be hosted by by Application Development Consultants Adam Stanley and Prosanta Bhattacherjee has been set and the schedule is as follows:

Feb. 1, 2011: Getting Started (2:00 PM EST / 11:00 AM PST)

• Overview of the BlackBerry WebWorks Platform
• Setting up your Development Environment
• Building, deploying and testing a “Hello World” application with the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet simulator

Feb. 3, 2011: My First App (2:00 PM EST / 11:00 AM PST)

• Building functional and visually appealing applications for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet
• Migrating content between the BlackBerry platform, Desktop and 3rd party platforms
• Using the development tools effectively

Feb 8. 2011: BlackBerry PlayBook Integration (2:00 PM EST / 11:00 AM PST)

• Building “Super Apps” for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet
• Hardware, data and services integration methods
• How to implement “must have” application features

Feb. 10, 2011: User Interface Guidelines and Best Practices (2:00 PM EST / 11:00 AM PST)

• UI components, characteristics and design for touch screen interfaces
• Best practices for maximizing performance and battery life considerations
• Managing bandwidth and error handling effectively

If you would like to attend the webcast series, register here…

RIM Posts BlackBerry WebWorks for BlackBerry PlayBook Webcast Series Schedule is a post from: RIMarkable, the Unofficial BlackBerry Weblog...

BlackBerry World, formerly WES, registration for this years conference down on Orlando, Florida is now open.  Running May 3rd through the 5th, attendees who register by Feb. 25th can save $400 off the regular price ($2199) of admission with the early bird rate of $1799.  This year attendees can buy one day passes in case they would like to attend, but, can’t make all three days for $599.

For more information and to register for BlackBerry World 2011, head over to http://blackberryworld.com/register

BlackBerry World 2011 Registration Now Open is a post from: RIMarkable, the Unofficial BlackBerry Weblog...

Word on the street is that BlackBerry maker, Research in Motion, is in talks to acquire Seattle based Social CRM startup, Gist.  Although industry sources say the deal is almost done, Gist VP of marketing, Robert Pease, told Gigaom that the company had no comment on the story.

The idea behind acquiring Gist would be to possibly re-invent the phone address book and make it integral to its core offering. It would actually make a lot of sense for RIM to do this, as it plays to its core strength – namely, messaging. By making the address book more networked and more social, RIM can build a social inbox, much like the one being championed by Facebook.

[Via GigaOm]

Research In Motion In Talks To Acquire Social CRM Startup Gist is a post from: RIMarkable, the Unofficial BlackBerry Weblog...

During yesterday’s third quarter fiscal 2011 earnings call, Research in Motion co-CEO Jim Balsillie had this to say when Rod Hall of JP Morgan essentially asked how RIM is going to stay competitive with Apple and Google getting people to believe that RIM isn’t just playing catch-up…

I think the PlayBook redefines what a tablet should do. I think we’ve articulated some elements of it, and I think this idea of a proprietary SDK and unnecessary apps — though there’s a huge role for apps — I think is going to shift in the market, and I think it’s going to shift very, very quickly. And I think there’s going to be a strong appetite for web fidelity and tool familiarity. And I think there’s going to be a rapid desire for high performance. And I think we’re way ahead on that. And I think CIO friendliness, we’re way ahead on that.

Now, how do you align or go over the top on carriers and content providers? Well, we have different strategies, and that’s fine, and there may be room for more than one model, who knows. And, you know, it’s a very dynamic market. Plus, there’s enormous growth and shifts happening around the world, you know.

How many fronts people want to take on contention, that’s a question you can ask. Do you want to go over the top of banks, do you want to go over the top on content, do you want to go over the top on carriers, do you want to go over the top on video content providers? I mean, who knows, you know? What part of it’s good strategy and what part of it’s a bridge too far? I mean, who knows?

The truth of it is, you really want a lot of it on your smartphone, and you really want a lot of it, we believe, on a tablet. And you fit with your content providers — who are really changing their strategies for mobility, because they want a sustained model — carriers are aggressively trying to change their models, banks are getting involved.

So, I think the PlayBook clearly sets the bar WAY higher on performance, and you’re going to see more. I think the enterprise stuff, we’re seriously extending. I think the BlackBerry is still number one in social collaboration. And I think with the PlayBook and that environment we’re going to set the new standard on performance and tools, very powerful tools. And we’re growing very very fast. So, that’s a lot.

Connected home? I think there’s ways to seamlessly extend what’s going on in the home, and you’re going to see a lot of how we’re doing that, rather than going over the top. But, you know, it may be a prerogative.

But you’re going into some pretty serious plays when you go in the connected home too hard. You have to pay attention to the fact: What’s the role of the satellite company or the cable company in that? The content vendors get fed paying through them. And also, how do you insert ads very well with these content vendors?

There’s a lot of moving parts, but I think we’re just well ahead on the PlayBook, well ahead internationally, and extending very very well. And so, people can have their views on sentiment, but when is it a good entry strategy, and when is it a bridge too far? Who knows? We have turbulent ecosystem right now. How do you work with banks, how do you work with carriers, how do you work with content, how do you work with enterprise ecosystem?

And I think these business models are highly shifting, and if people think there’s just a straight-ahead shot for everybody, and it’s all just predictably extended the way it’s going now, I think that’s a highly questionable assumption. These business models are highly in flux.

One thing I’ve always liked about Jim Balsillie is that if you ask him a question he usually will tell you what he is thinking.  He may wrap lot of other stuff on his mind around his answers that actually end being more interesting than his actual answers, but, answer your questions he will…

[Source]

Rant: Jim Balsillie On RIM Is Going To Stat Competitive With Apple And Google is a post from: RIMarkable, the Unofficial BlackBerry Weblog...

Research In Motion Reports Third Quarter Results

WATERLOO, ONTARIO — (Marketwire) — 12/16/10 — Research In Motion Limited (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM)(TSX: RIM), a world leader in the mobile communications market, today reported record third quarter results for the three months ended November 27, 2010 (all figures in U.S. dollars and U.S. GAAP).

Highlights:

• Record BlackBerry(R) smartphone shipments of 14.2 million grew 40% over the same quarter last year
• Revenue grew 40% over the same quarter last year to $5.5 billion
• Q3 Earnings per share of $1.74 were up 58% over the same quarter last year
• Cash increased by $446 million to $2.5 billion at the end of the quarter

Q3 Results:

Revenue for the third quarter of fiscal 2011 was $5.49 billion, up 19% from $4.62 billion in the previous quarter and up 40% from $3.92 billion in the same quarter of last year. The revenue breakdown for the quarter was approximately 82% for devices, 15% for service, and 3% for software and other revenue. During the quarter, RIM shipped approximately 14.2 million devices.

Approximately 5.1 million net new BlackBerry(R) subscriber accounts were added in the quarter. At the end of the quarter, the total BlackBerry subscriber account base was over 55 million.

“We are pleased to report another record quarter with strong growth in shipments of BlackBerry smartphones leading to record revenue, subscriber additions and earnings. RIM’s business continues to grow and diversify as BlackBerry adoption accelerates in markets around the world,” said Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO at Research In Motion. “With strong results and momentum from our recent product introductions, as well as growing excitement from our partners and customers around upcoming smartphone, tablet, software and service offerings, we are setting the stage for continuing success.”

The Company’s net income for the quarter was $911.1 million, or $1.74 per share diluted, compared with net income of $796.7 million, or $1.46 per share diluted, in the prior quarter and net income of $628.4 million, or $1.10 per share diluted, in the same quarter last year.

The total of cash, cash equivalents, short-term and long-term investments was $2.47 billion as of November 27, 2010, compared to $2.03 billion at the end of the previous quarter, an increase of $446 million from the prior quarter. Cash flow from operations in Q3 was approximately $975 million. Uses of cash included capital expenditures of approximately $300 million, common share repurchases of approximately $133 million, and intangible asset purchases of approximately $45 million.

Q4 Outlook:

Revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011 ending February 26, 2011 is expected to be in the range of $5.5-$5.7 billion. Gross margin percentage for the fourth quarter is expected to be similar to third quarter levels. Earnings per share for the fourth quarter are expected to be in the range of $1.74-$1.80 per share diluted.

Update on RIM’s Board of Directors:

RIM announced today that its board of directors has appointed co-Chief Executive Officers Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis as co-chairmen of the board. John Richardson remains as lead independent director of RIM and will continue to facilitate the functioning of the board independently of management. The board believes these appointments, in conjunction with Mr. Richardson serving as lead independent director, represent an appropriate and effective leadership structure for RIM. RIM also announced today that Jim Estill has resigned his position as a director of RIM due to a business conflict. RIM thanks Mr. Estill for his 13 years of serviceon the board.

Conference Call and Webcast:

A conference call and live webcast will be held beginning at 5 pm ET, December 16, 2010, which can be accessed by dialing 800-814-4859 (North America), 416-644-3414 (outside North America). The replay of the company’s Q3 conference call can be accessed after 7 pm ET, December 16, 2010 until midnight ET, December 30, 2010. It can be accessed by dialing 416-640-1917 and entering passcode 4310313#. The conference call will also appear on the RIM website live at 5 pm ET and will be archived at http://www.rim.com/investors/events/index.shtml.

Research In Motion Reports 3rd Quarter Fiscal 2011 Results is a post from: RIMarkable, the Unofficial BlackBerry Weblog...