RIM Revs Up Damage Control

[Anonymous]

RIM Revs Up Damage Control
At a developers' conference that kicks off Tuesday in San Francisco, analysts and investors are expecting RIM to release a software upgrade aimed at improving its poorly selling PlayBook tablet. The company is also expected to offer a sneak peek at prototypes of its next-generation BlackBerry, which will run off a new, more powerful operating system, called QNX.
RIM has recently tried to court developers to build more apps for its BlackBerry phones. Earlier this year, the company did away with some designer bureaucracy, and company executives have reached out more to high-profile developers.
On Monday, RIM said it would give subscribers more than $100 of new BlackBerry applications as "an expression of appreciation for their patience" during last week's outage. While the move may assuage some users, it's also good for key developers, giving them exposure to RIM's 70 million subscribers.
The charm offensive comes as RIM executives—already fighting a losing battle over smartphone market share in North America—scramble to turn around the company's recent reputation for execution stumbles.
RIM has delayed several recent product rollouts, and issued a series of profit warnings earlier this year. The PlayBook has disappointed reviewers, and BlackBerry shipments are falling.
Last week's outage—RIM's biggest service disruption ever—has further rattled investors.
Last month, RIM executives refused to firm up a timeline for rolling out the QNX phones. (QNX already powers the PlayBook.) That suggested to many that the launch could slip beyond early next year. Developers and analysts said the recent problems have ratcheted up expectations in San Francisco.
"They're gonna want to bring something big to the table" at the conference, said Gordon Evans, marketing manager at Enflick, an instant-messaging start-up and apps developer for RIM and other smartphones. "If they don't, there will be more frustration per usual."
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, RIM co-chief executive Jim Balsillie said Tuesday would be a "very big day" for RIM, without offering details.
"You're going to see a number of things that are really catapulting [the] application and development community," he said.
Mr. Balsillie said that it was still too early to assess the financial impact of last week's outage. He also said it was too soon to say if RIM had lost customers.
"Nothing's been specifically brought to my attention," he said regarding customer defections.
"It would be a little soon for something like that to happen, if it were to happen," he said.
After losing more than half their value this year, RIM shares have been at the mercy of market rumors, including speculation over a possible white knight or activist investors, who might squeeze out more value. On Monday, billionaire investor Carl Icahn, speaking to CNBC, batted down one of those rumors, saying RIM wasn't on his "radar screen."
In New York, RIM shares fell $1.57, or 6.6%, to $22.40 in 4 p.m. composite trading Monday on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Mr. Balsillie snuffed out another rumor that circulated in recent weeks: that RIM was considering scrapping the PlayBook.
Mr. Balsillie said the company was "100%" committed to the tablet.

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:6141, old post ID:36752