We're ready to compete, says RIM CEO

CANADIAN MOBILE OUTFIT Research in Motion's (RIM) CEO said it's ready to compete with its next operating systems as he opened the RIM Developer Conference in Amsterdam.

RIM's Devcon Europe is its first on the continent and the biggest one it's held. Over 2,000 attendees have flocked to Amsterdam for the Blackberry and Playbook focused convention. The company's new CEO Thorsten Heins kicked off the two-day event with an optimistic keynote speech.

Heins took over from Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis last month, but it was unclear at the time whether he was going to make his first public appearance at Devcon Europe. That uncertainty was settled today with his keynote appearance on stage, where he said RIM is committed to developers and has long term staying power with next generation operating system (OS) software.

"We are ready to compete, make no mistake" he said. "Upgrades to Playbook 2.0 and our vision for Blackberry 10 reflect our commitment to get it right."

Heins said that RIM has made strategic long term decisions to secure future success in smartphones and mobile computing but didn't say exactly what these are.

Considering the event is for developers Heins was keen to show support and said, "I wanted to show really my commitment and RIM's commitment to our developer community because without you the Blackberry solution wouldn't be complete."

"Developers are critical to our long term success" he added.

Heins used the stage to announce that RIM has funding to give away more than 25,000 Playbooks for the developer community. In the future it will give away the tablet at similar events like 'hackathons'.

Although he gave no specific date, he said that devices running RIM's Blackberry 10 OS will tip up "later this year" and will be used in the home and in cars as well as in smartphones. Playbook OS 2.0 is still due to be released this month.

Looking forward, Heins thinks that RIM has a huge opportunity in the smartphone market. He said that the firm will target the one billion users who have yet to upgrade to a smartphone, specifically in Europe, Middle East and Asia where year on year growth is 26 per cent.

He said the Blackberry is the number one smartphone in many countries, including the Netherlands, Spain (pre-paid), UK (pre-paid), South Africa, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

To round off his first keynote as CEO, Heins said, "I'm thrilled to have been passed the reins by becoming the CEO of RIM. I'm absolutely convinced that RIM has an exciting future." µ