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Research In Motion, despite delays in its upcoming BlackBerry 10 operating system and continued disastrous financial performance, is just dandy.
That’s according to RIM CEO Thorsten Heins, who denied the company was in a “death spiral” and said on a radio interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. that “there was nothing wrong with the company as it exists now.” The comments were picked up by Reuters.
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Heins’ comments come amid already high concerns that escalated after the company warned last week that phones running on its next-generation operating system wouldn’t hit the market until the first quarter, a costly delay that have many wondering if RIM could last long enough to launch the products. The new schedule, pushed back from the second half of this year, is seen as a major blow to the company’s efforts to mount a comeback.
Even as RIM lingers further, Google’s Android, Apple’s iOS, and even Microsoft’s Windows Phone are making major advances to their own respective platforms.
Heins said the company isn’t ignoring the world, and acknowledges that there are some challenges.
But his comments reek of the sort of denial that former co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie were well known for, often touting the company’s accomplishments and ignoring the mounting problems facing it. The CEOs eventually stepped down as shareholders began agitating for changes at the company.
There are plenty of reasons to be concerned about RIM’s prospects. In addition to the product delay, the company posted a surprisingly steep quarterly operating loss and said it would slash 5,000 jobs, or 30 percent of its work force. Analysts expect the losses to continue into next year, as few consumers are actually buying new BlackBerry products.
