RIM has hired JP Morgan to “assist in reviewing RIM’s business and financial performance”:

To further enhance our commitment to successfully completing our transformation, after the release of our year-end financial results, we engaged J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and RBC Capital Markets to assist the Company and our Board of Directors in reviewing RIM’s business and financial performance. These advisors have been tasked to help us with the strategic review we referenced on our year-end financial results conference call and to evaluate the relative merits and feasibility of various financial strategies, including opportunities to leverage the BlackBerry platform through partnerships, licensing opportunities and strategic business model alternatives.

This is relatively straight forward. RIM is reporting that the company will continue to lose money through their transitional period for the next few quarters, and RIM has hired JP Morgan and RBC to advise them on the best (or what available) road to take. BGR reported that RIM was pushing for a sale of the entire company to Samsung earlier this year, but RIM wanted an insanely high number — around $10 billion — and Samsung has denied talks ever having place. RIM is currently trading at around $10 a share, making the company worth about half of what they originally wanted in a sale.

Bold emphasis ours, full press release follows.…

May 29, 2012

Research In Motion CEO Provides Business Update

WATERLOO, ONTARIO–(Marketwire – May 29, 2012) – Research In Motion Limited

(RIM) (NASDAQ:RIMM)(TSX:RIM), a world leader in the mobile communications market, today provided a business update from Thorsten Heins, the Company’s President and CEO.

“During the Q4 2012 and fiscal year-end financial results conference call on March 29, I said that I would provide our shareholders with candid and timely updates when possible on the progress and challenges RIM is experiencing. While we are no longer giving quantitative financial guidance, I wanted to provide a brief business update at this time, and will provide more details when our Q1 financial results for the quarter ended June 2, 2012 are released on June 28.

In terms of challenges, as I mentioned on the March financial results conference call, RIM is going through a significant transformation as we move towards the BlackBerry 10 launch, and our financial performance will continue to be challenging for the next few quarters. The on-going competitive environment is impacting our business in the form of lower volumes and highly competitive pricing dynamics in the marketplace, and we expect our Q1 results to reflect this, and likely result in an operating loss for the quarter. We are continuing to be aggressive as we compete for our customers’ business – both enterprise and consumer – around the world, and our teams are working hard to provide cost-competitive, feature-rich solutions to our global customer base. On the positive side, we expect to further increase our cash position in

Q1 from the approximately $2.1 billion we had at the end of fiscal 2012.

Despite the current challenges, we have made significant progress on a number of fronts in the past few months:

/T/

–  Our annual BlackBerry World conference and BlackBerry 10 Jam took place

earlier this month and both were tremendously successful. More than

5,000 developers, partners, carriers and enterprise customers from 115

different countries saw the first glimpses of our next-generation

BlackBerry 10 platform and their response was encouraging.

–  Our developer partners have been enthusiastic with the BlackBerry 10 Dev

Alpha prototype unit we distributed at BlackBerry World and many are

well underway in developing applications to be ready for the launch of

BlackBerry 10 in the latter part of calendar 2012.

–  The support and enthusiasm from our developer community is also

reflected in our app growth, where we now feature more than 80,000 apps,

which represents a 220% increase from one year ago, and more than 15,000

apps for PlayBook compared to less than 2,000 last year. We believe this

bodes well for our ecosystem as we get set to launch BlackBerry 10.

–  We are making steady progress with the innovation of our next-generation

BlackBerry 10 mobile computing platform, which is still on track to

launch in the latter part of calendar 2012.

–  Our global subscriber base continued to grow this quarter to

approximately 78 million, driven primarily by growth in international

markets, which is partially offset by high churn in the United States,

and our BBM user base has grown to approximately 59 million users

globally.

–  Our strong brand internationally was recently enhanced with the

successful launch of two new BlackBerry 7 phones in India and Latin

America.

/T/

We continue to make strategic changes to RIM’s senior management team with the hiring of two key new members to RIM’s executive leadership team.

Kristian Tear, our Chief Operating Officer, whose background also includes extensive experience in international sales in Europe, Asia and Latin America, and Frank Boulben, our Chief Marketing Officer, who will provide our team with deep experience in the mobile computing and communications industry. Both will assist me and the existing executive team as we continue to make the organizational changes necessary to position RIM for the future and prepare for the launch of our new BlackBerry 10 platform.

The CORE (cost optimization and resource efficiency) program we told you about previously is focused on delivering key operational savings through various initiatives. The financial objectives for the CORE program are targeted to drive $1 billion in savings by the end of fiscal 2013, based on our Q4 run rate. We are targeting better efficiency and use of resources in our sales and marketing initiatives to effectively leverage marketing windows and evaluate our country portfolio to determine where it makes sense for us to prioritize our efforts. We will also continue to review RIM’s organizational structure and clearly define accountabilities for all key businesses and business processes with a goal of eliminating fragmentation, duplication and inefficiencies. While there will be significant spending reductions and headcount reductions in some areas throughout the remainder of the fiscal year, we will continue to spend and hire in key areas such as those associated with the launch of BlackBerry 10, and those tied to the growth of our application developer community. We will share more details regarding our progress throughout the year as programs are implemented or changes are completed.

To further enhance our commitment to successfully completing our transformation, after the release of our year-end financial results, we engaged J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and RBC Capital Markets to assist the Company and our Board of Directors in reviewing RIM’s business and financial performance. These advisors have been tasked to help us with the strategic review we referenced on our year-end financial results conference call and to evaluate the relative merits and feasibility of various financial strategies, including opportunities to leverage the BlackBerry platform through partnerships, licensing opportunities and strategic business model alternatives.

Although we are facing challenges, we remain excited about BlackBerry 10 and believe that this platform coupled with the results of the strategic review will create long-term value for our stakeholders. We will provide another more detailed business update when we report our first quarter results in June.”

Q1 Results Conference Call Details

RIM will be reporting results for the first quarter of fiscal 2013 on June 28,

2012 after the close of the market. The Company will discuss today’s announcement and first quarter fiscal 2013 results on a conference call and live webcast beginning at 5 pm ET, June 28, 2012. The call can be accessed by dialing 1-800-814-4859 or at www.rim.com/investors/events/index.shtml. A replay of the conference call will also be available at approximately 7 pm by dialing

1-416-640-1917 and entering passcode 4501363#. A replay of the webcast will be available clicking the link above. The replay will be available until midnight ET July 12, 2012. 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.

About Research In Motion

Research In Motion (RIM), a global leader in wireless innovation, revolutionized the mobile industry with the introduction of the BlackBerry(R) solution in 1999. Today, BlackBerry products and services are used by millions of customers around the world to stay connected to the people and content that matter most throughout their day. Founded in 1984 and based in Waterloo, Ontario, RIM operates offices in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America. RIM is listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market (NASDAQ:RIMM) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX:RIM). For more information, visit www.rim.com or www.blackberry.com.

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and Canadian securities laws, including statements regarding: RIM’s intention to provide shareholders with updates, when possible, relating to RIM’s progress and challenges; RIM’s transformation as it moves towards the BlackBerry 10 launch; RIM’s expectation that the business will continue to be challenging for the next few quarters; the effects of the intense competition in the wireless communications industry, and RIM’s plans and strategies to address competition; RIM’s current expectations regarding its financial performance in Q1 of fiscal 2013, and its anticipated cash position at the end of the quarter; RIM’s expectations and beliefs relating to the support of its developer partners and the development of its ecosystem in advance of the launch of BlackBerry 10; the anticipated timing of the launch of RIM’s BlackBerry 10 platform; the anticipated benefits of recent strategic changes to RIM’s senior management team and the hiring of outside advisors; RIM’s plans and expectations relating to the CORE program; and RIM’s expectation that it will be able to create long-term value for its stakeholders. The terms and phrases “would”, “will”, “transformation”, “move towards”, “continue”, “ongoing”, “expect”, “likely”, “well underway”, “to be ready”, “believe”, “progress”, “still on track”, “position RIM for the future”, “prepare for the launch”, “targeted”, “goal”, “accelerating”, and similar terms and phrases are intended to identify these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on estimates and assumptions made by RIM in light of its experience and its perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors that RIM believes are appropriate in the circumstances, including but not limited to general economic conditions, product pricing levels and competitive intensity, supply constraints, the timing and success of new product introductions, RIM’s expectations regarding its business, strategy, opportunities and prospects, and RIM’s confidence in the cash flow generation of its business.

Many factors could cause RIM’s actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation: RIM’s ability to enhance current products and develop new products and services in a timely manner or at competitive prices, including risks related to further delays in new product introductions, such as the Company’s BlackBerry 10 smartphones; risks related to intense competition, including RIM’s ability to compete in the tablet market, strategic alliances or transactions within the wireless communications industry, and risks relating to RIM’s ability to maintain or grow its services revenues; RIM’s reliance on carrier partners and distributors; risks relating to network disruptions and other business interruptions, including costs, potential liabilities, lost revenue and reputational damage associated with service interruptions; RIM’s ability to manage inventory and asset risk; RIM’s ability to implement and realize the anticipated benefits of its Cost Optimization Program and CORE program; RIM’s ability to maintain or increase its cash balance; security risks and risks related to the collection, storage, transmission, use and disclosure of confidential and personal information; RIM’s ability to attract and retain key personnel; RIM’s ability to adapt to recent management changes and fill vacant key management positions; RIM’s reliance on suppliers of functional components for its products and risks relating to its supply chain; RIM’s ability to maintain and enhance the BlackBerry brand; risks related to RIM’s international operations; risks related to government regulations, including regulations relating to encryption technology; RIM’s reliance on third-party network infrastructure developers, software platform vendors and service platform vendors; RIM’s ability to expand and manage its BlackBerry App World applications catalogue; RIM’s reliance on third-party manufacturers; potential defects and vulnerabilities in RIM’s products; risks relating to litigation, including litigation claims arising from the Company’s past practice of providing forward-looking guidance; RIM’s ability to manage its past growth and its ongoing development of service and support operations; potential additional charges relating to the impairment of goodwill or other intangible assets recorded on RIM’s balance sheet; disruptions to RIM’s business as a result of shareholder activism; risks related to intellectual property; and difficulties in forecasting RIM’s financial results given the rapid technological changes, evolving industry standards, intense competition and short product life cycles that characterize the wireless communications industry.

These risk factors and others relating to RIM are discussed in greater detail in the “Risk Factors” section of RIM’s Annual Information Form, which is included in its Annual Report on Form 40-F and the “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” section of RIM’s MD&A (copies of which filings may be obtained at www.sedar.com or www.sec.gov).

These factors should be considered carefully, and readers should not place undue reliance on RIM’s forward-looking statements. RIM has no intention and undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

Research In Motion will reportedly lay off at least 2,000 workers as the company struggles to regain its footing in a smartphone market dominated by just two vendors. RIM added two new executives earlier this month, chief marketing officer Frank Boulben and chief operating officer Kristian Tear, but the Waterloo, Ontario-based smartphone maker is now preparing to make more drastic moves in an effort to cut costs, The Globe and Mail reported. The restructuring may begin in the next two weeks according to the report, and more than 10% of RIM’s global workforce of approximately 16,500 will be affected. RIM’s smartphone business has declined rapidly in the past few years as Apple and Samsung have risen to dominate the industry. In the first quarter this year, Apple is estimated to have accounted for 80% of global smartphone profits among major vendors while Samsung took in the remaining 20%. RIM plans to respond in the fourth quarter with the launch of its first BlackBerry 10-powered smartphone, code-named the BlackBerry London.

Read

Research In Motion on Tuesday named two new executives as the shake-up atop its organization continues. Recently-appointed chief executive officer Thorsten Heins said during his first day on the job that finding a new marketing boss and making drastic changes to the company’s marketing strategy were top priorities for the struggling smartphone maker. While the company’s marketing efforts have yet to pay off — though it does seem to be trying new things, at least — a new chief marketing officer has now been named. Frank Boulben, former executive vice president of strategy, marketing and sales for LightSquared, has been appointed CMO effective immediately, and joining him is new chief operating officer, Kristian Tear, who comes from Sony Mobile where he was the company’s executive vice president. “Kristian and Frank bring extensive knowledge of the rapidly changing wireless global market and will help RIM as we sharpen our focus on delivering long-term value to our stakeholders,” RIM CEO Thorsten Heins said in a statement. “Most importantly, both Kristian and Frank possess a keen understanding of the emerging trends in mobile communications and computing.”

The majority of mobile subscribers in the United Stated now own a smartphone according to the latest numbers from Nielsen. The research firm found that 50.4% of all U.S. mobile subscribers owned smartphones in March, up from 47.8% in December 2011. Consumers purchasing new phones picked smartphones more often than featured phones, with Apple called the top manufacturer and Android as the top platform. During the first quarter of 2012, 48% of smartphone owners had an Android-powered device, while 32% of devices ran iOS and 11.6% were on the BlackBerry platform. The dated Windows Mobile OS owned a 4.1% share of the market, ahead of Windows Phone at 1.7%.

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A number of unannounced devices currently being developed by Research In Motion have been revealed by the alpha software included on the developer preview phone the vendor distributed last week. BlackBerry watcher N4BB discovered a number of code-names referencing unannounced BlackBerry devices in RIM’s BlackBerry 10 alpha software, several of which are expected to run the Waterloo, Ontario-based vendor’s next-generation BlackBerry 10 operating system when they launch in the future. Among the devices referenced are the Colt, RIM’s developer phone that will not be made available to the public, and the London, which is expected to launch in October as the first BlackBerry 10 phone. Other devices referenced in RIM’s BlackBerry 10 alpha code are the Blackforest, thought to be a 10-inch PlayBook tablet, as well as the Nevada, Naples and Nashville, all thought to be upcoming BlackBerry 10 smartphones.

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Despite its new CEO promising a renewed focus on marketing, Research In Motion hasn’t been known for effective campaigns of late. The company launched a sizable advertising blitz earlier this year that focused on its new BlackBerry Bold smartphones, but the commercials had no apparent impact on smartphone sales in key markets including the United States. Late last month, RIM and its Australian marketing agency Tongue began a campaign that takes a different approach to raising brand awareness, though it’s one we have seen numerous times in the past: bash Apple and its customers.

Samsung and Apple are tangled in a number of legal battles around the world, and Samsung carried the companies’ squabbles over to a recent advertising campaign that built up to the launch of its supersized smartphone, the Galaxy Note. As such, many thought Samsung was behind a recent guerrilla marketing stunt that saw a bus-load of men and women stage a protest outside an Apple Store in Australia.

After Samsung denied being involved with the stunt amid media backlash, RIM stayed quiet on the matter until a bit of digging revealed that it was indeed responsible for the mock protest.

RIM’s “Wake Up” stunt has now culminated in the launch of a website that continues to target Apple, the iPhone and iPhone owners. The wake up, be bold site states that BlackBerry owners are the type of people who “take action and make things happen.” Taking a shot at Apple’s well-known slogan, RIM goes on to note that BlackBerry users don’t just “think different,” they “do different.”

“It’s a simple choice,” the website continues. “You’re either here to leave your mark and eat opportunity for breakfast or you’re satisfied to just float through life like a cork in the stream.”

RIM gave the world its first glimpse at the next-generation BlackBerry 10 operating system last week during the BlackBerry World conference, though the first smartphone powered by the new platform is not expected to launch until October. In the meantime, the company will continue to push its BlackBerry 7 smartphones.

Research In Motion CEO Thorsten Heins at a press event on Wednesday confirmed that a 4G LTE PlayBook will launch by the end of this year. According to The Canadian Reviewer, the tablet will be equipped with an updated dual-core processor clocked at 1.5GHZ, will include NFC technology and look similar to the current BlackBerry PlayBook. BGR in January exclusively reported details about RIM’s plans to introduce a new PlayBook tablet around May or June that will be equipped with a 1.5GHz processor, built-in HSPA+ and NFC support. In March, a RIM tablet with HSPA+ and LTE radios passed through the FCC, confirming speculation regarding a 4G PlayBook.

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During the annual Consumer Electronics Show in January 2009, a struggling smartphone company that had once helped shape the mobile industry unveiled its next-generation platform. It was gorgeous. The design was unique and appealing, the gesture-based controls were smart and intuitive, and the company’s new smartphone operating system offered a breath of fresh air in an industry dominated by just two major players, Apple and Google.

On August 18th, 2011, less than three years after this promising new platform was unveiled, it was effectively laid to rest.

During the annual BlackBerry World conference on Tuesday, a struggling smartphone company that had once helped shape the mobile industry unveiled its next-generation platform. It was gorgeous. The design was unique and appealing, the gesture-based controls were smart and intuitive, and the company’s new smartphone operating system offered a breath of fresh air in an industry dominated by just two major players, Apple and Google.

Yes, history is repeating itself.

There are too many comparisons between Research In Motion today and Palm in late 2008 and early 2009 to count. Ignoring the similarities between Palm and HP’s webOS platform and BlackBerry 10 is ignoring the obvious: a sleek UI that deviates from industry leaders and innovates in several key areas, sky-high ambitions, aspirations of pushing the platform beyond smartphones and onto various other products, and a seemingly impossible lead to overcome. RIM is in a much better place than Palm was at that time, of course, with a much larger user base, better performance and more resources at its disposal. Despite these advantages, however, both of these stories may end up sharing the same final chapter if RIM can’t find a way to tip the scales in its favor.

New chief executive Thorsten Heins took the stage on Tuesday and showed the world an operating system that looks absolutely nothing like BlackBerry 7. This is a very good thing. Based on RIM’s PlayBook OS, BlackBerry 10 appears to have the fit and finish of a modern mobile platform at this early stage. The UI is a complete overhaul compared to RIM’s current smartphone OS, and while Heins’s preview was very brief, we saw a number of exciting new features unveiled.

RIM showed us an interesting take on predictive text input that places words above various keys lying in the path of letters the user might type. A simple flick gesture will then complete the word. This solution is more elegant and logical than existing options that place a list of word recommendations across the top of the virtual keypad, and it is nice to see RIM innovating in a space it led for so long.

The camera software in BlackBerry 10 is fascinating as well. RIM’s next-generation smartphones will capture a series of photographs in the background as the user snaps an image. This will allow users to cycle regions of the image forward or backward in time to correct closed eyes or alter other aspects of a photo.

The problem, however, is that features like these won’t sell phones, regardless of how innovative and exciting they might be.

These features are a small piece of a massive puzzle that must be arranged in just the right order to allow a third player to emerge and succeed in today’s market. Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android have tremendous momentum, proven ecosystems and developer support, widespread carrier support and massive marketing budgets helping to sustain their success.

To say RIM has its work cut out for it is an understatement of monumental proportions. Plainly put, right now is likely the worst time in smartphone history to launch a new platform.

Apple and Google lead in the smartphone platform race by a staggering margin, and Nokia and Microsoft have a head start in terms of using innovation, a spectacular product and boatloads of cash in attempt to establish a successful third platform. And in terms of smartphone profits, that’s a two-horse race as well right now.

At some point in the coming years, other platforms will undoubtedly emerge and find success in the smartphone space. The odds are not in a contender’s favor today, however, as Apple and Google are both at the top of their game. To make matters somehow even worse for RIM, its first BlackBerry 10 smartphone will likely launch in the very same month as Apple’s next-generation iPhone, which BGR expects to feature a complete redesign when it is released this fall.

BlackBerry 10 is shaping up to be an impressive platform, and we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg. It looks elegant, well thought-out and very powerful — just like webOS. Whether or not RIM can avoid a similar fate for its mobile platform remains to be seen, but unfortunately, we haven’t been shown anything compelling or significantly differentiated thus far that suggests this will be the case. For RIM’s sake, and for the sake of smartphone users everywhere who are hungry for a viable new platform, let’s hope that changes.

As Research In Motion continues to explore any and all options that might help carry it through the next two quarters until it finally launches its first BlackBerry 10 smartphone and beyond, one option reportedly on the table is patent trolling. RIM recently hired law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP to explore a number of possible paths it might take in the near term and the long term as its struggles continue, and according to Techdirt, one of those options is to take a more aggressive stance with its patents. As the patent wars heat up in the mobile space, Microsoft seems to be the only major player pulling in substantial revenue from its recent publicized dealings involving aggressive patent plays. Even Apple, despite its numerous efforts, has yet to score any big wins of note. Whether or not RIM can manage to successfully weaponize its patent portfolio — if it is in fact exploring that option — remains to be seen, but the pressure is on as BlackBerry World 2012 kicks off with no new product announcements to be found following a brief preview of its next-generation smartphone platform.

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I sat at my computer in amazement a little earlier. Most of me knew that RIM is too damaged and too slow to pivot, and just too out of touch with its customers to know it actually has a chance. But, there was this small part of me that was genuinely excited for BlackBerry World’s announcements. Then I saw Thorston Heins start off the company’s most crucial keynote ever with Salesforce and Cisco.

This company has not changed, and won’t change. The parts of BlackBerry 10 demoed are slick — capturing a series of images and combining different elements from each one before you save a photo seems genuinely incredible, though how is that done, with an EDoF camera, so no autofocus? What we saw wasn’t truly innovative, though. It wasn’t compelling enough, and it’s unfortunately too late to try and gain enough traction and support for a third mobile ecosystem.

RIM is a company that has failed to deliver for the last eight years, and it doesn’t deserve another chance to mess it up. My live-tweets are embedded below so you can follow along to my instant (rambling) thoughts.

Also of note: RIM declined to make its BlackBerry 10 Alpha device available for BGR. Coincidentally, two publications that had early access to the smartphone also have advertising campaigns from BlackBerry running.

honestly, yes, it’s possible RIM can fuck up a live stream.

— Jonathan S. Geller (@boygenius) May 1, 2012

this is so terrible.

— Jonathan S. Geller (@boygenius) May 1, 2012

same shit, same shit. security. infrastructure. business.

— Jonathan S. Geller (@boygenius) May 1, 2012

yes, when your company is dying because you missed the consumer boat, your first guest should be salesforce.

— Jonathan S. Geller (@boygenius) May 1, 2012

oh, look, cisco is on stage now.

— Jonathan S. Geller (@boygenius) May 1, 2012

camera is dope as fuck

— Jonathan S. Geller (@boygenius) May 1, 2012

probably wont work well though and will take 90 seconds to power on.

— Jonathan S. Geller (@boygenius) May 1, 2012

everyone complaining about me complaining, just remember there are less and less of you every day.

— Jonathan S. Geller (@boygenius) May 1, 2012

this is very simple. this company has failed to ever deliver in the last 8 years.

— Jonathan S. Geller (@boygenius) May 1, 2012

also they had been working on blackberry 10 for how long? 3 years and we get 3 little demos?

— Jonathan S. Geller (@boygenius) May 1, 2012

sorry 2 years ago they acquired QNX.

— Jonathan S. Geller (@boygenius) May 1, 2012

Research In Motion has its work cut out for it. Apple and Samsung went from dominating the smartphone industry to completely owning it in the first quarter this year, and RIM’s struggles continued as its BlackBerry 7 smartphone lineup really started showing its age. All eyes are on BlackBerry 10 as industry watchers try to determine whether or not RIM has a real shot at a comeback, and RIM has to be especially impressive at this year’s BlackBerry World conference since its first BlackBerry 10 smartphone likely won’t even launch until some time in October. RIM president and CEO Thorsten Heins will take the stage in just a few minutes when RIM’s BlackBerry World keynote kicks off at 9:00 a.m. EDT / 6:00 a.m. PDT, so hit the break to follow all the action as it unfolds and don’t forget to refresh the page for the latest updates.

8:55AM:OK everyone, we're inside and seated, waiting for the last few seats to fill up before the show starts in a few minutes.

8:58AM:According to the announcement over the PA the presentation should begin shortly. I'm going to be very disappointed if it doesn't include everyone's favorite Futurist, will.i.am.

9:03AM:It's a packed house, all of the seats are full and folks are starting to stand at the back of the room. The excitement is palpable as attendees awkwardly rock out to some generic house music.

9:07AM:We're about to get started, starting off with some users describing how they use their BlackBerry devices.

9:07AM:

9:09AM:Thorsten Heins is taking the stage and welcoming the audience - the BlackBerry People. You can also watch the conference online at blackberryworld.com.

9:11AM:Thorsten is discussing his first three months as CEO, and the outreach to customers–business, enterprise, consumer–and his own employees he's done.

9:12AM:65% of smartphone users access organizational tools daily compared to 91% of BlackBerry People.

9:13AM:Thorsten is claiming that the BlackBerry has a great camera. We're not off to a great start.

9:13AM:"55 million BBM subscribers, and the best integration of LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook"

9:14AM:"BlackBerry is all about success. BlackBerry creates their success, BlackBerry empowers their success. [Users] are more productive with a BlackBerry."

9:15AM:"77 Million BlackBerry People. BlackBerry helps people save time."

9:16AM:Thorsten is emphasizing the simple interface, data efficiency for manageable bills, battery life and security. Cloud Computing is hot, and he's justly describing the BlackBerry as the BlackBerry Cloud.

9:16AM:"Everything we do now with the PlayBook and BlackBerry 10 is to help simplify your life and leverage this infrastructure".

9:17AM:Thorsten is welcoming Clarence So, Senior VP, Strateg of salesforce.com

9:18AM:salesforce.com has been using BlackBerry since 1999 with the pager models, and continues to run their company on BlackBerry today.

9:19AM:Clarence is referring to the "social enterprise" as a way to encompass the various channels of communication used by customers.

9:21AM:Welcome Chuck Robbins, Senior Vice President, The Americas, Cisco.

9:22AM:Chuck is giving a rundown of the Cisco applications that are running on the BlackBerry including WebEx, Jabber and MVS. His developers are excited to begin working with BlackBerry 10.

9:23AM:Cisco is working on several applications for BlackBerry 10 including WebEx and AnyConnect, Cisco's SSL-enabled VPN. This is huge for enterprise users, the PlayBook has relatively poor VPN options.

9:24AM:"We're taking our time to be sure we get this right" - Thorsten is asking what the platform for BlackBerry 10 should be.

9:24AM:"We're making incredible progress on BlackBerry 10", fueled by acquisitions such as RIM TAT, Gist, Tungle, and QNX.

9:25AM:He's introducing the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha device. It looks familiar.

9:26AM:BGR will have an extensive hands-on with the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha device shortly

9:26AM:Thorsten is emphasizing that the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha device is not final hardware, it's a vehicle to get BlackBerry 10 into the hands of developers.

9:27AM:"It's critical that we get this into the hands of developers around the world so they can begin getting their content and applications to you".

9:27AM:RIM is doing a great job of reaching out to developers, and pre-release alpha hardware is a great way to generate excitement and enthusiasm.

9:28AM:This is definitely a new RIM. I can't say that anyone is missing the old familiar faces.

9:29AM:Vivek Bhardwaj, Head of Software Portfolio at RIM is taking the stage with Thorsten.

9:31AM:Vivek is showing off the the new Glance gestures that will be part of BlackBerry 10.

9:31AM:Emphasis on full, true, background multitasking.

9:32AM:"You just flow through [the feeds]. You have a flow across all of your applications".

9:32AM:Active and agile.

9:33AM:"This is why we invented push, and this is why we all love BBM". Someone is still a little bitter about the NTP patent lawsuit.

9:34AM:We're about to get a demo of the new keyboard in BlackBerry 10. Spoiler, flick gestures.

9:36AM:Two-thumb typing is key, but what if you need to type with one hand? A not so subtle shot at massive Android devices like the Galaxy Note.

9:36AM:As you're typing the autocomplete words pop-up on the keyboard, and you can flick them up into the main screen.

9:38AM:"Never miss a magic moment" – the camera allows you to go back in time!

9:39AM:"It's all about agility and being nimble" – Thorsten is reminding everyone that this is just a preview and there is more to come.

9:40AM:The keypad is adapting, and will adapt to your fingers, your style of typing. Just another reminder that the iOS autocorrect is utter shot.

9:41AM:The intent and objective of BlackBerry 10 is to build the next mobile computing platform. It's an engine, not just a smartphone OS.

9:42AM:Thorsten is showing off the connected QNX car with TVs, telemetrics and two other things I didn't catch.

9:43AM:60% of cars on the road are running QNX. Marketshare calculations will get very interesting in a few years.

9:43AM:Reliability and security are definitely important if my car's OS can be updated remotely.

9:45AM:The entire company is laser focused on delivering BlackBerry 10 on time, and exceeding customer expectations. And Thorsten is committed to keeping everyone up to date on the progress of BlackBerry 10 development.

9:45AM:Another quick peek at BlackBerry 10.

9:47AM:"Have a great BlackBerry World and let's rock and roll this!"

9:48AM:We're welcoming VP of Global Alliances and Business Development Martyn Mallick to the stage.

9:49AM:"RIM is 100% committed to application partners on [RIM's] platform". BlackBerry 10 is meant to be seen as proof of that commitment.

9:50AM:More emphasis on BlackBerry 10 as a platform. This is in line with their emphasis on developers and developer relations.

9:50AM:Platform, Tools, Distribution.

9:51AM:Performance, security, integration. The platform excels on tablets, smartphones and in cars.

9:52AM:RIM is building a set of core tools for native development and HTML5 and making them available to partners. Who are the partners though? Developers? Carriers? Alliance members?

9:53AM:Distribution - applications can be distributed in multiple ways. Mobile Fusion (formerly BES) allows direct distribution within the enterprise. App World allows global distribution, and supports multiple payment methods including credit cards, PayPal and carrier billing.

9:53AM:App World also allows enterprises to have their own tab in the store, similar to the carrier tabs found in Android Market.

9:54AM:It should be obvious by now the themes of the conference - Enterprise and Developers.

9:55AM:Jonas Norberg, Co-Founder and CEO of Pacemaker is joining Martyn on stage to discuss using Cascades to develop an application for the PlayBook.

9:56AM:Cascades allowed Pacemaker to easily connect their new interface to an incredible amount of legacy C++ code.

9:58AM:The Pacemaker DJ application will be available tomorrow at their booth on Wednesday between 1:00 PM and 2:30 PM EDT, for free. Attendees of BlackBerry World will be among the first in the world to have this app before it launches in June.

9:59AM:Candemir Orsan from Occipital is on the stage. Occipital created the Red Laser app for iOS, as well as 360 Pano, my personal favorite app for creating panoramic photos on my iPhone.

10:00AM:Candemir says his team was able to build a demo of 360 Pano for BlackBerry 10 in only 7 days.

10:02AM:For anyone wondering if the 360 Pano app for BlackBerry 10 uses the still camera or the video camera, it's the still camera. The entire audience was treated to a slew of shutter sounds as Candemir took the panoramic picture.

10:03AM:"Rovio launched Angry Birds Space a few weeks after it came out for iOS". Great, but why did it take them about 10 months to launch Angry Birds for PlayBook after Mike Lazaridis announced at BlackBerry World in 2011?

10:04AM:An enthused developer from Gameloft is taking the stage to discuss developing games for BlackBerry 10.

10:06AM:Gameloft is bringing 11 games to BlackBerry 10. Perhaps former Senior Director of Global Developer Relations Mike Kirkup didn't fully kill the platform by pushing game development for the PlayBook over everything else.

10:07AM:We're joined by Michael Schade, Co-Founder and CEO of Fishlabs. 70 million downloads of Fish Labs games to date. Another successful company with two founders, and only a single CEO.

10:09AM:Schade is demoing Galaxy on Fire 2 HD. I think he might have inadvertently leaked the next Samsung Android phone.

10:10AM:This is the most high-definition version of the game available. It actually looks like it'd be fun to play.

10:11AM:Brian and Mark from pixelmags are on stage to talk digital publishing.

10:12AM:The pixelmags ethos is "You create, we deliver". Publishers upload content to the CDS - Content Delivery System - and pixelmags handles the distribution to the desired channels.

10:13AM:Pixelmags is focusing on branded applications, so if a user downloads the Esquire application, it's actually a pixelmags app.

10:13AM:Pixelmags is releasing a News Stand application on BlackBerry 10. Every BlackBerry 10 will get 10 free minutes every month to read anything they want on the News Stand.

10:15AM:Users can upgrade to unlimited viewing for $9.99 per month whenever a data connection is active, or a mobile offline plan for $14.99 per month.

10:17AM:Nick Barnett from mippen is on stage, touting the performance of the BlackBerry app platform. BlackBerry downloads account for 70% of all downloads of apps created with the mippen application generator.

10:18AM:Mippen is releasing a BlackBerry App Generator in beta today, you can sign up at www.blackberryappgenerator.com

10:19AM:Mippen allows anyone to build a native app in less than 10 minutes. I'm glad to see the focus on quality apps remains.

10:21AM:Whoops, Titanium just showed an iPad in their demo.

10:23AM:Jeff Haynie, Co-Founder and single CEO of Appcelerator is on stage to talk about their Titanium development tool.

10:24AM:Haynie, "After talking with customers it's clear that they want BlackBerry. BlackBerry is definitely one of the top three platforms we support". So you're saying it's #3?

10:26AM:Embracing the cross-platform application generation tools is a giant shift for RIM. Several years ago there was a marked distaste for them, with RIM Developer Relations members being quite cold to developers using those tools.

10:26AM:App submissions are up 226% in the past year, and PlayBook app growth is up 240%.

10:28AM:"It's really important that we don't focus too much on consumer or just enterprise. We're seeing the industry beging to focus on enterprise, and we welcome that..."

10:28AM:RIM is looking to the partner community to make the platform a success. Developers, developers, developers?

10:31AM:Robin Bienfait, RIM CIO is taking the stage. I've had the honor of walking in late to a briefing she was running and having her interrupt her presentation to call me out for it.

10:32AM:"By next time this year for BlackBerry World, we will offer three solutions for Mobile Fusion"

10:33AM:Mobile Fusion will be available on-premise, hosted and managed, or fully in the cloud. In about a year. What was it Thorsten said about delivering in a timely fashion?

10:35AM:Alan Panezic, VP of Product Management at RIM is introducing Stephen Rollins, VP of IT at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

10:36AM:Martha Stewart has two BlackBerry devices - one for email, and one for a phone. That's different.

10:37AM:Mobile Fusion has been out for about three weeks, and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia have had it fully in production for over a week.

10:44AM:Panezic says that securing enterprise data on at-rest for third-party devices is on the roadmap. For those of you keeping score, that's a shot at Visto, owners of the NTP patents, and Good Technologies who offer a secure email and PIM client for iOS and Android.

10:44AM:And we're done, thanks!

Research In Motion’s annual BlackBerry World conference kicks off Tuesday morning and new president and chief executive officer Thorsten Heins will take the stage to greet the thousands of show goers in attendance. Heins’s company has a daunting mountain to climb as its struggles continue, and this year’s show may be RIM’s most important to date as it looks to attract enough interest from developers and users to tide it over until its next-generation smartphone platform launches. RIM’s first BlackBerry 10-powered smartphone likely won’t be released until some time in October, but developers will get their first taste of a smartphone running PlayBook OS, the basis for BlackBerry 10, when RIM hands out thousands of prototype smartphones at the BlackBerry Jam conference that will run alongside BlackBerry World in Orlando, Florida. Will RIM make enough of a splash to instill faith in developers, users and investors that it can successfully re-enter a market not just dominated by, but completely owned by Apple and Samsung?

Bookmark this link, which will go live shortly before the event begins this morning, and make sure to head there for our live coverage of RIM’s keynote! Coverage will begin just before 9:00 a.m. EDT / 6:00 a.m. PDT.

Reports of a staged protest outside an Apple Store emerged last week after a bus full of paid activists dressed in all black stood outside an Apple Store in Australia chanting “wake up.” Early reports suggested Samsung and marketing agency Tongue were behind the staged event, but after Samsung denied any involvement, a potential new culprit has arisen. Macworld’s Australian sister site did some digging and found code on Tongue’s Wake Up website that points not to Samsung, but instead to Research In Motion. The code in question, an account identifier within a DoubleClick URL, has been revealed as RIM’s ID for its Australian website. Macworld also notes that “Blunty,” the bystander who just so happened to capture the protest on camera, has worked with RIM in the past when he posted a three-part video review of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet ahead of its launch in Australia.

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Research In Motion may be planning to unveil its debut next-generation smartphone this summer, with a launch to follow in in the fall. N4BB on Wednesday reported that RIM currently intends to take the wraps off its first BlackBerry 10-powered smartphone by mid-August, and it plans to launch the handset in early or mid-October. BGR exclusively published RIM’s 2012 product roadmap this past January, and at that time we said the first BlackBerry 10 smartphone, code-named “BlackBerry London,” was scheduled to launch in late September or early October. N4BB also claims a QWERTY-equipped BlackBerry 10 device is expected to launch in the first quarter next year, again in line with a report from this past January, though the site claims the device might not feature a slider form factor. RIM is not likely to discuss specifics with regards to BlackBerry 10 devices or launch timing during the BlackBerry World conference next week, but the smartphone maker may share new details surrounding its platform and BGR will be on hand to report all the news as it breaks.

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Apple released its third-generation iPad on March 16th and I purchased mine one day later on the 17th. There were no lines at my local Best Buy when I went to buy the new model. In fact, there were still more than 100 new iPads in stock when I picked up my iPad more than 36 hours after it was released. The store was eerily quiet. It felt nothing like an Apple launch.

Of course we learned just a few days later that a lack of demand was certainly not to blame for the surplus of inventory; after five years, Apple had finally managed to meet demand with a mobile product at launch. The Cupertino, California-based company sold more than 3 million third-generation iPads during the tablet’s first four days of availability, making the new iPad Apple’s second biggest product launch of all time behind the iPhone 4S, which sold more than 4 million units during its debut weekend.

I have never been an iPad user. I took possession of a first-generation iPad out of necessity — I had to know what I would be reporting on for the year to follow — but I rarely touched the tablet unless I had to test a new app or cover something else having to do with Apple’s slate. Light-duty media tablets simply did not appeal to me, and I maintained my indifference toward the category for the two years that followed. I have a drawer full of smartphones with screens that vary in size from 3.5 inches to 5.3 inches, an eReader, a lightweight MacBook Air laptop and a Dell desktop PC. I’m covered.

Even the BlackBerry PlayBook, my one-eyed man in the country of the blind, has sat untouched for several months since I purchased a Nook Touch from Barnes & Noble. While PlayBook OS 2.0 has brought a number of much-needed improvements to the device, reading eBooks was really the only function I could find that I continued to enjoy more on a tablet than on a laptop or smartphone. That experience is infinitely better on the Nook though, and my BlackBerry tablet has been boxed as a result.

So I bought a new iPad, and these are my thoughts after having spent the past month with it.

As was the case when Apple released its first- and second-generation iPads, reviews of the third Apple tablet were overwhelmingly positive. Despite conspiracy theories that run rampant on enthusiast forums and in the comments sections of news sites, this is not because of some elaborate scheme among the media and technology blogs to give Apple positive coverage. No, the truth is far less scintillating and scandalous: Apple makes products people like.

BGR reviewed the iPad in March and Editor-in-chief Jonathan Geller said the only real competition the new iPad has comes from its predecessor, the iPad 2, which is currently available for just $399. While low-end slates like the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet have been well received, I agree that these are not iPad competitors and I conveyed as much in my review of Amazon’s tablet last year. Apple CEO Tim Cook then confirmed the notion this past January, stating on an earnings call that the Kindle Fire had no impact whatsoever on iPad sales.

I am on record numerous times stating that media tablets have no place in my life. My opinion was that tablets, and the iPad specifically, do many things well but nothing as well as as one of several other devices I already own. You can watch videos on an iPad, but I would rather watch on a TV. You can work on an iPad, but I would rather use a notebook or desktop computer. You can quickly maneuver through dozens of gorgeous apps on an iPad, but I have smartphones packed to the brim with great apps. You can read books on the iPad, but I have a Nook Touch that lasts for more than a month on a charge, and is much lighter and more comfortable to hold than the iPad. For everything the iPad does, I already own something that does it better.

This is no longer the case.

Apple’s new tablet isn’t magical, but it certainly is amazing. The hardware is a feat of design and engineering that has no equal in the tablet space. Sleek and smooth, the case on the new iPad is very similar to the previous model, though it is slightly thicker to make room for a massive 11,560 mAh battery and a few other new components. The new dual-core A5X processor with quad-core graphics offers significant performance improvements compared to the iPad 2, which was already impressive, and iOS is as smooth as a modern mobile operating system can be.

But the new iPad won me over due to what essentially boils down to two things: the Retina display and the talent of third-party iOS developers.

Countless adjectives have been used to describe the Retina display on the new iPad. Amazing. Fantastic. Brilliant. Gorgeous. Vivid. Beautiful. Stunning. They’re all accurate.

The 9.7-inch, 2,048 x 1,536-pixel panel on the iPad offers better-than-Blu-ray resolution at a class-leading 264 pixels per inch. The pixel density on Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 is 149 pixels per inch, and while such comparisons are meaningless due to the user’s position relative to a television, a 42-inch HDTV with 1080p resolution offers 52 pixels per inch.

More than pixel counts, brightness measurements or any other specs on paper, the iPad’s Retina display is an experience. Nothing on a widely available consumer electronics device even comes close to offering the experience afforded by this amazing screen, and it may be some time before anything does. The color reproduction and clarity make staring at the Retina display like looking through a window, but the user has the ability to touch and manipulate the items that exist on the other side.

The iPad’s Retina display creates a new reality that the user holds in the palm of his or her hand — which brings me to apps.

Our world would be a very different place if Steve Jobs and Apple’s top executives had stuck to their original plan and confined third-party developers who wanted to address iOS to the Web. Apple’s mobile devices, and all mobile devices, would be infinitely less useful and a $20 billion industry responsible for creating more than 466,000 jobs to date would not exist.

The things these talented people have created for iOS are simply breathtaking. While fantastic apps exist for Android, Windows Phone, webOS and other platforms, the cream of the crop on these operating systems does not measure up to the look, feel or performance of top iOS apps. And on the third-generation iPad, the gap is significantly greater than it has ever been before.

Even apps from top developers that exist on multiple platforms offer far more attractive and often more enjoyable experiences on iOS, and especially on the iPad. Look at Netflix, Evernote, Hulu Plus, ESPN ScoreCenter, TED, Kobo, Pulse, Adobe Photoshop Touch or any one of a hundred other popular apps. These applications exist for the iPad and for Android tablets, but the difference between performance — and often, the look and feel — on the iPad and on Android devices is painful. There are several root causes of this disparity, but none of them matter even a little bit to the end user. All that matters is the experience.

These differences grow even more vast with the new iPad. Things aren’t just better on the iPad than they are on other tablets, they’re completely different. The impact of this next-level visual element cannot be overstated.

And the best apps the iPad has to offer aren’t just a cut above the rest now, they are jaw-dropping. There is nothing else in the world that lets people take in news and other content like Flipboard. There is nothing widely available to the mass market that lets people sketch and translate ideas onto “paper” like Paper by FiftyThree. Nothing even approaches these experiences. Not on a tablet, not on a smartphone and not on a PC.

This brings me back to the competition. On top of everything else, the third-generation iPad shows us exactly why Apple’s rivals are floundering and will continue to flounder unless they readdress the market from a smarter angle.

Apple’s competition has effectively gotten nowhere with their efforts to profit from the media tablet market Apple created. The first round of Android tablets was a bust because the user experiences these devices afforded were awful. Vendors scrambled to launch tablets similar to the iPad and the smartphone platform on which they based their efforts did not translate well at all to larger devices.

The second round of Android tablets offered a much better user experience, however these devices bring nothing new and desirable to the table where mass-market consumers are concerned. There is no valuable differentiation for average users, only a more complex and sometimes confusing interface, a weaker assortment of applications and a user experience that cannot match the iPad.

We’ve seen a few success stories, but to call them moderate is kind. With just a pair of niche devices as the exception — the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet — Apple sold more iPads during the new model’s debut weekend than most competing tablets will sell in a quarter, half or even a year.

Tablet makers are doing it wrong.

Now, the situation stands to get even worse. Vendors have been unable to create a tablet experience that consumers are willing to get behind en masse, so they now plan to compete not with products but with pricing. Companies have seen the success enjoyed by Amazon’s $199 Kindle Fire, a specialized device, and they now hope to bolster sales by launching cheaper tablets. Samsung’s new Galaxy Tab models are about to hit the market with trimmed price points, and Google itself is said to be readying an own-brand tablet that could cost as little as $149. These devices may or may not perform well in terms of sales, but my concern lies elsewhere.

This path leads only to compromise, certainly not to innovation.

Why am I being so hard on Android tablets and the companies that build them? Is it because I do not believe top vendors like HTC and Samsung can compete with Apple in the tablet space? Is it because I enjoy seeing them fail? Quite the contrary, it’s because I want to see Apple’s competition succeed.

Apple’s new tablet is amazing, and it has proven to me that a tablet can indeed offer real value and utility where smartphones and traditional computers cannot. But the iPad is only one vision of a tablet.

I don’t want to see companies like Samsung and HTC try and fail to replicate Apple’s vision, and I certainly don’t want to see them do it repeatedly. I want to see them create their own unique visions of what a media tablet might be, and I want to see them launch products that are worthy of our attention — not because these new devices are like a cheaper iPad or like an open-source iPad, but because they are well-designed, well-made, useful and unique.

I want a tablet market, not an iPad market.