BlackBerry

Former Research in Motion co-CEO Mike Lazaridis still believes a comeback is in the works for BlackBerry and is willing to put his money where his mouth is.

Lazaridis, who alongside fellow co-CEO Jim Balsillie stepped down from RIM a week ago, said in an interview posted Friday by The Record that he is confident in new CEO Thorsten Heins. In fact, Lazaridis is confident enough that he said he plans to buy $50 million worth of additional stock.

"I absolutely know he will take this company to new heights," Lazaridis said in the interview.

Lazaridis and Balsillie … Read more

Research In Motion is prepping a slimmed-down product lineup for this year, as it puts its resources behind its next-generation BlackBerrys coming in the second half, according to an apparently leaked product lineup.

RIM plans to release two BlackBerry Curves in the next few months, Boy Genius Report said in a report today. In addition, BGR said, the company plans to launch a slightly tweaked PlayBook tablet.

The main debut event will come in the second half of the year, according to the report. RIM has its first BlackBerry 10 smartphone, code-named London, on track for a September launch, according … Read more

At BlackBerry-maker RIM, it's out with the old and in with the new--at least as CEOs go.

Last night's news of Thorsten Heins' ascent at our favorite Canadian smartphone company got us thinking long and hard about what the new leadership means for RIM, especially since Heins isn't exactly a newcomer to the company. CNET News' Roger Cheng joins the Dialed In crew.

Later in the show, Lynn shares Virgin Mobile's throttling plans, and Brian talks all about an iPhone look-alike that's more than what it seems.

When it comes to mobile security, common perception is that RIM's Blackberry devices have the market locked up. But in this age of personal iPhones and Androids migrating to corporate networks, does it really matter?

We also inhabit an era of disclosing everything you do online, including sharing your live location, publicly announcing shopping preferences, not to mention making purchases with digital wallets. I argue that attitudes have shifted since the time of a RIM-dominated handset market.

Okay, let's be clear, smartphones today hold a frightening amount of personal data. From email, texts, to real-time position and Web … Read more

It wasn't just consumers and Wall Street that had a problem with Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie; it turns out they weren't so popular with Research in Motion employees either.

That's according to a survey of more than 120 reviews from RIM employees taken by Glassdoor, a career-focused site that provides a glimpse at jobs and companies.

According to Glassdoor, Balsillie and Lazaridis received from their employees a 48 percent approval rating, and a 52 percent disapproval rating. On average, a CEO gets an approval rating of 62 percent, the site said.

RIM said late yesterday that … Read more

After long years of troubled management for BlackBerry-maker RIM, the company's two co-founder CEOs stepped aside to see what some fresh blood could do to revive the ailing smartphone brand. Yet for those outside the company, Thorsten Heins (pronounced TORE-sten) is a veritable man of mystery.

That's about to change, and rapidly, as the new executive gets pushed into the glaring spotlight and will be expected to turn RIM around, and fast.

Where did he come from? Heins, 54, hails from Germany, where he earned a master's degree in Science and Physics from the University of Hannover. … Read more

Investors are certainly a fickle bunch.

They've spent the last few months trying to dislodge co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie from their leadership roles at Research in Motion. So now that the CEOs have stepped down, what does the stock do? Drop another 2.7 percent to $16.53 in pre-market trading.

The collective shrug by Wall Street to RIM's management shakeup illustrates the underlying problems still facing the company. Despite a new CEO, the company faces the same old problems: overwhelming competition, next-generation phones that are coming far too late, and a brand that has lost … Read more

Samsung yesterday sternly rejected a recent report claiming it was in talks with Research In Motion to possibly buy all or part of the handset maker.

Speaking to Reuters, Samsung spokesman James Chung said that his company has not "considered acquiring" RIM and is "not interested" in buying the BlackBerry maker. He added that neither company approached the other to try to create an acquisition deal.

Mobile blog Boy Genius Report cited sources yesterday, claiming that Samsung and RIM were in talks and that the companies were nearing an acquisition deal. One of the blog's … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Every January, CES sets the tone for the year with a bonanza of new, thrilling smartphones touting the best and brightest technology. This year proved no different, with more than 21 new smartphones to behold.

More than a few were instant hits, like the Motorola Droid 4, a 4G LTE handset with Verizon, which has a sleek body and a keyboard that's reminiscent of a MacBook in miniature. There's also the Sony Xperia S, which won our admiration for its slick, cutting-edge design and its reality display; and the HTC Titan II, an LTE Windows Phone sequel … Read more