RIM boss: we’re here to win

RIM CEO Thorsten Heins claims his company is ready to reclaim leadership of the smartphone market with the launch of BlackBerry 10.

The new OS is in the final stages of testing, with RIM even suggesting that it’s ready to start licensing BB10 to other manufacturers.

Sales of BlackBerry devices slumped by 43% last quarter, as the Canadian manufacturer lost even more ground to Apple’s iPhone and devices running Google’s Android.

Nevertheless, Heins remains bullishly confident that BB10 will reverse the company’s fortunes. “We’re here to win,” he said. “We’re not here to fight for third or fourth place.”

According to the latest figures from IDC, fighting for third place is exactly what RIM is doing currently, with BlackBerry devices accounting for a mere 4.8% of mobile OS shipments of the second quarter of this year. Android-based devices account for more than two-thirds of the market.

Smartphone OS market share Q2 2012 (IDC)

Heins vision for BB10 extends beyond the smartphones for which the company made its name, however. The RIM CEO restated the company’s desire to continue developing tablets, such as the 4G BlackBerry PlayBook tablet announced earlier this month. Heins said the new OS will also be used for what he referred to as “machine-to-machine communications”.

“Smartphones are a part of our business, but we’re looking way beyond this,” he said.

In the meantime, RIM is ready to start negotiating licensing deals for BB10, which has been designed from the ground-up. “QNX is already licensed across the automotive sector – we could do that with BB10 if we chose to,” Heins said. “The platform can be licensed.”