Stefan Mileschin

Slow motion train wreck RIM has decided that after all its plunging sales it really needs a marketing boss to look after its next generation Blackberry.

RIM Chief Executive Thorsten Heins admitted RIM "spoke with more than one voice" when it marketed its BlackBerry 7 smartphones and its PlayBook tablet. We guess hearing too many voices including the one which says "die, die, die" would be one reason why RIM is doing badly.

While the Canadian company is hoping to God that its BlackBerry 10 platform will reverse its fortunes but it still has all the problems that it always had.

According to Reuters, Heins told a very subdued BlackBerry World conference in Orlando, Florida that it was fairly obvious that there needed to be one marketing person to control such an important project.

RIM stock has fallen almost six percent this week after the company gave investors a glimpse of its next-generation smartphones and the tools they would need to create apps for the gadgets.

Some have suggested that while the Blackberry 10 is not bad it is not exactly going to set the world on fire.

Heins was doing his best in front of cynical hacks, tredding a fine line between admitting the company had made a few mistakes, hinting that he has a cunning plan without telling anyone what it was.

Unfortunately this lack of details is not winning over the media or developers who RIM needs to get on board to provide some killer apps to justify buying them.

RIM has around 15,000 apps for its PlayBook tablet and 70,000 apps for its smartphones or the tablet, compared with 200,000 iPad apps, and half a million for the iPhone. The company has become something of a joke, but Heins is probably not laughing.

RIM has been without a marketing chief since Keith Pardy saw the writing on the wall and left the company last March. This was just before RIM launched the PlayBook, which tanked worse than New Zealand's Bob Semple - which was supposed to turn back Japanese invaders but was made using local materials and were converted back to being tractors before they did anyone an injury.

RIM also needs a new chief operating officer and a chief technology officer, and a future.

http://news.techeye.net/mobile/rim-d...keting-manager