On the other hand, there is Heins. Here is what he said in his introductory video upon taking up his new role this morning.

• "I don't think there is some drastic change needed. We are evolving, but this is not a seismic change."
• "We are a great innovative company, but sometimes we innovate too much while we're building a product."
• "What we need to get a bit better at here is to have a little bit more of an ear toward the consumer. I want to strengthen this by bringing really good marketing expertise in."

Wait, wait ... stop me if you heard this before. "RIM is fine. We are innovating all the time. All we need is good marketing." Most of these statements were made in the video released by RIM last night introducing Heins.

What company releases a pre-scripted video of their new CEO? I am sure it happens from time to time but it seems like RIM wanted to control the message before it hit the streets this morning.

I will lay even money that Balsillie and Lazaridis teamed up with RIM's media relations department to put out that video, knowing full well what their new puppet was going to say. It would not surprise me if they were standing behind the camera, nodding along as Heins hit the bullet points.

Ever seen The Hudsucker Proxy? If you have not, go stream it on Netflix. The basic premise is that a clueless kid from the mailroom gets promoted to be the president of a large company so the board can ruin the stock and buy it all up themselves. Tim Robbins plays Norville Barnes, the "proxy," a clueless guy out of business school in backwater Muncie, Indiana. Barnes is the patsy to the board, the guy taking the fall.

While Heins is not some foolish backwater kid out of the mailroom (he is an accomplished engineer who has been with RIM for four years and was the COO before his promotion), but the same principle exists. Balsillie and Lazaridis are still likely to be pulling the strings. There are distinct differences like the fact that Balsillie and Lazaridis already own most of RIM's stock and the stock is lower than ever.

At Hudsucker, Barnes surprises the board. He comes out with a new product (the Hula Hoop) that is immensely popular and profitable. Does Heins have a Hula Hoop in him? He better hope so. Otherwise, he is going to get more than his fair share of blame for the eventual collapse of RIM. Balsillie and Lazaridis can point to Heins and say to the board, "you wanted us out but look what happened when we handed the company to this guy."

You have to feel sorry for Heins. His job is not going to be easy. It is going to take more than marketing, more than "flawless execution." He is right in the video, BlackBerry 10 absolutely needs to ship on time. Whenever that time is supposed to be, we do not know.

RIM is not in danger of bankruptcy ... yet. The company probably has several years before it burns through its profitable operating margins and reserved piles of cash. Heins has a chance. Part of that will be thinking outside the box. The big question will if Balsillie and Lazaridis will let him.

On the heights, all the paths are paved with daggers -  Robert Jordan

The Apple rumor cycle is gearing back up. It is always exciting when the mass of Web pundits get on their high horses and start making prognostications about who, when, what, how the new iDevice will be. With all the attention that new versions of the iPad and iPhone receive, it begs a question: what happens when/if Apple releases a complete flop? You know, something along the lines of a BlackBerry Storm-like disaster. The driving force of Steve Jobs is gone and, one way or another, that is going to affect Apple's products. What happens to the Cult of Apple and its iDevice line if the next iteration is widely disgusted?

This iterative product release strategy makes it all but certain that Apple will not come out with a dud in the next couple of years. The roadmap is pretty clear. The iPhone 4S may not have been what a lot of consumers or pundits thought they wanted, but it is still a good device with a little talking search engine baked inside. The user interface for iOS 5 is polished and leaves little wanting.

Now come the rumors for the iPad 3. What is it going to be? Is it going to be smaller? Will there be two new iPads next year, a big one and a small one? Will it have retina display and an A6 processor (it is probably pretty safe to say "yes" for these)? Apple has two things going for it with the release of the next iPad: money and time. Apple's cash reserves could literally bail out the banks of a couple small-to-medium sized countries. Research and development will get all the money it needs to figure out what consumers want, run through a couple of prototypes and carpet bomb the market next year. Apple does not need to rush the next iPad. The iPhone 4S did not come out until near 15 months after the iPhone 4. The iPad 2 is still a great device that many have a hard time envisioning any better. Outside for some spec bumps, what could and iPad 3 really show us?

Yet, there is a well-known slope in the tech industry for device makers with poor product releases. Look at Nokia, Hewlett-Packard and Research In Motion. All three of those companies dug themselves holes that will take years to climb out of, if ever. RIM has had the biggest drop of all of these companies. Revenue is dropping (even though smartphone sales are technically increasing) and market share has been depleted as Android and iOS gobble up would-be BlackBerry users. The company released its quarterly earnings statement this week and things are looking bleak in Waterloo. RIM has been savaged by mismanagement, poor product decisions, failure to innovate quickly, delayed product releases and infamous service outages. It is a company in disarray.

BlackBerry is an interesting corollary for Apple. It is a product that once engendered cult-like feelings, just like Apple does now. For years though it has been releasing products that are "good enough." BlackBerry OS 7 does not really look all that different from BlackBerry OS 5 or 6. We are in wait-and-see mode for BlackBerry 10 (the formerly named BBX, RIM cannot even get names right these days) but even the QNX-based operating system is being pushed back to the end of 2012 as opposed to Q1 2012, as previously thought. Pushing back product releases is almost as bad as releasing poor products in the eyes of the consumer. Unless you are Apple or an Android Nexus device, more time does not mean more anticipation. It means your company is going to be forgotten when the newest shiny toy that came out (on time) arrives.

Apple is never "late" on its product announcements. That is because Apple does not issue estimates of when a new device is coming. They let the tech press do that for them. Apple's recent strategy has been to announce a product and then release it about a week later. Instant gratification, a brilliant strategy. In contrast, RIM announced the BlackBerry PlayBook in September 2010 and said "eventually." It was put off several times before finally coming in April 2011, still a half-baked shell of what consumers were expecting.

Could Apple ever be in danger of turning into RIM? The fact that the company only releases two mobile products a year gives Apple little room for error. A couple of mediocre releases in a row that do not excite the public could whittle away at the Occult and Apple loses its luster. As we have seen, iOS users will not be swayed to a different product because it is different or shiny. The only way they are going to leave is if Apple shoots itself in the foot, multiple times in a row. That is what RIM did and not only did the product lose mindshare but the corporate infrastructure (which was never great in the first place) crumbled around it.

What it comes down to is the ability of Apple CEO Tim Cook to steer the company and its product releases in the next several years. Cook will need to oversee a significant innovative jump in the iDevice line eventually. Consumers are smart, they know when a company is milking their pockets. The iterative approach to iOS updates is only going to work for so long before Apple needs to make a major upgrade to the platform. When that time comes, Apple will need to make sure that its new products are the type that consumers have come to expect from the behemoth. Because, as we have seen so many times, the slope to decline is cobbled with good intentions gone bad, products that fail to live up to up to expectations and companies taking their cult status for granted.

Apple has enough money and brilliant engineers to avoid any type of decline for years. But, if Cupertino is not careful, the downward spiral is clear. Ask RIM if it ever thought it would be in the situation it is in now. Or Nokia. Success is not guaranteed, no matter how much people like you today.

Top image: Samsung Galaxy S II commercial

This is far higher than the retention rate for the second most popular handset maker, which was HTC. The Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer has managed to encourage 39% of its current customers to stick with them for their next device.

Apple has done a remarkable job of enticing customers by releasing new handsets every year. Some of those updates are dramatic overhauls of the device, while others have been only minor updates. In both cases, the company has exhibited a unique ability to whip its fans up into a frenzy in anticipation for their next gadget.

The next iPhone will be launched at an Apple media event scheduled for October 4. It's not known exactly what the new device will include, but there are some reliable clues to be found in all the rumors that have been flying around lately.

Chart image via Apple Insider.

As its name would suggest, the service works over Blackberry's proprietary messaging platform, which can be used to share songs and playlists amongst other BBM Music subscribers. A subscription will cost $5 per month and include access to 50 songs at any given time. Twenty-five of those songs can be swapped out per month and users can gain access to more music via friends who opt to share it with them. Thus, the more socially connected you are via BBM Music, the more music you can listen to.

Like Spotify and Rdio, BBM Music lets users sync songs locally for offline listening. If they want to actually own the tracks, they have the option to purchase them as MP3's through Amazon.

As far as streaming music apps go, Blackberry users already have a handful to choose from, including Pandora, Last.fm and Rdio. Spotify, which just launched in the U.S. last month, is said to be working on their own app for the platform.

BBM Music is available as a closed beta to BBM 6 users in the United States, Canada and United Kingdom.

However, Apple is the top manufacturer of smartphones. This claim is mainly due to the fact that Apple ships its own phones, while Android is spread out across a number of OEM's, including leading manufacturers like HTC, Motorola and Samsung.

We thought this "Android is #1" headline sounded vaguely familiar, and it is. In March, Nielsen reported the same thing. So the news today is not so much about Android moving into the number one spot, as it is an update on where things stand now. Yep, Android's still there at #1. And it has even a bigger market share than before.

To compare, in March, Nielsen reported that Android had 29% consumer market share in the U.S., while Apple's iOS and RIM's BlackBerry OS were a close second at 27% each. Today, those numbers are 39%, 28% and 20%, respectively. In other words, both Android and Apple are gaining here at RIM's expense.

It's also interesting to see how the smartphone manufacturers have benefited from the Android surge. HTC's Android market share is up from 12% in March to 14% in June. Motorola  went from 10% to 11%, and Samsung went from 5% to 8%.

Of course, these manufacturers put out other phones besides Android phones, and those trends are pictured here, too. Wow, does that show HTC's Windows Mobile/Phone marketshare dropping a percentage point from March to June? And webOS dropped, too?

March 2011

June 2011

RIM, having become aware of the leak yesterday, warned users to "refrain from downloading and installing this software since it is outdated and non-functional in many respects." RIM's right, of course - the software is broken and buggy. But refrain from installing? That's no fun! Especially since some folks have already figured out how to get Android apps up and running on the PlayBook, including email.

Installing the current version of the Android App Player on your PlayBook (assuming you are one of the few that actually owns one) could "seriously mess things up," says the RIM-tracking blog CrackBerry.com. So if you're just curious about what the Player looks like, you can check it through the video the site posted (below) in the video, the player gets stuck for a bit on the loading screen, and then, when loading is complete, only presents a blank screen as the main user interface. However, you can dig around a little in various menus, check out some of the pre-loaded default Android apps (many of which don't work properly), and you can even send and receive email through Android's email client software.

That last one is notable, of course, since PlayBook owners are still waiting on RIM to ship the much-needed core applications, including email, contacts and calendar. Unless you currently own a BlackBerry phone, there's no way (outside webmail) to check your email using the PlayBook. RIM says these apps, as well as the App Player, will arrive sometime this summer.

Android Apps Hacked to Run on PlayBook Using App Player

Some enterprising developers and tech enthusiasts monkeyed around with the software yesterday, and have figured out how to actually run third-party Android applications using the App Player. Screenshots and messages posted to the CrackBerry forums show installations of Zynga's Words with Friends, Amazon's Kindle, Astro and others.

We wouldn't recommend trying this yourself, unless you really know what you're doing, or are willing to suffer the consequences.

Image credit: CrackBerry forum member lawguyman

The words of Seesmic's announcement make the company's rationale clear: the company is discontinuing support for Blackberry "in order to focus development efforts on our most popular mobile platforms: Android, iOS, and WIndows Phone 7."

Of course, this may just be one high-profile departure from that ecosystem, but there seems to be a sense that the RIM ship is sinking. At the same time, some analysts are predicting that Windows Phone 7 may see a large jump in adoption, and so focusing on that platform, along with Android and iOS would make sense.

The recommendations for Seesmic for Blackberry users, according to the company: "We encourage those effected by this change to try out Seesmic for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone 7." In other words, buy a new smartphone. Ouch.

"Fiscal 2012 has gotten off to a challenging start," said Jim Balsillie, RIM's Co-CEO. "The slowdown we saw in the first quarter is continuing into Q2, and delays in new product introductions into the very late part of August is leading to a lower than expected outlook in the second quarter."

During the call, RIM confirmed that it shipped 500,000 units of its new PlayBook and 13.2 million BlackBerries. That last figure might not seem too bad, but here's a figure to offer in comparison: 18.65 million iPhones sold, according to Apple's recent quarterly earnings call.

And note the difference there. BlackBerries shipped. iPhones sold. It seems likely that many of the devices that RIM reported today are still sitting on store shelves.

As RIM didn't meet its projections, the company says it's announcing a "cost optimization program" that will include an undisclosed number of layoffs. It also revised projections downwards for the rest of the year and earnings per share for the full year fiscal 2012 are now expected to be between $5.25 and $6.00. Upon word of the report, RIM stocks fell sharply today.

What Does Scoreloop Do?

Scoreloop's focus has been to provide a "one-stop shop" for gaming developers by offering billing and social services for Android, iOS, Windows Phone and Samsung's bada. Interestingly enough, RIM's BlackBerry platform was not even supported at the time of acquisition.

The company's SDK (software development kit) provides features like leaderboards, achievements, social interaction capabilities (for things like challenges between friends), integration with social networking sites, push notifications, personal news channels, virtual currencies and goods, in-app purchases, support for multiple payment options and more.

Scoreloop also helped gamers reach new players by providing cross promotional marketing opportunities within its community, access to a range of industry partners, assistance with pre-installs on carriers and OEM handsets and access to other distribution channels.

In many ways, the company is similar to the more widely known cross-platform offering from OpenFeint, which also provides social features via an SDK, virtual goods and virtual currencies and promotional opportunities to developers.

What Will Happen to Non-BlackBerry Platforms Using Scoreloop?

So what will become of Scoreloop's cross-platform support, now that's it's a part of RIM? In a message posted on the Scoreloop homepage, CEO Marc Gumpinger assures users that the company will continue its cross-platform approach, despite the acquisition. "As a part of RIM," he says, "we'll be in the unique position to integrate deeply into BlackBerry platforms to take mobile gaming to the next level together."

RIM told BlackBerry-loving blog CrackBerry that the recall is due to a glitch in the OS "that may result in the devices being unable to properly load software upon initial set-up." It affects 16GB models that were shipped to Staples and most have not reached consumers and are still in distribution. Does RIM have a brewing PlayBook problem on its hands?

There are reasons it took RIM almost seven months between announcement and launch of the PlayBook. Apps have been a problem, both native and the proposed Android app player. RIM may have been a touch ambitious as it tried to leapfrog a generation of software development and provide a wide array of developer tools that will work with the PlayBook. The PlayBook is a sophisticated piece of hardware running a new form of consumer gadget O. (QNX Neutrino ran in stuff like cars and jets before RIM acquired it.) There are necessary growing pains.

Fact of the matter - recalls happen. This one, as long as it is isolated as believed, is not a problem for anyone but RIM and Staples and only a minor inconvenience at that.

If you are a PlayBook owner, Endgadget published the serials numbers of all the devices in the recall.

Microsoft's Bing search engine will become the default search and maps provider on all new devices, said Ballmer. But it will be more than that, too. Bing will also be deeply integrated into the BlackBerry operating system, BB OS 7.

But the big news today was about Bing, Microsoft's search engine. Ballmer announced that Bing would become the default search provider and maps provider on all future BlackBerry phones, as well as the BlackBerry PlayBook.

"Bing will actually create real value," Ballmer explained, but not just as a search option, as it turns out. Bing will also be deeply integrated into BlackBerry experience itself, he said. It will be deeply integrated into the BlackBerry OS itself. "This  goes way beyond search box," Ballmer said. "It's about real tools that help real people get things done."

Demo: Voice-Activated Search, NFC, Maps and Photo Stitching

To give the audience a better idea of what this meant, Ballmer showed a video where a group of hipster musicians used the new Bing search features on their BlackBerry smartphones. The video included demos of voice-activated search using Bing's TellMe service as well as NFC-enabled search queries. NFC, or near field communication, is a short range wireless technology that allows you to tap your phone to read smart tags linking to online content, share data between devices, or use your phone in place of a credit or debit card at the point-of-sale, among other things.

The video also showed off Bing's street-level views in Bing Maps and a panoramic photo stitching feature, which tied multiple images together into one 360 degree view. All these demos were seen only briefly in the video, a tease of what's to come.

Afterwards, the HTML-enabled Bing mobile search application was demonstrated in more detail, showing how it can be used to do local searches. With Bing, you can read online reviews and ratings for local businesses, for example, and it even lets you use other applications right within the Bing mobile interface itself. In this particular example, OpenTable was used to book a table at a local restaurant. Other Bing features let you pull up maps, news, personal bookmarks and even local deals, which are then plotted on a map.

The Bing integration will ship on phones launched this holiday season, says Microsoft. Also a part of the partnership is preferred placement for Bing apps within BlackBerry App World's app store carousel.

Like the PlayBook itself, this tablet-optimized version of the social networking site has room to improve, as there are still a few bugs and kinks to work out. But at least RIM can finally claim a high-profile app for its woefully app-lacking tablet - and this time, it's an app the iPad doesn't have.

When you first launch the Facebook for PlayBook application, it defaults to a view of your News Feed. From here, you can "like" and comment on your friends' posts, click on shared links and videos to view those items in the PlayBook's Web browser and, through the box at the top right of the screen, you can update your own status.

The status update box also provides a button that lets you share a photo from your camera or photo library. There is a little confusion when posting from the library, however, because it takes you to an interface that shows you tabs for "Pictures," "Video," "Music" and "Documents," which makes you assume that other, non-photo content can be posted, too. That is not the case.

The app also provides access to other standard Facebook features, available at any time by tapping the button at the top left of the screen. Here, in an interface greatly resembling what you see on the iPhone, there are options for viewing your Profile, your Friends lists, Photos, Messages and Chat.

When viewing your own profile, there is a button at the bottom which lets you switch between your Wall, your Info section and your Photos. You can't edit your Facebook profile info from the app, though.

Clicking on the Photos option from your Profile takes you to the same page you would see if you tapped on Photos from the main navigation. Here, you can see all your albums and there's a button to toggle between photos and videos, to better filter through your content. While viewing photos, you can tap on the photo itself to display a bar at the top that lets you like, comment or tag the photo you're viewing.

Your Friends list lets you view your friends in both a list view and a grid layout. Plus, you can search for friends and Pages, add new friends and respond to friend requests.

Facebook Chat is a two-paned interface, with contacts on the left and conversations on the right. New chat messages appear as notifications in the Nav Bar as pop-overs. However, if you're one of those folks who hates the distraction of Facebook Chat, you'll be happy to know that you can switch it off in the app's Settings.

Also available in the Settings are links to your Account Settings, Privacy Settings, the Help Center and Terms. All of these items open in a Web browser window.

In the Messages section, you can switch between your Inbox, Outbox and Updates using a button at the bottom of the screen.

There was a little bugginess here, as the Facebook for PlayBook app was showing I have four unread messages, although in reality, all my messages on Facebook.com have been read. The supposedly unread messages are so far back in my messages list, I can't even locate them to "read" them again so the message count will be appear accurately. (The app does not count unread updates from your Pages in its message count, however.)

Besides the small complaints mentioned above, the only other major issue - and this one is irksome - is that the application won't work in portrait mode. It's an odd oversight, to say the least, and hopefully not a design choice on either RIM or Facebook's part.

So that's one app down. Unfortunately, RIM has much further to go if it ever wants to compete with the likes of the iPad. The PlayBook's worst feature for now is the lack of apps - not just the missing email, calendaring and contacts applications, either - but all the "standard" big-name apps you expect to see on mobile platforms. They simply haven't arrived yet. Will they? Will Twitter for PlayBook come next? Fingers crossed, BlackBerry fans.

BlackBerry Balance shows users a unified view of the applications and data on the smartphone allowing them to separate sensitive business information or personal uses like scheduling and activity management. As enterprise and consumers merge gadgets from a hodge podge of task specific devices to streamlining one device for many purposes, RIM keeps the IT administrators satisfied with security provisions while also allowing personal use.

"So, our task as a vendor has been to understand this whole, we call it dual-persona nature, that they devices have to have," said David Heit, director of product strategy at RIM in an interview in January. "So, looking forward that these devices and their solutions there is a personal element to them where the individual decides their own level of security."

Data leaks through social media is often a concern that IT departments have, especially when sensitive client information is stored next to a social media app. Balance will prevent business information to be copied into or used by Facebook, Twitter, Windows Lives, Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo accounts. Data created by business applications cannot be used by personal applications.

"In our designs for Playbook and even for all the Blackberry smartphones we are recognizing that dual-persona nature that you have to accommodate and that these devices will become capable of handling the combined scenario where it is used for both," Heit said.

Since Balance is tied through a BES 5.03 server, IT administrators get the level of control that makes them feel comfortable. If an employee leaves the organization with smartphone in tow, IT can remotely wipe the business information on the phone while keeping personal information intact. In the case of a lost of stolen phone, all data can be wiped remotely.

The PlayBook, then, must be "mobile," in Zuckerberg's eyes, at least.

The new app supports the following features:

• View and add Friends -  Users can find friends by scanning the new grid view of their profile pictures; search for and add new friends and manage new friend requests; browse their profiles, photos and videos; view and interact with wall posts; view key information on profiles and pages; and view, comment and ‘like’ photos on profiles and pages.
• Photo and video viewing - Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook makes it easy to upload photos from the BlackBerry PlayBook Picture Library, tag friends in photos, view comments, tags and likes.  The BlackBerry PlayBook can also be connected to an HD TV to display photos and videos at a whole new level in full 1080p HD.
• Connect with friends using Facebook Chat -  On the BlackBerry PlayBook screen, users can enjoy side-by-side viewing of online contacts and active conversations. Notifications of new Chat messages are displayed on the Notifications Bar, so users can quickly and easily read and respond to new Chat messages while browsing friends’ profiles, viewing their pictures or reading their status updates.
• View and interact with the News Feed - Users will be able to browse highlights such as photo uploads and status updates and seamlessly view links in the BlackBerry PlayBook browser.  They will also be able to “Comment” and “Like” to discuss and show appreciation for friends’ content, as well as publish a status update or upload a photo from the status publisher accessible from their Profile or from within the News Feed.

The Facebook app will be available in the BlackBerry App World app store sometime in May, but no exact date was given for its launch.

With Video Chat, you'll see a picture-in-picture display so you can preview your image before placing the call. You can also switch cameras during the call, in order to show your caller what you're seeing around you. A mute feature and call logs are available, too.

To maintain a list of friends and colleagues available for calls, the app ships with a Friends List feature which lets you list your contacts, associate a picture with their contact entry.

RIM says the app will begin to roll out starting on May 3.