RIM

Research in Motion has appointed a new COO and CMO as it prepares to launch BlackBerry 10 smartphones later this year in hopes of reversing a decline in its global smartphone share.

Research In Motion recently unveiled its next-generation mobile operating system, BlackBerry 10, giving critics a little more insight into the company's future prospects. BlackBerry 10 is a significant break from previous BlackBerry operating systems that focused on physical keyboards and smaller screens; BB10 is designed for touchscreens first. The new BlackBerry platform will still include RIM's traditional enterprise-focused hallmarks such as stability and security. But the company is also making a play for app developers so it can woo consumers by offering popular apps for gaming and social networking.

In brief remarks to reporters Wednesday, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins revealed little of RIM's specific plans for the future but confirmed his determination to rebuild RIM as a "mobile computing" powerhouse, going beyond smartphones and tablets.

RIM today gave a brief demonstration of its new mobile OS on an early prototype handset. And both represent a dramatic break from RIM's traditional BlackBerry heritage.

In three months, Amazon's Kindle Fire went from zero to 54 percent share of the Android tablet market. Its cost and power have changed the choice from iPad vs. everything, to iPad, Kindle Fire, or long justifications of why another choice isn't an obviously bad one

Could the sex scandal involving U.S. Secret Service agents in Colombia be the key to the BlackBerry's comeback? Stranger things have happened.

RIM is most known for its iconic BlackBerry smartphones, but one of the driving forces behind the success of RIM—and one of the reasons it’s still as pervasive as it is today—is the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) infrastructure. Now, RIM has introduced BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, which extends BES to manage Android and iOS devices as well. While marketed as a value-add for BlackBerry customers, BlackBerry Mobile Fusion may very well be the core product for RIM moving forward.

Someday we'll look back on BlackBerry maker RIM's announcement to handle mobile device management for its competitors and say, "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

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As vendors argue about the new nano-SIM specs, Apple offers theirs free – with a catch.

As Research in Motion tries to reinvent itself with the upcoming Blackberry 10 operating system, the company may have to work a little harder to get popular apps such as Netflix on board.