RIM Denies Plans to Abandon Consumer Market

BlackBerry-maker RIM has denied reports that it is abandoning the consumer market. We, along with many other media outlets, reported today that RIM was pulling back from the consumer market, based on comments made by CEO Thorsten Heins late yesterday. But this afternoon, Patrick Spence, SVP & managing director, global sales & regional marketing at RIM has issued a statement that says:

“The claim that RIM has said it will withdraw from the consumer market is wholly misleading. Whilst we announced plans to re-focus our efforts on our core strengths, and on our enterprise customer base, we were very explicit that we will continue to build on our strengths to go after targeted consumer segments. We listed BBM, as well as the security and manageability of our platform, amongst our strengths.”

Spence also noted that while Heins did say that RIM would refocus on the enterprise business, he also stated that part of competing in the ‘bring your own device’ segment is to create a compelling consumer offering.

So as you were then. The bottom line is, then, that RIM is not, after all, abandoning the consumer market, though many would argue it would be better off doing so. Our apologies if we, along with a lot of other people, got the wrong end of the stick, based on Heins’ pledge to “re-focus our efforts on our core strengths, and on our enterprise customer base”.

For a company that has messaging at its core, however, RIM is clearly experiencing considerable difficulties getting its message across. At least this time round, unlike in October, it hasn’t taken four days to raise its head above the parapet.