That commitment to the current strategic direction of the company, that complacency, suggested to many that Heins — just like his predecessors — hasn’t fully recognized the dramatic loss of traction RIM has suffered in the market it once dominated. Add to this the fact that he served as RIM’s COO during a time when the company made a number of operational missteps, and Heins really didn’t inspire much confidence. Meet the new boss, same as the old bosses, right?

Maybe. But perhaps Heins isn’t quite as oblivious as former RIM co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie. In a Thursday chat with CNBC, he sounded a bit more realistic about RIM’s plight, acknowledging its missteps and conceding that the company has suffered as a result of them.

“It hurts me to see us losing market share in the U.S.,” Heins said. “There was a paradigm shift, and we did not shift with it. I know we’ve made mistakes, and I know I’m in for a fight. We want to stop the bleeding.”

Sounds far more encouraging than his spiel in that abysmal “meet the new boss” video RIM posted earlier this week, right? Certainly, it’s more honest. And admission is the first step in recovery …

Chris Hughes | © University of Waterloo, Graphics, Photo/Imaging

Adding Prem Watsa to the company’s board of directors.

CEO of Fairfax Financial, Watsa has been described as the Canadian version of investing god Warren Buffett. So he brings considerable business acumen to RIM and a commitment to its success.

But, more crucially, he brings a lot of the company’s stock.

You see, Fairfax has been quietly buying up RIM shares for some time now. Today, it holds a 2.3 percent stake in the company. Which makes it RIM’s fourth-largest shareholder, after Lazaridis and Balsillie, who each hold about 5.1 percent of the company, and Primecap Management, which owns a 5.5 percent stake.

And according to reports, Fairfax is planning to add to its position, a strategy driven by Watsa’s belief in the long-term value of the company.

So what RIM has in Watsa is not just a savvy investor and highly strategic thinker, but a guy with a stake in the company that’s large enough when combined with those of Lazaridis and Balsillie to protect it from investors like Jaguar Financial, which have been pushing RIM to sell all or parts of its business, and to put an end to distracting takeover rumors.

There’s eWeek’s list of 10 things Heins should do, and a separate Top 10 to-do items from CNET. Mashable’s list had only four items, and Fierce Wireless boiled it down to three. TechCrunch, meanwhile, offered up a list of things that Heins should not do, which was basically the opposite of many of the recommendations on the other to-do lists.

Personally, I have too many things on my own to-do list to have time to make one for Heins.

But I would just offer up a few facts to a man who believes, or at least publicly states, that no radical change is needed at RIM.

The BlackBerry maker has lost three points of market share in just the past three months.

As recently as 2009, RIM accounted for 54 percent of smartphone shipments in North America. By mid-2011, analysts said its share of this market had dropped to just 13 percent.

Oh, yeah — and the stock. As a longtime RIM executive, I doubt Heins needs reminding of the share price. But just to be sure, I took a screenshot of the chart shown on RIM’s investor Web site. It shows a stock that was above $60 a year ago, and is now barely above $15 a share.

So what?

In handing the CEO reins over to an unknown insider who has vowed to follow the course already laid out by his predecessors, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, RIM’s big change really seems to be no change at all. Indeed, watching Heins’s video introduction last night, he sounded a lot like the company’s oblivious founders.

“Sometimes RIM innovates too much.”

“We sometimes think the unthinkable. And that is fantastic.”

“If we continue doing well what we’re doing, I see no problems with us being in the top three players worldwide in the next years in wireless.”

Balsillieisms — all three of them. And together they describe a complacency that doesn’t do much to inspire confidence. Certainly, Wall Street was quick to voice its skepticism over Heins’s appointment. Below, a selection of analyst reactions:

Charlie Wolf, Needham:
Mr. Heins joined RIM in 2007 from Siemens Communication Division and since 2009 has been Chief Operating Officer overseeing the BlackBerry product portfolio worldwide. During this period, RIM introduced one failed model after another up through BlackBerry 7. This does not offer us great confidence that he can turn BlackBerry around, even excluding the fact that Mr. Lazaridis and Balsillie will be looking over his shoulder throughout.

Amitabh Passi, UBS:
While we think this is a small step in the right direction, we are surprised RIM has decided to go with an operations minded insider, especially since we consider the challenges tied more to strategy. We don’t believe these announcements (likely propelled by shareholder and, quite possibly, some Board pressure) will produce much change in the short-medium term, and much will depend on the success of BB10.

Pierre Ferragu, Bernstein:
Thorsten Heins remains an insider, and we lack conviction on whether or not he will be making the sort of bold moves required (Android adoption, strategic partnerships) to put the company on a better track. We continue to believe that a strategy based on the development of a proprietary ecosystem is bound to fail and initial comments in the press release and Canadian press suggest the new management team remains unfortunately committed to the current strategic direction of the company. We are also worried that the new CEO doesn’t seem to fully recognize the dramatic loss of traction we see in the market for BlackBerry products.

Ed Snyder, Charter Equity:
At first blush this seems more like window-dressing than a real reorganization. COO Thorsten Heins took direction from Balsillie and Lazaridis when they were co-CEOs, and as the newly appointed CEO he’ll still be under their review as Board members. And with Lazaridis already talking up his intent to play an active role in innovation by committee, today’s announcement seems more like window-dressing than real reform.

Ehud Gelblum, Morgan Stanley:
We view this as a good first step in the right direction, as the board of directors finally appears to be doing what a board should always do, which is to make sure the CEO is effectively doing his or her job leading the strategic direction of the company. However, we do not believe this move is enough, especially as Heins is an internal hire and not an independent fresh voice. We also worry that Heins has had little experience setting a vision or strategic direction for the company, and has instead been more involved implementing the products and strategy devised by Mike and Jim.

That’s the takeaway from new RIM CEO Thorsten Heins, who told analysts this morning that he thinks the company is in pretty good shape, all things considered. Sure, in the U.S., it has been roughed up by Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android, but it’s still used by lots of people, has lots of fans in big companies and big government agencies, and lots of users around the world.

And the new tech that the company has in the pipeline — a revised version of its PlayBook tablet, and a new operating system due out in the fall — are great. You’ll see: “I don’t think there is a drastic change needed.”

No surprise there, given that Heins, RIM’s former chief operating officer, has been at the company for the past four years. If RIM really wanted someone to blow things up and start over again, they’d bring in an outsider.

Instead, the only external help Heins seems to think he’ll need will be the talents of a new marketing guru, whom he is counting on to reach out to consumers, in particular. But if RIM can’t make a better product than its competitors — or, at the very minimum, one that’s at least as good — I don’t see how messaging will help.

EARLIER

Time for a change. But not too much change!

That’s the messaging around Research In Motion’s CEO swap. The company has yielded to irate investors by moving out longtime co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis. But they’ve moved up an insider — former Chief Operating Officer Thorsten Heins — into the top spot. And if you listen to him, RIM is doing great.

Here’s the “meet the new boss” video that the company put out last night, where Heins says that “sometimes we innovate too much.” And that he likes to ski, but that the hills around RIM HQ in Waterloo, Ontario, don’t really compare to the Bavarian mountains in his native Germany:

Wall Street doesn’t seem overly impressed with the move, or the suggestion from a Wall Street Journal source that the company refuses to consider a sale, and RIMM shares are down 3 percent in pre-market trading. [Correction: RIMM shares are up 3 percent in pre-market trading.]

Now we’ll see if Heins can help make his case in person: He is hosting his first conference call, and we’ll cover it live here, starting at 8 am ET.

8:02 am: Greetings. Apologies in advance, because our nifty liveblog tool seems to be MIA this AM, so things will be a little slower than usual here.

RIM official sets expectations: No financial guidance here. Just Heins and new BOD chair Barbara Stymiest.

Stymiest: Thanks much to Mike and Jim for building RIM. “It is, still today, one of the leading brands in the world.”

Stymiest: Runs through Heins’s resume, heaps praise on him. “The board is very excited about RIM’s prospects for the future.”

Heins: Thanks! RIM isn’t “just a device company,” it’s an integrated service company, with devices and networks. Unique opportunity. “We have an exceptional foundation to build upon.”

“RIM has undergone, and is still completing, a major transformation.” Sure, has “hit a few bumps along the road here and there,” but that happens. Purchasing QNX to create new platform for company was a bold move, and we’ll see that it was the right decision over time. PlayBook 2.0 will be great. So will BlackBerry 10.

Q&A:

Q: Please go into detail: What are your priorities for the next 100 days?

Heins: We need to get better at market communications. We have strong tech, strong customer base, growing overseas. “The U.S. is a bit different.” Public opinion there is that we’re still strong in enterprise, but we need to be better about explaining ourselves as a consumer company. “We need to engage more with the consumer base … we need to take them with us on the journey of exploring BlackBerry in the future.” Also, we need to execute better. We have to scale processes further, need to have “rigid” management for product development, etc. Gotta understand RIM has grown very quickly. But “we innovated while we were defining the product,” and “that needs to stop” — need to have “way better execution.” “I’m pretty sure this will really help us a lot, and really help our customer base a lot.”

Q: Seems like lots of your success has been in the “low-end market” in Asia. Thoughts on that? Also, thoughts on getting BlackBerry 10 out next fall as planned?

Heins: You say “low end”, I say “entry level.” We can’t make phones with less power. But there’s a big market that is still using feature/“dumb” phones, and we can move them to smartphones. They won’t go to the most powerful phones right away. We need to give them a good landing point. Once we prove to them that BlackBerry is a great place to start, we’ll move them up the ladder. “That’s the strategy behind the ‘BlackBerry for Everyone’ strategy.” As far as BlackBerry 10 — it’s not just a new OS, it’s a whole new infrastructure. Need to be clear about that. “That work is underway.” By the way, we’re also going to have an Android player with PlayBook 2.0, so we can leverage the “long tail” of all those apps, if people want those.

Q: Last year, you also were bullish about QNX. Why are you still confident about that? That seems like a “me-too OS, that is just catching up” to Android, iOS.

Heins: Again, QNX is an existing OS. Used on power grids. “It is a proven OS.” Allows true multitasking — “I mean, true multitasking.” “It is an extremely competitive OS as of today.” Very smart of Lazaridis to buy this instead of trying to build our own.

Q: On last RIM call, you guys talked about strategic options the company was looking at. Those options still available?

Heins: You mean licensing? Let me be clear: We can’t just be in the device-only business. “We are strong because we have an integrated solution … I want to build on that. I will not in any way split this up.” As far as inbound licensing requests, I’ll listen to them, and if they make sense, but “it’s not my Focus One.” Apple, “the other fruit company,” only other company with this kind of integration, and I want to take advantage of that strength that we have, too.

[Missed Q, but Heins is now talking about marketing, which he says needs to get better, specifically with consumer marketing.]

Q: You’ve been here four years. What can you do now as CEO that you couldn’t do as COO?

Heins: We were still kind of a start-up when I came on. But “start-up processes don’t scale.” So we need to change that. I’ve been able to study how the culture works. “I don’t think there is a drastic change needed”; we are “evolving.” “I don’t feel I was held back in any way to do what we needed to do.” But we do need to get better about “processes.” Again, I do want us to focus more on consumer marketing.

That was a fast call, and now it’s over.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Earlier this week, we noted speculation that RIM might be talking to Samsung about a licensing deal for its forthcoming BlackBerry 10 OS. Now here’s yet another theory to consider, this one perhaps a bit wilder than those we’ve heard to date: What if RIM were to simply hand over its BlackBerry business to Samsung in return for royalties?

Avian Research’s Matthew Thornton feels it’s a possibility. “A potential and interesting development would be if RIM were to shutter or de-emphasize its own device platform,” Thornton explains. “[By doing this it could] dramatically cut costs, focus on its network and enterprise services and the BlackBerry 10 platform/ecosystem, and allow Samsung to be the de facto device manufacturer for BlackBerry devices (perhaps co-branded) with Samsung paying RIM a licensing fee similar to what it does with Microsoft.”

Thornton’s theory sounds like a bit of a stretch, but it does have some compelling aspects.

RIM is clearly struggling to compete in today’s smartphone market, but its secure messaging platform, BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), is still among the best around.

Why not hand off the BlackBerry hardware business to a company that’s responsible for some of the best and most popular Android smartphones? Then the company can double down on BBM and other enterprise services that it actually does well.

This time around, Samsung is said to be the leading suitor, or rather the company with which RIM would most like to strike an agreement — though once again its leadership is believed to be asking for too much money.

There is an alternate theory making the rounds, though, and this one seems far more plausible than the breathless “RIM is desperately trying to sell itself” blathering: RIM is talking to Samsung about a licensing deal for its forthcoming BlackBerry 10 OS.

This seems a far more likely scenario. After all, it would take a bold company indeed to pay the premium RIM would almost certainly demand for itself. And what would it be purchasing? The chance to turn around RIM’s deteriorating business? An opportunity to do damage control on the ill-starred PlayBook? The chance to arrive late to market with another ill-conceived BlackBerry? And then to go head-to-head with Apple and Google, which have already wiped the floor with it?

No. A licensing deal is much more plausible, as Jefferies analyst Peter Misek observed in a research note to clients today.

“We see a licensing deal announced within the next 3 months with actual BlackBerry 10 handsets out in Q4,” Misek said, adding that he feels the company will likely charge a licensing fee of $10 per device. “We believe this is the main way RIM will be able to maintain its services revenues and build ecosystem momentum. We believe Samsung and HTC would do this to gain access to the RIM subscriber base [and] diversify away from sole dependence on Android.”

RIM declined comment on the rumors, citing company policy on market speculation.

UPDATE: This just in from Samsung via Reuters: “We haven’t considered acquiring the firm and are not interested in (buying RIM).”

Shares in the company rose some 5 percent Thursday on market chatter that it’s looking for buyers. The latest story making the rounds: RIM has hired Goldman Sachs to explore strategic options.

Is there any more truth to this rumor than the ones that preceded it? It’s certainly possible, though, as we’ve said before, RIM’s not a takeover target if no one wants it.

“There are several roadblocks that make an acquisition of RIM unlikely,” Morningstar analyst Michael Holt recently wrote. “We believe RIM should entertain all options at this point, given the serious challenges facing the firm, but there is little evidence to suggest RIM’s board is open to offers at this point in time.”

(Image courtesy of The Joy of Tech)

But will it do RIM any good?

PlayBook OS 2.0 includes the native email and calendar programs that were inexplicably missing from its first generation, as well an Android app player. In other words, it’s the operating system that RIM should have launched with.

That said, it’s still lacking in a few areas. Specifically, PlayBook OS 2.0 doesn’t offer native support for BlackBerry Messenger, which is a glaring omission, though RIM is scrambling to address it.

So is this update enough to raise the PlayBook’s chances of mainstream success?

That’s a tough one. The competitive landscape for tablets is only growing stronger. The Kindle Fire seems to be picking up momentum, and March should bring with it the launch of a new iPad, which will undoubtedly present rivals with new challenges.

Even with a successful OS upgrade, RIM has a difficult road ahead of it. And already the calls of “too little, too late” have begun.

“We were impressed with new BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 features such as Android Player and fully integrated email, calendar, contacts, and social media feeds,” says Canaccord Genuity analyst T. Michael Walkley. “However, we believe OS 2.0 only narrows the gap with leading ecosystems iOS and Android. As a result, we believe sales of the improved Playbook could continue to struggle versus improving Android and iOS tablet offerings along with new entrants such as Amazon’s Fire and Windows 8 tablets later this year.”

So just what is he going to do?

Well, some of the details are still being worked out. But Humm said a big part will be continuing with the “value plans” that the company introduced last year. Those plans, which offer lower monthly rates to those who forego a device subsidy, can indeed save many customers money, but they are also complicated to make sense of.

“I think it’s more complicated because it means you separate out the handset from the rate plan,” Humm said. “On the other hand, it is more honest. It is a way for customers to optimize based on what they need.”

Humm notes that some customers want a big data plan but don’t need the latest smartphone, while others want the latest phone but not a lot of data. T-Mobile’s value plans ensure neither will overpay.

T-Mobile also intends to stick with plans that slow users down after they hit the amount of data they have paid for, rather than implementing an overage charge.

“What customers hate is when they are using data and suddenly they are being cut off or they have to pay gigantic overages,” Humm said. “Our model doesn’t do that. You stay connected and you don’t have to pay more.”

And while other carriers struggle to figure out a way to allow customers to share gigabytes across multiple devices, Humm said T-Mobile is sticking with an approach that allows customers to add a discounted second rate plan.

When it comes to getting the latest devices, Humm insists that isn’t a problem despite his No. 4 market position and the fact that the company uses a rather unique wireless band.

Of course, there is one big exception: The iPhone.

All of the other major U.S. carriers — AT&T, Verizon and Sprint — now carry the Apple device, leaving Humm odd man out.

He isn’t giving up hope, though.

“The key reason we didn’t have the iPhone in the past is we are on different band than globally the market was,” Humm said. “That is something which will change over time. Chipsets are also evolving to be able to allow for more bands.”

As always, though, the decision is up to Apple, Humm acknowledges.

On the marketing front, Humm said that T-Mobile will probably resume the approach it had been taking prior to the AT&T deal, in which it sharply attacked its rivals and pitched itself as a more consumer-friendly alternative.

“We will pick up our challenger strategy the way we had presented it last year and sharpen it further,” he said.

Long-term, the company still has to figure out what it is going to do about a next-generation network. Verizon, AT&T and Sprint have all either launched an LTE network or plan to do so this year.

Because of spectrum limitations, T-Mobile has focused instead on speeding up its existing HSPA+ network, which it also bills as “4G.” For now, Humm insists that is good enough, saying customers care more about reliability and speed than they do network technology.

The real benefit of LTE, Humm said, is on easing network congestion, and he notes that isn’t a problem T-Mobile currently is struggling with.

“LTE has the advantage on the long haul; it is more effective spectrum ultilization,” Humm said. “That’s only something which will help (over) the long haul. You are talking about maybe in three, four, five years.”

LTE is still the long-term plan, Humm said, adding that he thinks the company will find a way to get the spectrum it needs.

“We’re not against LTE,” Humm said. “We will over time evolve to LTE. We just don’t see a need to move there very fast.”

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The company kicked off 2012 by announcing six new Android devices, all running on LTE, as well as new LTE-capable Windows phones from HTC and Nokia.

Moments after he left the stage, AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega sat down with AllThingsD to talk about a wide range of issues facing his company, various mobile device makers and the industry as a whole.

Here’s an edited look at what he had to say.

On the failure of the T-Mobile deal and where AT&T goes from here:

We’re very pleased that the FCC approved our purchase of the Qualcomm spectrum. We’ll be working to put that into play as quickly as possible. And we are always going to be on the lookout for new spectrum that comes on the market. We hope that the FCC also makes more spectrum available.

We’ve put that behind us and we are moving on to have a great 2012.

On BlackBerry maker Research In Motion, which was notably missing from AT&T’s announcement on Monday:

BlackBerry has got some interesting things coming up. I’m encouraged by some of the things that I understand they are bringing to market.

BlackBerry has been a great partner and, you know, people love their devices. They love the keyboards. I think they are working on all of the things customers want. I am very pleased with, at least, the things that are on their roadmap. As soon as they can get them I think they are going to have a lot of customers knocking on their door.

On Motorola, which was also absent from AT&T’s Vegas announcements:

They are going to have some exciting stuff. They are just not ready to announce them with us. It’s really early in the year.

On Sony’s future in the smartphone market:

As you know, they bought out the Ericsson interest. I think they are going to have a more focused approach and put what I call more “Sony-ness” into their smartphones. We’ve met with their team and I am very encouraged.

On whether AT&T will offer fewer tablets this year after so many iPad rivals failed to make a dent in the market:

I think you are going to see us find models that have a particular differentiated approach to the tablet market. Obviously Apple sets the bar with the iPad, so Pantech is now looking at a very low-end device, still a great device, but I think that kind of distinction is what customers want.

On why the 5.3-inch Samsung Galaxy Note might stand a chance:

That’s the first hybrid device that tries to fill in a niche between a tablet and a smartphone. I’ve been using that device and it is, surprisingly, an amazing device. I didn’t understand whether we were going to be able to make that transition work, but you ought to try it. I think you will get hooked on it.

I think it is for somebody that wants to make it their primary device and doesn’t want to carry around a tablet as well. It’s surprisingly thin. It fits in your pocket.

That’s an iconic device. It’s exclusive to us. We’re going to put a lot of marketing effort behind it.

On whether we will see LTE phones that work across multiple carriers even though the first devices don’t support that.

The first ones are done that way because of technology limitations. How many antennas can you squeeze into one of those things? It’s the first generation. As the technology matures, you will incorporate more bands into the devices. I think you will have as many bands as customers are going to want. It’s not inexpensive, but I think technology will allow us to do that at a reasonable price.

Sources close to the company say that co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie will soon relinquish their titles as co-chairmen of the board, officially ceding that position to board member and Royal Bank of Canada exec Barbara Stymiest.

“Stymiest is a lock for chairwoman,” one source told AllThingsD. “The only thing that’s unclear right now is the timeline for her appointment.”

A second source confirmed the likelihood of Stymiest’s appointment, but cautioned that a final decision hadn’t yet been made.

Earlier this week the Financial Post reported that RIM’s board was leaning toward tapping Stymiest as chairwoman. So evidently things are moving apace up in Waterloo, and it’s only a matter of time until RIM begins the executive overhaul it hopes will keep it relevant.

But at this point, is removing the co-CEOs from their shared board chair duties enough?

RIM’s share price ended 2011 near a seven-year low; the precipitous tumble that took it there trimmed $27 billion from its market cap. That’s $7 billion more than Nokia is worth right now.

Jefferies analyst Peter Misek says Stymiest’s appointment could help, but not for a while: “We would view such an announcement positively as we believe she will initiate a formal strategic review, possibly trim costs in the hardware business, and possibly announce additional partnerships; however, we continue to see an outright sale in the near-term as unlikely and see near-term results as challenged.”

But RIM’s gruesome downward spiral was caused by a string of foolish missteps and disappointments that will not be easily reversed, particularly not with a simple board chair swap. While Stymiest’s background is impressive — executive positions at the Royal Bank of Canada and Toronto Stock Exchange parent TMX — it is largely financial. She seems to have little background in consumer electronics. Presumably, some experience in that area would be helpful.

More helpful still would be a chair who hasn’t been so steadfastly supportive of Lazaridis and Balsillie, who seem to be engineering RIM’s decline just as deftly as they once engineered its ascension to dominance in the smartphone market. Their inexplicable optimism in the face of near-catastrophic screwups; their early indifference to the iPhone and similar devices that would ultimately undermine their business; and their bizarre mutual egocentrism in the face of product delays, successive quarterly earnings slips and declining smartphone market share — getting past all of that will require some serious readjustment at the company. Is Stymiest the person to provide that? And if she is, why hasn’t she done so already?

Recall Lazaridis’s remarks during a June earnings call, remarks made while investors gutted the company’s stock in reaction to a truly crappy quarter:

“Jim and I have the perfect balance to make the hard decisions. This is fun. … We’re changing the world. We’re transforming the way people work. … We birthed a tablet in a year! … We transitioned to a new operating system!”

As I wrote at the time, “The only thing more tiring — and frustrating — than listening to the company’s repeated ‘just you wait, our new device is a quantum leap over anything that’s out there’ promises is hearing the two guys who make and then break them congratulate each another on what a fantastic job they’re doing navigating a transition they didn’t have the foresight to prepare for — or see.”

In the end, for RIM to reverse its downward trajectory, there must be more than a simple board change.

“There’s a bigger problem than the market share erosion and product delays,” said one analyst, who declined to speak on record. “It’s Mike and Jim.”

Reached for comment, RIM offered the following:

“As previously disclosed, RIM’s Board has established a Committee of independent directors with the mandate to study the Company’s governance structure and report their findings by January 31, 2012. The Committee is on track to meet this schedule and the Board will then publicly respond to the recommendations of the Committee within 30 days.”

And it’s going to show it off next week at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show.

Late Thursday, RIM distributed invitations to “an intimate event” to be held at CES on January 10. Emceed by Alec Saunders, RIM’s VP of developer relations, and Martyn Mallick, VP of global alliances, the event touts the BlackBerry as “the best app platform in the industry today,” and promises to prove it with a demonstration of PlayBook OS 2.0 and BlackBerry 7 OS.

Evidently, RIM has made some remarkable improvements to both operating systems, as well as its straggling app ecosystem. If it hasn’t, it’s never going to hear the end of that “best app platform” claim.

That said, the long-awaited addition of the native email, calendar and contact apps that the device debuted without should go a long way to silencing at least a few of the complaints that have plagued it.

RIM is expected to release PlayBook OS 2.0 to consumers sometime in February, the same month it reportedly plans to debut BlackBerry OS 10 at Mobile World Congress.

It’s likely a make-or-break year for troubled RIM, and a time when a growing armada of Android-based ships must prove they can sail on their own. Meanwhile, after several years in dry dock, Facebook must finally launch a mobile vessel or risk being left on shore permanently.

Those were some of the predictions offered up in wireless analyst Chetan Sharma’s annual outlook survey.

Other developments seen as likely are the entry of Amazon into the mobile market (beyond its Kindle line), as well as the question of whether a tight partnership with Microsoft will help Nokia to right its listing ship.

Of course, even smooth sailing wasn’t enough to keep all boats afloat last year. HP managed to capsize its webOS in calm water, while RIM found itself further and further adrift and Windows Mobile struggled to get beyond the marina.

On the tablet front, Google is seen steaming ahead despite a slow start, with as many respondents seeing Android as the leading tablet maker as the current leader, Apple.

And with that, it is time to torpedo this nautical metaphor.

And the Financial Post reports that one may well be in the works. It says that RIM is considering stripping co-CEOs Mike Lazardis and Jim Balsillie of their chairman titles, and tapping independent director Barbara Stymiest, former COO of Royal Bank of Canada, as their replacement.

Were that to occur, it would begin to answer some of the renewed calls for leadership changes at RIM, specifically those of activist shareholder Jaguar Financial, which has been pushing for the replacement of Lazaridis and Balsillie.

“It strains credibility to believe that a CEO requires the title of Chairman to sell RIM products but the RIM directors have apparently bought into this unconvincing rationale,” Jaguar said back in December. “Jaguar believes that considering the experience Ms. Stymiest and Mr. Martin (director Roger Martin) bring to RIM’s Board of Directors, they should step up and take the lead in making dramatic governance change or else resign from the Board if they are unable or unwilling to initiate appropriate governance changes.”

Evidently, RIM’s board took that message to heart. We’ll find out just how much by late February. Reached for comment, RIM would say only that the committee of independent directors assigned to review its governance structure was on track to report its findings by Jan. 31, 2012, with the board scheduled to publicly respond to them within 30 days.

PREVIOUSLY:

• RIM Co-CEOs to Critics: We’re Awesome and We’re Not Going Anywhere
• RIM CEOs Insist Outsiders Don’t Get It, but Are We Really the Ones Confused?
• RIM Talks to the Street After BlackBerry’s Rough Quarter
• Research In Motion Slashes Its Forecast Amid BlackBerry Weakness, Plans Layoffs
• Break Out the Pepto-Bismol — RIM Reports Earnings Today
• Mission RIMpossible: Full-Year Earnings of $7.50 Per Share

To wit, RIM’s latest PlayBook sale: From now until Feb. 4, or whenever inventory runs out, RIM is selling all models of its PlayBooks for just $299.

That’s a lousy deal for the 16 gigabyte unit, whose price has dropped as low as $199 at some outlets. But for the 64GB version, which debuted at $699.99 and is currently selling on Amazon for around $370, it’s not too bad.

When Research In Motion restated its earnings expectations back in December, it warned that “a more aggressive level of promotional activity” would be required to drive PlayBook sales. Evidently, this interesting — albeit odd — discount is it.

Though RIM heralded its end last May in its PlayBook marketing campaign, “amateur hour” seems far from over. For RIM, it continues apace with no end in sight, just a big stockpile of unsold PlayBooks sitting in inventory.

For the three-month period ending in November, RIM’s share of U.S. smartphone subscribers fell to 16.6 percent from 19.7 percent. That’s a 3.1 point change from August, and another nasty decline for RIM, which continues to struggle against subscriber losses in the U.S.

Meanwhile, the BlackBerry-maker’s misfortune continues to be its rivals’ gain. For the same period, iOS’s market share rose 1.4 percentage points to 28.7 percent, and Android’s to 46.9 percent from 43.8 percent.

RIM shares hit a series of multiyear lows after warning on Dec. 15 its new BlackBerry won’t be out until later next year. Its current line isn’t selling well in the U.S., as Apple Inc.’s iPhone and other competitors gobble up market share.

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Groklaw reported the notifications on Friday. See the full filing here. These patent reexaminations are a routine part of patent lawsuits. One party, usually the one that’s alleged to be infringing, asks the patent office to reexamine the patent and decide whether or not the patent should have been issued in the first place. A rejection isn’t by any means a final nail in the coffin in Oracle’s infringement case against Google. But it doesn’t exactly help Oracle, either.

Oracle has six months to appeal the patent office’s finding, and it can also, as a final step, sue the patent office itself. But these things rarely go that far.

And these rejections are sometimes meaningless to the final outcome of a lawsuit. In 2005, as part of its epic patent litigation against NTP — the case that nearly barred the import of BlackBerry devices into the United States — Research In Motion won several rejections from the patent office, like this one, which I wrote about at the time, only to suffer later defeats in court that led it to pay a $612 million settlement.

Oracle has claimed that Google owes it more than $6 billion for parts of its Java software that were used in the Android mobile operating system; Oracle took over Java after it acquired Sun Microsystems last year. Google has argued that Oracle’s claims for damages are flawed. After face-to-face talks between Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and Google CEO Larry Page failed in September, the trial had been expected to begin in October. But it was delayed, and is now expected to get underway in 2012.

Earlier this month, the company was forced to change the name of its forthcoming BBX operating system when Basis International filed for a temporary restraining order, claiming RIM was infringing on its trademark. Now it’s being challenged over BBM, the nickname for its popular instant-messaging service, BlackBerry Messenger.

Broadcast industry group BBM Canada is dragging RIM into court, claiming trademark infringement. And it has good reason to do so: It owns the trademarks on “BBM” in both the U.S. and Canada. The group seeks an injunction prohibiting RIM’s use of the BBM mark, as well as damages.

“We want our name back,” BBM Canada President and CEO Jim MacLeod told the Globe and Mail. “I find it kind of amazing that this wouldn’t have been thought about before they decided to use the name.”

Seriously. Particularly since BBM Canada has been around for more than 60 years.

And then there’s the fact that RIM’s 2009 attempt to register the BBM trademark with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office was denied on the grounds that it was already in use.

But evidently this meant little to RIM, which continues to use the BBM mark to this day over BBM Canada’s protestations, and will soon have to defend its behavior in court. A hearing on the matter has been scheduled for January 11, 2012.

Update: Reached for comment, RIM offered AllThingsD the following statement:

“Since its launch in July 2005, BlackBerry Messenger has become a tremendously popular social networking service. In 2010, RIM started to formally adopt the BBM acronym, which had, at that point, already been organically coined and widely used by BlackBerry Messenger customers as a natural abbreviation of the BlackBerry Messenger name. The services associated with RIM’s BBM offering clearly do not overlap with BBM Canada’s services and the two marks are therefore eligible to co-exist under Canadian trademark law. The two companies are in different industries and have never been competitors in any area. We believe that BBM Canada is attempting to obtain trademark protection for the BBM acronym that is well beyond the narrow range of the services it provides and well beyond the scope of rights afforded by Canadian trademark law. RIM has therefore asked the Court to dismiss the application and award costs to RIM. Further, for clarity, RIM’s application to register BBM as a trademark with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) is pending and we are confident that a registration will eventually issue. The inference by BBM Canada that CIPO has refused RIM’s BBM trademark application is quite frankly very misleading.”

Responding to a Boy Genius Report post claiming it hasn’t yet been able to integrate its core email, calendar and messenger features into BlackBerry 10, RIM said the post was “inaccurate and uninformed,” and reiterated its original explanation for delaying the first phones running its next-generation platform until the latter half of 2012: The company is waiting on a more power-efficient LTE chipset.

“RIM made a strategic decision to launch BlackBerry 10 devices with a new, LTE-based dual core chip set architecture,” the company said in a statement given to AllThingsD. “As explained on our earnings call, the broad engineering impact of this decision and certain other factors significantly influenced the anticipated timing for the BlackBerry 10 devices. The anonymous claim suggesting otherwise is inaccurate and uninformed. As RIM has previously explained, and as Mike Lazaridis reiterated on the earnings call, we will not launch BlackBerry 10 devices until we know they are ready and we believe this new chip set architecture is required to deliver the world class user experience that our customers will expect. Any suggestion to the contrary is simply false.”

So … whom to believe? That’s a tough call at this point, given RIM’s narrative over the past year. As one source close to the company told me, “I don’t know if the BGR report is true, but it’s certainly plausible. RIM’s a train wreck right now and the ‘we’re waiting for an LTE’ excuse rings a bit hollow to me.” Whatever the case, it’s easy to believe the worst, and that’s sadly telling in itself.