Despite a number of news reports suggesting that BlackBerry-maker RIM is planning to exit the consumer smartphone market, the Canadian company will continue to cater to consumer users while also renewing its focus on its enterprise roots. BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion is not exiting the consumer market. Yesterday, RIM reported its Q4 2012 financials, and a number of comments made by RIM’s CEO Thorsten Heins regarding the company’s future strategy were exaggerated. Plain and simple. From the Twitter feed of RIM’s Managing Director of Global and Regional Marketing, Patrick Spence: SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe “We remain committed to all of our Customers (consumer & enterprise) and are enhancing our support/solutions for enterprise.” When Heins took the RIM reins in January, he said that RIM needed to strengthen its focus on the consumer, and while he does seem to have made a bit of an about-face on that front, the company isn’t changing its direction completely. Frankly, it can’t afford to; the consumer market is much, MUCH larger than the enterprise space, and as much as RIM may want to withdraw from the fierce competition there, doing so would surely have dire consequences. “We need to be closer to our consumer user base. We’re well positioned with CIOs…but in the US, we need to do a better job there [targeting consumers],” Heins said during a January press conference. RIM is also preparing for its annual BlackBerry World conference in May, the biggest BlackBerry event of the year, and this time around it introduced a brand new developer event that will run alongside the broader BlackBerry World called BlackBerry Jam. RIM’s Jam event will be focused on the upcoming BlackBerry 10 mobile OS, and it will be aimed largely developers who want to target the consumer audience. From a post on RIM’s developer blog regarding the differences between BlackBerry World and BlackBerry Jam: “If you are an enterprise developer specifically looking for more information on building successful enterprise applications, as well as connecting to enterprises with BlackBerry implementations, BlackBerry World might be a better fit. If you are looking for more information on BlackBerry 10 tools and the opportunities of building for BlackBerry 10, then BlackBerry 10 Jam is the show for you.” RIM is not abandoning consumers, but it will be interesting to see what comes of its plans to renew its focus on the business side of things. AS Related content opinion The changing face of cybersecurity threats in 2023 Cybersecurity has always been a cat-and-mouse game, but the mice keep getting bigger and are becoming increasingly harder to hunt. By Dipti Parmar Sep 29, 2023 8 mins Cybercrime Security brandpost Should finance organizations bank on Generative AI? Finance and banking organizations are looking at generative AI to support employees and customers across a range of text and numerically-based use cases. By Jay Limbasiya, Global AI, Analytics, & Data Management Business Development, Unstructured Data Solutions, Dell Technologies Sep 29, 2023 5 mins Artificial Intelligence brandpost Embrace the Generative AI revolution: a guide to integrating Generative AI into your operations The CTO of SAP shares his experiences and learnings to provide actionable insights on navigating the GenAI revolution. By Juergen Mueller Sep 29, 2023 4 mins Artificial Intelligence feature 10 most in-demand generative AI skills Gen AI is booming, and companies are scrambling to fill skills gaps by hiring freelancers to make the most of the technology. These are the 10 most sought-after generative AI skills on the market right now. By Sarah K. White Sep 29, 2023 8 mins Hiring Generative AI IT Skills Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe