黑莓背水一战

    RIM（Research in Motion）首席执行官托尔斯滕•海因斯希望人们能忘记黑莓（BlackBerry）的一切往事。因为这家加拿大智能手机制造商已经焕然一新了。今日发布的采用黑莓10系统的两款新手机比以往的产品更加轻薄炫酷。整个软件系统完全重新编写。而公司也换了个新名字：RIM公司现在更名为黑莓公司，并很快将以BBRY的代码在纳斯达克（NASDAQ）进行交易。

    这两款新手机的设计并非易事。Q10采用了经典的物理键盘，而配备触摸屏的Z10更像是典型的iPhone和安卓（Android）手机。触摸屏键盘下有热感应技术，用户使用时，按键位置会随点击而进行调整，以减少拼写错误。根据零星发布的细节，可以看出这款软件引入了新功能，比如“peek”手势，可以让用户暂停手中的任务，看一眼通知，再迅速转回来。另一项称作“flow”的功能可以让用户同时运行多个应用，并且在不同的应用间滑动切换。

    去年12月，我前往加拿大•安大略省的滑铁卢，专程探访导致公司现状的一系列决策的幕后故事。我与海因斯坐到了一张灰色的会议桌前。在公司的辉煌上升期，我曾在同一张桌子旁专访过他的前任吉姆•贝尔斯利和共同创始人迈克•拉扎里迪斯。这位和蔼可亲的德裔首席执行官身高6英尺6英寸，即便是坐着，也显得非常高大。他的手指在我面前滑过全新的黑莓10触摸屏手机时，情不自禁地露出笑容。他得意地说：“从今天的移动通讯技术到未来的移动计算技术，我们有着巨大的增长潜力。这就是可以放进人们口袋里的计算能力。”

    海因斯就任黑莓CEO职位已近一年。当时，RIM公司深陷危机。它的黑莓7——当时的最新产品——销售低迷，与iPad竞争的Playbook平板电脑同样运气不佳。同时公司还在努力从3G技术向更快的长期演进技术（LTE）过渡。它曾经在很长一段时间内保持超高速增长——还在2009年登上了《财富》增速最快公司榜单——却为复杂的管理层所困，该管理层中有2名首席执行官和3名首席运营官。2008年夏天，这家公司曾统治了方兴未艾的北美智能手机市场，股价攀至144美元的高峰，之后却一路狂跌至15美元。有传言称该，公司已经没有了现金储备。投资者声嘶力竭地呼吁更换领导层。更糟的是，公司当时不愿聘用一位转型专家，而是选择了从内部提拔海因斯担任首席执行官。结果，市场反应相当悲观。在首次电话会议上，海因斯暗示公司并不需要转型专家，让许多观察家大跌眼镜。

    尽管海因斯的初次亮相不够顺利，但他迅速行动，止住了公司的颓势。他削减了10亿美元的支出，同时裁掉了5,000名员工。他建立了新的管理团队，笼络了全球资深的业界人士，许多人曾任职于威瑞森（Verizon）和Orange等公司，在无线革命中发挥过关键作用。他推迟了黑莓10原定的发布日期，以确保公司交付的软件足以与苹果（Apple）和谷歌（Google）抗衡。他还成为了公司内外的黑莓新方案的形象大使。他说：“我们需要一个个地赢回顾客。”

    一年后，公司发生了翻天覆地的变化，它正在竭尽全力从新赢得用户。就像苹果当初发布iMac一样，或者说像百视通（Blockbuster）当初发布On Demand点播服务却未能在技术变革中挽救自身一样，如今，黑莓的命运很可能也维系于这次的新品发布。

    Here's what Research in Motion CEO Thorsten Heins wants you to do: forget everything you know about BlackBerry. Just about everything at the Canadian smartphone maker is new. The twin BlackBerry 10 devices unveiled today are thinner and sleeker than previous models. The underlying software has been entirely rebuilt. And the company itself has a new name. Research in Motion is now called BlackBerry and will soon begin to trade as BBRY on the NASDAQ.

    The design of the phones have been labored over. The Q10 sports a classical physical keyboard and the Z10 is more like a typical iPhone or Android with a touchscreen. The touchscreen keyboard has a heat map beneath it so that, as customers use it, the position of keys adjusts to their keystrokes—leading to fewer spelling mistakes. The software, details of which have come out in dribs and drabs, introduces new features like "peek," which allows users to move aside the task they're working on to glance at notifications and then quickly come back. Another feature dubbed "flow" allows users to swipe between applications, keeping many open simultaneously.

    Last December I traveled to Waterloo, Ontario for an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the decisions that have led the company to this moment. I joined Heins at the same gray conference table where I'd spoken to his predecessors, Jim Balsillie and co-founder Mike Lazaridis during the company's spectacular rise. At 6-feet, 6-inches tall, the affable German CEO has a towering presence even when he is seated. He couldn't contain a grin as he slid his new touchscreen BlackBerry 10 phone in my direction. "There's a huge growth curve ahead of us from mobile communications where we are today to mobile computing," he crowed. "This is computing power at your hip."

    It has been almost a year since Heins took over as BlackBerry's (RIMM) CEO. Back then, the company was in deep crisis. Its BlackBerry 7—then its latest phone—wasn't selling, nor was its ill-starred iPad competitor, the Playbook tablet. The company was still working to transition from 3G technology to faster LTE technology. Having been in a state of breakneck hyper-growth for so long—it topped Fortune's Fastest Growing Companies list in 2009—the firm suffered from convoluted layers of management, including two CEOs and three COOs. The stock, which had peaked at $144 when the company dominated the nascent North American smartphone market in the summer of 2008, was languishing at $15. Rumors surfaced that the company had no cash. Investors were hoarse from calling for new leadership. Worse, the market shuddered when the company eschewed hiring a turnaround specialist in favor of Heins, an insider, as CEO. In his first conference call, he suggested that RIM did not need a turnaround per se, sending some observers into fits.

    Despite Heins's bumpy public debut, he acted quickly to staunch the company's bleeding. He eliminated a billion dollars in expenses, cutting 5,000 employees in the process. He put in a new management team of industry veterans from around the world, many of whom had played pivotal roles in the wireless revolution at companies such as Verizon (VZ) and Orange. He postponed BlackBerry 10's original launch date to ensure the company would deliver software capable of competing with Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG). And he became a personal ambassador for BlackBerry's new approach both inside and outside the company. "We have to win back our customers one by one by one," he says.

    A year later, nothing is business as usual at BlackBerry as it attempts to make its best attempt at winning back users. Like Apple when it launched the iMac—or like Blockbuster when it launched the On Demand service that could not rescue it from changing technology—RIM will likely see its fate sealed by this launch.