Thorsten Heins Defends BlackBerry And Its Users On New York Times Op-Ed

After yesterday's "activities" with the New York Times, head of #teamBlackBerry, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins went on the offensive in a nicely worded op-ed to the New York Times and writer Nicole Perlroth about the inflammatory article.

"“BlackBerry as Black Sheep in Smartphones” (Business Day, Oct. 16) lacks the balance your readers expect.

With more than 80 million customers globally, BlackBerry is growing and remains one of the world’s most popular smartphones. I’ve just come from visiting carriers and partners in all parts of the world, and they have told me that there are millions of BlackBerry fans out there who not only find great value in their device, but also pride in being a BlackBerry owner.

While any report of dissatisfaction among our users is a cause for concern that I take very seriously, the comments supporting BlackBerry both online and in calls we’ve received from our customers in response to your article are encouraging to me.

BlackBerry remains the leader in providing security for corporate customers, which is why more than 90 percent of the Fortune 500 rely on BlackBerry. It’s true that some companies put restrictions on accessing certain applications for security reasons, but applications like Yelp and OpenTable are, in fact, among the approximately 100,000 apps available in BlackBerry AppWorld.

We’ve received excellent feedback from carriers, developers and partners for our upcoming BlackBerry 10 platform and are on track to deliver it in the first quarter of 2013. We appreciate the customers who have remained loyal to the BlackBerry platform and look forward to winning back many who have left.

THORSTEN HEINS
President and Chief Executive
Research In Motion
Waterloo, Ontario, Oct. 16, 2012"

I personally love that Thor has no problem answering back in this fashion. I know some may disagree and think that a CEO of a major worldwide company should stay quiet, but then again, you have to appreciate the passion that this man seems to have towards this company. It really shows why he was picked to be the one to turn things around.

What do you think of the op-ed to the NYT; smart, dumb, unnecessary? Let us know in the comments!