Blackberry 2008 Annual Report Download - page 14

Download and view the complete annual report

Please find page 14 of the 2008 Blackberry annual report below. You can navigate through the pages in the report by either clicking on the pages listed below, or by using the keyword search tool below to find specific information within the annual report.

Page out of 88

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 23
  • 24
  • 25
  • 26
  • 27
  • 28
  • 29
  • 30
  • 31
  • 32
  • 33
  • 34
  • 35
  • 36
  • 37
  • 38
  • 39
  • 40
  • 41
  • 42
  • 43
  • 44
  • 45
  • 46
  • 47
  • 48
  • 49
  • 50
  • 51
  • 52
  • 53
  • 54
  • 55
  • 56
  • 57
  • 58
  • 59
  • 60
  • 61
  • 62
  • 63
  • 64
  • 65
  • 66
  • 67
  • 68
  • 69
  • 70
  • 71
  • 72
  • 73
  • 74
  • 75
  • 76
  • 77
  • 78
  • 79
  • 80
  • 81
  • 82
  • 83
  • 84
  • 85
  • 86
  • 87
  • 88

Network Operations
We continue to invest in the BlackBerry® Infrastructure to en-
hance the BlackBerry smartphone experience and support the
growing subscriber account base. In fiscal 2008, the BlackBerry
Infrastructure processed more than double the number of wire-
less data packets than in 2007. The proactive and ongoing invest-
ment in infrastructure has enabled us to continue to provide
industry-leading quality of service, security and scalability to meet
the growing needs of our customers.
Customer Care
RIM’s focus on providing exceptional support for the increasing
number of BlackBerry customers is a significant competitive ad-
vantage. To meet the needs of our expanding customer base, we
launchedourfthcustomercarefacilitythisyearinIrving,Texas;
continuedtogrowourteamsinothercustomercarecenters;and
expanded our multilingual training programs to include several
new languages including French, Italian, German, Spanish, Sim-
plified Chinese, Japanese and Brazilian Portuguese. In fiscal 2008,
revenues from our technical support programs grew more than
50% and we developed the BlackBerry® Certification Program to
allow our partners to enhance their knowledge. A number of cer-
tification programs are planned for RIM’s partners and customers
and are expected to be rolled out throughout fiscal 2009.
The Year Ahead
We believe RIM is well positioned to take advantage of the excit-
ing opportunities that lie ahead in fiscal 2009. Some of our goals
for the year include:
• Expandourproductportfoliowithseveralnewsmartphones
andincludesupportforemergingnetworktechnologies;
• Developfurtherenhancementstooursoftwareandservices
platform to grow our customer base in existing and new
markets;
• Growandstrengthenrelationshipswithourcarrieranddistri-
butionpartnersacrosstheglobe;
• EnhancetheBlackBerryuserexperiencefurtherbyworking
closely with our partners to develop compelling mobile ap-
plications;
• Leverageandexpandoutsourcingpartnershipsandincrease
outsourcingvolumesformanufacturing;
• Attract,hireandretainthebestavailabletalenttomaintain
RIM’smarketleadingposition;and
• Continuetofocusondeliveringstrongnancialperformance
for our shareholders.
Jim Balsillie
Mike Lazaridis
12