Blackberry 2009 Annual Report Download - page 14

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In fiscal 2009 there was a marked increase in the number
of consumer applications being developed for the BlackBerry
platform as the multimedia features on BlackBerry smart-
phones continued to increase and as the number of consumers
selecting BlackBerry smartphones continued to grow. Applica-
tion availability for corporate and business use also remains
robust with new solutions launched this year for the Health
Care,Government,LawEnforcement,Education,Manufac-
turing, Retail and Professional Services markets, among others.
Other initiatives in fiscal 2009 that were focused on sup-
porting a thriving developer community included the launch of
the BlackBerry Partners Fund in partnership with RBC Capital
and Thomson Reuters, the hosting of the first annual Black-
Berry Developer Conference in California and the introduction
of new easy-to-use development tools such as the BlackBerry®
JDEPlug-inforEclipse™.
We look forward to supporting the continued proliferation
of the BlackBerry application ecosystem throughout fiscal 2010.
BlackBerry Infrastructure
We continue to invest in the BlackBerry Infrastructure to en-
hance the BlackBerry smartphone experience and support the
growing subscriber account base. In fiscal 2009, the BlackBerry
Infrastructure supported more than triple the amount of traffic
it did in fiscal 2008 with over 3 petabytes of traffic flowing
through the system each month. Our proactive and ongoing
investment in infrastructure has enabled us to continue to
provide the industry-leading functionality, quality of service, se-
curity and scalability required to continue leading the industry
and to continue meeting the growing needs of our customers
and partners.
Customer Support
Providing exceptional support for the growing number of
BlackBerry customers is an important competitive advantage
for RIM and its partners. There are now over 1,500 dedicated
technical and affiliated support staff working at five customer
support facilities around the world providing 24-hour, 7-days
per week, multi-lingual support to meet the needs of our
expanding customer base. Four new initiatives were launched
by the BlackBerry® Technical Support Services Team in fiscal
2009, including the BlackBerry® Certification Program to allow
our partners to enhance their knowledge of BlackBerry hard-
ware and software; BlackBerry® Support Community Forums,
a self-service discussion medium where device users and IT
administrators come together to ask questions of one another;
BlackBerryExpertSupportCenter(BESC)toprovideon-line
technical support for accounts that have technical support
contracts with RIM; and BlackBerry Answers which acts as
both a mobile and desktop self-serve Q&A center. Many of
the steps taken by the BlackBerry Technical Support Services
Team in fiscal 2009 are designed to support the growing base
of consumers and small business users. These new programs
are designed to find new efficiencies, automate and streamline
support processes, and utilize smart-technologies to aid our
customers and partners.
The Year Ahead
We believe RIM is well positioned to take advantage of the
exciting opportunities that lie ahead in fiscal 2010. Some of our
goals for the year include:
• Expandourcustomerbaseinexistingandnewmarketsby
growing and strengthening our relationships with carriers
and distribution partners across the globe;
• Effectivelymanagecostsandoperatingexpensestogrow
earnings;
• Continuetolaunchinnovativenewproductsandservicesto
address existing and new market segments;
• ExtendRIM’smarketleadershipthroughinnovationand
focused investments in R&D;
• LaunchBlackBerryEnterpriseServerv5.0andincreasethe
adoption of BlackBerry® MVS in the enterprise;
• Continuetoexpandandgrowourpresenceinthe
enterprise market;
• Expandthenumberandvarietyofapplicationsand
content available for BlackBerry smartphone users through
BlackBerry App World and through other partnerships;
• Attract,hireandretainthebestavailabletalenttosupport
RIM’s customers and partners and to maintain RIM’s market
leading position; and
• Continuetofocusondeliveringstrongnancial
performance for our shareholders.
12
Jim Balsillie
Mike Lazaridis