BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. said Friday its chief marketing officer has decided to leave the company—just weeks ahead of one of its most significant product rollouts in years. RIM, based in Waterloo, Ontario, said Keith Pardy is leaving for "personal reasons," but is continuing to help the company over a six-month transition period. Mr. Pardy wasn't available to comment.
RIM didn't say whether the company had hired a successor. Mr. Pardy told the company a month ago about his plans to depart, according to a person familiar with the situation.
The departure of Mr. Pardy, who was hired from Nokia Corp. in early 2009, deprives the smartphone maker of a marketing chief during the crucial lead-up to the launch of its PlayBook tablet, expected at the end of March or early April.
It reflects larger turmoil in RIM, as the company struggles to remake itself from a maker of corporate-workhorse devices known for security and reliability to a producer of hip, media-savvy gadgets that can compete with the likes of Apple Inc.'s iPhones and iPads, say people familiar with RIM's strategy.
The PlayBook will feature a new, faster operating system and revamped look-and-feel. RIM executives say it will be the best look yet at how the company is reinventing its products.
But mobile-market watchers say the PlayBook has suffered ever since it was announced last year from confusion over who it's supposed to appeal to and what market it will satisfy. RIM has consistently stressed the PlayBook's usefulness to businesses and its potential popularity among corporate technology officers—even as it shows off the tablet's ability to play videogames and watch movies in demonstrations.
Mr. Pardy had been a marketing executive at Nokia and Coca-Cola Co.; RIM executives had hoped Mr. Pardy would be able to help the company shed its staid corporate image and help it boost popularity in the battle against branding wizards like Apple.
RIM's BlackBerry phones are still selling strongly overseas. But they've been fast losing share to Apple's iPhones and devices that run on Google Inc.'s Android operating system in the trend-setting North American market.
Like Nokia, the Finnish phone giant, RIM was late to recognize the importance of touch-screens, cool interfaces and the need to offer third-party applications. It has also fallen short in getting a marketing message out that resonates with consumers, analysts said.
"RIM's challenge is product, and another is perception," said Avi Greengart, an analyst at Current Analysis, a market research firm.
Jack Gold, principal at J. Gold Associates, a technology consulting firm, said RIM has never been a strong marketing company in part because it never had to be. "They've been hit by a competitive pressure that they didn't feel three or four years ago," he said.
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