This week's perspective from Joe Chidley: Waterloo-based Research In Motion has certainly had its troubles lately. From its recent dismal quarterly earnings to last week's extended meltdown of its much-vaunted e-mail service, the maker of the device upon which I'm typing this squib has been the subject of hand-wringing, dire speculation, and hefty criticism for months now. So RIM was due to get back on the field and score some points. And that's just what it did this week, by unveiling a suite of new apps possibilities and a revamped operating system. Not exactly a blunting strategy - as the good news came after the crisis - but the moves delivered by co-CEO Mike Lazaridis in San Francisco were welcomed by the developer crowd. That's important for the company at this critical juncture, especially as archrival Apple continues to unveil upgrades and improvements to its iPhone franchise. RIM is playing now to a vital component of its core audience. That's essential - but probably not sufficient. Winning over a captive audience of your own developer community is one thing. Changing the minds of consumers and investors is another. So we can't award a Touchdown - just a safe Field Goal. But for RIM's sake, we hope another scoring drive is coming up soon.
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