The chief marketing officer of Research in Motion (RIM) Keith Pardy has decided to leave the company for personal reasons.
The Blackberry maker announced Pardy’s decision just weeks before the launch of its PlayBook tablet scheduled in march-April this year which the company has said is an important event.
Pardy joined RIM in 2009 from Nokia. He has also worked in Coca-Cola previously.
RIM said Pardy will continue to be with the company for a six-month transition period.
After making a strong entry, Blackberry has found itself sidelined in the intense competition of OS between Apple, Google and Nokia.
At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, RIM boss Jim Balsillie had said that his company should not be written off from the race of smartphones after Nokia’s Stephen Elop commented that the smartphone ecosystem was a three-horse race between Windows, Android and Apple.
Balsillie said that Blackberry had witnessed 70% growth last year and added that it was also the number one phone in the UK.
He also said that RIM is not business focussed as 80% of their subscribers are consumers. The bigger challenge is to move into larger devices such as tablets.
