Thorsten Heins, RIM CEO, has admitted that the company needs to re-focus its efforts and lose the fat which it has gained in recent years.

Speaking at BlackBerry World 2012, Heins revealed that the rapid growth witnessed by RIM from 2007 to 2010 led to the company losing its line of sight and its efficiency, as it attempted to cover every base possible in the mobile market.

Heins said: “As a company we have a little fat on the hips and we just need to move towards becoming a lean, mean, nimble hunting machine.”

Focus on what matters to the customer

Since Heins took over as CEO 12 weeks ago, he has re-structured the management layers within the company, shedding unnecessary complexity and creating a leaner, faster and more efficient ecosystem.

Heins admits that RIM spread itself too thinly and attempted projects in which it had no expertise. He is now focussing the firm on its core objectives, ensuring it keeps to what’s important and what things matter to its customers.

RIM is looking to develop partnerships with other firms to help deliver key features such as maps and games, areas in which RIM itself is not expert in.

The strange-yet-intriguing Asus Padfone three-in-one hybrid device may be the latest gadget to suffer from the chip shortage at Qualcomm.

The Android Ice Cream Sandwich smartphone, which docks into a 10.1-inch tablet ‘mothership’ and can also be slotted into a keyboard, was scheduled to arrive sometime this month.

However, the Taiwanese company sent out a tweet today all-but admitting that the lack of S4 Snapdragon processors emanating from Qualcomm means it’ll be later than planned.

Asus Indonesia tweeted: “Unfortunately this is the chip inside the Padfone.”

Affecting us all

Pushed for a follow up by The Verge, an Asus spokesperson admitted: “I believe [the shortage is] affecting all of Qualcomm’s customers.”

So, while that’s not a direct admission of a delay to the launch schedule, it’s not looking too good for the latest Transformer-esque gadget to emerge from Asus.

Last month Qualcomm said it was working to combat shortages of its S4 chip by working with manufacturers to move them to alternate systems.

The US-based chip-maker said it would not have enough Snapdragon processors to fulfill demand and conceded it may lose customers to other companies as a result.

When it comes to near field communication (NFC), we’re still relatively early on in its evolution, but BlackBerry handsets are leading the way in Britain.

According to the latest statistics from the first quarter of this year, RIM says that 80% of all NFC enabled devices in the UK are BlackBerry handsets.

RIM sees NFC as a big market opportunity and has taken the plunge into the technology to help aid its growth in the mobile world.

NFC on every device

The number of NFC enabled handsets is expected to rise rapidly this year and RIM is going to be at the forefront of the boom.

Speaking to TechRadar at BlackBerry World 2012, Geoffrey MacGillivray, Manager for Security, Services, Payments and NFC at RIM said: “We are looking to put NFC technology into every upcoming BlackBerry handset.”

MacGillivray went on to point out that this would depend on the technical capabilities and financial implications for each handset, but confirmed that RIM was indeed keen innovative with NFC, bringing a physical nature back into the electronic world.

RIM is also trialling a new NFC system at its headquarters, which sees NFC enabled BlackBerry handsets used to unlock doors to gain access to various parts of its office complex.

The upcoming BlackBerry 10 mobile computing platform will not be available on any BlackBerry 7 handsets, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins has confirmed.

Appearing at BlackBerry World 2012, Heins spoke about the BB10 platform and how it will impact on current BB7 handset owners.

In a frank and honest talk Heins made it clear that BB10 is a completely new operating system, built from scratch, and thus it’s not possible to run it on handsets built for BB7.

A new platform is a new platform

Heins said: “As tough as it is, we have to build a new platform for the next decade. BlackBerry 7 has reached its level of perfection, but the architecture and technology is unable to take us forward into the next decade.”

BB7 isn’t going to be left high and dry, with Heins confirming: “We will keep a dedicated team of 200 for BB7 and continue to innovate in that space.”

So the short term future has been secured for current BlackBerry devices, but there will come a time in the future where BB7 will be completely phased out, to be replaced totally by BB10.

PlayBook 4G on its way

If you’re a PlayBook owner then you’ll be pleased to hear that the tablet will get the upgrade to the BlackBerry 10 platform.

TechRadar spoke to Andrew Bocking, SVP of Software Product Management, who confirmed “all PlayBooks will be upgradeable to BB10″, which is expected to launch later this year.

Heins has also confirmed that a 4G version of the PlayBook would be available later in the year, however Bocking noted that it would ship with the PlayBook OS 2.0, with an update to BB10 coming later.

PC manufacturer Lenovo is set to dive head-first into the mobile market after investing £495 million ($800 million) in a new facility in Wuhan, China.

Lenovo is the world’s second largest PC manufacturer and now looks ready to take on the lucrative smartphone and tablet sectors.

Yang Yuanqing, Lenovo Group chairman and CEO said: “we are accelerating development in smartphones, tablets, and other mobile internet terminal markets.”

Windows 8 tablet and Intel smartphone?

The new base is expected to generate 10,000 job opportunities and will be focussed on “the R&D, production and sales of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices that will cover the Chinese and global markets”.

Lenovo revealed its Android-toting K800 handset at CES 2012, the first phone powered by Intel’s Atom chip. The K800 is due to arrive later this month and we could see the handset manufactured at the new plant.

The Wuhan factory could also produce Lenovo’s Windows 8 tablet, which could be the first Windows 8 tablet to hit the market in October.