evil”. Now, ask the same sampling of people “What does Jim Balsillie do?” and you’ll mostly get blank stares outside of the US and Canada. You’re may possibly going to get an earful, from the American hockey supporters, about Jim’s attempt to take over the Phoenix Coyotes. RIM needs a public face, an image to connect to. A very quick search on Google doesn’t seem to show any international whistle-stop tours by either of RIM’s top-dogs, Jim Balsillie or Mike Lazaridis, nor does any such information appear on RIM’s news or press release pages. Either Jim and Mike are afraid of flying, or their feet are nailed to the floor. Or is it just a lack of regard for the international marketplace. In fact, I would tend to believe that it is this last factor, a lack of regard for the international marketplace, is the core cultural issue that RIM needs to address. On April 1st, almost 5 months ago, the BlackBerry App World was released to the world of BlackBerry users. Well, no, not really. Only if you are lucky enough to live in the US, Canada and the UK. The App “World” was recently extended to some more European countries, but still no joy for anyone who lives in the Southern Hemisphere. Maybe the App World should have been name App N. Hemisphere.. or even App Nemesis. Even Apple managed to release the App Store in all countries where the iPhone was being released. The App World should have been the great opportunity to unify the sales or distribution of BlackBerry applications, but no. App World should have brought the BlackBerry onto a level playing field for the consumer comparison between iPhone and BlackBerry, and providing a professionally managed repostiry. As it stands, I have to hunt for new programs via Google or the many third party blog sites.