Research In Motion (RIM) managed to escape from having to pay a hefty patent infringement fine when the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California overturned an earlier verdict that would have had the company pay $147.2 million in damages to Mformation, a software company that deals with mobile device management. According to the presiding judge, there wasn't enough evidence to support the jury's findings of patent infringement.

Research In Motion (RIM) CEO Thorsten Heins has his work cut out for him. Faced with growing skepticism regarding RIM's future, he has to make sure his company delivers the goods and is able to convince business clients and consumers that the BlackBerry platform is still relevant. One has to wonder, wouldn't it have been easier to go all-in with Android instead? That was something Heins said his company looked at, but ultimately decided against.

It's fair to question Research In Motion's (RIM's) future and wonder if company CEO Thorsten Heins can right the ship. Skepticism comes with the territory when you tell investors your company lost $518 million last quarter, dropped $2.1 billion in sales compared to one year ago, and plan to cut 5,000 employees. Heins understands the grim outlook from those on the outside looking in, but from where he stands, RIM is a "great company" with a "great future" ahead of it.

Remember all those grand plans Research In Motion (RIM) had for its BlackBerry PlayBook line of tablet PCs? Well, whatever remains of those plans will have to be carried out by the 32GB and 64GB models. Somewhat surprisingly, RIM has reportedly decided to discontinue its 16GB PlayBook, essentially conceding defeat to the likes of Amazon's Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble's Nook Tablet in the sub-$200 category.